Customer Reviews

Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an inspiring book for all lovers of our Great Mother, and gives us understanding of one of her most Archetypal, and complex forms. The author, Elizabeth Harding, has a true insight (rare in a western mind) into the profound nature of Ma Kali, and a real understanding of her worship, as practised in India today. She marvelously expounds the intricacies of the outward rituals, and illuminates the inner philosophy of this loving Goddess, our mother, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things eventually return. Her essay on the great saint Sri Ramakrishna is most inspiring. Her descriptions of the Temple make it spring to life in the mind of the reader. As you read her vivid rendering of the great Holy days of the Goddess, you are transported there, and can almost hear the chants, and smell the incense. Her understanding of the mysteries of this Goddess is most profound. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in Goddess worship. It is also great source material from a religious, theological, anthropological or sociological standpoint. It is greatly empowering! After you read this, you'll want to go on pilgramige to the Temple.

I found the book to be a delightfully refreshing look at a Goddess who has been the target of much slander and misunderstanding in the past. It is heartening to see that beloved Kali has begun to gain more Western devotees - Elizabeth Harding has done a truly magnificent job in writing and researching this book. She has made much of the hidden beauty and splendour of the Bhavatarini more accessible to the uninitiated with this book. As a practising Kali-worshipper and theosophist, I have found this book to be a great source of pleasure and knowledge. A few more colour pictures would have been nice, but the black & white illustrations are sufficient, and the elegantly written text more than makes up for the lack of colour plates. Jai Ma!

KALI
The Black Goddess Of Dakshineswar
by Elizabeth U. Harding

Although this book is a bit on the patriarcal side a
bit. Even when India was very constrictive to women, many Hindu sects considdered the Goddess to be supreme and men who were devoted to the Goddess would want to dress as
a woman and become feminine and even have a pyschosematic period without the actual
blood. (even though they were not gay)
This book goes deep into the Goddess Kali in her many aspects of Kali names such as Shyama Kali, Maha Kali, Raksha Kali and more. This book tells of her benign side (Dakashin) and her terrible aspect (Smashan or Vama)
It describes the daily worship and the special puja of Kali. It explains her symbols the reason why she is seen with 50 human
severed heads and a girldle of arms. This book is truly for those who are devoted to the Mother Kali.
The auther describes how life is in India and how the devotees act toward the Mother Kali.
The book has many devotional prayers and writtings that were made to the Great Devi Kali.
She has wrote about Kalis Goddess intoxicated saints Rama Krishna, Sarada Devi, Ramprasad, and many of the lives of the devotes of Ma Kali.
This book will dispell any of the myths of what you heard of Kali, as Kali is greatly misunderstood by so many people. Kali is beyond good and
evil she is pure love and will but make no mistake she is also she who creates and she who destroys. The auther has added some of the writtings from the Gospel of Sri RamaKrishna and some of his visions of the Mother is there as well.
She also adds some information on Shiva and Tara as well. Ramprshad made no dstiction between Kali and Tara. Tara is so much like Kali in her Hindu wratful aspect. Tara is the next Mahavidya right after Kali. She also describes the life of Bamakhepa Taras goddess intoxicated saint.She also writes about the left hand tantricts (this is not an evil path of tantra) Left hand tantra defies what is considdered morally right and is useful in free the enslaved mind from human made restrictions.Devotes and saints would sit on top of a corpse in a crematorium and go
into deep traces and do other societies"unacceptable things" NO im not talking of human sacrifices. Also Elizabeth Harding writes about the Rani (Queen) who had the Dakashineswar temple built and what
goes on there.There are many wonderful pictures in this book and rare ones as well. Rare because pictures are forbidden to be taken of the

inside of templesonly the temple officials can take them. The Christians and the English
rule could not pull the whole country away from the Hindu religion no matter how bad the tyranny became. This book is inspirational and one of
pure beauty, it is a book of hope against struggle. The book delves into the mysteries of Kalima. In this book Kali is brought to life and dances
with her laughter, you can feel the soirit of the Great Devi in this book. This book has been praised by many Hindu and Goddess
devotees. It is a living story and one full of inspiration for all of us who love and revere the Goddess......Jai Ma, Kali Jaya!
I give this book 5 stars.

This book is about the temple of Kali and its history. For information on Kali Herself, there are better sources. The sections on the Goddess' myths and attributes are okay, but I do not care for the lengthy excerpts quoted from Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets - I mean, first of all if I wanted this I would read Walker's work; secondly they are rife with misinformed conjecture presented as fact.

Excerpts from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, serve to inform the book's most charming elements and what are in essence its central subjects: the lives of Kali's famous devotees, especially Ramakrishna; the history of the Dakshineswar temple; and the temple's daily routine and festival observances, as witnessed and experienced first-hand by the author herself. These aspects of the work really took me to the temple and allowed me to envision and even commune with these saintly and lively children of Ma Kali.

If Ms. Harding had focused on and refined these aspects of her work, I would have rated this a five-star book.

This book is extremely well written. Her descriptions are excellent. I wish I had read the book before going to the temple. This is not an easily read book. It's more like an academic course, only one penned by a professor that can really write. By the time you finish this book you feel like you have really learned something- not just about Kali but about India and about mythology and religion as well. Because of the subject matter and stark cover photo, this is the kind of book that will have strangers come up to you and ask what you're reading. Because of it's well written and well researched content- you are actualyy going to be able to tell them. Take it Starbuck's and you'll meet someone gauranteed.

A lot of books on Kali come necessarily from a scholarly perspective that is deeply rooted in patriarchal presuppositions (as this is the nature of most of the research that's been done). However, Hardings book delves into the heart of Kali, creating balance in the approach. This book is a thorough and thoughtful introduction to her history and worship, and demystifies her symbolism and terrible imagery, reminding us that Kali is seen both as the fierce destroyer AND the benevolent, all-encompassing, compassionate mother.

I highly recommend this to those who are new to Kali, as it's very accessible for Westerners.

Reading this book felt like an adventure. The author took me with her on her trip to India and was able to transmit her devotion, her love and her experiences in remarkable detail. It showed me how to experience Kali and to love her as much as I'm sure the author does.

This is a wonderfull book and I can give it 5 stars without even finishing it. I am using it for a research paper I am writing for an Indian philosophy class at University Nevada Las Vegas. It has been helpful and intriguing. Thank you.

While this book clearly shows that Ms. Harding has much love for Ma, it also clearly shows that Ms. Harding still has a long way to go in her studies. This book is a rambling cacaphony of the author's personal experiences, intermingled with lots of quotes from other books. Indeed, it is a good thing Ms. Harding included the quotes from other books, as her personal commentary is quite deluded and in some cases, downright racist towards Vedic people. If you are interested in knowing more of Ma, you would do better to purchase books by Sri Ramakrishna or Dr. Robert Svoboda. Except for the quotes included herein from other books, I found this book for the most part useless. However, it does show, if nothing else, that Ms. Harding has a great deal of love for Ma - definitely though more study is in order for Ms. Harding. I would have rated this book NO STARS but that option is apparently not available.

this book has beautiful stories and myths in it on the great mother goddess Kali,it tells wonderful stories on Sri Ramakrishna and the darkshineswar temple.