The word ?Kali? conjures up in normal minds the image of the ferocious looking Goddess, whose appearance of multi limbs, array of weaponry and protruded tongue ring terror. But, for the one who worships Her, She is mother, the benevolence incarnate, the mokshadayini, the giver of ultimate bliss, the embodiment of beauty and all that is energy in the universe.
That'show Yogini Shambhavi L. Chopra experiences Kali, the Dark Goddess. She shares her spiritual journey in a book Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess. Attempting to appeal to the uninitiated, Yogini Shambhavi first describes the attributes and appearance of the Devi through broken down chapters dealing with the ?beauty and bliss of the Dark Goddess.? The Goddess who transforms the hour of sandhya, the mediating moment between night and day, day and evening and evening and night (the dawn, noon and dusk), the one who personifies womanhood, Suvarnavarna Kali, the one who is in the colour of the golden light, the Mother who is worshipped with red roses and the saviour of the universe.
Kali'spowers are as enormous as Her forms. She is the dance of lightning, the sweet soma, the red blood, the deep blue void of darkness, the one beyond duality and the profound insight. ?The secrets of the Dark Goddess? mysterious powers? unfold these and many other secrets of Kali.
Goddess Kali is usually associated with destruction of the evil, asuradamani, She is worshipped and celebrated for this. Yogini Shambhavi says that Kali represents all the different energies. She ignites the consciousness, the kundalini, the fear, the seed of desire, She is the power of beatitude, the conqueror of death and the fire of suffering. Such are Her energies. To a practicing tantric, She bestows the knowledge of mysticism.
The various forms of Kali and the Yogini'sinterwoven personal experiences are arranged in five chapters, The beauty and bliss of the Dark Goddess, Secrets of the Dark Goddess? mysterious power, The blazing fire of Kali'senergies, Kali, the Tantrica and Invoking the Dark Goddesses within you. The arrangement of the chapters needed mentioning as they take the reader on a gradual course of education. Through the course of the pages one unravels the different energies, the forms and the manifestations of the supreme Shakti. One is bound to get overawed. In her first person narration, Yogini Shambhavi connects the Goddess to the reader, impelling one to go on.
The way to invoke Ma Kali is also outlined by Yogini Shambhavi in Kali is invoked with mantras. She has given some of the mantras to invoke the Goddess. As Dr. David Frawley said in the introduction, if one were ignorant about the all pervading power and energy, personified as Ma Kali and wanted to know, this is where one begins. Transcending her spiritual ecstatic state, the author has conveyed the secrets of the Dark Goddess with a gentle coaxing to search and attain the knowledge of the mokshadayini.
(Wisdom Tree, 4779/23 Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110 002.)
