SHARANYA

Devi's Yoni: The Divine Mother Kamakhya

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:42:31 GMT

We are just back from our annual pilgrimage to the sacred goddess sites of Tantrick India. While many friends and loved ones think us crazy for visiting during the hottest time of year, we can't resist India in the summertime! The reason for our voyage during Summer Solstice is the great Ambubachi Mela, or festival of the Divine Mother's Sacred Water. The festival is held at Kamakhya, a famous pilgrimage site for Hindus located just outside of Guwahati, the capital of Assam, in the northeast region of India. Primarily important to Shaktas, the site functions as the most important Shakta pitha, or sacred �seat� of the goddess for devotees (although you will find many other Hindu traditions represented at the festival). Across India, fifty-one sacred pilgrimage sites are scattered across the land; however, the most sacred for Shaktas is Kamakhya. Can you guess why? The mandir, or sacred temple, to which pilgrims and devotees come to worship is situated on a beautiful hill overlooking the Brahmaputra river and the green lushness of Assam�s tea plantations and jungles. It is here, the puranas (sacred texts) tell us, that the yoni (vulva or womb) of Devi (Goddess) fell to Earth. At Kamakhya Mandir during a dark moon phase occurring once during the equivalent of our solar calendar year, usually corresponding with Solstice, devi�s yoni is believed to release menstrual blood. The celebration and honoring during this time is known as Ambubachi. Annually drawing over...

Mantra as Part of Daily Practice

Fri, 23 May 2008 20:05:27 GMT

Mantra (mantram in the singular) are an important part of spiritual practice in many religious traditions. At SHARANYA, we understand mantra to be a core component of individual and community work because of the multiple levels on which they can operate to effectuate positive transformation. A mantram is a sound or series of sounds--usually delivered in the Sanskrit language--designed with a particular intention, purpose and effect in mind. All mantra were originally perceived by sages and offered to spiritual seekers to help them reach enlightenment. While specific mantra can channel great power by virtue of resonance with cosmic energies (and can therefore sometimes be challenging to work with), most mantra are easy to use as part of a daily spiritual discipline. Mantra japa is the practice of using a mala (rosary) or other means to count the number of repetitions of any mantra so that the energy of the sound vibration of the mantra increases and thus bestoes the practitioner with a wealth of vital energy with which the sound connects for spiritual growth, healing and facilitation of shifts of consciousness. For example, one may chant Kali's bija mantra, Her seed syllable, KRIM over and over (often, the number of repetitions recommended is 108, a number which aligns with the 27 astrological houses as divided into 4) to allow the vibrational energies of the Divine to assist in one's practice and life....

Pani Sadhana

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:44:40 GMT

At SHARANYA, we hold monthly closed circles (in addition to our Daughters of Kali group) for initiates and those studying the Sha'can path. At each meeting, we review material, learn new mantras and spiritual technologies, and do ceremony to help us embody the work we're doing individually and together. In February, we met to learn about yantras and possibilities for engagement with them. One of the points that arose from the teachings came out of the fact that in Tantra, we have seven different levels on which to engage with reality while on the spiritual journey. One way is through karma and our daily activities. With this in mind, our discussion turned to mindfulness about food and drink, with several community members noting that putting a mantra on a bottle of water to have throughout the day is a great way to maintain mindfulness and dedicate prana consciously. Out of this idea and the corresponding reflection on the work of Masaru Emoto, our Pani Sadhana was born (click here for a definition of sadhana)! Week 1: A practice suggestion for this week might be to work with the mantra found here for world happiness. Place the mantra on your water bottle and read it aloud before...

PantheaCon 2008 - Kali Puja

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:31:23 GMT

This past weekend, SHARANYA hosted our 4th annual Kali Puja presentation at PantheaCon in San Jose. Intended to welcome those not familiar with the Sha'can tradition and ways of honoring the Divine Mother as Kali, our community held space for over 100 lovers of the goddess. It was a splendid, rich gathering as we created sanctuary together by chanting "Om Maa!" as everyone filled the room, participants taking in the cleansing sounds of rattles and purifying sprinkles of water upon entering. We began our evening presentation with an introduction through spoken word, helping those gathered understand the context for worship of Kali in our community. Learning more about the Dark Goddess of India, some of her stories, how to approach Her and how to honor Her with her mantra, "Om Krim Kalyai Namah," enabled those present to begin to understand the depth and beauty of this complex divinity. Questions and answers finished, we transitioned to our ritual, a puja designed to include worshipers at all levels of devotion and practice. The room positively hummed as we began our heartbeat drum and shifted our energies and intentions to Her. Starting in the North, we began our invocations of the directions, community members stepping forward to call forth the powers of each cardinal point on the compass. Walking the energy around the circle, we then blessed water, purified our altar, and proceeded to welcome in Ganesh, Agni, and our beloved Ancestors of...

Teachings of Kali

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:20:18 GMT

The teaching of Kali in my dear relationships--how She has changed who I am and how I show up for those I love and who love me--has been to show me the path of a strong heart. A strong heart is one that has weathered many storms yet remains flexible and open to new potentials and realities. It is a heart of yoga (union) that breathes in moments of challenge seeking inner clarity in order to inform action. She teaches that strength is found in vulnerability and in a sincere willingness to completely surrender oneself...to completely offer oneself and one's ego...to the divine, often as expressed through others, in the crucible of relationship. She teaches that getting past one's ego attachments--really hard work because we're often so committed to our woundings, as I was--offers the real reward, which is freedom in love. My intimate relationships have been both battle grounds and cremation grounds, to use two of Her most powerful metaphors. They have also, in the end, been fields of delight where the challenges offer immense opportunities. For the first, the metaphor of relationship as battle ground, there have been learnings for me around the importance of my weapons ( i.e., what they are and how to use them appropriately in times of need) and the importance of knowing when to surrender them in service to something higher than what I think is right, fair, appropriate or in line with justice. All of this for me, i.e., my commitment to what is right or fair or...

