the cute side of Kali?

As reported by ABC news,

Sajani Shakya, 10, is the first living goddess to visit the United States from Nepal, where she is worshipped and believed to inhabit the Hindu goddess Kali, who is thought to live in girls until they reach puberty.

Strange, it seems to me, that the people of Nepal associate the Indian goddess Kali with purity, since

Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her only clothing is a girdle made of dead men’s hands, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband.

The “kali” in “kalilily” is for the goddess Kali.

kalired.jpg

A far cry from a sweet, ten year old who is one of only a rare few who

…meet the so called “32 perfections” of the girl who holds the goddess Kali. They include having the gait of a swan, and teeth and golden, tender skin so perfect the skin has never even had a scratch.

We humans might not create our gods and goddesses in our own image, but we do seem to make up myths to meet our need to have what we already believe, reinforced.

2 thoughts on “the cute side of Kali?

  1. Strange that you haven’t researched our Mother Kali before simply taking her on only her outward apperance. Yes she looks fearsome but she is a warrior and i can’t imagine that you would expect a warrior to look like a simpering miss. Furthermore Mother Kali came to cleanse the world of EVIL and for that and many other reasons she is considered as the divine. The beautiful thing about mother Kali is that she isn’t ‘clasically beautiful’ and she isn’t a ‘perfect creature’… something that perhaps more of us might be able to relate to. Especially in this yug where the pursuit of the perfect image can corrupt society as well as young girls self esteem.
    May Mother Kali blessings be with you.

  2. It is the spirit of Kali that I honor and respect — her fearlessness and ferocity, her uncompromising sense of justice. It is those qualities that I need to keep developing in myself. The physical images of Kali are the human way to represent that spirit.

    Your point about my photo is well taken, however. Maybe I need to rethink the physical image of myself that I use on my weblog.

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