śrī kālī mātā kī āratī

A Hindi arati whose refrain sets a scene rather than praising: hear this auspicious service, my goddess — we stand at your door with folded hands. The offerings are named as they are laid down, betel leaf and areca, a flag and a coconut, brought and set before the flame. What follows asks in the plainest terms, that the mother of the world hear and not delay, and that the storehouses of the good be filled. A verse in the middle gives her the weapons and the deed at once: sword and skull-bowl and trident in her hands, and Raktabija reduced to ash. Twenty-five short lines with the refrain returning between them, and it ends where such songs end, asking that mother Kali make things well.