Different sections of Hindus in India and in different parts of the world worship Goddess Kali who is associated with Shakti and empowerment. In Sanskrit the word Kalika had given birth to the term Goddess Kali.
The Goddess is worshipped on the amavasya, during the festival of lights. For the Bengalies Goddess Kali finds place in Mohishashur Mordini. According to purana, when the trilok, that was Swarg, Marta and Patal were captured by Mohishashur, the dangerous demon, from that time Ma Durga or Goddess Durga was given weapons by Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, Shiva, the destroyer and the other
Gods.
A terrible war took place between Ma Durga and Mohishahur and his army. In that war all of a sudden Raktavija appeared. His drop of blood gave birth to more Raktavijas. At that time Goddess Durga took the help of Goddess Kali who came and sucked the blood from Raktavija and stopped creation of his clones. The modern theory of growth of viruses are very similar to the increase of numbers of Raktavijas.
According to Karupuradi strotra, Goddess Kali has 5 elements and is the supreme mistress of the universe. There is a long story in respect of why Goddess Kali’s tongue is protruded. After killing Shubha and Nishumbha, the two devil brothers, Goddess Kali started a terrible dance. The dance led the trembling of the three lokas namely Swarg, Marta and Patal. At that time Lord Devadideva Mahadeva came
and slept under the feet of Goddess Kali just like a corpse. He absorbed the shaking and trembling which took place due to dancing of Goddess Kali. When Kali realised that she stood on top of her husband Shiva she put her tongue out in shame.
Goddess Kali holds a sword and severed head on two hands. The sword shows divine knowledge and the severed heads shows human ego. Goddess Kali wants human beings to overcome ego by slaying ego with the divine knowledge. The other two hands show fearlessness and blessings.
Dakini, Jogini are the assistants of Goddess Kali. They are also worshipped along with Goddess Kali during Kalipuja. The Fact that Goddess Kali is not seen with clothes means that it is in earthly form which is absolutely natural. Those who practice tantra mantra and kapaliks who sit in the samshans or burial grounds also worship Goddess Kali.
In Bengal, Goddess Kali with beautiful idols are present in Dakhineshwar, Kalighat, Tarapit, Malda and the names of the Goddesses are also different. Jahura Kalimata is worshipped in Malda. Tarama is worshipped in Tarapit. Besides the biggest priests in Bengal including Ramakrishna Paramhanshadeb, Ramprasad, Tailangaswami, all did visualise a unique form of Goddess Kali.
