From the sacred Bindu to fierce Kali, Sanatan Dharma embraces all forms—symbolic, divine, and raw—anchored in faith, surrender, and the essence of universal truth.
From the very esoteric Bindu, literally a dot, to the most detailed carving, Sanatan Dharma encompasses everything. All these stand in as symbols of Faith. Take away the Faith element and these become nothing more than kids play acting with variously shaped dolls.
One of the long standing allegations against Sanatan Dharma is that we are idol worshippers. The correct answer would be to say that we worship idols too. Bhagwan is a word which symbolises the Divine in Sanatan Dharma. Bhagwan literally means that Power which has the ability to become the seaness of the sea, the mangoness of mangoes, sunness of the Sun and so on and so forth. This capability to become the very essence of EVERYTHING is that of God.
So idols, which are part of Creation, are just one more implement of worship. The fact that we are the ones set up limits of our belief should be noted. Other people’s opinions, comments and observations are the ones which are restricting us. That too, only because we let it do so.
We have the white clad, pristine Saraswathi, dispenser of Knowledge. She is very different from the flamboyant Shri Maha Lakshmi, who handles Wealth. Saraswathi is almost monastic in Her appearance. White flowers, sattwic white food etc are Her favourites.
We have Shri Parvathi consort of Parama Shiva. She is Annapoorneshwari, the one who feeds the whole World. She is Jaganmathaa, mother of the Universe. There are so many manifestations of this very lovely Deity.
One of the fiercest forms of Parvathi is undoubtedly Kali. She is wild in appearace. Her hair is unbound. She dances without the slightest restraint on a funeral pyre. Her blessings come out as a roar. Her friends are equally uncontrolled like Her. It is not easy to be a devotee of Kali.SHE has to choose you to be Hers. It is quiet likely that a devotee who starts out praying to Kali finds the going tough Ma Kali herself wills it. The immediacy of blood and gore could be quite scary.
Yet for those blessed ones to be chosen by Kali, there is that simple surrender. Just as a tired hungry baby turns to the mother’s breasts for sustenance, each child of Kali’s surrenders his/her own head as part of that ever-growing skull garland, glowing on their beloved Kali Ma’s chest.
The most intense devotees of Kali’s reiterate this prayer, “Take me as your ornament. My ego wants to be the pendant of that Maala”. Laughingly She obliges and one rests on Her fragrant body, the only sustenance. Her breath.
* Thiruvathira Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi was born the XII Princess of the erstwhile royal family of Travancore.
