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Kali Yuga (Devanāgarī: कलियुग [kəli juɡə], lit. "age of [the demon] Kali", or "age of vice") is the last of the four stages the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga. The duration and chronological starting point in human history of Kali Yuga has given rise to different evaluations and interpretations. According to one of them, the Surya Siddhanta, Kali Yuga began at midnight (00:00) on 18 February 3102 BCE^[1] in the proleptic Julian calendar, or 23 January 3102 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. This date is also considered by many Hindus to be the day that Krishna left Earth to return to his abode. Most interpreters of Hindu scriptures believe that Earth is currently in Kali Yuga. Many authorities such as Swami Sri Yukteswar,^[2] and Paramhansa Yogananda^[3] believe that it is now Dvapara Yuga. Many others like Aurbindo Ghosh have stated that Kali Yuga is now over. The Kali Yuga is sometimes thought to last 432,000 years, although other durations have been proposed.^[4]

Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually during the Kali Yuga,^[5] which is referred to as the Dark Age because in it people are as far away as possible from God. Hinduism often symbolically represents morality (dharma) as a bull. In Satya Yuga, the first stage of development, the bull has four legs, but in each age morality is reduced by one quarter. By the age of Kali, morality is reduced to only a quarter of that of the golden age, so that the bull of Dharma has only one leg.^[6][7]

Kali Yuga is associated with the apocalyptic demon Kali, not to be confused with the goddess Kālī (read as Kaalee) (these are unrelated words in the Sanskrit language). The "Kali" of Kali Yuga means "strife, discord, quarrel, or contention."

Attributes of Kali Yuga[link]

A discourse by Markandeya in the Mahabharata identifies some of the attributes of Kali Yuga:

In relation to rulers[link]

• Rulers will become unreasonable: they will levy taxes unfairly.
• Rulers will no longer see it as their duty to promote spirituality, or to protect their subjects: they will become a danger to the world.
• People will start migrating, seeking countries where wheat and barley form the staple food source.
• "At the end of Kali-yuga, when there exist no topics on the subject of God, even at the residences of so-called saints and respectable gentlemen of the three higher varnas [castes] and when nothing is known of the techniques of sacrifice, even by word, at that time the Lord will appear as the supreme chastiser." (Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.7.38))

In human relationships[link]

• Avarice and wrath will be common. Humans will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance of dharma will occur.
• People will have thoughts of murder with no justification and will see nothing wrong in that.
• Lust will be viewed as socially acceptable and sexual intercourse will be seen as the central requirement of life.
• Sin will increase exponentially, whilst virtue will fade and cease to flourish.
• People will take vows and break them soon after.
• People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs.
• Gurus will no longer be respected and their students will attempt to injure them. Their teachings will be insulted, and followers of Kama will wrest control of the mind from all human beings.

A special 10,000 year period within Kali Yuga[link]

The Brahma Vaivarta Purana mentions a ten thousand year period, starting from the traditional dating of the Kali Yuga epoch of February 18, 3102 BC/BCE, during which bhakti yogis will be present.^[8]

A special 10,000 year(Golden Age) period within Kali Yuga only in this Maha Yuga Cycle.

In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana has words spoken by Lord Krishna to Mother Ganga just before the beginning of Kali yuga (the age of quarrel and strife). Kali yuga began approximately five thousand years ago, and it has a duration of 432,000 years, leaving us with 427,000 till the end of the present age. Within this 432,000 year period, there is a period of 10,000 years that will be a golden age. That golden age is being described below by Lord Sri Krishna.

Predicted in Brahma-vaivarta Purana 4.129. The fourth part of the Brahma-vaivarta is called Krsna-janma-khanda. Chapter 129 is called Golokarohanam, because it describes how Krsna returns to His abode. This specific dialogue is between Lord Krsna and Mother Ganga. Verse 49 is a question by Ganga, verses 50-60 are Krsna's answer.

This text is taken from the Brahma-vaivarta Purana [14]

Text 59:

kaler daSa-sahasraaNi

madbhaktaaH saMti bhu-tale

ekavarNaa bhaviSyaMti

madbhakteSu gateSu ca

"For 10,000 years of Kali such devotees of Mine will be present on earth. After the departure of My devotees there will be only one varna [outcaste]."

The above is supported in 4.90.32-33:

kalau dasa-sahasrAni

haris tiSThati medinI

devAnAM pratimA pUjyA

sAstrANi ca purANakam

"(Sri Krsna said:) Lord Hari will stay on this earth for the first ten-thousand years of Kali-yuga. For that time the deities of the demigods will be worshiped and the Puranas and scriptures will also be present."

