Kali Puja

Rating:
Summary: A book of prayers/affirmations made Kali personal to me...
Review: An excerpt: "She who is pleased as the autumn moon, She whose purity shines in her lotus eyes. She who has great laugh in extreme pleasure, she who speaks words of remembrance, She who has excellent expression, she whose lotus lips smile" ~~ This book contains many such mantras and prayers....you could open to any page and find something peaceful, insightful..and motivating. This book will not tell you about the history of Kali, this book is more of experiencing Kali through meditative mantras /prayers....
I open this book at random , usually before bed...for something to ease any stress or thoughts of the day...I highly recommend this book to devotees of Kali, but make sure to also get a historical book as well!

Rating:
Summary: Jai Ma Kali!
Review: KALI PUJA
by Swami Satyanananda Saraswati and Shree Maa

For those of you who want to worship the Holy Mother as Kali this is a great book to get. It offers a traditional way of worshipping Kali. You will learn the mantras, the mudras, traditional worship and tantric offerings to Kali. It is written in Sanskrit, Roman phonetic translation, and in english. I do wish the Roman phonetic translation was more understandable. Also I wish that they listed all the things that are required for the diffrent sections of this book as well, otherwise its a wonderful book on the Worship of Kali. You can do this book all the way through which will take hours or do a chapter or two at a time. The chapters are: Kali Puja, Sankalpa, Ganesha Puja, Kali Dhyanam, Adya Stotram, Puja Naivdeya- Offerings of worship, Adya Kalikadevyah Shatanama Stotram, Kali Kavacam, Sri Kalisahasranama Stotram, Consecration of Tantric Offerings, Gharbha Dhana Viddhi, Mudras for Worship. The Mudras are hand signals that are used to call the diety into yourself are call forth the ancestors. The Ganesha Puju is a small chapter in calling Ganesha and worshipping him the son of the Divine to remove all obstacles and to announce your desire to worship Kali. Sometimes when i can not pronounce the mantras in the sanskrit I use the english translations mixed with the Sanskrit or should i say the Roman phonetic translations.
From the back of the book
Kali is the Goddess who takes away darkness. She cuts down all impurities, consumes all iniquities (evil) purifies Her devotess 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 living 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 spirtual significance when preformed with the mantras which explain the meanings and appropiate circumstances for such worship. Shree Maa, the Respected Holy Mother from Kamakhya in Assam, has devoted her entire life to the worship of the Divine Mother. Swami Satyananda Saraswati has translated numerous volumes of Samskrita Scriptures published in India and abroad, and both are teachers respected around the world. Kali Puja is presented in the original Samskrita, a Romanized phonetic transliteration, and a complete English Translation. This is without doubt the first time that many of these mantras have been translated from their original language. At last the rest of the world is invited more deeply into the mystery of the Divine Mother.
This is a great book as now the secrets have been revealed! Finaly we the rest of this world can worship Ma Kali traditionally. There is no other book that I know of today that gives details into the worship of the Mother like this, at least not one that is published in English.
Despite my two gievences with this book it deserves 5 stars

Rating:
Summary: This text is not worth the paper its printed on
Review: Let me start my saying that the tantric concept of Kali is one which is very abstract and all too overwhelming to comprehend at one glance. The generalization of kali being some kind of goddess wanting to be worshipped or an external force accepting worship is first hand drivel.
In tantra there are several perspectives, schools and with them their respective dogmas. The most prominent ones all deal with pure yoga, meditation and the conceptualization of the Kali and what it represents. The gradual or radical destruction of the ego whereby a person is released from the mundane consciousness to one which is higher in nature and this hierarchy is determined by the liberalization and later on the absence of ego where one relates to the infinite.
These things and the process of attaining such is not addressed in this text, making it a generic idol worshipping nonsensical mistake which is prominent as an amateurish attempts to realize the intangible.
Kali is a Maha vidya and in saying so she is the essence of a great realization in mind, body and spirit harmonising and synthesising them into a state second to none. There is no address of the significance of these rituals or any form of progression into the abstract stylus of meditation which is fundamental to realizing the nature of Kali.
Better to get the Shiva Samhita, or Kularnava tantra.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: This book is saturated with pure love of Kali. It will bring tears of joy to those who are devoted to the Divine Mother.

