re. to aravind: on kali imagery

[Guest guest]

thank you for your input.

interestingly, i have recieved my mantra from ammachi, who is from

kerala actually, for "bhadrakali", but without dhyanam instructions.

and curiously i feel better with the south india image myself. i

guess i dont need "permission" to do the second visualization.

perhaps in past lives i have meditated on the second form, and that

really the goddess will love me with either visualization.

i remember reading that ramakrishna said that even if there are

mikstakes in one's practice, the diety will lovingly correct them,

for a sincere and devoted practitioner (these last two i still need

to work on, though)

hopefully swamiji will enlighten us both (more ways than one!)

kalidas

 

 

, Jami Blakeley <jami108>

wrote:

> Jai Maa!

>

> I do not know if these questions have been sent to

> Swamiji. Hopefully so. I spent several years trying

> to figure out the second question. While I cannot

> comment on the esoteric significance of the

> difference, I can say that it seems that in South

> India (Kerala specifically), Kali with sword, trident,

> head and skullcup is regarded as Bhadrakali. I have a

> version of this image in my shrine room:

>

> http://www.leeveal.com/pages/Kali.htm

>

> In "Ball of Fire", a documentary about Mudiyettu, a

> dance/trance possession performance in Kerala used to

> propitiate Kali, versions of this image are

> ubiquitous. There is even a scene where a women

> points to a poster of the image and specifically says,

> "This is Bhadrakali." There are other iconographic

> details that suggest the South India origin of the

> image, and some puzzling contradictory evidence. I

> don't want to get too long winded.

>

> Of course there are many, many questions that can spin

> out from this. As far as I can determine, there are

> no dhyanam verses that describe this image. And of

> course none of the specific Bhadrakali dhyanam verses

> match it either.

>

> Hope that was a little bit of help. And boy would I

> love to hear Swamiji's definitive answer.

>

> Jai Maa

>

> Aravind

> --- mahakali108 <mahakali108> wrote:

> >

> > namaste,

> > how many heads does kali have in her garland? 108,

> > or 50 for the

> > letters of the sanskrit alphabet?

> > also, what does it mean when she sometimes seems to

> > be depicted

> > holding a sword, trident, head and skullcup, as

> > opposed to a sword,

> > head, and the two mudras? i seem to be attracted to

> > the second

> > version, and it seems easier for me to visualize,

> > too, for some reason.

> > om namah shivaya

> > kalidas

> ca

> >

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