शत्रुव्यूहभयङ्करं जनिमृतिध्वंसं रसज्ञाकृतिं
मायाकार्यदवानलं सुरतरुं सत्यं शिवं श्रीकरम् ।
उग्रं दक्षिणकालिकाकरलसन्तं सर्वशक्त्यात्मकं
ध्यायेत्तं वरखड्गदेवमनिशं भद्रात्मजं सुन्दरम् ॥
Not all āgamas agree that the number of Kālīs are twelve; some declare they are thirteen. But twelve, resulting as it does from the multiplication of the two sacred numbers 3 and 4 – is generally agreed upon. These Kālīs are divided into three groups of four:
– The first of the prameya or the known
– The second of the pramāṇa or means of knowledge
– The third of the pramātr̥ or the knower
The śaktis of the Prameya that manifest the states of creation, conservation, destruction, and ineffability are respectively Sr̥ṣṭikālī, Raktakālī, Sthitināśakālī, and Yamakālī. These deities call attention to the self-sufficiency of Shiva and complete power over the individual’s existence. Arising from the divine recesses, the four goddesses of this group perform the functions of the limitation of the subject as well as of the creation, maintenance, and destruction of empirical objects. Sr̥ṣṭikālī is the creative power. Raktakālī is the power of assuming the means of sensory knowledge, of judgment (buddhi), of the sense of “I” (ahaṅkāra) and of attentive capacity or manas, which however are only the external forms of the subject. This is indeed the sustenance of the empirical individual. The third, Sthitināśakālī, is the power of annihilation of the object, which is absorbed into the subject’s consciousness through self-contraction. Such a notion presupposes that all aspects of knowledge – subject, object, and means – are momentary. Consequently, as soon as the object is known it becomes the content of the subjective mind. The fourth, Yamakālī, allows for the rise of doubt towards an object of experience. It is a self-assumed limitation of the subject, which is then destroyed. These four śaktis produce the potential creation of the individual and the world, their actual creation and maintenance, the re-absorption of the objectivity into the individual, subjective doubt with respect to the objectivity, and finally, the absorption of this doubt.
The śakti of pramāṇa manifesting those very states are, in order, Samhārakālī, Rudrakālī, and Mārtāṇḍakālī. This second group of four śaktis accentuates the destruction of the individual’s means of knowledge. Samhārakālī terminates the apprehension of objectivity as dependent on the means of knowledge. The resultant understanding views the object as interiorly grasped within the subject or puruṣa, and is expressed in the notion – ‘the objects of experience are non-different from me’. Mr̥tyukālī is an even stronger power! She goes beyond the non-dual relation of the object to the subject and makes the object merge into the subject. The seventh śakti, Rudrakālī, generates the subject with relation towards a mental object. She is discursive, and still on the level of duality, although the group to which she belongs is in the process of unity. This seventh śakti, embodying as she does a discursive relation, lessens the transcendental integrity of her group. The eight śakti, Mārtāṇḍakālī affects the identification of the five perceptual capacities or jñānēndriyas, the five active capacities or karmendriyas, the attentive capacity or manas, judgment or buddhi, along with the “I” sense or ahaṅkāra; so that a concentration in the “I” sense alone remains. Now, this perception as “I” exists neither in the empirical nor in the transcendental sense, but in a re-orientation of the first towards the second. Through her achievement of the partial involution of categories, the self becomes poised for complete involution. This is a preparatory stage for the full realization accomplished by the following group of śaktis.
The śaktis of the pramātr̥ are Paramārkakālī, Kālānalārudrakālī, Mahākālakālī and Mahābhairavacanḍōgraghōrakālī. This last and most transcendental group of four śaktis engenders liberation through the destruction of the limited subject. The ninth śakti, Paramārkakālī, causes the merging of the “I” sense into the limited subject. The tenth śakti, Kālānalārudrakālī, produces the identification of the limited self and the Supreme as expressed in the sentence, “I am all this!” This is the pure wisdom category of Shiva’s transcendental aspect. The eleventh, Mahākālakālī, is the experience of “I am all this”, with the object having so fused with the subject that the “I” is almost completely self-sufficient. Finally, the twelfth, Mahābhairavacandōgraghōrakālī, is the ineffable vibration of Shiva, the liberating vision of one’s own divinity, through which the category of Divine Power is attained.