brahmaproktā kālīstutiḥ

Thirty-seven verses from the fifth chapter of the Kalika Purana, spoken by Brahma, and their subject is Yoganidra — the sleep in which Vishnu lies while Madhu and Kaitabha rise, addressed here as a portion of the Goddess and as eternal in her own right. The opening verses hold her between opposites: she is knowledge and ignorance both, pure, unsupported, undisturbed, bearer of the world, and her form is the grossest of things and the finest at once. From her, one verse says, arises the world that goes by the name of pradhana. The later verses turn concrete — she is the thought and the fame of ascetics and is joined with the eight limbs of yoga; she carries sword and spear and discus; her form is terrible.