The Dark Divine Goddess

A Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey 

 

The Dark Divine

Goddess Kali,

How to paint the images

Of her dark rupa,

The face divine?

 

The Dark Goddess,

Goddess Kali,

How the lila of hers,

How the images of hers

And she doing the lila?

 

The Dark Divine,

How the images,

How the paintings of hers,

How the forms and figures

Of delving artistically?

 

Somewhere as Kamakhya,

Vaishno Devi,

Somewhere as Ma Tara,

Cchinnamasta,

Somewhere as Sarbamangala,

Kalighat Kali.

 

Somewhere as Chamunda Devi,

Tartarini,

Somewhere as Vimala,

Dakshineswar,

Somewhere as Attahas,

Kripamayi.

 

Somewhere as Kshir Bhavani,

Bhadrakali Devaswom,

Somewhere as Kalkaji,

Hangeswari,

Somewhere as Guhayeswari,

Hingalaj Mata.

 

The goddess Kali,

The dark Divine,

How to worship her,

Worship the Mother Divine,

The Mother Divine?

 

Somewhere as Vindhyavasini,

Jeshoreshwari,

Somewhere as Kalika Mata,

Mundeshwari Devi,

Somewhere as Siddhkali,

Ujjaini Kali.

 

Somewhere as Naina Devi,

Kamaleshwari,

Somewhere as Maa Patal Bhairavi,

Matangi,

Somewhere as Bhuvaneshwari,

Bagalamukhi.

 

Somewhere as Dhumavati,

Tripura Sundari,

Somewhere as Durga,

Annapurna,

Somewhere as Bhairavi,

Kamlatmika.

 

Kali

Mahakali,

Mahalakshmi,

Mahasaraswati,

Maheshwari.

 

Kali

Kalrupa,

Kalyani,

Kalbhairavi,

Shyama.

 

With the tongue out

Of the mouth,

One foot held aloft

Over Shiva lying under

To quell her anger, anger divine.

 

Kali mythical, mystical,

Kali nocturnal, supernatural,

Kali meditational,

Kali, Kali creational,

The dark interpretation.

Kali with the trinetra,

The red bindi spot and the crescent

Over the forehead,

Wearing a forehead of human heads

Cut and wreathed.

 

Kali with the crown over her head

And the snake

And other conventional weapons

Holding a human head into

One of her hands.

 

Kali in anger, her anger divine

With the tongue out

Of the mouth

The blood red tongue

Hanging it out.

 

The face is dark, pitch dark,

The eyes are full of glitter,

As if she were trying to speak,

The hair hanging waist-long

And the hands cut and embedded around.

 

The myth says it,

She took incarnation just for

To annihilate and destroy the asuric forces,

Demons and devils,

Satanic forces.

 

And those things are within us

Which we know it not,

In the forms of tyranny, insult that we subject to,

Lust, greed, moral vice, sin that we commit,

Falsehood, selfishness, ego, pride, jealousy.

 

Kali the Dark Goddess,

Dreadful, horrible and terrible,

Destructive,

The Goddess of terror and horror,

Death, darkness and destruction.

 

But apart from the Goddess of

Death, destruction and darkness,

She is Kalyani too,

She is a fresco vermillioned red,

She is Shyama Kali.

 

Kali

Kalikadevi,

Kalyani,

Kalrupa,

Kaleshwari.

 

Kali, the Dark Goddess,

The Dark Deity,

What to say about,

Say about her,

The Mother Divine?

 

What her ways,

How she is,

How her creation,

Who she is,

I can just guess, guess about her.

 

What is Kali,

I cannot prove it,

What she is,

How her rupa is,

What I can say is she is but some power.

 

Kali is a non-Aryan deity,

Austric, tribal,

Aboriginal,

Kali of the forests and hills,

Kali the same woman.

 

Kali the dark lady,

The black woman,

Kali is Kali,

The nightly beauty

With the stars shining around.

 

Kali is the myth of the night,

The myth of creation,

Kali is the mystery of the world,

Kali the myth of darkness,

Kali not only dreadful, but blissful too.

 

Lighting the candle before

And showing it to her,

Singing the prayers humbly

I want to take leave, leave of her

Seeking for redemption and absolving of sins.

 

I do not know

What sins did I commit knowingly or unknowingly,

I do not know,

You just forgive, forgive them,

Goddess, Mercy divine!

 

A man I too, I too have

The weaknesses and faults of mine,

As  a man, as a man

I too have my shortcomings and lacunae

For which stand I guilty, guilty for.

 

You forgive, forgive them kindly,

Forgive them kindly, Goddess,

My Goddess, the mistakes,

Mistakes that I knowingly,

That I unknowingly, mother!