In Praise of Adya Kali details the goddess Kali, and her culture of devotion in West Bengal and South Asia. Different from most contemporary books about this Dark Goddess, this book offers a liturgy of worship—a spiritual practice, the Song of the Hundred Names of Adya Kali, that readers can use to cultivate a direct devotional relationship to Kali. In Praise of Adya Kali is also a context-setting guide, establishing this practice as a general orientation to life. Most compelling, the text of this liturgy and Commentaries contain an intimate revelation of how the goddess establishes herself in her devotees’ bodies and thus intervenes, by unconditional love and acceptance, in their lives. A lengthy Introduction, both scholarly and personal, describes the goddess and the possibilities that these prayers will offer. Aditi Devi guides us in how to build a shrine to Kali, various types of offerings to make to her, and suggests a schedule for how to use this liturgy with a long-term commitment over the course of 108 nights. “This Song of the Hundred Names is a powerful teaching that all forms are her forms,” the author notes. Male, female, or other gendered, readers are presented with the possibility to experience the depths of their own internal feminine energies, and thereby come into greater healing and wholeness, more readily able to express this often neglected part of ourselves.

Kali is the Goddess who takes away darkness. She cuts down all impurities, consumes all iniquities, purifies, Her devotees with the sincerity of Her Love. Now we can worship Her according to the ancient tradition. Kali Puja is a treasure house of Her Wisdom. It contains abundance Kali's tools for living: Her sattvic worship, Her Hundred Names, Her Thousand Names, Her Armor, the mantras for offering bhanga, alcohol, animal sacrifice and how to give birth to spiritual children. These offerings have great spiritual significance when performed with the mantras which explain the meanings and appropriate circumstances for such worship.

About 16 centuries ago, an unknown Indian author or authors gathered together the diverse threads of already ancient traditions and wove them into a verbal tapestry that today is still the central text for worshippers of the Hindu Devi, the Divine Mother. This spiritual classic, the Devimahatmya, addresses the perennial questions of the nature of the universe, humankind, and divinity. How are they related, how do we live in a world torn between good and evil, and how do we find lasting satisfaction and inner peace? These questions and their answers form the substance of the Devimahatmya. Its narrative of a dispossessed king, a merchant betrayed by the family he loves, and a seer whose teaching leads beyond existential suffering sets the stage for a trilogy of myths concerning the all-powerful Divine Mother, Durga, and the fierce battles she wages against throngs of demonic foes. In these allegories, her adversaries represent our all-too-human impulses toward power, possessions, and pleasure. The battlefields symbolize the field of human consciousness on which our lives' dramas play out in joy and sorrow, in wisdom and folly. The Devimahatmya speaks to us across the ages of the experiences and beliefs of our ancient ancestors. We sense their enchantment at nature's bounty and their terror before its destructive fury, their recognition of the good and evil in the human heart, and their understanding that everything in our experience is the expression of a greater reality, personified as the Divine Mother.

The sages of Tantra taught that when we follow the path of Shakti, the sacred feminine principle personified by the goddesses of yoga, we awaken the full potential of our own inner energies. Kali, teaches Sally Kempton, may be both the most powerful—and misunderstood—goddess of all. Kali—her name means “Black One”—is the original Dark Goddess, whose hidden gift is ecstasy. She brings both fierceness and love, destruction and rebirth—and untamed courage and freedom for those willing to fully comprehend and embrace her many gifts. In this e-book, readers are invited to explore teachings, stories, meditations, prayers, poems, mantras, invocations, and rituals to align with this cosmic force of radical transformation. Kali as the Mirror of Our Own Inner State Kali the Blood Drinker The Two Faces of the Dark Goddess Kali and the Ego Kali’s Fierce Forms Kali’s Role in Spiritual Liberation Contemplation: The Felt Sense of Kali in Your Life The Tantric Kali: Deity of Heroes The Kali Woman: Archetype of Feminine Power, Sexuality, and Force A Kali Asana Practice A Contemplation on Kali’s Audacity The Shadow Kali Kali as the Inner Voice of Destructive Rage Dialoguing with Kali (a guided practice) Kali as the Human Teacher A Visualization Practice for Offering Your Negative Tendencies to Kali’s Fire Unlocking the Hidden Kali Meditation: Kali as the Great Void

Eternal salutations to Sri Durga, to Sri Kali, the boundless ocean of spiritual Wisdom who is the Divine Mother of the Universe. This ever-present Goddess epitomizes both the bliss of unlimited Awareness and the enthralling play of universal projection. She manifests countless beings abiding in an infinite set of worlds, seen and unseen, gross and subtle, hidden and exposed. Her existence is confirmed by the holy scriptures, for She is perceived intellectually by means of the Six Darshanas, Her perpetually flowing streams of eternal spiritual knowledge. She is approached and contacted by the devotees through intense sadhana, spiritual disciplines prescribed by the guru, and She is accessible through contemplation and meditation. Ultimately, She is realized as the essence of limitless Consciousness, infinite, indivisible, all-pervading and absolute... The Twenty-Four Aspects of Mother Kali, then, represent in book form an attempt to remind humanity of their divine parentage, of their divine nature, of their source of origin. It is hoped that those who are still asleep to this supreme verity called the Divine Mother of the Universe will have their inherent spirituality awakened; that those who have fallen into complacency or despondency will have their commitment to this non-dual Truth of existence rekindled; that those who are already abiding in this Truth will further exult in this sublime Essence of pure Being and continue to spread the pure light of Timeless Awareness to all inhabitants sporting consciously or unconsciously in the boundless ocean of the Universal Mother’s ineffable Grace.

This collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kali and Uma. These poems were written from the early-18th century up to the contemporary period. They represent the Bengali tradition of goddess worship (Saktism).

This book is compiled with the goal of explaining the hidden history, significance, and meaning of the mantras used in common Hindu puja rituals performed by the Bengalis to the Bengali immigrants.