Rajarajeshwari Ammi!---Allah and Amma!

[Guest guest]

Dear Aatmabandhus,

 

One muslim friend of mine used to like the concept of shakti and shaktha very much.He loved to visit the temple in Nanganallur.

 

(My sweet Mother Rajarajeshwari)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islam and the Divine Feminine

 

 

 

So often has Islam been portrayed as an exclusively masculine, patriarchal faith that many have never suspected the central importance of the Feminine in Islam and would be astonished to realize that it has been there from the beginning. Perhaps in part due to the metaphysical interiority of the Feminine, this aspect of Islam has lived a largely hidden existence — but it is no less vital for that. In recent years there has been much discussion and controversy over how to reshape Christianity to include the Feminine on the divine level, but in Islam that has never been an issue, for the feminine element in Islam has always been present, especially in Sufism.

Although both masculine and feminine equally have their origin in the Divine, I would like to take a special look at the feminine in Islam to help redress the balance because the feminine side of Islam has been mostly overlooked so far. Moreover, in the sources of Islam and in the Sufi tradition growing from there, we find a distinct, explicit preference for the feminine aspect of Allah, especially the nature of ultimate Divine Reality as essentially feminine.

 

 

 

 

The Polarity of Divine Majesty and Beauty

 

 

 

 

The distinction between male and female is not just a biological accident but a very profound element of the human state. It goes back from the biological through the psychological and the spiritual to the Divine Reality itself. On the highest level of the Divine Reality, Allah is perfectly One. The root of the duality between the masculine and feminine is found in the divine nature itself. Allah's Essence transcends all duality, all relationality, so it is beyond male or female. But even on the level of the Divine Nature, there are the roots of the masculine and the feminine. On the highest level, Allah is at once Absolute and Infinite. These two attributes are the supreme archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. "Masculine" and "feminine" are not simply equivalents of the human male and female, since all men and women have elements of both masculinity and femininity within them. That Allah is Absolute is the principle of

masculinity, and that Allah is Infinite is the principle of femininity. Allah has revealed Himself in the Qur’ân in the names of rigor and mercy, known as the names of Majesty (jalâl) and Beauty (jamâl). The Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving are names of mercy or Beauty, while the Enumerator and the Just are names of rigor or Majesty. On the level of the names are the principles of the masculine and the feminine: the names of Majesty are the prototype of masculinity, while the names of Beauty are the prototype of femininity.

 

Vis-à-vis the world, Allah is Creator. This divine function is on the masculine side, representing the aspects of action, force, movement, rigor; Allah as Lawgiver. But then there is the uncreating aspect of Allah. Allah is not exhausted by His creation of the world. Allah is more than the creator of the world: al-Khâliq, the Creator, is only one of the divine names. The Divine Reality did not completely participate in the act of creation. Allah is Infinite and the world is finite. The non-creating aspect of Allah corresponds to the Divine Femininity. It is this to which Sufi poetry so often refers in the feminine. The images of the beautiful Beloved are referring to the metacosmic aspect of the Divine, not the creating aspect.

That is why Ibn al-‘Arabî says Allah can be referred to as both huwa (He) and hiya (She).

 

 

 

 

Feminine Terms of Divinity

 

 

 

 

Some of the key terms associated with the Divine are in the feminine gender in Arabic. Three of them are essential to understand the feminine dimension in Islam. One of Allah's names is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, "Wisdom is precious," you could repeat the feminine pronoun: al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally "Wisdom, she is precious." This has resonance with the forgotten Christian mystical tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia, associated with the Virgin Mary. The second term is rahmah (mercy), related to the most important name of God after Allâh: al-Rahmân, the All-Merciful, related to the word for 'womb', rahim, the source of life. The source of life is the Divine Mercy and the feminine aspect of it is very evident. The third, the most remarkable of all, is the word for the Divine Essence itself:

al-Dhât, which is also feminine. In that the Divine Essence is Beyond-Being, unmanifest and transcending all qualities, it may be understood as Feminine. The renowned Sufi master Najm al-Din Kubra wrote of the Dhât as the "Mother of the divine attributes." According to a commentary on Ibn al-‘Arabî's Fusûs al-hikam, a hadith of Prophet Muhammad "gave priority to the true femininity that belongs to the Essence." Ibn al-‘Arabî himself wrote that "I sometimes employ the feminine pronoun in addressing Allah, keeping in view the Essence."

