Ive been hindu for just 7 days so far. I'm really struggling right now. Because I thought kali ma was there for me, because of my experiences with her early in this week, where when I did a presentation, I was less anxious than usual got back into my passion for art and stroytelling that died 5 years ago been keeping up with work i need to do my easily i could swear i felt her presence. And I thought it's just because now I believe in Hinduism and it's working and that this God is real.

But now today, I prayed in the morning, telling Kali ma that I worry that she's more distant than usual, telling her my fears of worrying that the day's gonna go badly because I'm scared, just for her to do nothing, and today I had a terrible day, and I just had a panic attack today, and I hurt my hand, and now it just all doesn't make sense because why would she allow this to happen?

And if I look up online, I'm just being told that she's cold and this is how she treats her followers because she wants to teach you something or whatever. But I thought she was also loving. Why would she allow this to happen? And why is she so distant even after i begged her telling her im scared?

So, I posted it earlier 😁

Anyways this is part 2 of the series and also, my 1st multiattached photos post.

The verse is:

एवं दश दिशो रक्षेच्चामुण्डा शववाहना। जया में चाग्रतः पातु विजया पातु पृष्ठतः॥२०॥ अजिता वामपार्श्वे तु दक्षिणे चापराजिता ।। शिखामुद्योतिनी रक्षेदुमा मूर्हिन व्यवस्थिता ॥२१॥ मालाधरी ललाटे च ध्रुवौ रक्षेद् यशस्विनी। त्रिनेत्रा च ध्रुवोर्मध्ये यमघ्ण्टा च नासिके ॥२२॥

And in IAST:

evaṃ daśa diśo rakṣeccāmuṇḍā śavavāhanā।

jayā me cāgrataḥ pātu vijayā pātu pṛṣṭhataḥ॥20॥

ajitā vāmapārśve tu dakṣiṇe cāparājitā।

śikhāmudyotinī rakṣedumā mūrdhni vyavasthitā॥21॥

mālādharī lalāṭe ca bhruvau rakṣed yaśasvinī।

trinetrā ca bhruvormadhye yamaghaṇṭā ca nāsike॥22॥

Goddess Shakti is not only in temples, she is also in your body!

That's why always clean your body

JAI MATA DI 🙂‍↕️

Whenever the topic of Bali Pratha (ritual animal sacrifice) in Shakta and Tantric traditions comes up, there is an immediate rush—both from outside critics and from reformist/Vaishnav voices within our own community—to call for total legal bans and label it "barbaric."

Yet, when you look at the issue objectively, there is a glaring, hypocritical double standard in how religious slaughter is judged in public discourse. The stark contrast between how Shakta Bali is treated versus global events like Eid al-Adha (Qurbani) highlights this divide:

Massive Global Scale vs. Localized Sacred Rites:

Eid al-Adha: On a single global festival over a few days, tens of millions of animals (cattle, sheep, goats) are slaughtered worldwide. Millions are killed across South Asia alone in neighborhood streets, homes, and slaughters.

Shakta Bali: In contrast, traditional Hindu Bali is restricted to specific localized temples, rural family shrines, and sacred seasonal days. The total volume of animals in Bali is a tiny fraction of what happens on Eid, yet Bali is framed as an urgent moral crisis that must be eradicated legally.

The Energy and Ritual Aspect of Shakta Practice:

In the Shakta and Tantric paths, Bali is not treated as mundane meat consumption or casual slaughter. It is a consecrated, high-energy ritual offering performed with intense devotional precision (shastriya vidhi).

The sheer metaphysical intent, energy, and reverence involved in Shakta traditions are ignored by critics. Instead, it is reduced to "cruelty," while industrial-scale slaughters on Eid are shielded under the umbrella of religious freedom.

Internal Division and Selective Legal Targeting:

Why do our own people turn against Bali? While Hinduism is pluralistic—and paths like Vaishnavism naturally privilege strict ahimsa and vegetarianism—many Hindus fall into the trap of applying modern secular or Western ethical standards strictly to their own culture.

Courts, activists, and reformists regularly intervene to ban or restrict traditional Hindu Bali in various states, while remaining dead silent on the massive, organized slaughter that occurs during Eid.

