Kali Puja

Excellent Book, Very Well presented! Classic Kali puja is presented

I'm amazed by how quickly I've received this product today. The text book is in perfect condition, I'm truly joyful and intrigued to be able to dive into the intercession and worship of Kali Puja . However I'm rather unhappy by some of the text, it seems to be faded out like how most of the other reviewers have seemed to be disappointed with.

I very much enjoy the views expressed in this particular line of worship, not only of the worship of Kali, Shiva, and Ganesh but I also mean the philosophy of Shree Maa, Swami Sathyananda Saraswati, RamaKrishna, and others involved; they share very pure and loving ideas that are very open and accepting. The book Kali Puja in particular; the main reason I wanted it was the Kali Sahasranama and to have a readily accessible copy to cary anywhere. That is very well done, pretty sure it has it only in the names but not the thousand names in the form like "Om Kaliyei Namaha" rather it would be "Kali" and then describe that name in english. However, it is still beautiful and useful for contemplation in either of those forms. It also contains the hundred names which I enjoy, the Kali Kavacham, pages and pages of mantras, a few prayers to Ganesh, mantras for food offering, flower offerings, incense offerings, and much much MUCH more. There's a brief summary of the Chandi Path and the symbology behind it in the beginning, and some heartfelt descriptions of Mother Kali. Meditation on any particular deity tends be very much enriched by the addition of a namavali like the 100 names or the 1000 names that give descriptions of various ideals, qualities, and a great way to delve deeper into the stories for one who doesn't exactly know what words to look for, if you read the many names of various deities, names will come up that allude to stories regarding the various exploits of the deity and in that way we can more easily find new related stories and deepen our understanding. I recommend this book to anybody wanting to deepen their understanding and potentially relationship with the Divine mother Kali. I do want to mention - if you don't know very much sanskrit, it will be kind of confusing at first and only certain words here and there will really jump out, you could use a website like spokensanskrit.de to try to find some of the meanings behind individual words and have a lot of success if you persist with patience, though, and I have not yet met a guru, but I'd imagine it could be a lot easier with a teacher who understands the language well and can teach it as well as the various customs involved, which is recommended. Shree Maa's website has classes regarding the various puja books, video classes. I have not looked into them much yet as I don't have my own computer, but, I trust her and her beautiful wisdom.

The book is a bad photocopy of the original and it has illegible print. The pages from 42 jumps to 62 and after 42 there is no English numerals.

This past September, a path was made to where I was able to afford (and attend) a Fall Festival where the theme was the Hindu Festival of Lights. Five goddesses were represented throughout the weekend and I volunteered to help erect and tend to the Temple of Mahakali. Before this festival, I wanted to educate myself on Pujas and more specifically, Kali's. There would be a Lakshmi Puja and a Durga Puja, but I wanted to co-ordinate with the woman assigned to Kali to do a Puja for the Great Mother as well. "Kali Puja" is amazing. It is what it is, a complete and thorough "script" or "instructions" on how to perform a Kali Puja. Everything from the mantras to the offerings to the hand gestures / stances. What a wonderful reference and guide!! I could not believe such a beautiful thing was printed. Thanks to this book, I was able to prepare myself on what to expect and eventually create my own full-fledged puja to radiant Kali Ma. For those devoted to Her, this is a jewel to add to your bookshelf.

Feb. 2015 It has now been about 3 years since I wrote my initial review at 3 stars, and I am raising this up to 4 stars. This book has a lot of excellent information in it, but it is not a beginner's guide by any means. As I said in my original review, there are various ceremonial parts to the book, and you have to have some background in Tantra ritual to know what they are for. I still don't fully understand after all this time, but some of the pieces are starting to fall into place. My main problem with the book is the way that certain words are translated. For example, instead of translating something that might literally say "Timothy goes to the store," this book would render it something like "He who is honored by God goes to the place of abundant plenitude." (using the meaning of Timothy per Google). This approach is fine if the audience is already familiar with the names and histories of Hindu deities and important concepts, but even having some familiarity with the names, this approach is out of place in the context of this book, in my opinion. I realize the rituals have a mystical meaning, but this book purports to be a book strictly listing out the puja itself. Therefore, I would have preferred a literal translation of the names and if the Swami wished to include commentary, either do that separately or in a different book. Trying to do both at the same time (without having actual commentary per se) just makes the book needlessly more complicated. ------- May 2012 I am afraid I must echo some of the other reviews on this book. Even though it appears very comprehensive, it is also very disappointing. I was looking for a book that would explain how to do a puja dedicated to Kali and be a practical guide. This was not it. The good thing is that this book has over 250 pages of Sanskrit and English verse dedicated to Kali. The problem is that there is literally zero explanation. I have no idea if the entire 250 pages are supposed to be one puja, if certain parts are mix and match, or what the point is. The book is also hindered by the lack of any kind of organization. Other than a sparse table of contents, the text runs together and the parts that I "think" are new sections dedicated to new things are not entirely clear because the headings (I think) look like part of the rest of the text, with sanskrit and all. In short, I guess if you know how to do a puja in the first place, this is probably a great guide, but if you have no idea what a puja is or should look like, this book will not be helpful at all. One other concern I have: it is my understanding that mantras often contain bija "seed" words that can not really be translated per se. Nevertheless, the author has offered a translation of each bija word. I've asked some Hindu friends who say that is not really accurate, which makes me doubt the English translation for the rest of the book.

This is an amazing book, detailing the complete worship of the Divine Mother in her form of Kali. She is the strenght, heart and mouth of Shiva, essence of transformation, deeply loving and bringing illumination. She resides in your own heart and is all of Nature, and even more. I have spent hours and hours looking for information on the internet and other books about a solid, satvic, spiritual worship and understanding of Kali. This book from my point of view is clearly the best, and given by someone who is in a living, authentic relationship with the Divine Mother, someone who carry an authentic tradition. Also, the Devi Mandir ashram sell this book for approximativly 20 dollars. The other books from this author are also quiet enlightening.