On this metaphysical plane, femininity corresponds to interiority and masculinity to manifestation. In the traditional Islamic city, beauty is interiorized. All human beings contain both elements within themselves, in their souls and bodies and psyches. The perfection of the human state, al-insân al-kâmil, means the perfection of both masculine and feminine qualities together, the prototype of both male and female. In Sufism, men and women perform exactly the same rites and worship, so the perfection of human spirituality is equally accessible to men and women—unlike in Theravada Buddhism, in which a woman must be reborn as a man to attain nirvana.

 

 

 

 

Female Imagery of the Divine Beloved in Sufi Poetry

 

 

 

 

Sufi literature has the greatest discussion of femininity in Islam. Sufi stories have transformed ordinary love stories into the most sublime levels of meaning. The love story of Layla and Majnun is the best-known of all. It originated as a simple love story in Arabia, but Sufi literature elaborated it into the most beautiful love story ever put into Persian poetry. It symbolizes not only the love of man and woman in Allah, but the love of man for Allah. In these poems the heroine is elevated to symbolize the Divine Reality itself. The Divine Reality is spoken of in terms of female beauty. The hero goes in quest of the Divine, which is a masculine act. In contrast to Christian mysticism, in which God is actively masculine and the devotee is passively feminine, Sufi love stories depict the Beloved as a woman who is a Presence waiting in stillness while the hero is in quest for her.

The name Laylá comes from the word layl meaning 'night'. Night represents the Unmanifest. In the Arabian desert, the night is a reality without boundaries: forms are dissolved, no sand dunes or camels or anything else visible, all is formless, nothing but darkness. This is direct symbolism of the unmanifested aspect of the Divine Nature, Allah as Unmanifest. Blackness absorbs all light, as it is above manifestation, so it symbolizes the Beyond-Being. In the poem, Layla was named for the blackness of her hair and the beauty of the night. By extension, it in fact refers to the beauty of the Divine Reality beyond this world, beyond the act of creation, and therefore the supreme goal that the Sufi seeks to reach. The name of Majnûn literally means 'crazy', but here it means someone not in an ordinary state of mind, symbolizing a person in quest of Allah. In this world in which most people forget Allah, the person who remembers

Him is considered crazy. As the male figure, Majnûn symbolizes the aspect of yearning and striving, going out in quest of Layla, while she is just sitting and combing her hair. The one who undertakes the journey, longing and crying for Layla, is the soul of the Sufi.

 

 

Allah as the Beloved in Sufi literature, the ma‘shûq, is always depicted with female iconography. Although Islam is aniconic and does not make images of Allah, verbal depiction exists. Sufi literature is replete with this imagery of our experience of Allah as the vision of the Beloved and union with the Beloved. An elaborate vocabulary developed in which every part of a woman's body, especially the face, symbolizes the Divine Reality. For example, the eyebrows are likened to a bow that shoots the arrow of the eye's glance, the arrow of the love of Allah into our hearts and makes us go beyond ourselves. Like the eyes of veiled women in traditional Islamic culture, where all you can see are their beautiful dark eyes: their whole vocabulary of love has to be expressed through a single glance. The ruby-red lips with their red color symbolize wine. Wine is used in Sufi literature to symbolize going beyond our ordinary consciousness into

union with the Divine. Although wine is forbidden in Islamic law, there will be pure wine to drink in Paradise. Since Sufis experience Paradise here in this world by having inner experience of the higher levels of reality, the wine of Paradise is accessible symbolically through Sufism. Here, the redness of this wine is conjoined with the color of a woman's lips. At the same time, the kiss of the lips is an erotic symbol of union and intimacy.

 

 

For example, Rumi said in the Masnavi:

Kings lick the earth whereof the fair are made; For God hath mingled in the dusty earth A draught of beauty from His choicest cup. 'Tis that, fond lover—not these lips of clay— Thou art kissing with a thousand ecstasies, Think, then, what it must be when undefiled!

 

 

 

 

The Vision of God in Woman

 

 

 

 

There was a question long debated in Islam: can we see Allah? The Prophet said in a hadith: "In Paradise the faithful will see Allah with the clarity with which you see the moon on the fourteenth night (the full moon)." Theologians debated what this could mean, but the Sufis have held that you can see Allah even in this world, through the "eye of the heart." al-Hallaj said in a poem: "ra’aytu rabbi bi-‘ayni qalbî" (I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart). The Sufis said that since you can have the experience of Paradise even in this world, you can have the vision (ru’yah) of Allah. They have always described this theophanic experience as the vision of a woman, the female figure as the object of ru’yah.