The end of Kali Yuga[link]

"When flowers will be begot within flowers, and fruits within fruits, then will the Yuga come to an end. And the clouds will pour rain unseasonably when the end of the Yuga approaches." Then Lord Vishnu in the form of infant Krishna on a leaf will come to earth and again everything will start producing from the beginning. Many prominent Hindu scholars believe that we have either crossed the era of Kali Yuga or are approaching it, arguing for the repeated invasions on Hinduism in the last millennium in India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Indo-China, Central Asia etc. as the proof of the height of Kali Yuga.

Personification[link]

Kali (right) wielding a sword.

Kali is the reigning lord of Kali Yuga and the nemesis of Sri Kalki, who is the tenth and final Avatar of Lord Vishnu. According to the Vishnu Purana, Kali is a negative manifestation of Vishnu who perpetually operates in this world as a cause of destruction, along with his evil extended family.^[9] Kali also serves as an antagonistic force in the Kalki Purana. It is said that towards the end of this yuga, Kalki will return riding on a white horse to do battle with Kali and his dark forces. The world will suffer a fiery end that will destroy all evil, and a new age, Satya Yuga, will begin.

Kali Yuga in Sikhism[link]

In Sikhism, it is believed that one should meditate on God as much as possible because of the world being in Kali Yuga. Because of Kali Yuga it is stressed that one should meditate as much as possible to reach the state of Nirvana and be liberated or be one with God. Guru Granth Sahib Ji on Ang:1185 says:

ab kaloo aaeiou rae

Now, the Dark Age of Kali Yuga has come.

eik naam bovahu bovahu ||

Plant the Naam, the Name of the One Lord.

an rooth naahee naahee ||

It is not the season to plant other seeds.

math bharam bhoolahu bhoolahu ||

Do not wander lost in doubt and delusion.^[10]

Brahma Kumaris[link]

According to the Brahma Kumaris and Prajapita Brahma Kumaris, there are also five ages or yugas in a single cycle or Kalpa of 5,000 years in which the Kali Yuga or Iron Age is the lowest, most impure, vicious and where ignorance rules. It lasts for 1,250 years at the end of which a fifth age of only 100 years exists called the Sangum Yuga (Confluence Age or meeting with God) during which time the Iron Age is destroyed and the Golden Age re-created. Every 5,000-year kalpa cycle repeats identically the same.^[11]

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Metrics of time in Hinduism
• Kali (Demon)
• Vamadeva
• List of numbers in Hindu scriptures

External links[link]

Look up Kali Yuga in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

This article may contain too much repetition or redundant language. Please help improve it by merging similar text or removing repeated statements. (December 2011)

Kali
The goddess Kali
goddess of Time, Change
Devanagari	काली
Sanskrit Transliteration	Kālī
Tamil script	காளி
Bengali script	কালী
Affiliation	Devi, Mahavidya
Abode	Cremation grounds
Mantra	Om Krīm Kālyai Namaḥ, Om Kapālinaye Namah, Om Hrim Shrim Krim Parameshvari Kalike Svaha
Weapon	Schimitar
Consort	Shiva
Mount	Jackal

Kālī (Sanskrit: काली, IPA: [kɑːliː]; Bengali: কালী; Punjabi: ਕਾਲੀ; Tamil: காளி; Telugu: కాళికాదేవి; Kannada: ಕಾಳಿ ಮಾತೆ), also known as Kālikā (Sanskrit: कालिका, Bengali: কালিকা), is the Hindu goddess associated with empowerment, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla—the eternal time—Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" (as in time has come). Hence, Kāli is considered the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. Various Shakta Hindu cosmologies, as well as Shākta Tantric beliefs, worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatārini (literally "redeemer of the universe"). Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kāli as a benevolent mother goddess.^[1]

Kālī is represented as the consort of Lord Shiva, on whose body she is often seen standing. She is associated with many other Hindu goddesses like Durga, Bhadrakali, Sati, Rudrani, Parvati and Chamunda. She is the foremost among the Dasa Mahavidyas, ten fierce Tantric goddesses.^[2]

Etymology[link]

A murthi of Maa kali in a temple in Goa.

Kālī is the feminine form of kāla ("black, dark coloured").^[3] Kāla primarily means "time" but also means "black" in honor of being the first creation before light itself. Kālī means "the black one" and refers to her being the entity of "time" or "beyond time." Kāli is strongly associated with Shiva, and Shaivas derive the masculine Kāla (an epithet of Shiva) to come from her feminine name. A nineteenth-century Sanskrit dictionary, the Shabdakalpadrum, states: कालः शिवः । तस्य पत्नीति - काली । kālaḥ śivaḥ । tasya patnīti kālī - "Shiva is Kāla, thus, his consort is Kāli" referring to Devi Parvathi being a manifestation of Devi MahaKali.

