Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess: Foreword by David Frawley

[Guest guest]

Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess

 

by Shambhavi Lorain Chopra

 

The Goddess or Divine Mother holds the key to the spiritual

regeneration of humanity in this ecological age. Without reconnecting

to the deeper feminine energy of the universe, we are unlikely to

solve our current global crisis that is based to a great extent upon

ignoring the Divine presence of the Goddess in nature and in

ourselves.

 

Of the various aspects of the Goddess, it is her dark forms that

carry the key to her secrets and her power, her connections to the

Earth, the night, fertility, mystery, magic and transformation. It

has been our inability to understand her dark forms and integrate

them in our religious and social orders, which has caused us to

ignore the Goddess and even to become afraid of her saving grace that

is the real power of inner growth and the enlightenment of awareness.

 

There are many dark forms of the Goddess in various spiritual and

religious traditions, viewed with both reverence and awe. Of these

great Goddesses of the world, perhaps none is as mysterious and

enigmatic as the Hindu Goddess Kali, who represents the Dark Goddess

in all her primeval glory and all-conquering power. To really uncover

the meaning of the Dark Goddess, one must encounter and come to

understand the inner reality of Kali.

 

Kali is probably the most misunderstood and wrongly portrayed Goddess

in the Hindu tradition, if not in the spiritual traditions of the

entire world. She is a subject of extensive sensation, drama and

distortion. The refined, beautiful, aesthetic or philosophical side

of her nature is seldom recognized, if ever clearly portrayed. Much

mystery enshrouds this dark form of the Goddess who holds all the

energies of life and death - and the great journey back to the

Absolute beyond time and space.

 

Even the origins of Kali worship are a subject of much confusion.

There is little understanding of her Vedic roots as the deep blue

flame of the Fire Goddess or as the dark blue light of the Sun that

is reflected in the dark pupil of the eye and its ability to see. The

greater connections of the Dark Goddess to the forces of nature,

particularly the electrical energies of life and perception, are

seldom noted. Kali's cosmic role as the Goddess of Infinite Space and

Eternal Time is ignored for her more creaturely dimensions. Her

preeminent place as the Yoga Shakti or inner power of Yoga to return

us back to our Divine source is not addressed in any meaningful way.

 

Scholars, lacking inner experience, approach Kali with their own

psychological, sociological and cultural preconceptions that fail to

recognize her spiritual energy, beauty and majesty. They stop short

at the fierce image of her outer forms and do not see the

transcendent light reflected through them. They dwell on her dark

power and project onto that the negative aspects of their own

assessment of human nature. They see superstition or suppressed

emotion in what is in fact the supreme power of the Goddess to take

us beyond all ignorance and sorrow. They usually do the same thing

with the other forms of the Dark Goddess in the world, looking at

them not as an expression of spiritual mystery but, rather, primitive

impulses.

 

It is best to set such accounts aside and learn to approach Kali with

our inner heart and inner eye, as the spiritual Mother who can take

us beyond the limitations of the world. It is best is to approach

Kali directly within our own deeper awareness, but for this we need

some keys, tools and much inspiration. This is what Shambhavi Chopra

offers in her book on the great Dark Goddess. She approaches Kali

through an inner intuitive vision and yogic sadhana, letting the

Goddess unfold in and through her, providing us a new and unique

approach to her reality.

 

India has maintained a continuous tradition of Goddess worship

throughout the centuries. Its spiritual teachings have never rejected

the role of the Goddess in either creation or spiritual development.

At the same time, India has maintained a continuous tradition of

women gurus, saints, teachers and yoginis. It is from that ancient

Goddess tradition of India, carrying its stream of wisdom and grace,

that Shambhavi speaks to us today, affording India's Goddess

tradition a new voice and a practical teaching that everyone can

understand.

 

 

In Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess: Lightning Dance of the Supreme

Shakti, Shambhavi provides us with a direct experience of Kali, the

Mother, as she is in her inner reality, circumventing all the

confusion and distortion about her. She brings us into a direct and

living contact with the reality of the Dark Goddess both in the

external universe and in our own deeper nature. Shambhavi reveals to

us the gentle face of Kali and her beautiful forms which come to us

once we have let go of the darkness and limitations inside ourselves

and in our world.

 

Shambhavi shows us how Kali actually manifests to her sincere and

dedicated devotees in the ongoing experience of life and in the

continuous spiral of deep sadhana. Kali is not some mere folk deity,

some ancient Goddess, or a strange object for intellectual curiosity

or cultural image. She is the Supreme Power of the magical, awesome,

cataclysmic universe in which we live, of which were are all but

brief expressions, and to which we must all bow down in reverence in

the end. Kali holds our life and our death within her embrace that is

kind to the soul but can be painful to the ego which delays or

restricts the soul's unfoldment.

 

Purification, which implies the destruction of negativity, must

precede any great creation or transformation. Kali provides that

purification but brings about the new creation and transformation as

well. Her destructive force is only for the destruction of

negativity, limitation and sorrow - an invitation for us to look

beyond the boundaries of death, suffering and the ego, to an inner

reality not touched by these shadows.

 

Kali is the beginning and the end of all the things. She has the

first and the last word, as she is the Divine Word in its primal

essence before and beyond any particular expressions. Kali stands

before and after, below and above any mere human teacher, saint,

prophet, guru or even avatar. Even Lord Krishna could only take birth

after her descent! Kali holds all time, all beings and all dharma in

her power. All the religions of the world are but reflections of her

lightning force that links all beings into a unity that is everywhere

dynamic, transformative and overflowing.