 

(In the beginning, God took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When he looked at the amalgam, it was a woman. ( A Persian Saying ))

The Tarjumân al-ashwâq, Ibn al-‘Arabî's collection of love poems composed after meeting the learned and beautiful Persian woman Nizam in Mecca, is filled with images pointing to the Divine Feminine. The last chapter in his book Fusûs al-hikam relates that man's supreme witnessing of Allah is in the form of the woman during the act of sexual union. The contemplation of Allah in woman is the highest form of contemplation possible:

As the Divine Reality is inaccessible in respect of the Essence, and there is contemplation only in a substance, the contemplation of God in women is the most intense and the most perfect; and the union which is the most intense (in the sensible order, which serves as support for this contemplation) is the conjugal act.

 

 

 

 

Allah as Mother

 

 

 

 

 

 

In contrast to Christianity, Islam has never depicted God as Father. Such a comparison is completely outside the boundaries of Islamic discourse. However, Muslims have always found it easy and natural to speak of the maternal qualities of Allah.

 

(Prophet Muhammed)

Prophet Muhammad was the first to use the example of mothers to illustrate Allah's mercy. After a battle, the Prophet and his Companions came upon a group of women and children. One woman had lost her child and was going around looking for him, her breasts flowing with milk. When she found her child, she joyfully put him to her breast and nursed him. The Prophet asked his Companions, "Do you think that this woman could throw her son in the fire?" They answered "No." He then said: "Allah is more merciful to His servants than this woman to her son." (From the hadith collection of al-Bukhari).

 

 

Another al-Bukhari hadith describes how during the Muslim conquest of Mecca a woman was running about in the hot sun, searching for her child. She found him, and clutched him to her breast, saying, "My son, my son!" The Prophet's Companions saw this, and wept. The Prophet was delighted to see their mercy, and said, "Do you wonder at this woman's mercy (rahmah) for her child? By Him in Whose hand is my soul, on the Day of Judgment, Allah shall show more rahmah toward His believing servant than this woman has shown to her son."

Jalal al-Din Rumi, in an amazing passage of the Masnavi on the Return to Allah, made reference to the story of the infant Moses and addressed Allah directly as "Mother":

On Resurrection Day, the sun and moon are released from service: and the eye beholds the Source of their radiance, then it discerns the permanent possession from the loan, and this passing caravan from the abiding home. If for a while a wet nurse is needed, Mother, return us to your breast. I don't want a nurse; my Mother is more fair. I am like Moses whose nurse and Mother were the same. (Masnavi, V:701)The Ka‘bah in Mecca, the very heart and pivot of the Islamic world, naturally is associated with feminine imagery, veiled in the black color of the Feminine Beyond-Being. Medieval writers and poets have often compared the holiest shrine of Islam to a veiled bride or a desired virgin, especially when on the pilgrimage. Their goal was to touch and kiss her beauty mark,

the black stone. Khaqani was the Persian poet who most frequently employed this symbolism in his pilgrim poems. But another look at the Ka‘bah can come from the root of its name in the Arabic language. Although the word ka‘bah itself means 'cube', it is very close to the word ku‘b meaning 'woman's breast'. This turns out to be an appropriate metaphor, as indeed the Ka‘bah nurtures with the milk of spiritual blessing all the faithful who come to touch and kiss it. Consider also the eminently feminine Yoni form of the Black Stone's setting.

The Prophet's Feminine SoulProphet Muhammad's soul had a deeply feminine nature within. When his Companions asked him whom he loved most in the whole world, he answered it was his wife, ‘Â’ishah. They were surprised to hear him announce love for a woman, as this was a new concept to them; they had been thinking in terms of the manly camaraderie between warriors. So they asked him which man he loved most. He answered Abû Bakr, ‘Â’ishah's father, a gentleman who was known for his sensitive personality. These answers confounded the Companions who until then had been brought up on patriarchal values. The Prophet was introducing reverence for the Feminine to them for the first time.

