The Secret Worship of Mā Kālī

This talk was given on the sacred 8th day of the waning moon that just went by, which as you know, is not only Kālī Jayanti but also Krishnajanmasthami, the birthday of Kali-Krishna. And I am releasing this midnight on a new moon on Tuesday, the moon sacred day and time for worshipping Mā.

This is a very special video to me because it makes many things that have been very secret for so long available to the viewing public. I trust that if you take up the practice and do it sincerely with no desire but to lose yourself in Her love, then She Herself will send a guru to guide you! Or rather, She Herself will appear in the form of the human guru, if such is needed (as I often recommend) or She will instruct you in dreams or from within.

I want to make an offering to you, you who are Kālī embodied: may all of these words be red hibiscus flowers placed one by one and Your feet! This video should give you everything you need to worship Mā!

Let's get to it:

In the (often very secret) tradition of Kālī-kula (Kali worship), there is a hymn that captures the very essence of how Mā likes to be approached. This hymn details the mantra, the yantra and the form of Mā Kālī (specifically, Dakshina Kālī) that is to be meditated upon. More importantly, it stresses the bhāva, or mood in which to call upon Mother and some of the important elements of ritual worship that is enjoined by the Kali Tantra including animal and human sacrifice, cremation ground meditation and various other transgressive elements.

We already gave a talk exploring this very excellent hymn to Kālī here

You can read the hymn in Devanagri, Roman transliteration and a some other scripts here: https://stotranidhi.com/en/sri-kali-karpura-stotram-in-english/

The book that we reference for translations in this and the other video is "Hymn to Kālī" by Arthur Avalon and Swami Vimalananda.

But before we discuss the hymn and the Kālī mantra, which is of course the main offering in this video, we say a few things about the similarities and differences between Kālī and Krishna. 

Happy New Moon! Jai Mā