What are Goddesses Kali and Tara essentially

[Seeker2011]

I have read in an article that Goddess Kali is the Goddess of Time or Kaal and Goddess Tara is the Goddess of Desh or Space . Is that true ? What are these Goddesses essentially ? Please enlighten me.

[sm78]

Kali is someone who devours time. We know time devours everything in this world. Who could be the one who devours time itself?

Kali, Tara or any of the mahavidyas are truely beyond time and space - time & space and everything in between are created when she decided shrink. But she is well beyond them, and when she decides to expand - all this restrictions dissolve.

Whatever is your idea of God, think of Kali, Tara as that as well as beyond and bigger than that. That's the way to approach the supreme goddess.

[Seeker2011]

Namaskar,

Thanks sm78 for your post. Could you shed further light on the topic ? What more do the shastras speak of the Goddess?

[PARAM]

Kali is Devi of death; she is the form of Maa Parvati.
Tara was wife of Vanar King Bali
During Vajryan Buddhism, Tara was considered as Buddhist tantric Devi, which is not acceptable in Hinduism. In she is one of the Kanya (Virgins) who was married and was mother.

[sm78]

Namaskar,

Thanks sm78 for your post. Could you shed further light on the topic ? What more do the shastras speak of the Goddess?

What is your particular interest? Different shastras have different views.

History of shaktism goes into the pale of pre-history in India, much before even the archaic vedic religion. The earliest aracheological evidence of shakti worship is dated back to ~20,000 BCE. I have not studied the evidence, but there is a book on this and the Mehrgarh excavations which prrove a matriarchal cult and shakta worship existed in India before the vedic fire cult came into voge.

In vedic and post vedic shrauta and smarta literature shakti is given a passing reference and not as the fundamental nature of existence (mula prakriti).

Modern shaktism is based on two sources 1)Puranas 2)Tantras.

Shakta Tantras originate from developments of shaivism. Kali is one of the oldest deities of this schools (Krama school). However currently widely worshipped forms of Kali are of later orgins.

Threory and Practice of Tantric shaktism has been discussed before here. Arjuna knows a lot on the matter, but now seems busy with martial arts than tantra :-
http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=270

[anirvan]

Tara is referred to two different concepts.
one tara is one of 10 mahavidya Tara. when sri-vishnu cut the body of Sati...the wife of siva and daughter of Dakhsya. each part became one -one mahavidya... the componenet part of mahashakti. the yoni or vagina part became Tara,the mahavidya ,whose main temple is situated at kamakhya mahapeetha at Assam.

Second Tara is reffered to paramabrahmaswarupini. she is gurushakti. the female form of supreme brahman. in vedas...this Tara is referred in different names like....Gandharvi,Radha,. Basistha has worshipped her at Neelachala and kamakhsya.

Mahasadhaka Paramhansa Nigamananda of Nadiya did veera sadhna to get this mahashakti as her wife.and freed the mahamantra (streeng) from curse of Basistha.in his entire life, this Tara remailned his wife serving him in form of siva.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namast�

If one were interested in the 10 forms of Mother Divine, or the daśa mahāvidyā-s or the 10 great ( maha) forms of power or knowledge (vidyā),
consider this HDF post: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?p=23927#post23927

It's looked at it in 3 ways ( trika):

• The grahas associated with the daśa mahāvidyā
• What are some of the qualities and groupings of the daśa mahāvidyā
• Other interesting observations and insights

praṇām

[Bob]

Hey, Thanks for the deep insights, spiritual inclination and communication .

Well , could you please let me know where can I found " Devi Kavacha" in Snaskrita.

Thanks

Bob

[Jaishankar]

Pranams,

I do not have enough knowledge of the Vedas to state anything as truth but I have been taught that none of the four sects (Saivite, Vaisnava or Shakta) are adequately represented enough in the Vedas to claim representation by the Vedas. To my knowledge fire worship predates all else in the Vedic line. I know there is evidence to the effect that the fire sacrifice is at least 20,000 years old but I haven't found anything about individual deity worship. What I have studied of ancient pre-Vedic tradition seems to lack deification of any kind. The concept of Brahman (an absolute) seems to begin with the Vedas while the fire sacrifice prescribed by the Vedas predates the Vedas.

I can't remember exactly where but in northern India is a very small village (that doesn't even show up on local maps because nobody goes there) where the Brahmin men have been preserving by oral hereditary tradition a particular form of fire sacrifice which predates the Vedas. They know that this particular Puja predates the Vedas because the language in which the mantras are spoken is older than Sanskrit. In fact the language is so old nobody even knows exactly what the mantras mean, not even the Brahmins. They make no discernible reference to any Vedic deity/ritual including Agni or any variation there of. Linguistic scholars who study the prayers say its obviously akin to Sanskrit but in a far more primitive form. There is no written form of this language nor any evidence that there ever was. The Brahmins who preserve the tradition say it was never written down but that their ancestors have preserved the tradition for 50,000 years with almost no contact with the outside world. They have no record oral or otherwise of contact with the Mughal or the British empire. The first recorded contact with a white man wasnt until after Indian Independence. When my Guru returns from India I will ask him to give me the name of the village. The studies he showed me were quite remarkable.

[Dhira Simha]

Pranams,

I can't remember exactly where but in northern India is a very small village (

Please try to recall the name of the village. I am very interested!