How To Realize Kali | Ramprasad's Backstory

On the eve of the Mrgaśirsha (9th month of the Vedic Calendar) Amāvasyā (New Moon),  we take up a reading from the beautiful book by Swami Buddhananda called "Ramprasad, The Melodious Mystic" which gives us the life story of one of the greatest devotees of Kali of all time. We didn't get all the way through the little book as I intended because we spent a lot of time commenting on the "bhāvic" succession (to borrow a phrase from Swami Ambikananda Saraswati) of Āgamavāgīsha Krishnānanda, Ramprasad, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda to explain how Kali worship became popularized and how it has come here to the West.

This lecture is the third in a series on the saints of Kālī. We first introduced Sri Ramprasad in this lecture and then we introduced Kamalakanta, Vamakhepa and Raja Ramakrishna in this lecture on the ecstatic saints of Kālī. 

Here's the Vivekananda quote from early in the video:

"But I have clear light now, free of all hocus-pocus. I want to give them dry, hard reason, softened in tile sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily digest it." 
- Swami Vivekananda

For more detailed instructions for how to perform Kālī pūjā, watch this playlist: https://www.patreon.com/collection/233799

Lectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and Friday 10am PST and again Friday at 6pm PST.
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