Kali Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Popular form=== [[File:Goddess Kali.jpg|thumb|upright|A Tamil depiction of Kali.]] Classic depictions of Kali share several features, as follows: Kali's most common four armed iconographic image shows each hand carrying variously a Khadga (crescent-shaped sword or a giant sickle), a [[Trishul (weapon)|trishul]] (trident), a severed head, and a bowl or skull-cup ([[kapala|kapāla]]) collecting the blood of the severed head. This is the form of Bhima Kali. Two of these hands (usually the left) are holding a sword and a severed head. The sword signifies divine knowledge and the human head signifies human ego which must be slain by divine knowledge in order to attain [[moksha]]. The other two hands (usually the right) are in the [[mudra#Abhaya Mudrā|abhaya]] (fearlessness) and [[mudra#Varada Mudrā|varada]] (blessing) [[mudra]]s, which means her initiated devotees (or anyone worshipping her with a true heart) will be saved as she will guide them here and in the hereafter.<ref name="White2000" />{{rp|477}} This is the form of Dakshina Kali. She wears a [[Mundamala|garland of human heads]], variously enumerated at [[108 (number)|108]] (an auspicious number in Hinduism and the number of countable beads on a [[japa]] [[japa mala|mala]] or rosary for repetition of [[mantras]]) or 51, which represents Varnamala or the Garland of letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, [[Devanagari]]. Hindus believe [[Sanskrit]] is a language of [[dynamism (metaphysics)|dynamism]], and each of these letters represents a form of energy, or a form of Kali. Therefore, she is generally seen as the mother of language, and all mantras.<ref name="White2000" />{{rp|475}} She is often depicted naked which symbolizes her being beyond the covering of [[Maya (Hinduism)|Maya]] since she is pure (''nirguna'') being-consciousness-bliss and far above Prakriti. She is shown as very dark as she is Brahman in its supreme unmanifest state. She has no permanent qualities—she will continue to exist even when the universe ends. It is therefore believed that the concepts of color, light, good, and bad do not apply to her.<ref name="White2000" />{{rp|463–488}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page