Last Updated on August 12, 2024 by
ॐ देवी कालरात्र्यै नमः॥
Om Devi Kalaratryai Namah॥
Inevitably on the spiritual path we become acutely aware of our egoistic tendencies.
We witness the ideas of “me, mine, and I,” which are so conditioned in our thinking process that we blindly, yet ambitiously, go through life, trying to get more and more for ourselves.
Unfortunately, unless we get help, these thoughts are an endless succession in a perpetual cycle. What do we do?
To the rescue is the seventh form of Durga, Kalaratri Devi, the fiercest form of Durga who we worship on the seventh night of Navaratri.
Rātri means night. Kāla means time, death, black or dark. So Kalaratri is She who is beyond time, the darkness of night. Kalaratri Devi is the great Dark Night Mother of overcoming egotism.
She represents the unfolding of time: the time on the clock that keeps moving forward, making us older, leading us to our death (hence it also means death- your time has come). It is a heavy crushing energy that makes even the greatest nations fall one day.
Kālarātri can be translated as Dark-night goddess, or Death-night goddess. Death is similar to sleep, you let go from your body and enter the dark realm where you have no body but just the thought forms within you.
She is a fierce form of Durga, who burns our egoistic tendencies in the fire of sacrifice.
Though Her appearance appears fearful to the eye, She is not to be feared, because when She is pleased, She grants very auspicious fruits to spiritual aspirants. She takes aspirants beyond the darkness of attachment into the illumination of wisdom.
For a spiritual aspirant this process of surrendering the ego can feel painful. Ultimately though, the removal of the darkness opens up space for the Divine Light to penetrate our awareness, moving us into wisdom.
Kālarātri is black and naked except for her ear-ornaments on her large ears. Her lips hang open (lamba-oṣṭhī), her body is covered in oil, and she sits on a donkey.
She has a single braid in her hair. Her hair is unbound and flies wildly in all directions. She wears a garland of lightning, and from her body emanates a light, that is as bright as fire.
She holds an iron scimitar in her upper left hand and a lightening bolt in her lower left hand. Her other hands are granting blessings and protection. Here is the significance of her form:
- black: takes away darkness from mind
- donkey: strong and sure-footed
- iron scimitar: sharp cut to negative forces
- lightning: diamond hard shakti
- upper right hand: grants boons
- lower right hand: blessed with fearlessness
- braid: single braid representing mourning
- unbound hair: fierce, wild, untamed
This energy of lightning has a very special significance. Lord Shiva gave Rishi Dadhici the boon that his bones would be indestructible. Indra needed a very strong weapon with which to fight the asuras, and so he asked the rishi for his bones. Rishi Dadhici gladly gave up his life so that his bones could be fashioned into Indra’s weapon.
The weapon had so much energy and shined with the radiance of tapasya, and it was that weapon which was used to slay many of the asuras. For that reason it is often called shakti (energy), vajra (lightning or diamond hard), or parigham (fashioned like an iron bar).
Kalaratri is also known as Shubankari (शुभंकरी) – meaning auspicious/doing good in Sanskrit, due to the belief that she always provides auspicious results to her devotees. Hence, it is believed that she makes her devotees fearless.
She is also associated with the crown chakra, thereby giving the invoker siddhis (perfection in qualities).
Today, chant Her mantra and pray for Kalaratri Devi to destroy the darkeness in our minds, to let go of attachments, and to open the mind to the light.