 

This great Goddess pervades and underlies all the formulations of God

through Monotheism and Monism both. She is the deepest flame of the

burning bush that spoke to Moses and the Vedic Fire through which the

great Himalayan rishis were born. All the Goddesses and all great

women gurus are aspects of her force. She is the supreme space of

awareness, the Dark Mother of which the pure or white forms of the

Goddess are but one aspect of a light that has no boundaries and

gives its grace to all.

 

Kali provides us the energy to do our spiritual practices whatever

that may be. She is the Divine breath, word, thought and perception.

She is the blood of light through which body, life and mind project

their play through all creatures and all worlds. We may give her

another name or not recognize her by name and form at all, but we

cannot deny the presence and the power of the Dark Goddess who

embraces us on every side.

 

We must learn to worship Kali both in all images and in the formless

space beyond every representation, through both meaningful outer

rituals and by the deepest inner meditation. While every form reveals

her beauty, she is beyond all manifestation. She encompasses every

approach that we may have to expand our horizons to the unbounded

energy behind our world. Inner worship of Kali is the direct path to

yogic realization. Those on whom Kali showers her grace are provided

a clear horizon beyond this world of Samsara. They can hold all time

and space, all history and evolution, in the lotus of their own

hearts as a single flash of lightning from the smile of the Goddess.

 

Kali comes to us at all the important transitional or

transformational movements of life, of which death is the most

notable. Yet she is there with the movement of every breath, every

heart beat, and every cry, whether of joy or sorrow. She gives our

life meaning, depth, feeling and sensitivity. She gathers our life-

experience to its crescendo at death so that we can return to the

Divine Flame that gave us birth. She is hidden between every moment

and action of our lives as the space and energy that allows us to

function.

 

It was the power of Kali that enabled Ramakrishna to first project

India's great spiritual traditions into the global arena through his

disciple Swami Vivekananda at the turn of the twentieth century. As

the power of transformation through time, Kali holds the keys to the

planetary changes that we need today to move beyond our current

global crisis. That Kali Shakti remains active and will take any and

all forms that it needs in order to lead us through and beyond all

time. There is much more that Kali has to say to us. Unless we face

and surrender to the transforming power of the Mother, in the depths

of her mystic darkness, our world cannot move beyond its present

division, suffering and pain. Only the unifying power of the Mother

can bring about the healing of humanity, not any more war Gods or

exclusive ideologies or divisive beliefs.

 

Shambhavi allows Kali to speak through her, work through her and

guide the movement of her life. She shows us how to do the same.

Shambhavi serves as a conduit for the grace of Kali to enter into our

lives and take residence within our hearts. She shows us how to

approach Kali and awaken her power within us at the core of our

being. This inner resurgence of the Goddess is not a matter of

strictly following some mere ritual or even faithfully doing a

particular yoga practice, however helpful these may be. It rests

first of all upon an attitude of the heart, an impulse to go directly

to the Mother as the source of one's being, as one's closest

companion, rather than relying on any intermediary, whether a person,

a form, an idea or a technique.

 

Shambhavi presents the great Mother to us in her pure essence, apart

from all distortions, secondary interpretations and indirect views

from the distance only. Through her voice, Kali comes alive and

begins to stir within us, bringing about changes and setting into

motion inner energies that we might not have thought possible for us.

Her entire book is a means of bringing the energy of Kali into our

world and into our psychology, to restore the magic of what is beyond

the human to vitalize our deeper feelings and perceptions.

 

Shambhavi's first book Yogini - which unfolds the life of inner yogic

experience from many angles and facets - naturally leads us to Kali

who is the Great Yogini or `Mahayogini', the supreme Yogini of which

all the Yoginis are but manifestations. In the inner Yoga, one must

honor Kali if one wants to quickly cross the barriers of death,

darkness and sorrow into the higher realm of immortality, light and

bliss.

 

Shambhavi's purpose is not merely to revel us in some sensationalized

experience of Kali in cremation grounds or in old temples, but to

show us the gentle face of Kali that can smile away all death and

suffering from within our hearts. Her book is a new and unique

revelation of the Goddess, bringing the reader into a deeper

understanding through which Kali can manifest for them with grace,

charm and power.

 

To really connect with Kali it would be better for the reader to

focus on this book and leave both the old manuscripts and modern

perspectives aside. Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess is one of the

most important contributions on Kali, as well as one of the most

original and insightful, to arise in the modern era. It shows the

Goddess as a living power of transformation, a matrix of the deepest

and the highest, the most primal and transcendent powers in unbounded

unity. Every article in the book reveals a facet of the Goddess,

portraying all the myriad colors of her manifold and indefinable

reality.

 

For those who know little about Kali, this book is probably the best

place to begin and will help prevent the usual misconceptions about

her from arising. The Dark Goddess is only dark in the sense of

carrying the fertility of the Earth and the expanse of infinite space

and eternal time, in which all potentials reside. The deeper darkness

of her mystic Night can dispel all the darkness of the human mind and

heart, our fears, desires, anger, aggression, sorrow and pain. May

the book awaken the reader to the inner Goddess, the supreme Mother,

who leads us to our highest nature and Divinity!

 

David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)

Santa Fe, New Mexico USA, March 2007