I recognize that emotion - The embrace of Kali

zeleiracordero (67)in #esteem • 6 years ago

Greetings, Steemians.

With this publication, I install myself in an autobiographical line focused on the recognition of emotions that mark a pattern in my psyche as a child, seen through the eyes of an adult..

Alluding to today's purpose, I tell you that I knew Kali, when she was a very little girl, yes Kali the Hindu Goddess. Don't you believe me? I painted it with the eyes of the mind, when excited and I heard for the first time the presentation of a chapter of a radio series that described it, with that unmistakable voice of the announcer when he said: "A thousand eyes has Kali, to watch its enemies and a hundred arms has Kali, to punish the guilty: Kaliman, the incredible man, direct descendant of the goddess Kali, the goddess of revenge and death". Don't ask me what the story was about, because I don't remember details, but I did know Kali and, forever, she remained engraved in my memory, like a kind of monster with a lot of arms moving and many eyes open. Can you imagine being punished by a hundred arms in the imagination of a girl? Minimum, a hundred pats and that was a lot. That's why I preferred to imagine her hugging rather than hitting.

However, Kaliman did not leave so many images engraved in my mind, perhaps because I came to see his image in the comic strip. And, in spite of that, his figure is resurfacing diffuse, brought by threads of memory. But I remember that he was a hero who fought against all forms of evil, to impose justice. In the magazine he looked like a handsome young man, dressed all in white, with a white turban covering his head and an electrifying look, shot from blue eyes, which were not only two, but three, when he wanted, because he had the gift of the "third eye". He was very beautiful, however, his "assistant", if I remember correctly, was a boy, dark Hindu type, capable of receiving telepathic messages from Kalimán: "Solín, Solín..." so powerful and clear that even I could hear him.

In those days, I became a voracious reader of comics and lived in those worlds with the power of my imagination and participated in those pilgrimages of superheroes fighting for "justice and peace". Later, I became interested in knowing the story behind the character and, without realizing it, I entered the world of literature, in ancient mythology, in the stories told by the Bible, without being very religious, but the daughter of a great reader. In my house there were all kinds of books, a very fat Little Laurousse and, above all, ancient and contemporary history, novels by Agatha Christie, Selections publications, the World Almanac of each year, the national press: El Nacional and El Universal, but I was moved only on Sundays because I brought the Cartoon Supplement, girl at last.

Now, I set out to investigate and share the story of both the hero and his goddess-mother, according to references on the web, and this is what I found.

"Kalimán" emerged in 1963 on the radio and two years later in comics, where he physically showed this hero who is described as a man of amazing beauty, whose philosophy was summarized: "He who dominates the mind, dominates everything. This series was originally created for radio in Mexico by Rafael Cutberto Navarro and Modesto Vázquez González in 1963. After the initial success of the character's adventures in this format, in 1965 the leap to comics took place, reaching its greatest popularity. Under the pen of Clemente Uribe Ugarte, who only signed as Clem Uribe, his magazine was sold weekly for 26 years without interruption over 1351 consecutive issues, spreading beyond the borders of his country of origin, throughout Central America, some South American countries and the Caribbean. It should be noted that it was Victor Fox who bought the rights, who was the one who appeared in the credits, but the ingenuity of Clem Uribe, who coined the famous phrases "The mind is all-powerful, he who dominates the mind dominates everything," arguments were developed for radio and comics, which were published by Editora K. In 1991, the comic was definitively cancelled.

I don't know how long the series was introduced in Venezuela, but I guess I became fond of it in the 70's, when I was about seven or eight years old, I imagine.

Paraphrasing the plot of the story according to Wikipedia, Kaliman is the seventh man of the dynasty of the goddess Kali. He is a just man who dedicates his life in body and soul to combat the forces of evil always accompanied by an Egyptian child, who descends from Pharaohs, called: Solin.

There are different versions about the origin of Kaliman, there is a myth that he would be a descendant of an ancient civilization that inhabited the depths of the Earth known as Agharta. On the other hand, there is another version that says that, being just a newborn, he was found floating in a basket by a prince named Abul Pasha, who would have adopted him as his son and heir to the kingdom of "Kalimantan", located in a fictitious spot in India. A mixture with remarkable Judeo-Christian influence of the history of Moses.

As an adult, Kaliman knows his origin and returns to do justice. But while in his palace, the prime minister wanted to stab him in the back, being saved by his adoptive mother, who stands in the way and dies at that moment. Kaliman renounces the throne, donates his lands and wealth to his subjects and goes to Tibet. Having overcome his initiation, he decides to take a wandering path around the world, to do good and defend justice, in the place that is necessary and facing any enemy, under the promise never to kill, no matter the circumstance.

You can see from the character's story that his leitmotif of struggle was life and not death, justice and not revenge. So how is the connection with the goddess Kali in this story? Who was Kali, according to ancient mythology?

Within the framework of Hinduism, Kali is one of the main goddesses. She is the goddess of death and destruction, but she is also the goddess of regeneration and liberation. She is the terrible and bloodthirsty goddess, but also the mother woman who gives new life at the cost of her sacrifice. Mother Kali is the most misunderstood of the Hindu goddesses, perhaps because of her contrasts.

The Hindu religion that worships the goddess Kali is called shaktism. In general, Hindus, regardless of the deity they worship in a particular way, consider her the universal Mother. Kali represents the destructive aspect of divinity, it is destructive of evil and demons.

Its name seems to be a feminine version of the Sanskrit word kala which means "darkness", but also means "black woman". In Sanskrit kali means black color, black ink, a succession of black clouds, another way to call the night.

Therefore, vibrations of life and death can be felt in what surrounds this name. However, the connection to the hero in the cartoon seems more inclined to a protective view of the goddess, as mother and destroyer, but "of evil and demons".

But, going back to the cartoon and its impact on me, I think what impressed me was the esoteric or astral part of the hero's action. His ability to use the powers of the mind, to communicate by telepathy, concentration to unravel mysteries, that "third eye" which allowed him to see beyond the obvious. Now I understand that I have always been different from the common people, because my interests were always linked to unraveling mysteries, to traveling in dreams and with imagination beyond the terrestrial borders, to sharing basic knowledge with "imaginary adult friends", but advanced for a little girl. Of course, everything was in my mind and I never shared it with anyone, they were my secrets as a dreamer girl, for whom the School was a walk in which, more than learning, I remembered things.

So now, as the years go by, I go back to the past to collect those pieces of memory that impressed my psyche and remind me how important emotion is. That amazement that makes the soul levitate and ride on the chest, ready to feel, rather than understand. Simple emotions that lead searches, without us knowing it, that make us sensitive to apprehend certain sensations that, for many, are not important, but for me, is a world that awakens from the dreams of the inner being.