Mataangi Devi yet again....

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Forms of Bhadra Kali have sixteen arms, eighteen arms or one hundred arms, all

giving protection to her devotees. Bhadra Kali is always visualised as huge,

wearing a three-pointed crown ornamented with the crescent moon, a snake about

her neck, her body draped in red and her mood jolly. She pierces the body of a

buffalo with her lance, one of her many weapons. Hindu tantrics believe that in

this form She pervades the whole universe. One of the most important places of

goddess-pilgrimage and Kali worship is at Kalighat, in Calcutta. This is one of

the "seats" of the Great Goddess, said to be the place where Her right toe fell

to earth. Here Dark Kali is worshipped regularly, often with sacrifices of

specially selected goats and sheep, and with liquor. After such rites the

offerings are viewed as special sacraments and are generally consumed by

devotees. The Kalighat Kali icon is most extraordinary. It mainly consists of

Her dark head, with three eyes exaggerated, Her mouth wide and showing an array

of teeth, Her tongue extending downwards and outwards. One cannot adequately

describe the fervor of Her devotees at this particular Kali temple. The

atmosphere here is always charged with mystery, magic and occult energy. Kali

is considered to be the Guru or "teacher" of the ten Mahavidya goddesses of

Hindu tantric tradition, all of which can best be understood as projections of

Herself. One of these is the fierce Tara, known as Ugra Tara, the "Saviouress",

depicted in the prime of her youth, short of stature, of dark blue color, her

tongue protruding, three-eyed, wearing a tiger-skin and a garland of human

heads. She has four arms, holds a sword, has a small Buddha on her headdress

and her left foot is on the chest of Shiva, lying beneath her like a corpse on

a funeral pyre. In this form She is always laughing, absorbed in her own

blissful emotion. This form of Tara, which is very close to the form of "Bengal

Kali", became especially associated with Tarapitth, a pilgrimage-place and great

cremation-ground in West Bengal. Tarapitth was made famous by several tantric

masters who stayed there, including the great 18th century mystic and poet

Ramprasad Sen, the "crazy saint" Bamakhyepa, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami

Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and, more recently, by Sri Durga Das Shastri. The

black goddess Matangi (one of the Mahavidyas) is another of the many potent

forms of Kali. Matangi is dark black, her face fear-inspiring and angry, her

three eyes reddened with intoxication, a crescent moon on her forehead. She can

have from four to eighteen arms, holding various weapons, a trident and a pot

filled with wine. She wears fine red silk clothes and is seated on a lion

and/or a throne made of precious gems. Matangi is invoked by newly weds, and

tantric Hindus believe that She bestows prosperity and happiness on her

devotees. It is said that she originated from the dark fire of Kali's face.

Bhramari Devi is a dark goddess identified as another form of Kalika. Said to

be "as brilliant as a million dark suns", she is surrounded by black bees and

holds black bees in the first of her hands, others of which are in the

"boon-granting" and "fear-allaying" gestures. She destroys egoistic demons

while her bees make the seed-Mantra "Hring". ****************

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Ganesh Bhaktas:/Do you ?

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