KALI MA OF CULCUTTA
The Prime seat of Sakteism

THE SAKTHI UPASANA AND SIGNIFICANCE

As the intellectual luminosity of the Bengalees is of a special kind and stands apart form its counter-parts, its contribution to the nation's reputation is quite outstanding, and many great sons of Bengal achieved remarkable progress in religion. Their innovative dynamism and reformatory zeal established several hoary institutions and noble traditions. Among them, Sakti puja is highly laudable and it is knitting the class and mass into an unbroken entity. It has a great past and originated in the distant past. Tantric literature envisages a complete picture of Sakti Upasana right from the Vedic age. Many eminent Tantrikas have realised ten Mahavidyas, like Kali, Tara, Shorashi, Bhuvaneswari, Bharavi, Chinna Masta, Dhumavati, Bangala, Mantangi and Kamala. And of them Kali is supreme. The word Sakti is 'derived from the root "sakt' means thereby 'to be able to do'. Sakti normally stands for female, but it is neither male or female, but only a force and manifests in rational form. Mother worship tantamounts to worship of the highest divinity as the MOTHER-Sri Mata. In Sakti worship, Siva is impersonal and inactive. But Siva and Sakti are interrelated as prakrit and purusha and they are inseparable. They are two in one, and not one in two forms. Sakti is really para tatwa-Satchi dananda swarupini. Siva Sakti in his ultimate state is calm and motionless. Both together, they become active only in one form. Motion and action start then, manifesting in vibration. It is described in their literature that Kali is of eight kinds, like Dakshina Kali, Bhadra Kali etc.

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