The storm clouds of deception

As the dark clouds pass over East Tennessee and the threat of tornadic activity ceases, I meditate upon Kali, She Who Takes Away the Darkness.

The Darkness is the ignorance that shields us from Self-realization.  It's the veil of maya (delusion) that separates us from the knowledge of our True Self, made manifest in the incorruptable Atma. 

In a world plagued by the asuras of self-deceit and self-conceit, it is difficult to imagine any part of us incorruptable.  Mainstream societal and religious ideals, especially here in the Western world, have indoctrinated a sense of segregation between the holy and the profane, between the Divine and mankind.  Some people think they are "unworthy" to approach the Divine; it is the "filthy rag complex", as I call it.  Others feel that they are too good to believe in something perceived to be higher than themselves, rejecting spiritual inclination as some sort of cancerous superstition. Both approaches equally ere and to compound matters, we tend to treat ourselves as being greater or lesser of a person than our neighbors. 

It is this darkness that erodes away solidarity within our species.  Just as the storm clouds had hidden the light of the Sun, the same thunderous bodies cloud our Light within.  That Light is the omnipresent Divinity within us.  It is called Atma and it is called Brahman, and they are One and the Same.  And just as they are One, so are you and I.  We may differ in societal standing, but those things are all transient.  Like the physical body, they perish and wither away.  However, the Atma is eternal.  It has always existed.  We have always existed, only our forms have changed.  If we can reach self-realization, we will see things through the eyes of the Divine. We will see things as they are, rather than what they seem to be.

May Kali take away that darkness.  May She behead us of our ego so that, collectively, we can stop feeding the bottomless stomach of deception, and instead be liberated and return to Devi's bosom in the Source.

Jai Chamunda!