Kali in Bengali Lives: Narratives of Religious Experience

Suchitra Samanta

doi:10.5771/9781793646347

Summary

In Kali in Bengali Lives, Suchitra Samanta examines Bengalis’ personal narratives of Kali devotion in the Bhakti tradition. These personal experiences, including miraculous encounters, reflect on broader understandings of divine power. Where the revelatory experience has long been validated in Indian epistemology, the devotees’ own interpretive framework provides continuity within a paradigm of devotion and of the miraculous experience as intuitive insight (anubhuti) into a larger truth. Through these unique insights, the miraculous experience is felt in its emotional power, remembered, and reflected upon. The narratives speak to how the meaning of a religious figure, Kali, becomes personally significant and ultimately transformative of the devotee’s self.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2021
Copyright year: 2021
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-4633-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-4634-7
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 144
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Preface No access
4. Acknowledgments No access
1. Notes No access
1. 1. Kali’s History No access
  2. Western Perspectives on Kali No access
  3. Notes No access
2. 1. “Veridical Knowledge” in Indian philosophical Thought No access
  2. Bhakti, Anubhuti, Man, Smrti No access
  3. Kali Devotees on Anubhuti, Sakti/sakti, and Bhakti: An Evening’s Conversation No access
  4. Notes No access
3. 1. Experience, Recollection, and Narrative No access
  2. Narrative, “Nonrational” Experience, and the Miraculous No access
  3. Notes No access
1. 1. Accounts Related to Initiation (Diksa) No access
  2. Sachin No access
  3. Experiences of the Guru’s Healing Powers No access
  4. Posthumous Connections with the Guru No access
  5. Notes No access
2. 1. Notes No access
3. 1. Gurus Who Guide and Validate Bani’s Journey No access
  2. Coming to Kali No access
  3. Notes No access
4. 1. Experiences in Proximity to Other Devotees No access
  2. Experiences Related to Food Offerings and Family Well-Being No access
  3. Ritual Differences within a Marriage, Possible Experiences No access
  4. Devotion, Casually No access
  5. The Experience as Impetus to Ritual No access
  6. From Religiosity to Atheism No access
  7. Notes No access
5. 1. Individual Responsibility for Community “Well-being” No access
  2. Atmabali, Offering of the Self, And Manater Bali, Vow-Related Offering No access
  3. Calamity Related to Personal Morality No access
  4. Notes No access
1. Note No access
1. Notes No access
1. Deities No access
2. Concepts and Objects Used in Worship No access
3. Texts No access
1. Bengali Sources No access
Index No access Pages 141 - 142
About the Author No access Pages 143 - 144