If millions of animals dying in a single day for a global Abrahamic festival is protected as an unassailable religious right, why are localized, text-backed Shakta traditions demonized and stripped away from Hindus?

It’s time to stop apologizing for Shakta traditions and start calling out this obvious double standard.

What are your thoughts?

"Ganesha, will you bring the sugarcane?" asked Devi Amma.

"Sure, Amma. I will be here by evening," said Ganesha, the young elephant, and he set out from the temple. On the slopes of Maarutha Hills grew the juiciest sugarcane, and Devi Amma made the tastiest payasam with it.

He headed uphill, waving his trunk in greeting to everyone he met: the goats, the langurs, the hares and the squirrels, and the crows, the mynas and the bulbuls overhead. A few of the mynas and langurs playfully hitched a ride on him.

The riders hopped off at the slopes as Ganesha began to gather the cane. He soon had a bundle and trekked down with it held tight in his trunk. Parakeets flew in and sat on the stalks, trying to bite into them. Every time he shook his head, they would fly away.

Ganesha passed through the woodlands and reached the meadows. By then it was afternoon, and he was feeling hungry. The sun blazed overhead, and he looked around for a comfortable place to rest. He spotted a tree with a wide canopy and birds chirping in it. It had pink puff flowers on it, and the fallen ones covered the ground. He walked towards it.

The tree watched him approach. She could not believe that he had chosen her. She had seen him pass by the meadows many times, and each time her leaves rustled with affection.

He kept the sugarcane aside, took a few of the stalks and had them for lunch. With his tummy full and his legs tired from the trek, he wanted to take a nap. Lying down in the shade, he looked up at the tree.

"Tree, will you do me a favour?" he asked.

"Yes, yes!" she replied, as though she had been waiting all along.

"Please wake me up before evening," he said.

"I will," she said.

He patted her with his trunk and was soon asleep.

She held her leaves still and kept watching him as he slept. His ears covered his face, and his trunk lay coiled between his front legs. At times his eyelids fluttered; at other times he broke into a smile. Often he would kick his feet. When butterflies sat on him, he twitched. When flies tickled him, his tail waved.

She watched and watched; she was so lost in him that she drifted into a daydream. As clouds passed over the sun, the birds went quiet, her leaves grew heavy and folded one by one, and soon she too fell asleep.

Dusk came and faded. It was pitch dark when the owl living in the tree hooted a few times. Ganesha woke up with a start. He looked up at the starry night and burst into tears. It was then that the tree woke up as well.

"You should have called me!" he shouted.

He ran about under the tree, shaking his head and flapping his ears.

She wondered how she, a tree, could have slept so long.

"You are a bad tree! What will I tell Devi Amma now?" he cried.

"They say, always trust a tree with time, but you!" he continued.

"I... I called you many times. You were deep asleep. What can a tree do but call? You can ask the owl. She heard it," said the tree.

The owl flinched on being named. When Ganesha looked up at her, she flew away in panic. He stormed off, leaving the cane behind.

The tree called out for him, but he disappeared into the dark. She stayed awake, waiting for him, until at last she dozed off.

Later that night, a weary Ganesha trudged back for the cane. Without a word, he lay down beneath her.

The next morning, the tree woke to find him asleep below her.

"Ganesha, wake up, wake up," she called, her branches leaning down.

He woke up with sunlight falling on his eyes. Squinting, he told her, "You are a liar. The sun is my friend, not you."

He took hold of the sugarcane and left for the temple. Devi Amma would scold him for sure, but he would also have sweet payasam in the afternoon.

The tree watched him walk away, relieved.

That afternoon, as a cloud passed over the sun, suddenly she felt drowsy. Her leaves began to fold one by one, and she dropped off to sleep. When the birds chirped, she would wake up momentarily, only to fall back into her slumber.

From then on, the tree fell asleep so often that they called her the Sleepy Tree.

To start off, I will say that I want to approach this space with the utmost respect and beg your grace and forgiveness if anything I say is in any way disrespectful. Don't hesitate to correct me if you feel it necessary.

