5.  Tantric tradition

In the tantric tradition, especially of Bengal, Kali emerges as the greatest of all the deities, superior even to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva in her form as the essence of the Mahadevi, or Great Goddess (see image below).  In this tradition, Kali comes to symbolize the power of shakti—that power of vitality that pervades reality, and acts in symbiotic tension with the “male” principle of Shiva.

In this image, note Kali’s pre-eminent position, seated above the images of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and portrayed as significantly larger than they.  In addition, in her squatting pose, Kali is in the “birth-giving” pose, thus capturing the unity of death and birth.  Kali has become the “Great Mother.”

In addition, in some interpretations, Kali is credited with the ability to “swallow time” [kala].  Kali-worship and iconography becomes the perfect emblem for the emphasis in this tradition on the ability of the adept to unite and then to transcend the division of the world into binary oppositions.

As David Kinsley summarizes, “The [tantric] devotee appropriates the truths Kali reveals by adopting the attitudes of a child, whose essential nature towards its mother is that of acceptance, no matter how awful, how indifferent, how fearsome she is… In appropriating these truths, the devotee, like the tantric adept, is liberated from the fear these truths impose on people who deny or ignore them.  Through devotion to Kali, the devotee becomes reconciled to death and achieves an acceptance of the way things are… Kali’s refusal to indulge her devotees in worldly pleasures enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond bodily comfort and worldly security” (127).

The mystical poetry of Ramprasad Sen celebrating Kali flows out of this tantric tradition.   http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/R/RamprasadSen/