origin and evolution of mother goddess-mahamaya.

[sambya]

personification of god as a female form has been one of the earliest religious concepts of the world.right since the origin of mankind humans have worshipped the supreme as their mother.but nowhere did it assume a form of a seperate religion as in indian subcontinent.shakti worship here dates back even before indus valley civilization.inhabitants of the middle east had a patriarchal form of society and hence it was very natural for them to personify god as father.but in india the society before the aryans were mainly matriarchal in nature.naturally its inhabitants also viewed god as their mother or mistress.however it was in the puranas that we find a more solidified concept of the goddess.

 

EVOLUTION

 

shkati wortship resulted from an amalgamation of the powerfull non-aryan cults and vedic rituals.by the time of the puranas it had aqquired a complete hindu character.but the concept of shakti differed largely in various sects.

 

'MAYA' AS ACCORDING TO ADVAITINS

 

an advaitin lays stress on the concept of maya.but this maya is not the like the term mahamaya as understood by the shaktas.an advaitin believes that the maya is the primary phenomenon that prohibits us from realising the supreme unity in all things.in fact in advaita , maya does not have a seperate existence at all.after the highest realization according to advaitic standards(nirvikalpa) one can see that maya never existed.it is actually nothing but bhrama(mistake).so the advaitists understands maya to be a temporary state of mind in which one is prevented to see the reality.maya is not the supreme in this philosophy.brahman is the supreme unity here.

 

'MAYA' AS ACCORDING TO VAISHNAVS

 

vaishnavs generally stick to the names vishnumaya or yogamaya.in their thought, maya occupies a more personalised position.she is the goddess and shakti of vishnu.but she is not elevated above vishnu in most cases.a vaishnav believes that maya is the other name of ignorance.mayadevi casts her illision over the mortals.thus here her importance is brought down to the level of avidyashakti.she is the one who binds ,but cannot liberate without vishnu's permission.

 

MAYA IN A SHAKTA PERSPECTIVE.

 

shaktas view maya as the supreme phenomenon.she is the ultimate unity and sustainer and reedemer of the world.she occupies the same position that brahman enjoys in advaita and vishnu in vaishnav doctrines.they lay stress on the word mahamaya.shakta shastra maintains that the goddess can both illusion and liberate the masses.thus here all the previous concepts are joined together to create a very broad concept of maya.

 

 

thus it can be seen how the three different sects understand the term 'maya' in completely three different perspectives.

 

SHAKTA SADHANA IN BENGAL

 

Although shakti worship was prevalent all over the country it was in bengal that it achieved the highest perfection.right since the prehistoric times bengal had been the seat of mother worship.almost all non aryans tribes used to worship the primitive mother goddess.when aryans came their vedic deities like saraswati,ratri and sandhya got merged with these goddesses and formed the base of todays shakta dharma.

 

with the advent of chaintanya dev in bengal there begun a socio religious renaissance that changed the bengali society for ever.it was at this time that bhakti yoga started to dominate the shakta thought.numerous sadhaks like raja ramakrishna,kamalkanta,ramprasad etc began to write songs of love adressed to kali

 

the vaishnava padavali era originated at the time of jayadeva and ended in late muslim period.shakta padavali era started only 350 to 400 years ago and is still continuing.these numerous songs describes the toughest of philosophies in simplest of languages.in one such song ramprasad writes-

 

" my dear mother is flying thousands and thousands

of kites all over the sky of material existence.the kites(jiva)

are all bound with strings of maya which are hardened using

a paste of sada ripu(kama krodha........matsarya) . only once in a while some lucky kite gets torn off and fies off to the free realms.seeing this my mother becomes happy and starts clapping her hands in joy. "

 

TOLTRANCE INSHAKTA DHARMA

 

unlike vaishnav faith ystems most shaktas are very tolerant of other religions.many shadaks have written songs requesting devi to appear in the form of krishna.this may have been possible because of the predominant advaita thought in shakta philosophy , where all other dieties are viewed as the manifestations of a single central phenomenon(shakti in this case)

 

 

after advent of ramakrishna paramahamsa the shakta veiw reached the pinnacle of its development and fame.infact the culmination of three thousand years of shakti worship was perhaps in ramakrishna.one may not feel it but the shakta faith is growing strongly in current age.numerous songs and poems are being written about this divine play between mother and child. one can safely say that shakta religion is currently in its most important stage of developement.