Puja means flower offering, or worship with flowers. On November 2, 2013, in correspondence with Kali Puja in West Bengal and the festival of Diwali, and in alignment with Samhain and the Day of the Dead, SHARANYA kaula (...

Bhaktashankari brings to her work transforming the space for Maa the open-hearted love of a devotee enriched by Her blessings. Each candle, image, cloth, flower and foodstuff is specially prepared and presented with love ...

Twice each year, SHARANYA kaula transform the Cultural Integration Fellowship in San Francisco, creating a mandir (temple) for worship. In the fall and in correspondence with the festival of Diwali and Mahakali Puja in We...

Shiva, God of Destruction and consort of Maa Kali, is called to with his bija mantram, HRAUM. Devotees offer prayers and yellow flowers after invocations are chanted in Sanskrit and Rudra abhishekam is performed, the sacr...

South holds the power of fire, agni, and our invocation of this energy contains a call to passion, transformation, heat, the power of absorption and, as with all the directions, surrender.

Each quarter of the wheel of the year is recognized in our mandir, an altar to the directions set up to hold the sacred container for our work, bounded by Earth (Prithvi), Air (Vayu), Fire (Agni), Water (Apas) and Sky/Eth...

Preparations are done, and we ready to open the temple doors to those gathered outside awaiting Her embrace. It is almost 6pm and darkness has settled on the mandir. The temple floor is cool and the air is warm as music b...

For this year’s Kali Puja Festival, thirteen initiates gathered to create the temple and perform puja for Maa and share their love of Her with 38 seekers in community. Thirteen initiates donned black and red, the co...

At the center of our circle is a wishing well, charged water from the seven sacred rivers imbued with the energies of our internal nadis, channels, of pranashakti, Her vital essence within. At the peak of our devotions, w...

As the darkness creeps in just before we welcome community to our celebration, we light our altar flames and ground ourselves in a personal sankalpa, our intention, for the night. Feeling the temple awaken through this si...