Aditi Devi - In Praise of Adya Kali: Approaching the Primordial Dark Goddess Through the Song of Her Hundred Names

2014, Julia Aditi Jean

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of quotes used in critical articles and reviews.

Cover Design: Zac Parker, Kadak Graphics, Paulden, AZ

Cover Image: Twenty-Armed Guhya Kali. Vintage lithograph. Private collection. Used with permission.

Interior Design and Layout: Becky Fulker, Kubera Book Design, Prescott, AZ

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aditi, Devi (Ma).

In praise of Adya Kali : approaching the primordial dark goddess through the song of her hundred names / By Aditi Devi (Ma).

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-935387-54-1 (trade pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Kali (Hindu deity)Prayers and devotions. 2. Tantras. Mahanirvanatantra. Adyakalikadevyah satanamastotramCriticism, interpretation, etc. I. Tantras. Mahanirvanatantra. Adyakalikadevyah satanamastotram. II. Title.

BL1225.K32A35 2013

294.5211dc23

2013030357

Hohm Press
P.O. Box 4410
Chino Valley, AZ 86323
800-381-2700
http://www.hohmpress.com

This book was printed in the U.S.A. on recycled, acid-free paper using soy ink.

In front - She

To the left and

To the right - She

To the sides - She

Behind - She

In the lotus of the heart,

None other than She

On one road

And then the other

Wherever I turn,

There She Is

My suffering is of believing

She is distant

But there is no nature

Apart from Her

She She She She She She

What is this non-dualist creed

When She is all that Is?

(Amaruatika; translated by Ina Sahaja, 2011)

Orh 64 Yogins,

Come here, come here!

(Rodrigues 2003:200)

Whether fierce or gentle, terrible to behold, all-powerful,

Residing in the sky, on earth, or in the vastness of space,

May these Yogins be well disposed towards me.

To those eternal Yogins by whose glory

The Three Worlds have been established,

To them I bow down, to them I pray.

(Kularnava Tantra 7.13 and 8.50, as cited in Dehejia 1986:34)

Foreword

by Dawn Cartwright

To look into the eyes of a Tantrika is to dance on the edge the cosmos.

Worlds and galaxies play along her lashes. Birth and death coexistjoyouslyin the transparency of her gaze. Aditi Devi and I were presenting at a festival dedicated to the Divine Feminine in the spring of 2011, I turned a corner, our eyes met for the first time, I fell instantly in love.

As a teacher and seeker for many years along the Tantric path, I recognized this love immediately. I knew, simultaneously, Id met a great adept, for only those who have died to all else can transmit the enormity of Kls love in a single glance. Aditi Devi is such a woman. The love recognized none other than Kl.

In Praise of dy Kl: Approaching the Primordial Dark Goddess Through the Song of Her Hundred Names is this love affair. Rare and hidden traditions, enigmatic stories and detailed practices invite the reader to see, taste and touch Kl themselves, in all her forms, sweet and terrible, as we are carried beyond words and descriptions into the living experience of the fierce mother goddess herself.

With tenderness and simplicity, the most intricate esoteric Tantrika practices are revealed, initiated, embodied. Aditi Devi initiates you, step by step into this ancient song in praise of Kl, revealing, in unexpected moments, the sublime within the mundane.

In my twenty-two years exploring the mysteries of Tantra and sexuality in my own practice, Ive come to realize there comes a moment when skimming the surface no longer satisfies. In Praise of dy Kl: Approaching the Primordial Dark Goddess Through the Song of Her Hundred Names is a deep dive, its Tantra in all its stark magnificence. The Song of Her Hundred Names has ignited all my practice and revealed to me a love that can be neither divided nor diminished.

Dawn Cartwright
Director Chandra Bindu Tantra Institute
August 10th, 2013
Santa Monica, California
www.dawncartwright.com

Her Names with Rose Petals

We are sitting knee to knee in the ritual space. There is a large shrine to several forms of Kl in the center. Her name, her names, repeating dy Kls names one after the other. Chanting them, singing them, relishing them, laughing with them, and crying with them, knowing that she is manifesting as the form of each and every one of her names. As each Sanskrit name moves through our bodies and mouths and is uttered into the space between us, we offer a rose petal to the one sitting across from us by touching it to our heart, throat, and then third eye before placing it at the feet of the form of Kl as our friend. Here, in a circle of beloved yogins and yogis, we are reciting the Song of the Hundred Names of dy Kl during our weekly community Kl Pj. Everything changes as a result. Tensions have drained away and discomforts are forgotten. At some point, the room begins to glow as the recitation resonates and everyone begins to feel that their beloved Kl is sitting knee to knee with them receiving their offering. We also begin to know that we are the form of dy Kl and a loved one is making offerings to us as we morph through all of her sacred forms. We were, and are, all that. Relationality is unfolding. The room is filled with rose petals, with her love, and with our devotion. Our love and awareness have moved out to meet her in each other.

The version of our community recitation of the Tantric liturgy of the Song of the Hundred Names of dy Kl that you hold in your hands was first practiced inside this sacred cakra* of female practitioners, yogins, who had requested that we undertake a community practice commitment based on my devotional re-translation and editing of the original Tantric liturgy of the dy klikdevy atanma stotram. Together, we committed to the spiritual practice (sdhana*) of the recitation of this ancient and sacred liturgy to the akta Tantric goddess Kl over 108 nights during a recent cold and dark winter. We undertook a sankalpa* together, a formal spiritual commitment to this precious Kl sdhana.

This liturgy consists of the hundred names of dy Kl that begin with the first consonant of the Sanskrit alphabet, ka. The names themselves are a sublime garland of flowers that we offer at her feet by reciting them out loud, one by one, in front of a shrine dedicated to dy Kl. This book, In Praise of dy Kl, is the form of and source of support for you in your relationship with Kl and for the study, practice, and contemplation of the