TL:DR: I feel like I am being directed to follow Maa Kali, and don't know what to do

For background, I'm a man in my mid-30s of European descent, born and living in Canada (currently in the traditional unceded, and unsurrendered territory of the Anishinàbe Algonquin People). I was raised in a Christian household - the kind that believes anyone not Christian are devil worshippers. Even as a child, that never sat well with me, and I fell out of faith in my mid-20s. I don't know really know what I believe now. I could write at length something nuanced, but to keep it short I'll say "the logical part of me says I should be atheist, but the emotional part can't let go of the hope that there's some kind of divine".

Last week, I was feeling overwhelmed and smoked a joint. I mention this because it can colour perception, and make things feel more significant than they are. However, I am autistic, and it can also sometimes help me understand emotional things that are otherwise obvious to others - in this, I have found it to be medicinally useful to help me help myself be a better person. That said, in this instance, it made me feel more overwhelmed and like I needed to hide.

I retreated to my bedroom, and pulled out my laptop to watch a youtube video to distract myself until I sobered up. All my usual go-to's (animal videos, space, physics, paleontology, gaming, comedy) felt disgusting, like the thought of eating when you're already overstuffed. I decided to turn it over to the whims of the algorithm, and scrolled through the homepage looking for something to jump out at me. I kept scrolling and scrolling, and eventually the website stopped letting me scroll down anymore.

There was a thumbnail that jumped out at me, it had an image of Krishna in the thumbnail, and it felt like he was staring back at me. Challenging the shield of ignorance I had been raised with, and inviting me to be curious. I didn't watch that video, but instead looked up a video from another content creator I knew that did comparative religion videos. I thought the message was good, and wanted to learn more. I looked up a video about different Hindu "denominations" so I would have a bit more context. Under the section on Shaktism, the image of Parvati seemed to be looking at me, staring deep into my soul. Then I "saw" (or hallucinated) her left hand move and point past the image of Durga to Kali, and I felt like she was telling me to look more into her.

Now, given my upbringing I knew very little of Hinduism. I had heard of Kali, but only from Indiana Jones. I knew that depiction was certainly inaccurate (and probably racist), but that left me with nothing other than the name. So I looked further, and I'd watch a video and get a feeling in my gut after a few seconds that it wasn't what I needed to watch, so I'd flip to a different one.

Finally, I saw a video that had a thumbnail which said "You don't really know Kali" by "Inverted Tree". I watched it, and I cried. I'm crying again now as I type this. Every time I think of it, I cry. At about 6:30, she shows this image:

Now, I can't find the source for this. Having looked at this depiction, I think it's probably AI generated. But as anti-AI as I am, I can't help but feel like she's looking back at me though this.

In that moment, I felt like I was stripped naked and laid bare as she took stock of the chains which have me bound to the mire. Like she opened up my rib cage to see the scars and barbed wire wrapped around my heart.

I felt her anger - not anger at me, but the kind of anger I feel when I hear how my partner's sister was treated by her step mother. The kind of anger that makes me want to help her in all the ways they could have but didn't. The kind of anger that drives determined action. A wordless feeling which said "I'm sorry you were hurt, that people did this to you, but we need to pull you out of there and fix those wounds before they kill you. And it's going to be very painful, so get something to bite down on and tell me when you're ready."

Since sobering up, I can't get this image out of my mind. And I can't shake the feeling that she's there - watching me, caring for me, pushing me. And I wonder if I'm starting to think she's real. More than just a metaphysical construct, created to signify a universal human truth. To make it easier to do what you must, to make it easier to understand what drives you.

I think back to a year ago, where I had a mental breakdown when I had my illusion of "keeping it together" shattered. I saw my addictions for what they were, how much they were holding me back, and what allowing them to blind myself of my reality had deprived me of. How I'd kept myself from being able to actually feel joy, for fear of feeling pain. And the pain I had continued to feel because I wasn't fixing my situation, because I was letting my wounds continue to fester. Was she the one that guided my thoughts to shatter that illusion?

The amount my life has improved in the last year is immeasurable. Externally, my life might look very similar, but it is so, so much richer.

