Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she is described as being black in colour but is most often depicted as blue in popular Indian art. In the ten-armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a blue stone.

RIC-J: Kali, you are the Terrible Mother. You destroy. You kill. But you also create and nurture. Why is everyone scared of you? Who are you?

 Kali: I am universe, I am everything in this universe, and everything that is outside. I am time, I am body, I am planet, I am blood, I am soul, I am me, and I am you. I am the essence inside everything. You are not scared of me. You are scared of yourself. I am truth. If you are scared of me, you are scared of the truth.

RIC-J: Why is your tongue protruding out all the time?

Kali: Tongue is that part of the body which can be both outside and inside. It represents both the outer and the internal reality. It is also that part which can be inside someone else’s body and yet remain also with me. When Shiva kisses me passionately every night, my tongue is inside his mouth, but it is also inside mine. It is sex. It is passion. It is both life and death (the little and the great one). It’s the cosmic paradox.

RIC-J: Mother, why are people scared of the truth?

Kali: Because it is vast. Sophocles understood this. He wrote, “nothing vast enters the lives of mortals without ruin”. Truth destroys everything that is not truth. And most of life is made up of lies. Truth requires courage. Truth is on the side of life. People prefer death because it is easy.

RIC-J: You have no sense of right and wrong. You do what you want to do. You don’t think about other people. You are selfish. Some even say you are immoral. Is it wrong to pursue the path of Kali?

 Kali: There are two moralities. The lower morality is guided by society where you bow down to the will of mortal people. You think about others, but never about yourself. It suits people. You become a good person by sacrificing your own soul. You save others by killing yourself. This is the Christian way.

Then there is my way where I reject all absolutes. There is no right and wrong anymore. There is only the truth. The whole truth. As it is. No one sacrifices their soul. My morality is the morality of acceptance. To me this is the higher and the truer morality. I accept everything.

RIC-J: Even love? Even sex? Even soul?

Kali: Especially love. Especially sex. And especially soul. For these things have no distinction. It is one. You take out one element, the rest of it will fall apart on its own.

RIC-J: What about an immoral love, mother?

Kali: What?

RIC-J: An immoral love. The kind that is not accepted by society. A type of love that is wrong?

Kali: Now I regret having agreed to this foolish interview. There are no immoral loves. Love is the highest of all good. Love is the only beautiful thing that I have granted to mortals like you. If you don’t understand this, then please don’t ask me any more questions. Immorality exists outside love, not inside it.

RIC-J: Please let me ask a last question. In the memory of a Sufi patient, could you please define life in two words?

Kali: I am.