Surah 109 in the Qur’ân, al-Kawthar, gives an especially revealing look into the Prophet's feminine soul. It was revealed because his enemies had been taunting him that he had no sons, only daughters, while they had been given sons to perpetuate their patriarchal ways. Allah revealed this message of consolation to the Prophet: "We have given thee al-Kawthar ... surely the one who hates thee will be cut off (from progeny)." What is al-Kawthar? A sacred pool of life-giving water in Paradise—a profoundly feminine symbol. It represents a heavenly exaltation of the Feminine over patriarchal society. The name of Kawthar is derived from the same root as kathîr 'abundance', a quality of the supernal Infinite, the Divine Feminine.

 

 

 

 

Woman as Creator

 

 

 

One of the most outright declarations of the Divine Feminine in all Sufi literature is in Rumi's Masnavi. In a passage praising the feminine qualities of kindness and gentleness, a passage that is increasingly well-known in these days of the resurgent Feminine, he says:

Woman is the radiance of God, she is not your beloved. She is the Creator—you could say that she is not created. (Masnavi, I:2437)

 

 

 

 

The Primacy of the Feminine in Islam

 

 

 

Seen from the exterior, Islam may appear as a masculine-dominated faith. That is because its external aspects, such as the sacred law that governs the social order, are a manifestation of Allah's jalâl attributes. The hidden side of Islam, little known to the outside world, lives and breathes the values of interiority, the loving, forgiving, merciful Divine Presence that draws hearts closer, the infinite jamâl aspects of Allah's Beauty. The eternal primacy of Allah's feminine nature is established in a hadith qudsi: "My mercy precedes My wrath" (rahmatî sabaqat ghadabî).

Beyond all, the infinite eternal mystery of Allah's uncreated Essence is the Divine Feminine that is the ultimate spiritual Reality, calling to the souls who love Allah to come home and find perfect peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the interaction between Muslim, Hindu, and Christian traditions in South India, there was a borrowing of symbols and ideas, a frequently shared vocabulary, and an interweaving of motifs within a common sacred landscape. At the center of this interaction is the imagery associated with the ammans or goddesses of the region.

The most important figures within the religious landscape to all South Indians are "divinities of blood and power." In the Hindu tradition these are warrior goddesses (locally known as ammans) and warrior gods, both of whom are representations of "activated divine power." In the Muslim tradition, this power is represented by the Sufi warrior pîr, who is perceived in virtually the same terms as the blood-taking goddesses. Known under various names, such as Kali or Kaliamma, Durga or Mariamma, these goddesses have "an extra endowment" of Shakti, the female energy of the gods, and are associated with Siva.

 

The figure of the Muslim warrior pir, saint martyr, or shahîd was easily accepted into this tradition, associated as he was with the world of the forest, which in Hinduism is the world of Siva. The martial pir was not a divisive being in South Indian society. On the contrary, he was a figure of universal power with deep roots in the world of the Tamil goddess cults and power divinities. The dargâhs or shrines of Sufi saints were thus revered by both Hindus and Muslims. Tota Kuramma was a Muslim woman who after her death became an amman. (Wilber T. Elmore, Dravidian Gods in Modern Hinduism. University of Nebraska, 1915, p. 61-63)

The result is that Muslim and Hindu conceptions of sacred power are virtually identical. In the case of the warrior goddess, her power is Shakti, "the dynamic, awesome, and sacred power which is the goddess Durga-Kali." The power of the pir, on the other hand, is his barakat. The merging of these two concepts in South India is demonstrated, for example, in the biography of a Tamil pir, where the word used to describe his power is not barakat but Shakti. (See Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses, and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900. Cambridge University Press, 1989).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There have been Muslims who, from within their awareness of the Divine Feminine Shakti within Islam, have found in their hearts a response to Her manifestations in India.

The land of Bengal, where the population is descended from Dravidian ancestral stock (although they now speak an Indo-Aryan language), is a meeting place of Islam, Shaktism, and Tantrism. Muslim Bengali literature thus venerated the sacred women of Islam as manifestations of Shakti. Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah assumed the popular role of the mother in Bengal, where the cult of the Mother Goddess Shakti dominated religious life. Hayat Mahmud, at the beginning of his Jang Nama, asked to take the feet of Fatimah on his head. Saiyid Murtaza addressed Fatimah as "the mother of the world". Pagla Kanai, a Bengali Muslim poet in the nineteenth century, identified Fatimah as "Mother Tara" or "Mother Tarini" and prayed to her in this passage that blends Islam and Shaktism:

O mother, Pagla Kanai, who is of no consequencecries for you with every breath;please cast a little shadow of your feet on me;O Mother, take me to your feet.O Mother Tara, the redeemer of the world,O Mother Tarini, you shall appear as the savior of Muslimswhen Israfil will blow his horn,when everything will be reduced to water,and when your father's community will sink into water without a boat.Tara is a Tantric Shakti goddess (mahavidya), one of the best-loved manifestations of Shakti for Tantric practitioners, and as such she has appealed to the hearts of Bengali Muslims as much as the Prophet's beloved daughter Fatimah.