Other names include Kālarātri ("black night"), as described above, and Kālikā ("relating to time"). Coburn notes that the name Kālī can be used as a proper name, or as a description of color.^[4]

Kāli's association with darkness stands in contrast to her consort, Shiva, who manifested after her in creation, and who symbolises the rest of creation after Time is created. In his supreme awareness of Maya, his body is covered by the white ashes of the cremation ground (Sanskrit: śmaśāna) where he meditates, and with which Kāli is also associated, as śmaśāna-kālī. It is said that aspirants who wish to offer Bhakthi should approach under the proper guidance of a Siddha or equivalent. Chanting her mantras from anywhere would cause unknown effects.

Origins[link]

Hugh Urban notes that although the word Kālī appears as early as the Atharva Veda, the first use of it as a proper name is in the Kathaka Grhya Sutra (19.7).^[5] Kali is the name of one of the seven tongues of Agni, the [Rigvedic] God of Fire, in the Mundaka Upanishad (2:4), but it is unlikely that this refers to the goddess. The first appearance of Kāli in her present form is in the Sauptika Parvan of the Mahabharata (10.8.64). She is called Kālarātri (literally, "black night") and appears to the Pandava soldiers in dreams, until finally she appears amidst the fighting during an attack by Drona's son Ashwatthama. She most famously appears in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam as one of the shaktis of Mahadevi, and defeats the demon Raktabija ("Bloodseed"). The tenth-century Kalika Purana venerates Kāli as the ultimate reality or Brahman.

According to David Kinsley, Kāli is first mentioned in Hinduism as a distinct goddess around 600 CE, and these texts "usually place her on the periphery of Hindu society or on the battlefield."^[6] She is often regarded as the Shakti of Shiva, and is closely associated with him in various Puranas. The Kalika Purana depicts her as the "Adi Shakti" (Fundamental Power) and "Para Prakriti" or beyond nature.

Tantra[link]

Kali Yantra

Goddesses play an important role in the study and practice of Tantra Yoga, and are affirmed to be as central to discerning the nature of reality as are the male deities. Although Parvati is often said to be the recipient and student of Shiva's wisdom in the form of Tantras, it is Kāli who seems to dominate much of the Tantric iconography, texts, and rituals.^[7] In many sources Kāli is praised as the highest reality or greatest of all deities. The Nirvana-tantra says the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva all arise from her like bubbles in the sea, ceaselessly arising and passing away, leaving their original source unchanged. The Niruttara-tantra and the Picchila-tantra declare all of Kāli's mantras to be the greatest and the Yogini-tantra, Kamakhya-tantra and the Niruttara-tantra all proclaim Kāli vidyas (manifestations of Mahadevi, or "divinity itself"). They declare her to be an essence of her own form (svarupa) of the Mahadevi.^[8]

In the Mahanirvana-tantra, Kāli is one of the epithets for the primordial sakti, and in one passage Shiva praises her:

At the dissolution of things, it is Kāla [Time] Who will devour all, and by reason of this He is called Mahākāla [an epithet of Lord Shiva], and since Thou devourest Mahākāla Himself, it is Thou who art the Supreme Primordial Kālika. Because Thou devourest Kāla, Thou art Kāli, the original form of all things, and because Thou art the Origin of and devourest all things Thou art called the Adya [the Primordial One]. Re-assuming after Dissolution Thine own form, dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One ineffable and inconceivable. Though having a form, yet art Thou formless; though Thyself without beginning, multiform by the power of Maya, Thou art the Beginning of all, Creatrix, Protectress, and Destructress that Thou art.^[7]

The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction, and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a "forbidden thing", or even death itself. In the Pancatattva ritual, the sadhaka boldly seeks to confront Kali, and thereby assimilates and transforms her into a vehicle of salvation.^[9] This is clear in the work of the Karpuradi-stotra,^[10] a short praise Kāli describing the Pancatattva ritual unto her, performed on cremation grounds. (Samahana-sadhana)

He, O Mahākāli who in the cremation-ground, naked, and with dishevelled hair, intently meditates upon Thee and recites Thy mantra, and with each recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand Akanda flowers with seed, becomes without any effort a Lord of the earth. 0h Kāli, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having uttered Thy mantra, makes offering even but once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his Shakti [his energy/female companion] in the cremation-ground, becomes a great poet, a Lord of the earth, and ever goes mounted upon an elephant.^[9]

