Kamalakanta: The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight

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The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight

by Kamalakanta
(1769? - 1821?) Timeline

Original Language
Bengali

Yoga / Hindu : Shakta (Goddess-oriented)

The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight
To the blue lotus flower of Mother Shyama's feet,
The blue flower of the feet of Kali, Shiva's Consort;
Tasteless, to the bee, are the blossoms of desire.
My Mother's feet are black, and black, too, is the bee;
Black is made one with black! This much of the mystery
My mortal eyes behold, then hastily retreat.
But Kamalakanta's hopes are answered in the end;
He swims in the Sea of Bliss, unmoved by joy or pain.

-- from Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar, by Elizabeth U. Harding

Amazon.com

/ Photo by Meanest Indian /

Themes

Bliss

Garden

Honey

Lotus

Pain and Wounding

Recommended Books

	Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar, by Elizabeth U. Harding
	Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal, Translated by Rachel Fell McDermott

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In the imagery associated with the goddess Kali (Shyama), black is the divine color, for it is the color of mystery, of the night, that which is beyond knowing, the color that swallows all other colors.

My Mother's feet are black, and black, too, is the bee...

With devotion, the busy bee of the mind becomes quiet and "black" like the vast, still mystery of God (or, rather, Goddess). Drawn to the center of awareness, it loses itself in the blissful nectar's sweetness, until...

Black is made one with black!

Beautiful!

---

(Kali isn't normally depicted as such an old woman, but the eyes of the woman in this photograph, so quiet and keen within that beautifully weathered face, just made me think, "Those are the eyes of the mother goddess peering into our hearts...")

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