Kali is notably the goddess of death, time, and transformation. In Kashmir Shaivism, which is a form of Buddhism that worships Shiva, she plays an important role. Categorically, Kali is the goddess of chaos and destruction; however, Kashmir Shaivites view her quite differently as one of supreme awareness, leading the soul through various stages of realization.
The Krama system of Kashmir Shaivism highlights twelve different forms of Kali. Each form embodies a crucial stage of the cycle of creation, preservation, and dissolution. These twelve manifestations described by Swami Lakshmanjoo in Kramanaya Pradipika outline Kali’s dualistic nature as both a goddess and destructive force, guiding practitioners from the material world to a higher level of consciousness.
The Supreme Kali: Kalasankarshini
We refer to Kali at the apex as Kalasankarshini, the supreme energy that even time cannot resist. She is the timeless canvas on which the phenomenon of the universe plays out as a cyclic drama of creation, preservation and dissolution of existence. From her emerge the twelve forms of Kali, divided into three categories:
1. The Objective World (External Reality) – First Four Kalis
2. The Cognitive World (Mental and Psychological States) – Middle Four Kalis
3. The Pure Subjective Realm (Transcendental Awareness) – Final Four Kalis
Each Kali symbolizes a particular stage of awareness with the objective of shedding the cloak of illusions and attaining enlightenment.
The 12 Forms of Kali in Kashmir Shaivism
1. Sṛṣṭi Kali: The First Impulse of Perception
Sṛṣṭi Kali is the powerful goddess of creation. She embodies the first bud of a sprout, which is the initial perception of awareness that we notice. Every perception begins with the existence of all phenomena. This phase introduces the concept of duality the subject becomes an object when perception takes place.
Significance: This form conveys that any experience initiates a singular, primary form that moment in which the self meets the world.
2. Rakta Kali: Direct Perception
Rakta Kali is the embodiment of raw and immediate experience before the mind processes life. In simple words, it is what a person sees, hears, or feels without any filtration by the brain. Her powers include experiencing a part of life without going through too much intellectual processing.
Significance: The person meditating on Rakta Kali understands the world without any bias. All of their sensory perceptions seem to be heightened.
3. Sthitinasha Kali: The Dissolution of Curiosity
Perception is either a heightened state or a state of complete rest for Sthitinasha Kali. She rests during the fading of a person’s imagination and the stabilization of perception. This represents the shift from external stimuli to internal feeling.
Significance: This part in the process of meditation assists in liberating the mind from the sensory journey while the person is facilitated in directing attention away from everything around them.
4. Yama Kali: The Dissolution of Thought
As one shifts from being aware of the outer world to being aware of the inner world, Yama Kali comes into play. She stirs those transitions. Similarly, she experiences the sensation of thoughts dissolving. The mind now perceives rest as its natural functioning state.
Significance: Seeking silence is a process of blending with the state of mind, where everything that exists is beyond any internal or external chatter.
5. Samhara Kali: The Disintegration of Duality
Samhara Kali let the practitioner get rid of almost everything. Memories or impressions of the external world were extremely rare, akin to looking up at the sky and expecting to see wisps of clouds. She is what allows a person to comprehend the illusion of separation and realize that there is no such thing because everything is a self.
Significance: This Kali teaches that duality is a product of the mind, causing a fragmentation of the deeper experience of oneness.
6. Kali Mrityu: The Death of False Identity
Kali Mrityu signifies the death of ego. As the self-identifying mental constructs recede, the practitioner approaches the stage of pure self, being alone and undivided.
Significance: This stage is crucial in a spiritual journey because it goes beyond personal identity and allows one to detach from a superficial self-image.
7. Kali Rudra: The Destruction of Doubt
As one goes higher, Kali Rudra cuts away all remaining attachments, doubts, and fears. She makes possible the most absolute state of realization. Kali Rudra represents spiritual will, dissolving all kinds of hesitation and fear.
Significance: In essence, to worship Rudra Kali is to receive immense grace and strength to confront inner fears and accept reality without any cover-ups.
8. Kali Martanda: The Absorption of Knowledge
Kali Martanda is the force who brings illumination and absorbs knowledge from the thinker. She marks the stage when knowing is no longer an outcome of mental seeking but an outcome of spontaneous generation from within oneself.
Significance: This kali shepherds seekers toward wisdom that is self-sufficient— wisdom that results from direct experience, not learning.
9. Paramarka Kali: The Dissolution of Ego and Sense Organs
Kali, in this aspect, disintegrates the limited ego along with its twelve faculties of perception (five senses, five deeds, mind, and intellect). Now, Kali reduces the ego to a purely simple and formless existence.
Significance: A stage of pure self-awareness unmapped by physical perception or further mental activities.
10. Kalagnirudra Kali – The Fiery Destroyer of Time
Kalagnirudra Kali is the force of cosmic fire that consumes the remaining traces of individuality. Though time still exists here, its hold on consciousness weakens.
Significance: This Kali helps practitioners transcend the illusion of time, experiencing the eternal present.
11. Mahakala Kali: The Ultimate Absorption of Time
Mahakala Kali eliminates all levels of experience, embracing only pure existence, akin to consuming food in its entirety. All empires of time are ravenous devourers from one moment to the other wherein they euphorically dance over the cosmos burning gutters. Into which ego-Kali melts the detonation of everything mundane.
Significance: Restores the independence of consciousness from barren realities and leads toward total liberation.
12. Maha-Bhairava-Ghora-Chanda Kali: The Light of Supreme Consciousness
This form of Kali in particular manifests as the profound and final differentiation of pure consciousness. The subjective, objective, and cognitive realms collapse and merge together. All previous distinctions vanish, and the practitioner perceives the universe as one reality with no divisions.
Significance: Maha-Bhairava-Ghora-Chanda Kali symbolizes complete freedom. The seeker now possesses Shiva consciousness without any bounds.
The 12 forms of Kali in Kashmir Shaivism serve as a profound map of spiritual evolution. These manifestations explain how consciousness shifts from perception to cognitive dissolution to absolute transcendence. This is an opposite attitude of the usual Kali picture as fearsome because it depicts her as a kind-hearted figure who leads initiates to self-realization.
While concentrating on these images and forms, believers tend to break away from many false beliefs, renounce their egos, and welcome their infinite selves. After all, Kali does not exist outside of our beings. She is bringing us closer than we breathe.
Visit Sanskriti Way