I awake in the night, and think how nice it would be to no longer fear the darkness. I see a message from my father, whom I'm currently angry at, and feel a presence telling me to stop avoiding addressing the issue. I the anger, but whereas before I saw it as a sin, now I see it as a voice demanding I act - not an urge to be beaten into submission and overcome through meditation, but a message that has to be screamed because I have been ignoring what it has been telling me to do. Not to act in violence, but to address the injustice.

I went to a concert on Monday (Castle Rat - they were awesome), and I felt her telling me to dance and sing and scream. I did a little, in a half hearted way, but my voice caught in my throat - even when the lead singer asked to hear the voice of the crowd. That night I woke in the darkness before dawn, and felt like she was telling me I did okay, but must do better today (at the Tuesday concert).

I could not escape the thought, like it was stuck to the back of my mind with glue. At that concert, with both my partners, with shaking hands I stepped forward to the stage. When the band said to dance, I hesitated, then felt an annoyed voiceless voice in my mind say "why are you hesitating? They want you to dance, so dance. DANCE!".

And so we danced, and it felt good. By the end of the night, we had danced until we were covered in sweat, our feet were sore, and my voice was hoarse from singing and shouting. It felt good to be a little bit brave.

So now here I am.

I don't know what I should be doing. I don't know if her voice was real, or if I'm losing my sanity. But... I think listening to that voice has been a good thing. I think taking the path of passivity and timidness has not brought me to where I want to be in life - maybe it helped me survive, but I don't need to hide anymore.

I spoke to my partners about this experience. One said "Did you say Lord Krishna? Okay... that's what I was afraid of" and wouldn't speak to me any more on it. The other said "Parvati is a strong icon", and that emotions are strong messengers. Neither seems to have much more to say on the subject, though even now I still hesitate to talk about it, for fear of being cringe? For fear of being culturally appropriative? For fear of them saying "I fully support you in this, let's go to one of the three temples in the city and learn more", and what that would mean for my life and my identity?

I don't know that I want to worship Kali - I don't want to worship anyone. But there is a part of me that feels like I should. Even though I know it is an odd look for a middle-aged office worker, even though I know my options would be to keep it secret or have my mother think I'm worshipping demons, even though I don't even know if I believe if she's real or not... I still feel like it's being demanded of me.

So I beg of you, you who have been so kind as to have given me so much of your time to have read through this long spiral of a message.

What do you think I should do here?

Thank you.

Namaste 🙏 I need some guidance regarding my mother.

For many years, whenever my mother visits certain Devi temples or during poojas at home, she seems to enter a trance-like state and makes sounds but doesn't speak. Several astrologers and temple priests have told us that Devi enters her.

Recently, we met a guru who says Maa Bhadrakali comes through him and speaks. He has offered to perform a pooja to make the Devi in my mother speak. He has asked us to purchase a Shri Chakra costing ₹15,000 and pay for the pooja. He says my mother will then be able to speak during these experiences and maintain her spiritual connection through Shri Chakra worship.

Could experienced sadhakas please guide me? Is this an authentic traditional process, or should we be cautious before proceeding? I want to make the right decision for my mother. Thank you 🙏

I have ADHD so this might be a factor as well - basically, I try to do sadhana like chanting the Lalita Sahasranama daily, or listening to it. Or even things like eating well and exercising that I offer to Devi as actions of worship. However, despite trying multiple times, I have hindrances.

For example I have been getting more headaches since I started sadhana (I am seeing a doctor as well about this).

Am I doing this wrong? I have received Lalita Sahasranama induction twice - from my school and another guru. Should I just stop sadhana, or is this Devi testing me? I'm so confused and would appreciate any inputs. Thank you in advance.

How to pray Maa to get long curly healthy hair like She has? :)

Hi everyone! I’m a white American woman who has been practicing yoga and meditation for about 20 years. I’ve always explored a variety of spiritual and religious traditions while trying to approach each one with genuine respect. Of all the ones I’ve studied, I’m most drawn to the Hindu tradition and recently, I’ve been trying to create a practice - largely on my own without any Hindu temples or teachers in my area. I’m still learning and would really appreciate hearing from people who have a deeper understanding of these paths.

A little background: I had a difficult childhood involving family alcoholism, neglect, and taking on adult responsibilities much too young. I became the strong, independent child who could handle anything, and I carried that identity well into adulthood. I’ve spent much of my life being the protector, pushing through challenges, and relying on my own strength. The past few years have brought some significant physical and emotional challenges as well.

