After two back-to-back Kālī pūjās and a few all nighters, we plunge into a discussion of Mā Kālī's non-dual aspect, to commemorate the Shyama Kali Puja of 2023. My idea was to explore the role of the ferocious iconography around Mā, a few verses of the Candi indicated Her non-dual nature as Pure Consciousness and some similar iconography and motifs from other world spiritual traditions to present the idea that Mā is more than a Goddess in a pantheon but rather the Principle of Creative Power par excellence, the energy of Consciousness inseparable from Consciousness Herself, that is worshipped all over the world beyond the cultural confines of India.
She alone exists as the sole reality.
But alas, at many points in this lecture, stunned by the sheer magnitude of Mā Kālī's formless nature (and perhaps also a little fried from the back-to-back pujas), I lapse into silence and resort to the third hymn of the Candi to make some preliminary passes at the topic. Then, when I recover from my little episode, we explore the first idea: the mortuary imagery to make a point about Tantrik sādhanās aimed at attaining Mā's non-dual darshan!
Art by Vijayā (http://www.birthlessdeathless.com/)
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