 

Pagla Kanai also compared Fatimah to the goddess Kali and considered her more virtuous:

Mother Kali is virtuous indeed—she stood on her husband's chest!Did my gracious mother (Fatimah) ever trample ‘Ali?(Quoted in The Islamic Syncretic Tradition in Bengal by Asim Roy, p. 94-95.)

 

Centuries ago, a Bengali Muslim named Saiyad Jafar was one among several Muslims who composed odes to Kali. Here is an example:

Why do you in such a plight call yourself merciful? (This is the Mother, the merciful, and in such a plight!) What wealth can you give me? You yourself have not even clothes. Would a woman choose nakedness if she had anything with which to clothe herself? Your husband is a beggar from his birth, your father is most cruel, There is not in the family of either any to be a benefactor. For Saiyad Jafar what wealth is there in your keeping? Hara's [shiva's] breast possesses your twin Feet.

(quoted in Kali, the Feminine Force by Ajit Mookerjee, p. 104)

A modern Bengali poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), followed the example of earlier poets like Saiyad Jafar in this ode to Kali, using a play on words since in Bengali kali means 'ink':

Oh mother of mine, There's ink on my hands, ink on my face. The neighbors laugh. My education amounts to nothing — I see "ShyaMa" in the letter M And Kali in the letter K, I dance and clap my hands.Only my tears multiplywhen my eyes lighton the rows of black marksin multiplication tables.I couldn't care less forthe alphabet's shades of soundsince your dark, lovely shadeisn't among them.But Mother, I can readall that you writeon leaves in the forest,on the waters of the sea,and in the ledger of the sky.Let them call me illiterate.

Many regard him as the greatest poetic force in Bengali literature after the world-famous Rabindranath Tagore. Both Nazrul Islam's poems and prose writing are exuberant with a certain force and energy, denouncing all social and religious bigotry and oppression.

Ayeshah Haleem wrote a study of the Lalitasahasranamam (The Thousand Names of the Goddess Lalita), published in the anthology In All Her Names: Explorations of the Feminine in Divinity, edited by Joseph Campbell and Charles Musès (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), p. 165-168. An excerpt from her study:

Srîmâtâ!—Glorious Mother! Srîmahârâjnî!—Glorious Queen! Srimatsimhâsaneswarî!—Glorious ruler on the Lioness Throne!

Thus begins, with her first three names, the uplifted Sanskrit hymn Lalitâsahasranâmam (The Thousand Names of the Goddess) in praise of the Goddess of our Universe, with forms of address describing her prime triplicity as Container, Measurer, and Matter of the Universe (all implied by the word Mâtâ; Queen of the Universe thereby, and Regulator of Time, the Devouring Lioness—and therefore of all cycles that eventually return to their starting point, making a whole.

Although her triple quality is all-encompassing, she is Manifestation itself (Mâyâ)—the Veil of Existence—in all its variety and detail, and thus she may be found through countless avenues. It is something of this multiplicity that the Thousand Names of Lalitâ seeks to convey, though the "thousand," in turn, stand for the thousands upon thousands of epithets that actually exist. The text now available, although a compilation of recent date, is without doubt derived from prototypes reaching back several millennia before Christ and eventually to Paleolithic times.

(Ayeshah Haleem, p. 165-166.)

 

 

 

Shahrukh Husain (a woman scholar and author, not the Hindi film actor) wrote a book titled The Goddess (Boston: Little, Brown, 1997) that was an exposition of the Divine Feminine in various traditions, and naturally included much attention to Indian manifestations of Sakti as well as women's spirituality.

