Kali the Mother (poem)

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Kali the Mother
by Swami Vivekananda
Vivekananda worshipped the different form of goddess Kali in this poem.
First published inDecember 1898
CountryIndia
LanguageEnglish

"Kali the Mother" is a poem written by Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda wrote the poem on 24 September 1898 when he was staying in Kashmir, on a houseboat, on Dal Lake in Srinagar.[1][2] In this poem he worshipped goddess Kali.[3]

Background

Swami Vivekananda in a houseboat in Kashmir in 1898

Vivekananda began turning towards the Hindu goddess

Kheer Bhawani temple (a temple near Srinagar that has Bhawani as the deity), Vivekananda wrote this poem.[1][2] Sister Nivedita, who was accompanying Vivekananda in Kashmir, noted that he was in a "fever of inspiration" prior to writing the poem, and became impatient until he could write down his thought.[3]

Poem

Kali the Mother (excerpt)

The stars are blotted out,
    The clouds are covering clouds,
It is darkness vibrant, sonant.
    In the roaring, whirling wind
Are the souls of a million lunatics
    Just loose from the prison-house,
Wrenching trees by the roots,
    Sweeping all from the path...
The sea has joined the fray,
    And swirls up mountain-waves,
To reach the pitchy sky.
    The flash of lurid light
Reveals on every side
    A thousand, thousand shades
Of Death begrimed and black —

Theme

The poem glorifies the goddess Kali, whom Hindus associate with empowerment. In this poem, Vivekananda is worshiping the terrible form of the goddess (Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form, the "terrible" form). In the poem, he shows how the whole universe is a stage for the goddess's terrible and frenzied dance.[3]

Influence

This poem influenced Indian freedom fighters Subhas Chandra Bose and Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo used it as a basis for his Bhawani Mandir manifesto. He said about the poem:[3]

The Shakti we call India. Bhawani Bharati is the living unity of the Shaktis of three hundred million people; but she is inactive, imprisoned in the magic circle of Tamas, the self-indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons. Strength can only be created by drawing it from the eternal and inexhaustible reservoirs of the spirit, from the Adya-Shakti of the Eternal which is the fountain of all new existence.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan said that the poem gives "articulation and voice to that eternal spirit of India".[3]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-81-7824-130-2
    .
  2. ^ a b "Kali the Mother". Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Poems written by Swami Vivekananda". Retrieved 4 March 2013.

External links

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