When Kali Jayanti, Janmashtami, and Kalashtami fall on the same Tithi (lunar day), an exceptional geometric alignment opens in the Kala Chakra (Wheel of Time): Maa Kali and Sri Krishna at the top, with Bhairava as the Adhara (foundation), forming the perfect triangle that is the structural basis of the deepest Sadhana within this tradition. Shri Praveen Radhakrishna uses this convergence to transmit both a complete teaching on the relationship between Kali and Krishna, and a specific Sadhana technique anyone can use immediately.
Krishna Is Kali: The 36th and 37th Name
The teaching opens with a statement that reshapes the conventional relationship between these two: Sri Krishna is the 36th name of Maa Kali, and Krishna Deha (the body of Krishna) is the 37th. Krishna is not merely a beloved deity adjacent to Kali — he is a specific form she takes to deliver the ultimate message to humankind.
In this reading, she descends into the form of Maha Vishnu's son and, from within that body, directs and guides — appearing to act as Vishnu while actually being the Adishakti operating through him. This is her Chhal (divine play of appearance): she is not Vishnu, but she plays Vishnu from the inside, thereby reaching the portion of Bhakti that the Vaishnava path holds. As Kali Yuga deepens, Krishna becomes increasingly relevant — not as a figure of the pastoral past but as the operating intelligence within the chaos of the present era.
The Sadhana of Krishna vs. the Sadhana of Kali
The distinction is precise and important for any practitioner to understand before beginning:
The Sadhana of Krishna will make you Arjuna. Step by step — through lifetimes — the practitioner rises: first as a simple citizen of Krishna's kingdom, then as a soldier, then a commander, then a minister, and ultimately to the full state of Arjuna — the great warrior who attains Yogastabuddhi under the Guru's direct guidance on the battlefield.
The Sadhana of Maa Kali will make you Krishna. Not Arjuna following Krishna's chariot — but Krishna himself. The capacity to be the architect of the entire Kurukshetra: to know who must be protected, who must be sacrificed, when to use Dharma and when to use Chhal in the service of Dharma, how to move within Adharma while secretly upholding the highest law. This is Yogastabuddhi at its fullest expression.
For the practitioner navigating today's life — questions about marriage, career, education, how to handle difficult relationships, how to protect a family or bloodline — invoking the form of Kali that is Krishna accelerates the arrival of that inner clarity.
The Teaching on Krishna as Jagat Guru
Sri Krishna reveals a model of Guruhood that deserves attention separately. He does not retreat to an Ashram. He does not insist on ceremonial seriousness. He dances. He plays. He wears fine clothes and keeps his hair combed. He moves in Samsara with complete fluency — and teaches from within it.
His message to every Guru is implicit in how he lives: stop being so serious. Go out. Drive the chariot. Get into the battlefield with your students. He teaches Yudhishthira how to govern while dancing. He teaches Arjuna how to fight while holding the reins. He gives the Bhagavad Gita in the middle of a war, not in the quiet of a monastery.
And he teaches something even more challenging — he instructs even the Gurus. His corrective to Dronacharya: you have been the gatekeeper of Vidya, choosing disciples by caste and royalty rather than by sincerity. No one is excluded from Krishna's teaching. Not students. Not Gurus. Not kings.
The Vidhi: Om Kling Krishnaya Namah
The specific practice for this auspicious convergence is an addition to the standard Ma Adya Kali Vidhi:
After the opening invocation of Maha Ganapati, immediately recite: Om Kling Krishnaya Namah
This is the Nama Japa of Krishna with his Beeja (seed syllable). The number of repetitions is the practitioner's choice — 1 mala, 10, 100, or 1000 per day. The duration is also variable: 1 day, 11 days, or 48 days. What matters is the Sankalpa (intention) and the visualization held while reciting.
Two Visualizations — Choose According to Your State:
Visualization 1: The Charioteer (for those in active battle) If you are navigating significant problems — relationship conflict, career confusion, legal matters, family pressure, any situation where you feel you are fighting a war — visualize Krishna in the Kurukshetra war as the Charioteer. Ask him directly: "Drive my chariot. I will fight, but tell me where to aim. Give me the Upadesh. You know the battlefield; I do not."
Visualization 2: The Flute Player (for those approaching the Smashan path) This visualization is only for those whose outer life is currently relatively settled — no major ongoing conflicts, a reasonably functioning daily life — and who have the inner aspiration to move toward the deeper Sadhana of Smashan Kali. Visualize Krishna sitting under the tree, playing his flute, smiling.
The flute is the call of the Smashan. It is the sound of Mrityu (death) — not physical death, but the death of the Sadhaka's condensed ego-identity while still in the body. Jara — the hunter whose accidental arrow ends Krishna's physical form — is also one of Kali's names. This visualization, combined with Kling Krishnaya Namah, is the deliberate invitation to hasten that interior dying: the rising from the pyre, not into physical death but into a higher life.
The Allegory of Yashoda and the Mud in Krishna's Mouth
The teaching offers two paired allegories that extend the Sadhana into daily life.
Ma Yashoda — herself a name of Kali — cradles baby Krishna (also Kali) and scolds him for eating mud. In pure maternal love and mild irritation, she asks him to open his mouth. He does — and she sees an entire galaxy. Inside that galaxy, another Krishna and Yashoda. In that Krishna's mouth, another galaxy, going on endlessly, realm after realm.
She asked to look into a mouth; she saw the cosmos.
The teaching: in the smallest, most mundane problems of life — the traffic jam, the boring performance review, the stuck seatbelt — the Deity has placed Herself. When Ma Yashoda complains that her son ate mud, she is standing in the presence of the infinite. The most routine frustration of your day is a small door into that same infinite. Do not rush past it. Pause. Ma, are you thinking of me?
When larger things — identity, status, certainty about the future — are taken away, and life comes to an unexpected standstill, this is the Deity escalating. The cosmos has been nudging you in small ways; now it insists.
The Allegory of the Gopis and the Sari
The Gopis — who are not gendered souls but all Atmas in whatever body — stand in the pond holding their saris. For each of them, that sari represents everything: honor, identity, safety, the specific desire (the college admission, the relationship, the career breakthrough) that feels like the entire world.
Krishna takes the sari. Climbs the tree. Looks down.
The Gopi rages: "Give it back, you thief!" But then she looks up and sees who is holding it. Oh. It is You. It was never about the sari. The sari was the thing that had absorbed all her attention so completely that she couldn't look up to see who was watching. The moment it was taken — she looked up, and there was Krishna.
When your big thing is taken — the job, the relationship, the certainty — it is the same movement. Krishna is removing the cloth that obscured your upward gaze. Think of me for a second, he says. Why were you only looking at the sari?
Conclusion
Small problems: accept them — the mud in the baby's mouth holds the galaxy. Big problems: accept them — the loss of the sari forces the upward gaze. Whether you are in the midst of Kurukshetra or sitting in the quiet under a tree, the instruction is the same: invoke the Guru, surrender the day. Devi Kali, 36th name Krishna — drive my chariot. Tell me where to shoot. Give me the Upadesh. The one who can empty themselves enough, who can walk into that Sadhana with mad love rather than careful religion, will find that Yogastabuddhi is not a distant aspiration. It is a state that arrives when the Deity decides the vessel is ready.