Dharma Katha · Season 2: Navratri · Episode 94

Imagine a child, taken for the first time to a Kali temple. She looks up at the image. Black skin. A garland of severed heads. A skirt of severed arms. A long red tongue. A sword in one hand, a head in another, dripping. And her grandmother, beside her, joins her palms and says, with complete tenderness: Ma. And the child asks the question that so many of us have asked, in one way or another. Why do we call her Mother? Mothers are gentle. Why is she like that?

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 92 first.

Source note. Label: retelling and reflection, with one quotation. The gods' question about why the Goddess uses weapons, and their answers, that her enemies, purified by her weapons, reach the higher worlds, that by dying in battle they escape a long hell, and that her nature subdues the wicked while showing mercy even to enemies, are from the Devi Mahatmya, chapter four, verses eighteen, nineteen and twenty-one, read with their translation on devimahatmyam.aurobharati.in. The line quoted, citte kṛpā samaraniṣṭhuratā ca, is the second half of verse twenty-two there. The description of the Kali image is of the common Bengali form. The other answers are common teachings and my own reflection; they are offered, not prescribed. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.