Question: Guru, how can I feel more compassion from the picture of the Divine Mother Kali?

Sri Chinmoy: You are identifying yourself with the Mother Kali that you are seeing on the gross vital plane. Here she is killing the asuras, the undivine forces that are standing against the divine manifestation. Within and without it is all destruction. She is destroying the unlit, impure human, or let us say animal emotions and propensities.

But you have to know that this Mother Kali has her Source. Her Source is sat-chit-ananda: Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. There she is all golden. If we identify our inner or spiritual existence, our inner cry with her reality, then we shall see that she is all compassion. She is taking our side against those who are obstructing our progress. She is fighting for the divine soldiers who would like to become totally dedicated, totally surrendered to God’s Will.

When a human being conquers someone, he conquers only to show his supremacy. But when the divine forces conquer the undivine forces, they do so with the view of transforming the undivine qualities of those asuric forces. When Julius Caesar conquered, he immediately said, “Veni, vidi, vici,” “I came, I saw, I conquered.” But when a spiritual Master conquers someone, he says, “I love you. I have become what you are. Now let me use you the way I want to use you so that you can make the fastest progress.” This is the difference between Julius Caesar and a spiritual Master.

In your case you have to know that you are having difficulty finding Compassion in Mother Kali because you are seeing her outer face, outer arms, outer movement. There you see her destructive or, you may even go to the length of saying, ferocious capacity. But just go deep within and you will see that she is the Mother of Compassion. In a fleeting moment she can take us to the highest plane of consciousness. She is the Mother of Power and she is Mother of Compassion both. Mahakali is the Mother of height and speed, tremendous speed. If other cosmic gods grant you something, it may take ten years for you to get it. But if you can satisfy Mother Kali, you can get it in a day. She has that capacity. She is the fastest in giving. But in return, naturally she will demand from us more purity, a more consecrated life. If she is granting us a boon in such a fast way, she has every right to expect this from us.

So in order to see Mother Kali’s compassion-aspect, you have to identify yourself with her inner existence, not with her outer existence which is depicted by the imagination of some artist. When the soldier is on the battlefield, you see in him a kind of quality or capacity which is not noticeable when he is with the sweet members of his family. When he is in the battlefield, he is a totally different person. There he has to be very brave, very powerful; otherwise ignorance will devour him. So here the Mother Kali is fighting against the ignorance-forces in order to conquer them and transform them eventually. It is for their good, plus it is for the manifestation of God.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy speaks, part 8, Agni Press, 1976
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/scs_8