The civilizations, such as ancient Sumeria, that have treated sex as a complex and pleasurable activity, which is also spiritually and physically beneficial (in much the same way as the Indian discipline of Yoga), have generally worshiped an active female godhead. In the rites of this deity, copulation is an act far more important than mere carnal gratification or the urge to preserve the species. This type of sexual ethos has inspired numerous erotic texts that were not intended merely to arouse, but formed part of a religious discourse which survives to the present day. These religious-erotic works include the Sumerian tableaux framed around Innana, Ugaritic ritual dramas, various Japanese texts including the Nihongi and Kojiki, and diverse Chinese medico-philosophical tracts. Perhaps the most famous of all the ancient erotic texts is Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra, written in India some time between the 3rd and

5th centuries AD.

The notion of sex as a sin is entirely absent from this work, as it is from most early erotic writings. The Kama Sutra contains frank and detailed discussions of the beauty of the female form, from the eye-lashes to the toes and, crucially, the yoni, which is said to resemble "the opening lotus bud", and "be perfumed like the lily that has newly burst". Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra inspired the authors of many of the Tantras, or texts sacred to the Asian mystical philosophies collectively called Tantrism, which date back to at least the 6th century AD. Tantrism perceives the universe a set of energy vibrations, emanating from the love-play of the god Shiva (who is passive and unknowable), and his active female principle Shakti. One of the "Five Practices" of Tantrism is kamakala dhyana, or meditations on the art of love. Here the devotee contemplates desire with the yoni of the Goddess as his object of worship.

 

Physical intercourse takes place in a number of Tantric traditions, as an allegory for the mystical union between the Goddess and the acolyte. In addition to assuring peace in the afterlife, this union brings jivanmukti, or liberation, while still in the world — a condition which is deemed desirable only in those religions with a powerful goddess-figure. [This is a characteristic feature of Sufism too. —PK] Sexual intercourse is believed to nullify all social barriers, unblocking the flow of energies essential to the divine creative function, which must be emulated by devotees of the Goddess in their rituals.

The Tantras and Kama Sutra elevate women by casting them in the mould of the Goddess. ... The Prophet Muhammad never advocated celibacy, and the Koran contains little evidence of the hatred of sex. [As a matter of fact, the Qur’ân positively proclaims the spiritual value of sacred sex. ] Even the Bible includes the sensual and erotic Song of Solomon....

 

 

 

 

 

The yoni

The inverted triangle, representing the vulva of the Goddess, appears to have been worshipped since prehistory. Evidence exists of its use in the Paleolithic era, as a pendant, a fertility symbol or a charm to ward off danger. It was emphasized on Venus-figurines and stylized in diverse forms of art and in the cuneiform scripts that comprise the earliest writing.

The genital triangle of the Goddess, widely known today by its Sanskrit name of yoni, and symbolized as a lotus in bloom, is the entry and exit to the world-womb. ...

The feature of the devouring vulva is strikingly absent from the dominant Indian images of yoni worship. Here the Goddess, generally personified by Devi or Kali, is shown lying on her back, legs splayed, or stands, legs apart, releasing her vaginal fluid, yoni-tattva a divine elixir which her worshippers take into their mouths.

An event from a mystical text called the Yoni-tantra tells how the god Brahma chopped pieces of the goddess Sati's corpse to lighten the burden of her husband Shiva as he carried her around in a state of grief. The vulva fell to earth in Kamakhya, Assam, and a temple was erected in its honour. Inside the temple, the yoni is represented by a cleft rock, kept moist by a natural underground spring which runs red with iron oxide once a year, at the onset of the monsoon. This annual "menstruation" is interpreted by worshippers as Nature's way of confirming the veneration of the female vulva and the processes to which it is subject, and as proof that the Goddess is the earth.

Yoni-like rock formations, caves and dolmens are worshipped all over India, and pilgrims will often crawl through the aperture, if it is large enough, and crawl back out again in an imitation of divine rebirth – the entry and return from the celestial womb. Where such structures do not exist naturally, they are constructed in the form of triangular ponds outside temples. The altars of Hindu temples often have red-stained or painted triangles attached to them to symbolize the yoni. Sometimes the yoni has a black, erect phallus in the middle. In this case it is known as the yoni-lingam, and symbolizes the union of the lord Shiva with his female principle, Shakti. At other times, the symbolic yoni is itself upright, particularly when placed directly opposite an altar.

