Can We Have Photo of Kali at Home and Office and Worship Her?

I have lot of problems in my life. Lot of health issues and financial issues. My mother was very worried that someone has done black magic on us to stop our development and that is why lot of problems were coming one after another. I knew that to remove any negative energy it is best to have a photo of kali at home and office. So I bought one and had one photo at my home and one in my office. Now one friend comes into my office and says one should not worship kali and must not have kali photo. I said it is not such. But my friend phoned to his astrologer and told me ask on the phone whether kali should be worshipped and photo should be kept at office or not? I took the phone and said that I am running a small office and going to keep kali photo in the office and at my home. Before I could complete the sentence he said "no, no" don't worship kali and not to keep photo in the office. I am really confused. Please help me. I am from Chennai and I must say I had to search a lot of place and there was no kali photo sold. I had to download an image from google and take a print out. Why is kali worship not so common? Anything wrong with me or is it with the people?

Vannakkam: Kali worship is common, just not in Chennai. There is always a regional effect on our religion, so it varies a lot from place to place. If you were living in Bengal, it would be more common.

As far as I know, there are no restrictions like the kind you speak of. It is just your friend's personal bias. Sometimes people think they know a lot more than they do. Another way to remove negative energy is to leave a tray of water out, at your shrine, but then throw it out at the end of every day, and replace it with fresh water.

Aum namasivaya

Namaste

Very good question, mostly we act blindly.

Few forms of divinity require high level of cleanliness than the usual norms. For eg, a new born is more prone to diseases than a healthy adult. Another example is pox which is believed as the advent of Goddess Parvathi.

So in that context people advice us not to keep idols of few Deva/Devi (s) in home as we can not practice the required amount cleanliness. This principle/fact in due course of time has taken different shapes and wordings.

My advise, if you can keep the surrounding including you clean go for it else listen to the advise given by your friend. There is a science behind our age old customs and it is important to understand them than blindly following or discarding it. Please keep in mind, no God or Goddess will hurt us because of their invocation. But we should keep in mind, although without Sun life can not exist, we can not keep watching Sun for a long time. Sun should not be blamed for the after effects, isn't it? :)
Cleanliness does not mean physical Cleanliness alone.

There is variance from area to area, country to country, region to region.

My path has roots to Varanasi (Kashi), my Guru who lived for a long time had his own personal Kali Murthi, he had path from the Dashanami Sampradaya. I am a Saiva with strong Shakta roots and influence from my wife who has strong roots to Bengal or Oriya Shaktism. Due to this I also have strong influence from the Bengali side to Kali Maa and have been a regular at Kali Ghat even though I am a “Westerner”. However, the Klan murti is sitting Shiva in meditation.

This Guru, while having Kali Murti in his “residence”, did teach that Kali can be anywhere, anytime, you can have an image but also do not think Kali image is something anyone can treat exactly the same. He also emphasized the level of each inner soul in relation to Kali in image. For him, Kali even appeared as a actual young girl in form, albeit also distant but actual physical form. For him, he could offer even the lowest of things including even if considered “dirty” yet it is not dirty. But that is only an acquired ability, you may not be able to do this without consequence since you do not know how to control yourself as far as will in conjunction with power. He also emphasized to not give OVERLY “superstitious” beliefs such as “you cannot have Kali picture in office” (this would be an example).

I understand, yes, there is variance in ideation. But ideation is simply ideas. It is not enlightenment.
All I can advise is what I am taught or have been told, this can range from authorities to well-known Hindu relatives. An example of some things I was told which I later found to actually not be true is, “you cannot keep a Murti of Nataraj in your home”. Even my Saiva-Shakta wife believed this, in fact it was her side of the family where she got this notion. But it is simply not true, I had absolute authority confirm this is nonsense idea.

So here is my understanding. There is a difference between placing a Kali picture or a Kali murti as Ishta and actually DOING PUJA TO KALI. In fact, if you are a layperson, you should only do “devotional” type “puja” but NOT an actual puja as would a pujari in Kali Ghat.

Only a VERY special person can be a Kali pujari. This is decided by means of tradition and family who is the Kali Pujari.

But you CAN keep a picture of Kali in your office. As far as my path, there is no problem at all with this.

Yes you can. I have Kali on my office wall.

We have kali mata picture in our home but it is advised to keep mata outside. build a small shrine outside of the home and keep there. people keep in wooden sheds and I have seen people keep in a structure normally used as a dog house. not a used one obviously. that becomes her temple.