Rating:
Summary: very complete and very traditional - but how useful is it?
Review: This is a good book, but it is not exactly an easy book to use. The various sections are not clearly separated from one another, and the book really almost reads as one continuous piece from beginning to end at first glance.

The method of Kali worship outlined here is very traditional and very particular. There are many Hindu terms used, even in the English translation, where no explanation is given, and this is not particularly helpful either.

In short, this is really a book that is designed for the person who wishes to worship Kali in the way that the authors do, and the book probably goes well with their teachings. It will not be useful to someone who is not already familiar with Kali worship and Hinduism, and may in fact confuse them terribly.

The problem with the book and the teachings within is that they are not practical for the person who has to deal with everyday life. Very few people have the time, or can make the time, to do these worship exercises in the way this book recommends. The poetry that appears throughout the book is beautiful, but it is difficult to read, given the line by line translation of the text, which is given first in Sanskrit, then in phonetic Sanskrit, then in English.

Overall, I must admit, I found this book to be a disappointment, and I certainly would not recommend it for someone who is just being introduced to the Dark Goddess. This is a book that is very definitely oriented toward a particular type of Kali worship, and very specifically Kali worship as it is practiced and taught by Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda. If you are not a follower of those people or that particular path, this book may not be what you are looking for.

If you are a follower of Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda, this book of course will go well with your studies - and you will also have the benefit, I suppose, of other material provided by them that will explain some of the terms not translated in the book, as well as the reasoning behind why the rituals are conducted in this way.

However, without this knowledge, this beautiful book is quite difficult, and I suspect even if one was a student of the teachers named above, the lack of any sort of layout, section, or chapter separation would be daunting. Perhaps it would have been better to release the book simply with the English translation by itself, and provide a separate section with the Sanskrit and the phonetically translated Sanskrit text.

For someone discovering Kali I would probably recommend Lex Hixon's "Mother of the Universe" before this. This book is primarily useful for disciples of Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda; others will find it difficult.

Rating:
Summary: very complete and very traditional - but how useful is it?
Review: This is a good book, but it is not exactly an easy book to use. The various sections are not clearly separated from one another, and the book really almost reads as one continuous piece from beginning to end at first glance.

The method of Kali worship outlined here is very traditional and very particular. There are many Hindu terms used, even in the English translation, where no explanation is given, and this is not particularly helpful either.

In short, this is really a book that is designed for the person who wishes to worship Kali in the way that the authors do, and the book probably goes well with their teachings. It will not be useful to someone who is not already familiar with Kali worship and Hinduism, and may in fact confuse them terribly.

The problem with the book and the teachings within is that they are not practical for the person who has to deal with everyday life. Very few people have the time, or can make the time, to do these worship exercises in the way this book recommends. The poetry that appears throughout the book is beautiful, but it is difficult to read, given the line by line translation of the text, which is given first in Sanskrit, then in phonetic Sanskrit, then in English.

Overall, I must admit, I found this book to be a disappointment, and I certainly would not recommend it for someone who is just being introduced to the Dark Goddess. This is a book that is very definitely oriented toward a particular type of Kali worship, and very specifically Kali worship as it is practiced and taught by Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda. If you are not a follower of those people or that particular path, this book may not be what you are looking for.

If you are a follower of Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda, this book of course will go well with your studies - and you will also have the benefit, I suppose, of other material provided by them that will explain some of the terms not translated in the book, as well as the reasoning behind why the rituals are conducted in this way.

However, without this knowledge, this beautiful book is quite difficult, and I suspect even if one was a student of the teachers named above, the lack of any sort of layout, section, or chapter separation would be daunting. Perhaps it would have been better to release the book simply with the English translation by itself, and provide a separate section with the Sanskrit and the phonetically translated Sanskrit text.

For someone discovering Kali I would probably recommend Lex Hixon's "Mother of the Universe" before this. This book is primarily useful for disciples of Shree Ma and Swami Satyananda; others will find it difficult.