Kali Mandir Laguna Beach

[ShivaFan]

http://WWW.KALIMANDIR.ORG

Namaste

Kali Mandir 20371 Sun Valley Dr, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 (Laguna Beach, California)

I have never been to this temple, though I have obviously been to Laguna Beach California many times. I only found out about this Kali temple when I discovered a translation of the Uddhava Gita by an author who is a monk of the Saraswati branch of the Dasnami Vedantic order, he appears to be a Westerner but is dressed as a renounced Saiva (The Uddhava Gita "The Final Teachings of Krishna", Translated by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati, Ulysses Press, Berkeley CA 2002, I have a posting on this in the "Scriptures" section).

Visiting the web link above, I find this temple seems to be very active and is attended by both Westerners (probably predominately) and Indian born Hindus. It was founded by Eliszabeth Usha Harding in 1993 (according to the website) who is the author of “Kali, The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar”. I do not know anything about her, but by the name it appears she never took a Hindu name, not sure – but I am pretty sure I have seen her book in book stores in the Hindu sections.

I am curious if anyone knows anything about this Laguna Beach temple, or those involved. Their Parampara is stated by means of this same Swami Ambikananda Saraswati (who appears to me to be Caucasian or “Westerner”) to come though this Swami as a disciple of the late Sri Haradhan Chakraboti and Swami Aparananda Puri of the Ramakrishna Order and Swami Bhajanananda is his Guru. They claim disciplic succession going back to Adi Shankaracharya and the Dasnami Sannyasis, and specifically back to Dasnami Naga Sannyasi.

Let me know if you have any information about this temple. Below is a picture of Kali at this temple. I may visit this temple the next time I am in LA area.

Om Namah Sivaya

[Twilightdance]

I do not know anything about her, but by the name it appears she never took a Hindu name

Usha is a Hindu enough name

Yes, seems like related to Ramakrishna Mission & Dakshineswar Kali temple.

[ShivaFan]

Namaste Believer

Great points. Hope I didn’t imply Hindus should follow or care what other religions do. I was just trying to guess why this Kali temple would have a link to an article about the Lady of Guadalupe (I think perhaps they consider any popular Goddess as an aspect of Devi? – don’t know, just guessing) …

But whatever the case may be, as I said having noticed some of the things you noted, I can see that they are not what I first thought.

Other point – Bengalis. NEVER feel bad for Bengalis! Believe me, I know plenty of which I love them all, and they are the “artists” and “poets” of the world, they love Devi a lot, they tend to be very sentimental, but with all that said they are tougher than nails and can be mean as a Bengal tiger if they have to. So if they want to have their own Kali Temple in LB, that’s no problem, but like the old Bengali saying goes “even though a Bengali sweet is not warm, it’s still delicious, it’s as sweet as a Bengali and will warm your heart”. So even if the Kali Temple might seem a little cold, just put some Bengalis in there and it will warm up real fast.

I know – half of what I just said makes no sense at all. But that is because I just ate a Bengali sweet and decided to go to bed early.

Om Namah Sivaya

[Believer]

Namaste,

Namaste Believer

Great points.

What points?
Thanks to the moderator(s), there is no record of what you are trying to give me credit for.
Mentioning, or celebrating the Guy's mother's name/birthday is just appeasement of partial converts. It has nothing to do with thinking of her as a Devi at par with Kali Maa.

Pranam.

[ShivaFan]

Namaste Believer

Whoops! Mine is gone too, but probably for good reason. Anyway, that's ok - I also agree that appeasement of partial converts isn't the way to go. I also have a lot to learn, and I learn a lot from you and others such as Yajvan. I hope you have a great day always, and keep me on top of my own development and I will try to stay on message.

Om Namah Sivaya