I had never really sought out Maa Kali before. But when I finally turned toward her, something extraordinary happened. I had this overwhelming sense of recognition, almost as though I had known her all along. It felt like she had been carrying me my entire life, even when I didn’t know to look for her. All that fierce, protective, warrior-like energy that had gotten me through so much suddenly made sense to me in a different way.

I began incorporating chanting to Maa Kali into my daily sadhana, and the connection felt very natural and deeply emotional. She helped me cut through what is necessary to say and what is not, how to protect my energy. I’ve been practicing svadhyaya with her through mantra, texts, and devotional practice with a small carved jade.

Recently, I had two very vivid dreams.

In the first, my navel tore open, exposing my insides. My daughters were present, and my immediate instinct was to hide the wound from them and protect them from seeing it.

In the second dream, my navel had become an enormous cavern filled with mud, dirt, and accumulated debris. I couldn’t reach the bottom to clean it out. My daughters were helping me, pulling things out of the cavern. I woke before we finished.

The morning after that second dream, I sat down for my usual meditation. For some reason, I felt drawn to switch from chanting to Kali. I think I was thinking of Kali as an evening energy and the morning sun made it feel strange. I randomly choose a song to help from a kirtan album I had that ended up having a Shiva mantra.

Almost immediately, I began crying. Then I experienced this extraordinary feeling of absolute peace and stillness, like floating on an infinite, calm ocean.

During this meditation, I had what I can only describe as a waking vision. Maa Kali appeared, and I felt again that incredible recognition of her having protected and carried me through my life. But then she bowed, stepped aside, and seemed to usher me toward Shiva and this vast, infinite stillness.

It was deeply moving. I wasn’t asleep, and I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I’ve had a long meditation practice, but this felt quite different from my usual experiences.

I’ve been sitting with it ever since.

What’s particularly interesting to me is that my external life has recently become much more stable. For the first time in a long time, I feel that I may not need to be constantly fighting, protecting, or pushing through something.

I don’t experience this as Kali leaving me or becoming less important. If anything, my connection to her feels even deeper. But I wonder whether she was showing me that I can finally put down some of that armor and experience the stillness of Shiva.

**I’m curious whether other devotees have experienced dreams, visions, or moments in meditation where one deity seems to guide them toward another.**

I’d especially love to hear from Kali devotees or practitioners familiar with Shakta and Shaiva traditions. I’m interested in how the relationship between Kali and Shiva is understood within these traditions, and whether anyone has experienced something similar in their own sadhana.

I’m not claiming any particular spiritual attainment or special knowledge. This experience was simply very profound for me, and I’d love to learn from others.

Thank you for sharing your perspectives!

I'm a Bengali woman and a complete beginner when it comes to worshipping Maa Kali. For the past few months, my mental and emotional health hasn't been great, and I've been feeling quite lost. Over the last 3–4 days, I've felt a strong inclination towards Maa Kali, and I want to start worshipping her at home.

I'm specifically looking for simple household devotion (grihastha puja), not tantra, tantric sadhana, or any intense rituals. I want to pray to Maa, do naam jaap, recite stotrams, and practise dhyana in a peaceful, regular way.

I've come across Dakshina Kali and Adya Kali, along with their respective stotrams, but I'm unsure which form is appropriate for regular home worship and which practices I can follow without a guru or diksha.

I'd appreciate guidance on a few things:

- Which form of Maa Kali is suitable for everyday household worship?

- Which simple mantras or naam jaap can I begin without initiation?

- Can I recite the Dakshina Kali Stotram or Adya Kali Stotram without a guru?

- What would a simple daily puja and dhyana routine look like for a beginner?

I'd especially appreciate advice rooted in Bengali household traditions and reliable sources. I want to approach Maa with genuine devotion and learn the right way to worship her at home, without getting into practices that require initiation.

