Devi Kali, also known as Kali Mata or Shakti or Kalika is one of the most respected Hindu goddess.Kali is the Hindu goddess (or Devi) of death, time, and doomsday and is often associated with sexuality and violence but is also considered a strong mother-figure and symbolic of motherly-love. Kali also embodies shakti – feminine energy, creativity and fertility – and is an incarnation of Parvati, wife of the great Hindu god Shiva. She is most often represented in art as a fearful fighting figure with a necklace of heads, skirt of arms, lolling tongue, and brandishing a knife dripping with blood. Kali is worshiped as one of the 10 Mahavidya forms of Adi Parashakti. Devi Kali is associated with empowerment and hence is often known as shakti. Kali Mata is the fiercest form of the Devi Durga (Maa Durga). The name “Kali” means black, time or death. She is therefore called the Goddess of time, power, destruction and death. She is widely revered as a destroyer of evil forces. Despite of her fierce form, Kali Maa is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses. Devi Kali is regarded by her devotees as the “Mother” and “Supreme goddess of the whole Universe”. Devi Kali is strongly associated with Lord Shiva. It is often said that Lord Shiva derived his masculine power from her feminine power, Devi Kali. As per Shabdakalpadrum, nineteenth-century Sanskrit dictionary, Kali is derived from the shloka “Kalah Shivah Tasya Patniti Kali”, meaning “Shiva is Kala and his consort is Kali”.
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