I revere that Kālī who sits in the ring of fire, her laughter echoing through the fuming charnel grounds.
I revere that Kālī who sits atop cold and rotting corpses, drinking and making merry on rum and gore.
I revere that Kālī who has worn bones and flayed skin, hiding nakedness with nakedness, staring through undeceived bloodshot eyes.
I revere that Kālī who prowls the burning ghats at night, dancing amidst the howls and screams, laughing at the wails of the living.
I revere that Kālī who has bathed in blood, and now baptized in death, does not fear mortality anymore.
My salutations to that Kālī, that harbinger of fearlessness, whose mirth and amusement destroys the death that haunts the living, and scatters the living that grieve the dead.
My salutations to that Kālī who has severed bodies and rained blood, and set afire and looted and destroyed, and now sits freed and victorious upon her inviolable throne.
My salutations to that Kālī who has found salvation for the living in the great dances of death.
Bardhaman, Āṣāḍha Kṛṣṇā Ṣaṣṭhī,
The 11th of June in 2020.
Kali was a horrific deity for civilized Christian Europeans. When Swami Vivekananda initiated Sister Nivedita, once he spoke about Kali in similar way, almost equating her with horror of death, devastation etc.
I find an echo of that, where people with samsara bondage would feel Her like this of Shmashan Kali.
However, Bengali tradition of Shyama Sangeet depicts her as more motherly. It seems that she has accepted motherhood to this wretched Bengali clan, fulfilling the prayer of Kamalakanta, Ramprasad, Raja Ramakrishna, and latest by Ramakrishna.