The Karpuradi-stotra clearly indicates that Kāli is more than a terrible, vicious, slayer of demons who serves Durga or Shiva. Here, she is identified as the supreme mistress of the universe, associated with the five elements. In union with Lord Shiva, who is said to be her spouse, she creates and destroys worlds. Her appearance also takes a different turn, befitting her role as ruler of the world and object of meditation.^[11] In contrast to her terrible aspects, she takes on hints of a more benign dimension. She is described as young and beautiful, has a gentle smile, and makes gestures with her two right hands to dispel any fear and offer boons. The more positive features exposed offer the distillation of divine wrath into a goddess of salvation, who rids the sadhaka of fear. Here, Kali appears as a symbol of triumph over death.^[12]

Bengali tradition[link]

Kali Puja festival in Kolkata.

Kali is also a central figure in late medieval Bengali devotional literature, with such devotees as Ramprasad Sen (1718–75). With the exception of being associated with Parvati as Shiva's consort, Kāli is rarely pictured in Hindu mythology and iconography as a motherly figure until Bengali devotions beginning in the early eighteenth century. Even in Bengāli tradition her appearance and habits change little, if at all.^[13]

The Tantric approach to Kāli is to display courage by confronting her on cremation grounds in the dead of night, despite her terrible appearance. In contrast, the Bengali devotee appropriates Kāli's teachings adopting the attitude of a child, coming to love her unreservedly. In both cases, the goal of the devotee is to become reconciled with death and to learn acceptance of the way that things are. These themes are well addressed in Rāmprasād's work.^[14]

Tha Bhavatarini form of Kali worshiped at Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kolkata.

Rāmprasād comments in many of his other songs that Kāli is indifferent to his wellbeing, causes him to suffer, brings his worldly desires to nothing and his worldly goods to ruin. He also states that she does not behave like a mother should and that she ignores his pleas:

Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone? [a reference to Kali as the daughter of Himalaya]

Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?

Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you, Mother.

You have cut off the heads of the children of others, and these you wear as a garland around your neck.

It matters not how much I call you "Mother, Mother." You hear me, but you will not listen.^[15]

To be a child of Kāli, Rāmprasād asserts, is to be denied of earthly delights and pleasures. Kāli is said to refrain from giving that which is expected. To the devotee, it is perhaps her very refusal to do so that enables her devotees to reflect on dimensions of themselves and of reality that go beyond the material world.^[15][16]

A significant portion of Bengali devotional music features Kāli as its central theme and is known as Shyama Sangeet ("Music of the Night"). Mostly sung by male vocalists, today even women have taken to this form of music. One of the finest singers of Shyāma Sāngeet is Pannalal Bhattacharya.

In Bengal, Kāli is venerated in the festival Kali Puja - the new moon day of Ashwin month which coincides with Diwali festival.

In a unique form of Kāli worship, Shantipur worships Kāli in the form of a hand painted image of the deity known as Poteshwari (meaning the deity drawn on a piece of cloth).

Mythology[link]

Slayer of Raktabija[link]

In Kāli's most famous myth, Durga and her assistants, the Matrikas, wound the demon Raktabija, in various ways and with a variety of weapons in an attempt to destroy him. They soon find that they have worsened the situation for with every drop of blood that is spilt from Raktabija he reproduces a clone of himself. The battlefield becomes increasingly filled with his duplicates.^[17] Durga, in need of help, summons Kāli to combat the demons. It is said, in some versions, that Goddess Durga actually assumes the form of Goddess Kāli at this time.

The Devi Mahatmyam describes:

Out of the surface of her (Durga's) forehead, fierce with frown, issued suddenly Kali of terrible countenance, armed with a sword and noose. Bearing the strange khatvanga (skull-topped staff ), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas.^[18]

Kali destroys Raktabija by sucking the blood from his body and putting the many Raktabija duplicates in her gaping mouth. Pleased with her victory, Kali then dances on the field of battle, stepping on the corpses of the slain. Her consort Shiva lies among the dead beneath her feet, a representation of Kali commonly seen in her iconography as Daksinakali.^[19]

In the Devi Mahatmya version of this story, Kali is also described as a Matrika and as a Shakti or power of Devi. She is given the epithet Cāṃuṇḍā (Chamunda), i.e. the slayer of the demons Chanda and Munda.^[20] Chamunda is very often identified with Kali and is very much like her in appearance and habit.^[21]