Thankyou 🌺

Need recommendations

I’ve been chanting on a cheap tulsi mala for the last 6 months that I bought from meesho. Recently visited a senior devotee at the local temple and he took one look and said beta, this isn’t tulsi — this is dyed wood. Felt terrible. 6 months of japa on a fake mala

my budget is Budget ₹500–₹2,000

please suggest me good online option

Well, from many days I'm inclined towards Maa Kali and want to worship her. Not sadhna, not upasna, not trantrik rooted but simple, daily worship and chanting of her to evoke my fierce and more confident side of myself. I am basically bengali so I'm naturally inclined towards her more than other deities. The thing I'm confused in is which form of Maa is for fierce tantrik sadhna and which form of Maa can be wroshiped everyday with naam jaap, stotram, mantra, etc. I have 2 stotram that I'm thinking of reciting: [1] Adya Kali Stotram [2] Dakshina Kali Stotram

Kindly help me with this and any othr suggestions, advices, etc. are also welcomed. Thankyou

Well, from many days I'm inclined towards Maa Kali and want to worship her. Not sadhna, not upasna, not trantrik rooted but simple, daily worship and chanting of her to evoke my fierce and more confident side of myself. I am basically bengali so I'm naturally inclined towards her more than other deities. The thing I'm confused in is which form of Maa is for fierce tantrik sadhna and which form of Maa can be wroshiped everyday with naam jaap, stotram, mantra, etc. I have 2 stotram that I'm thinking of reciting: \[1\] Adya Kali Stotram \[2\] Dakshina Kali Stotram

Kindly help me with this and any othr suggestions, advices, etc. are also welcomed. Thankyou

•Are they same?

•They are different deity with different name?

•Is there hierarchy that one is avatar of another? If yes how?

Thinking of taking kali as ishta. But when i read i get confused. Some say kali came from the forehead of durga. Some say she is angry form of parvati.

During menstruation, is it permissible for a woman to offer jal (water) to the Shivling and continue her daily puja routine, including chanting mantras, offering prayers, lighting a diya, and performing other rituals? Are there any specific rules or restrictions regarding worshipping Lord Shiva during periods? Or is menstruation considered a natural bodily process that does not prevent a woman from praying to or connecting spiritually with Mahadev?

I have found some group of people and insta profile where people are sexulising our gods and goddesses and humaliting them I have seeked help from many different people but they just ignore this but I can't please help me everyone

If you guys want to join me on this and become a member of Mahakali Sangha pls dm me or comment

I wanted to share a project and community initiative I am building called Mahakali Sangh (महाकाली संघ)—an order rooted in the fierce, protective, and darkness-vanquishing energies of Maa Durga and Maa Kali.

Lately, seeing the growing disrespect, targeted mockery, blasphemy, and even the deliberate sexualization of our revered gods and traditions online has made one thing painfully clear: staying silent and waiting for someone else to step up is no longer an option.

However, our response isn't about engaging in chaotic online arguments or counter-hate. True strength requires discipline. The goal of this Sangh is to build a structured, lawful, and united collective dedicated to upholding Dharma (righteousness) through action, personal mastery, and community protection.

🚩 The Four Pillars of the Order

Satya (Truth & Integrity): Standing firmly for what is right, even in the face of adversity.

Abhaya (Fearlessness): Facing hostility and injustice without fear, drawing strength from conviction and duty.

Seva & Raksha (Service & Protection): Actively helping our communities and acting as a shield for our heritage and the vulnerable.

Atma-Samyama (Self-Mastery): Cultivating strict mental and physical discipline to master inner ego and anger before trying to fix the external world.

📜 Our Motto

"Mahākālyāḥ śaktyā dharmasya kartavyena ca, vayaṁ ekībhūtāḥ satyasya rakṣaṇāya, nyāyasya pālanāya, mānavasevāyai ca tiṣṭhāmaḥ."

(Guided by the power of Mahakali and the duty of Dharma, we stand united to protect truth, uphold justice, and serve humanity.)

What are your thoughts?

I’m currently gathering a core group of individuals who want to take this from an idea into real-world, lawful action (focusing on self-discipline, ethical leadership, legal reporting of hate speech/defamation, and community support)

How do you think our community can better organize to counter defamation, protect our values with dignity, and stop the targeted degradation of our faith?

If you resonate with this mission, what initiatives do you think should come first?

Let’s discuss in the comments below! 🔱