Kali Chaudash or more commonly known as ‘Naraka Chaturdashi’ celebrates the victory of good over evil. The very legend of this occasion resides in the greatest poem ‘The Mahabharata’. Narakasura, the Asura king, who was blessed for a long reign upon his mother’s noble deeds, had invaded the heaven and stolen Aditi’s divine earrings from Indra’s abode. He had also captured 16000 virgin maidens andstarted ruling his city. Being Asura, he was infamous for his cruelty and inhumane acts. However, gods were compelled by the boon of his long reign. After many years, one day Bhoomadevi visits Dwarka and meets Queen Satyabhama. She tells her about the atrocities committed by Narakasura. Enraged by hearing about the dreadful chaos spread by Narakasura, Satyabhama seeks help of her husband Krishna who agrees to vanquish Narakasura. On this very day of Chaturdashi, Krishna along with his consort Satyabhama rides upon his divine mount Garuda to the city of Naraksura and slays thousands of demons along with the great demon named Mura with various celestial weapons and arrows. The furious battle between Krishna and demons terrifies even the gods by its fierceness. However Krishna succeeds in slaying them all in pieces. Eventually he confronted Narakasura in the battle. Narakasura was actually one among the few most capable warriors on earth and he possessed the most terrific celestial weapons. Yet even after using weapons like Agneyastra, Brahmastra, Vaishnavastra, Narayanastra, he could not defeat Krishna as Krishna also possessed powers to neutralize those weapons. At last disappointed by his endeavours, Narakasura invoked the holy trident to kill Krishna, but Krishna struck him with his divine wheel (Sudarshana Chakra) and slew him in half. After vanquishing his enemy, Krishna freed all those 16000 maidens. However those maidens asked that due to their uncertain shadowy past spent here in captivity, no one would want to marry them and therefore they requested the lord to accept them as his brides. Krishna gracefully accepted them and married them individually all at once with acquaintance of Yoga Maya. It is said that Krishna travelled back to Dwarka after the triumph and celebrated the festival of Deepawali (which is linked to Ram’s return to Ayodhya). Therefore, Naraka Chaturdashi is celebrated as the victory over darkness. Now according to Kalika Purana, Adishakti divides herself into ten eternal forms of energies and assists Narayana in all his incarnations. In Krishna Avatara, Adishakti assisted Krishna in the form of Kali as his power. Hence it is said that Kali also accompanied Krishna and Satyabhama into this battle. And that gave birth to the ritual of Kali Puja upon this auspicious occasion of victory.
