(Mar 29,2014) Weekly Svadhyaya - Worship of Mother Kali by Swami Chidananda

Weekly Spiritual Satsang    Guided meditation, Svadyaya Scriptural reading and discussions      ·         Every Saturday from 2:00 PM EST (14:00 New York) for about 2 hours ·         Online through Skype, send in add request to ‘DLSAUS’ from your skype or email dlsusa.org@gmail.com Daily Spiritual E-Mail Messages are archived on DLS New York Blog Page http://dlsusa.blogspot.com/ (Note:Vasanta Navaratri, the festival of nine nights dedicated to Goddess Durga, also known as Ram Navaratri is from March 31-April 8,2014) Svadhyaya for March 29, 2014 Worship of Mother Kali In every aspect of creation and evolution, a phenomenon of destruction necessarily preceding a new birth is found. In the realm of spirituality, when the seeker has set himself to rise into the transcendental state of paripoornata (all-perfection), fullness, bliss, eternal life and infinite peace, light and joy, he finds that the lower aspect of his personality is trying perpetually to keep him bound to ignorance, darkness, delusion and anatmic tendencies. This lower aspect of the individual is known as the pashu (animal), which need be destroyed and given as pashu bali (sacrifice) on the altar of Daivi Shakti (the Divine Power).  One part of the seeker, feels that he should free himself from the base aspect of his personality. Yet, there is another aspect of delusion, moha and attachments, which make it difficult for him to completely destroy his lower self, his attachments, cravings and trishna (desires). While he wants Mother Kali to come and do the work of destruction, at the same time he clings to his lower self.  An aspirant must resolutely be prepared to do the preliminary breaking process that is absolutely essential before he can be free to rise up into the empyrean realm of the spiritual consciousness. If earnestness makes him ready to die to his lower self, then only he can be called a real worshipper of the fearful Divine Mother Kali, the consumer of all the blackness in the form of impurities of the soul. She is terrible, fearful and destructive to all that is lower, impure and unspiritual in us, all that is base and bestial in us. The individual finds that he cannot fight and overcome these enemies through his own puny individual efforts. Therefore comes the necessity of worship of the Mother who is capable of doing pashu vadh (destruction of the animal), and She may release him from the clutches of the evil and impure in him, Her love and compassion for us do the work of destroying all the shadripus (six-fold enemies: desires of passion, anger, greed, infatuated delusion, arrogance and envy) that form our lower aspect.  He is the real worshipper of the Divine Mother who sets himself resolutely to crush out all attachments, delusion, cravings, likes and dislikes, and to annihilate egoism. The Sadhana that he does to destroy the impurities, and to burn up his egoism and the lower nature may constitute the real worship of Mother. Worship of Mother is a process that constantly goes on to resolutely oppose the cravings and attachments. May God bless us all! Swami Chidananda Additional reading Vasanta Navaratri By Sri Swami Sivananda Durga Puja or Navaratri By Sri Swami Sivananda Worship of The Divine Mother By Sri Swami Sivananda Navaratri – Worship of The MahaDevi By Swami Krishnananda The Terrible Kaali , The Benign Mother  By Swami Chidananda The All-Conquering Power By Swami Chidananda Esoteric significance of  The Devi Mahatmya By Swami Krishnananda Take Refuge Now  By Swami Atmaswarupananda