Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess by Shambhavi Chopra

"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.”

Dear All,

i bought Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess by Shambhavi Chopra at the New Delhi Airport on January 7, 2009 on my way back to Canada. Earlier I had bought Life After Death: The Burden Of Proof by Deepak Chopra at the Montreal Airport on my way to India.

Both books make excellent reading and lay the foundation of faith, especially concerning the Divine Feminine who has emerged from within with the message of the Resurrection and life eternal. That is why this quote make so much sense:

"Scholars, lacking inner experience, approach Kali with their own psychological, sociological and cultural preconceptions that fail to recognize her spiritual energy, beauty and majesty.”

Even Shambhavi Chopra, the author of Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess, pales in comparison as far as inner experience is compared with Shri Adi Shakti: The Kingdom Of God. And if we compare the decades of enlightenment by Her incarnation Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Her message of the Resurrection, Her revelations that The Mother is entrenched in all Holy Scriptures, any book will easily pale into insignificance as none can include and explain the diverse topics of various Holy Scriptures. This fact cannot be disputed as the Bible and Quran demand precise eschatological manifestations and Sure Signs beyond any human manipulation, events and revelations that can only be triggered by the Divine! That is why we need not budge a single inch or compromise our conscience to accommodate any religious group as none will be ever able to challenge it, all the more over the years as we add ever more evidence of the Great Mother.

Shambhavi Chopra has produced a great book which will go a long way to provide evidence of the Divine Mother who exists within all humans, the Divine Feminine whom Kash, Arwinder and Lalita have met and meditated with thousands of times from 1993-2007.

Appended below is the foreword by David Frawley on Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess. i will also be posting praise for Deepak Chopra's Life After Death: The Burden Of Proof.

regards to all,

jagbir




Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess
Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess
by Shambhavi Chopra
Foreword by David Frawley (www.vedanet.com)

"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


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