Baba Bali Mata

Baba Bali Mata

Baba Bali Mata (or Bahu Bali Mata) is the presiding Deity of Jammu. In the scheme of the Devi's presented at this site She is considered to be the senior of the others who are often referred to as the seven sisters. Baba Bali Mata is MahaKali. Large crowds come for her darshan on TuesdHer temple is in the Bahu Fort overlooking the scenic Jammu Tavi River. The name Babhe refers to the Baba or sadhu that stays at the entrance of the fort.
I have been to this temple several times and am eager to get back to it. Around 200 years ago a natural stone pindi appeared at this location. That is the pindi that is in the temple and worshipped as Mahakali. The king at that time built a temple at the site and gave the temple to his head priest. The priest's descendents still perform the worship there. The king used to go every Tue. to worship at the temple.
The priest told me the following story: During the Indian-Pakistan war jets were sent from Pakistan to destroy the Jammu Tavi bridge. When they arrived in the area all they saw was water and a girl in a red dress with a red flag. They could not find any city or bridge and so they turned back. The people believe it was Babhe Bali Mata that performed this miracle and that She was the girl the pilots saw. Since then Her popularity has continued to grow even more.
Around 100 years ago sacrificial offerings of goats were stopped. The priests believed that Mahakali is an all-powerful Goddess and does not need to have an animal slaughtered. Goats are still next to the temple but instead of killing them the devotees bath and feed them. If the goat shivers after the bath then they know the Goddess has accepted the offering.
Go on a yatra to the Baba Bali Mata Temple.
Jai Mata Di.

"Kali is Nature personified -- not necessarily the dark force of Nature, but all of Nature:
Mother Nature, as She dances upon the stage of Consciousness.
As all the qualities reside together, the three Gunas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas;
activity, desire and rest, Kali embodies the Three. However, She is more frequently associated with Tamas.
Tamas means darkness, but not necessarily in the sense of ignorance.
There is a darkness which exposes the light. Kali as the personification of Tamas, is the Energy of Wisdom."
Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Devi Mandir, 1989

In the first section of the Devi Mahatmya, Brahma, the creator, extolls the Goddess Mahamaya, Mahakali who is within the form of Lord Vishnu. Goddess Mahamaya and Mahakali within the form of Lord Vishnu are the names given to Baba Bali Mata. To help understand Her I include that prayer here.

"The Markandeya Purana"
By F. Eden Pargiter

"The Devi Mahatmya"

Brahma spoke:
Thou art Svaha, thou art Svadha;
Thou inded art Vashatkara, thou hast sound for thy soul;
Thou art the nectar of the gods, the two eternal letters,
Thou existest having the three-fold matras for they soul
Thou existest half a matra in duration yet eternal;
Thou indeed canst not be uttered specifically; thou art Savitri,
Thou art the divine mother sublime.

By thee indeed everything is maintained,
by thee this world is created,
by thee it is protected,
O goddess and thou dost always consume it at the end.
At its emanation thou didst take the form of creation,
and in protecting it thou hast the form of permanence,
and at the end of this world thou wilt have the form of contraction,
O thou who containest the world!

You art the Great Knowledge, the Great Illusion,
the Great Vigor, the Great Memory, and the Great Delusion,
the Lady, the Great Goddess, the great demon.
And thou art the original source of the universe, the exciting cause of the three qualities;
thou art the Night of the world's destruction, the Great Night and the Night of delusion, terrible!
Thou art Good Fortune, thou art Queen, thou art Modesty;
thou art Intelligence characterized by perception;
thou art Shame, Nourishment, and Contentment, Tranquility and Patience also.
Thou art terrible, armed with sword, with spear, with club and with discus, with conch
with bow and having as weapons arrows, slings and an iron mace.
Thou art gentle yea more than gentle, exceedingly beautiful to those who are wholly gentle;
thou art indeed beyond the highest and the lowest, Queen supreme!
And whatever or wherever a thing is, whether good or bad, thou art the energy which all that possesses,
O thou who art the soul of everything.

Can I extol thee more than this? By thee, who art such, he indeed who created the world,
who protects the world, who consumes the world, is brought under the dominion of sleep.
Who is able here to extol thee? Since Vishnu, I and Shiva have been made by thee to assume bodies,
who then may be powerful enough to extol thee?
Being such do thou O goddess, lauded thus, bewitch these two unassailable Asuras, Madhu and Kaitabha,
with thy exalted powers and let the imperishable master of the world be lightly brought back to consciousness,
and let him rouse up his intelligence to slay these two great Asuras!

In the "Yoga Visishta Ramayan" Rishi Visishta gives a discourse to his disciple, Lord Rama. Visishta speaks about Lord Shiva as pure consciousness and Kali/Mahamayi as shakti, the dynamic energy of that pure consiousness.

"Visishta's Yoga"
Swami Venkatesananda

Since she (Goddess Kali/Mahamaya) and Shiva have space as their real form, their bodies have a blue color. Space is their flesh, bones, everything. They exist in space as space. Her dance with different gestures, etc., symbolizes the creation, decay and death of all beings. She is conceived of as having limbs because she creates the worlds by the movement of her power inherent in her own limbs, as it were. But one cannot by any means apprehend her limbs nor can her real nature be described.