Week 221: The thinker behind Kali Puja,HPN Caste Workshop ,Aesthetic
03/10/2024 - Modern Hindu Content
Welcome to Eternal Path! This week we feature: a biography of Krishnananda Agamavagisha, a caste workshop from the Hindu Parents Network , and an aesthetic!
Person Highlight: Krishnananda Agamavagisha
Krishnananda Agamavagisha, the Shakta Tantra philosopher, preacher, and guru is our person highlight of the week! He was born in either 1650 or 1653 in Nabadwip in a pious Kulin Brahmin family as Krishnananda Bhattacharya to Acharya Mahesh Bhattacharya. Interestingly, his brother was a very staunch Vaishnavite.
He was the author of the Brihat Tantrasara, a seminal text on the Shakta tradition of Hinduism, covering the 10 Goddesses of the Dasamahavidya Tantric tradition (Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi , Chhinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala). We will cover this text in a future issue, but many have argued that it is the most useful text for understanding how to practice the Shakta Tantra traditions within Hinduism.
Our Bengali readers will likely be familiar with the tradition of Kali Puja, celebrated in Bengal and surrounding areas around the time that many other Hindus are celebrating Diwali. The story is that the Goddess Kali appeared to Krishnananda in a dream after he prayed to see her. In the dream, Ma Kali instructed him to make an image of the first person he saw. Pradip Bhattacharya notes the story of the first form of Dakshina Kali below:
Once he had the proper murti, he began the process of distilling down a number of esoteric tantric traditions, and mainstreaming them into a practice stripped of its darker elements, thereby creating the first Kali Puja.
Krishnananda had a strong educational impact, with other famous Hindu gurus and scholars such as Ramprasad Sen (his direct student) and later even Ramakrishna Paramahansa taking inspiration from him.
Event Highlight: HPN Caste Workshop
Via CoHNA - Tuesday March 19th, 2024 at 8pm EST
Register for the Workshop here: https://www.hinduparentsnetwork.org/hpn-caste/
Aesthetic: Painting of Goddess Kali
Via @svetavaraha on X