Question


Why is goddess Kali shown topless?

Answer


The premise of the question, that Goddess Kali is like a human female, is incorrect. Ma Kali is the infinite Brahman according to the great spiritual figures like Ramprasad and Sri Ramakrishna. It would be a terrible mistake to read the iconography literally. I am posting one song by Ramprasad published in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to make the point:

Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood.
From one who knows it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava(spiritual mood).
A man has come to me from a country where there is no night,
And now I can not distinguish day from night any longer:
Rituals and Devotions have all grown profitless for me.

My sleep is broken: how can I sleep any more?
For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of Yoga.
O Divine Mother, made one with thee in yoga-sleep at last,
My slumber I have lulled asleep evermore.

I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation;
Knowing the secret that Kali is one with the highest Brahman,
I have discarded, once for all both righteousness and sin.

The iconography of Ma Kali shows her to be completely nude and not just topless. What you think of as her skirt is not really a skirt. Her full breasts nourish all sentient beings. She is shown nude because no finite clothes can cover the infinite.

A philosophical explanation of this image is given in this article.


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