From Prehisory to Future Goddess: Kali and Beyond

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:27:40 GMT

A disparate chronology of development on the Indian sub-continent is said to have led to the emergence of traditions such as Śākta Tantra, which were largely an amalgamation of beliefs from �unassimilated tribal people, outcastes, lower castes, and women,� with more formalized patriarchal forms of worship. Thus, the Śākta tradition itself is a product of both Āryan and other (tribal or Dravidian) influences, because it brought together multiple sources over time in a cultural landscape that did not lose the 'prehistory' of the goddess-worshipping peoples even as newer civilizations developed. In Her, the Goddess, both the brahmanic (usually called Āryan) and autochthonous or indigenous (usually called Dravadian) viewpoints were integrated. As David Kinsley notes regarding Kālī�s appearance in the Hindu pantheon: "It is well known that the brahmanic tradition for various reasons accepted into its fold (either willingly or unwillingly) many indigenous deities and customs. In just this way the Aryan tradition was able to accommodate very diverse peoples among the indigenous population." And as he continues noting Her development beyond Her origins : "But at some point Kālī ceases to be an indigenous, tribal goddess, associated with the periphery of society, and begins to gain an amazing prominence in the pantheon. At this point, I think, one has to...

Karma

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:54:28 GMT

In India, dualistic thinking certainly has been used to justify many inequalities and abuses. Such a worldview, however, runs against the force of the entire Indian philosophical tradition, which stresses non-duality. The laws of karma, for example, are found within a non-dual framework. Although often pointed to as a justification for the caste system (among other oppressive systems), karma supports a harmonious relationship between cause and effect where actions provide the impetus for reactions. Hindu interpretations of karma are derived from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (ca. 600BCE), in which it is said that one�s karma or destiny within the cycle of life, death and rebirth eventually leading to mokṣa (enlightenment), is determined by conduct. Karma can be understood as a position in which individual responsibility is taken for action and reaction through the cycle of life, death and rebirth. As Swami Abhedananda of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math in Calcutta has said, karma is: "...the universal law of cause and effect, of action and reaction [meaning] that every cause must be followed by an effect of a similar nature, that every action must produce similar reaction, and conversely every reaction or effect is the result of an action or cause of a similar character. Thus there is always a balance and harmony between cause and effect, between action and reaction." A disavowal of responsibility in human and world...

Women and the Goddess

Wed, 02 May 2007 23:29:11 GMT

Are women reflected in Devi, the Goddess? If we are, what does this mean for us as we strive to heal our patriarchal wounds? In relationship to a patriarchal worldview, women and goddesses are creatures simultaneously feared and revered, honored, and expunged. Women and goddesses maintain, throughout all patriarchal spheres, the paradoxical nature of femaleness: for example, as socially constructed, S/she is at once attractive and repulsive, seductively sexual and chaste, powerful and victimized. Such responses to women and goddesses have particular manifestations within both western and Hindu culture. Overall within arenas of patriarchal control, there is a general effort to reinforce and perpetuate male dominance as a means of not only control, but protection against the Shakti, or inherent power, of woman. In India, both ancient and modern times, the roles women play within the cycle of family, penury, diligence, division, injustice, divine intervention, then back to family, is as consistent in the Indian context as is worship of Devī. In a mysterious confluence of organisms, power-plays, ideas and ties at once social, political, religious, and economic, women and the goddess are subsumed within patriarchal constructs that all revolve around the fundamental properties of femaleness and the cycles in turn, of life, death, and birth. True in India and also true outside of that boundary many of women's and goddess' societal roles are often determined...

Understanding the Hindu Goddess

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 03:50:24 GMT

Devī (Goddess) is hot. The Goddess is alive, part of a living tradition in India, and to many westerners without a recognized goddess, She is more than a passing curiosity�She is the lifeblood to a deeply personal and caring ethic for Self and the whole of Creation. For us at SHARANYA, this is certainly the case. In India, She is not only understood to be Goddess (with a capital "G"), responsible for all cosmic matters; but also as the goddess, who at the fundamental levels of societal functioning handles the necessities and intimacies of everyday existence: agriculture, crafts, health and well-being, reproduction and all facets of family life. She has many names and takes many forms. Great literary works have been written for and about Her, and she is equally the topic of myriad folktales. Some worship Her in gilded images while others paint a stone or a nook in a tree with red paint and a mixture of sandalwood and vermilion paste, and see in that Her beauty and protective power. She is Earth and the shining power of the Cosmos. Either way, She is Universal Mother. As such, her many names and forms reveal that she is simultaneously the Supreme Goddess as well as every local grāmadevatā (village goddess), both a transcendent and an immanent spiritual presence. How is it that she is acknowledged on both the metaphysical and the practical levels? For many of those who worship Her, she is easily recognized in each of...

Shakti Strongholds in India and Nepal

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:25:14 GMT

Namaste kaula, I am researching for our next documentary project, "One Couples' Digital Pilgrimage to Sacred Goddes Sites of India and Nepal," and would like to hear from you which of the temples you have visited (or heard of) that had the most impact on you. Where have you felt Her the most? We are especially interested in the less popular spots. For instance, Shakti pithas aside from the major ones like Kalighat, Kamakya, and Tarapith (which we are planning to visit in any case). Or other Devi temples and important tantric spots that are powerful but usually unheard of in the West. In addition, if you are interested in supporting our project, please contact me off blog. Your support is deeply appreciated! Jai Bharata Ma! Karuna karuna@sharanya.org www.myspace.com/digitalkri