 

 

The yoni-fluid is frequently confused with menstrual blood in the mystical texts of Tantric Hinduism, when it is called "blood-food". It is highly venerated, and is said to contain special potency for healing and magic. The yoni-fluid is also designated pushpa, or flower, because "like the blossom of the tree" it announces its potential to produce fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

The female essence

In 7th-century India, mystical texts called Tantras began to promulgate the idea of Shakti: raw, female energy, the primordial power without which the gods (in particular Shiva) could not function. One Tantra states "women are divinity; women are vital breath". For almost the first time since the establishment of Indo-European, male-centred systems of worship, the supremacy of the Female Divinity was reasserted.

According to the Tantric vision, Shakti emanates from the central, universal force or Great Power, defined as Mahakali, the Great Kali. She is the container of the cosmos, including the gods. One painting shows Shiva sitting in her skull, Vishnu at her breasts and Brahma at her vulva. In addition to believing that the Goddess is the essential, universal energy who activates and protects the male divinities with her prodigious strength, many Tantras also define the Great Goddess as Mahavidya — Great Wisdom.

Women have increasingly turned to Shakti as a positive and powerful female force to emulate and possess. Perhaps the most famous images of Shakti, in which she is mainly personified by Kali, are those of sexual supremacy. She appears with her foot on the chest of Shiva, her husband, as she whirls in her dance of destruction, or else she rides his body in sexual ecstasy. The sacred text, Kalika Purana, is full of fantastic tales of Kali's sexual combats with her spouse. It indicates her enjoyment of erotic games and her determination to assert her own will in this area. Her vulva, or yoni, is worshipped by the Shaktas (devotees of Shakti) as the Great Womb. ...

Although in many images Kali is portrayed as bloodthirsty in character and appearance, her activities were never wantonly destructive. On the contrary, at her most fearsome, her aim was to wipe out demonic forces before they could endanger the cosmic order. As a symbol of empowerment for women she is, therefore, the perfect model of female balance: powerful, active and assertive, rather than pointlessly aggressive. She returns to women the three virtues that have historically been denied to them in most cultures — strength (moral and physical); intellect and knowledge; and sexual sovereignty.

(p. 156-157.)

Muslim artist MF Husain is the most renowned contemporary artist in India. He recently directed the film Gaja Gamini to celebrate the beauty of Indian womanhood, the Eternal Feminine Shakti, and Her pervasive power throughout human existence. However there are some controversies over his nude paintings of the Hindu Goddesses.

Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander has explored the spiritual meaning of the Feminine in South Asia through her female images that blend veiled Muslim women and goddesses like Kali or Durga in the same figure. By depicting Shakti Goddess in her art, she says, "I am interested in the multidimensions of the female identity. The goddess could be a figure of power. It refers to empowerment definitely. And yet there is a certain sort of dark side to it too...."

One more Muslim contribution to Shaktism: Algerian-born DJ Cheb i Sabbah produced an album of Indian sacred songs, Shri Durga, invoking the Jagad Yoni, the Cosmic Womb. Featuring performances by Indian Muslim singers and musicians (Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan, Ustad Sharafat Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan, Sukhawat Ali Khan, Ustad Habib Khan, Aziz Herawi, and Ustad Tari Khan), it is a labor of love from a Muslim artist to the Divine All-Mother.

 

 

 

 

(Incidentally, note the resemblance of the name Kali Ma and the Islamic declaration of faith, central to the religion of Islam: kalima.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Shakti of Islam

 

 

 

 

 

The term shakti (or Sakti) means fundamentally the efficient energy of the Supreme Principle envisaged in itself or at a given ontological degree. For the Principle, the metacosmic Order, comprises degrees and modes in virtue of Universal Relativity, mâyâ, in which it reverberates.

In the domain of the spiritual life, the same term Shakti signifies the celestial energy that allows one to enter into contact with the Divinity, by means of the appropriate rites and on the basis of a traditional system. Essentially, this divine shakti aids and attracts: She aids as "Mother," and attracts as "Virgin"; Her aid descends upon us from Heaven, whereas Her attraction raises us toward Heaven. Thus the Shakti on the one hand confers a second birth, and on the other offers liberating graces.

In the Absolute, the Shakti is the aspect of Infinitude that coincides with the All-Possibility and gives rise to mâyâ, the universal and efficient Shakti. Infinitude is 'Beatitude' or 'Bliss', ânanda, which combines in âtma with sat, 'Being', and with cit, 'Consciousness' or 'Knowledge'. We could also say that the pole ânanda results from the poles sat and cit, just as union or experience results from the poles object ad subject; it is from this resultant that arises universal Unfolding—the creative mâyâ with its innumerable possibilities rendered effective.

