But after reading some news on some scientific studies of heavy metal - especially some surprising ones about how metalheads generally have a peaceful nature, how listening to heavy metal can actually make you calmer and happier, and similar - I've come to realize something: that maybe my love of heavy metal music, and my love for Maa Kali, aren't so incompatible after all. After all, the Goddess Kali, if you examine Her from a heavy metal standpoint, is metal as hell. I mean, come on, look at Her:
She adorns herself with blood and gore (Her necklace is made of human heads and Her dress is made out of dismembered arms, for crying out loud), is regularly found slaying demons, and is generally badass. Images of the Goddess wouldn't be so out of place among the art of death metal albums of such bands as Cannibal Corpse and Cattle Decapitation. But devotees of the Goddess Kali are among some of the kindest people I've ever met, and Maa Kali is seen by these devotees not as a belligerent, unforgiving deity that needs to be propitiated to avoid consequence, but as a caring, compassionate Mother Goddess who would do anything for Her children.
I personally don't find it much of a coincidence that the extreme imagery of heavy metal and the extreme imagery of Goddess Kali have a similar effect on most people - calming them down and making them happy by eliminating their fear of the extreme. I know such imagery can have different effects on different people, as there are jerks among heavy metal fans and Maa Kali devotees, but you could say that about any human identity. All I'm trying to say here is that even though these concepts aren't the same - far from it, as some might say - they both serve the same purpose, and that is to spread happiness and compassion.
