Encountering Mother Kali

In 1905, during his travels around Baroda, Aurobindo
visited a Goddess Kali temple in Chandod on the banks of
the Narmada River. There, according to his biography, he
experienced a palpable living presence of Kali manifesting
before him, a life-altering experience he captured in the
following poem.

The Stone Goddess
From sculptured limbs the Godhead looked at me,
A living Presence deathless and divine,
A Form that harbored all infinity.
The great World-Mother and Her mighty will
Inhabited the earth’s abysmal sleep,
Voiceless, omnipotent, inscrutable,
Mute in the desert and the sky and deep.
Now veiled with mind She dwells and speaks no word,
Voiceless, inscrutable, omniscient,
Hiding until our soul has seen, has heard
The secret of Her strange embodiment,
One in the worshiper and the immobile shape,
A beauty and mystery flesh nor stone can drape.