In addition, Kali is almost always portrayed with a huge tongue lolling out of her mouth.  According to David Kinsley, such an image symbolizes the “insatiability” of her desire for life-blood.  The tantric tradition, on the other hand, regards the emphasis on her tongue as a sign of raja guna, the source of generative activity [Gupta 23].  Yet another interpretation of her out-stretched tongue, perhaps deriving from the Raktabija story, is that it “swallows up evil and negative thoughts.”

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