As immanent and latent liberating power—or as potentiality of liberation—Shakti is called kuNDalini, 'Coiled up', because it is compared to a sleeping serpent; its awakening in the human microcosm is effected thanks to the yogic practices of tantrism. This means, from the standpoint of the nature of things or of universal spirituality, that the cosmic energy which liberates us is part of our very being, notwithstanding the graces that Shakti confers upon us, through mercy, "from without" and but for which there can be no Path. In any case, just as mahâshakti or parashakti—the 'supreme productive Energy'—equals the feminine aspect of brahman or âtma, so the kuNDalini gives rise to a divinification that makes it the equal of the creative mâyâ.

 

 

 

According to the Qur’ân, the names Allâh and Rahmân are quasi-equivalent: "Call Him Allâh or call Him Rahmân, to Him belong the most beautiful names"; which indicates the as it were Shaktic character of the name Rahmân. The name Rahîm, 'Merciful', in a way prolongs the name Rahmân, 'Gracious'; it prolongs it in view of the creatures, and in this sense it is taught that Allah, who is Rahmân in His Substance, is Rahîm in relation to creation. The great Shakti in Islam is the rahmah: it is the Goodness, Beauty, and Beatitude of Allah. (Note that in Arabic the word rahmah is derived from the root rahim, a word signifying 'womb', and this corroborates the interpretation of the rahmah as Divine Femininity, thus as mahâshakti.)

There are moreover some more specific forms of the Shakti, such as the sakînah, the 'appeasement' or the 'sweetness', and the barakah, the 'blessing' or the 'irradiation of sanctity', or again the 'protective energy'; all of which constitute so many images of the celestial Femininity, of the beneficent and saving Shakti.

 

From quite another point of view, it could be said that the Shaktic perspective is manifested in Islam by the sacral promotion of sexuality (this is indicated, paradoxically, by the veiling of women, which suggests mystery and sacralization). This character puts Islam consciously and abruptly in opposition to the exclusively sacrificial and ascetic perspective of Christianity, but brings it nearer to Shaktism and Tantrism. (Christianity, through contact with Sufism, also has a quasi-Tantric dimension, namely chivalry or courtly love, characterized by the cult of the "Lady" and by a no less particular devotion for the Virgin.) According to a hadith, "marriage is half the religion"; that is to say—by analogy—that the Shakti is the "prolongation" of the Divine Principle; mâyâ "prolongs" âtma. To know woman—insists Ibn al-‘Arabî—is to know oneself, and "Whoso knoweth his self, knoweth his Lord." Certainly, the human soul is one,

but the sexual polarity splits it, to a certain extent; now knowledge of the Absolute requires the primordial totality of the soul, for which sexual union is in principle the natural and immediate support, although obviously this totality can be realized outside the erotic perspective, as each of the sexes comprises the potentiality of the other; the human soul being one, precisely.

 

 

 

According to Ibn al-‘Arabî, hiya, 'She', is a divine Name like huwa, 'He'; but it does not follow that the word huwa is limited, for God is indivisible, and to say "He" is to say "She". It is however true that the Dhât, the divine 'Essence', is a feminine word, which—like the word Haqîqah—can refer to the superior aspect of femininity; according to this way of seeing things, which is precisely that of Hindu Shaktism, femininity is what surpasses the formal, the finite, the outward; it is synonymous with indetermination, illimitation, mystery, and thus evokes the "Spirit which giveth life" in relation to the "letter which killeth." That is to say that femininity in the superior sense comprises a liquefying, interiorizing, liberating power: it liberates from sterile hardnesses, from the dispersing outwardness of limiting and compressing forms. On the one hand, one can oppose feminine

sentimentality to masculine rationality—on the whole and without forgetting the relativity of things—but on the other hand, one also opposes to the reasoning of men the intuition of women; now it is this gift of intuition, in superior women above all, that explains and justifies in large part the mystical promotion of the Feminine; it is consequently in this sense that the Haqîqah, esoteric knowledge, may appear as Feminine.

The Prophet said of himself: "The Law (sharî‘ah) is what I say; the Path (Tarîqah) is what I do; and Knowledge (Haqîqah) is what I am." Now this third element, this "being," evokes a mystery of femininity in the sense that "being" transcends "thinking," represented by masculinity inasmuch as it may be conceived as lunar; woman offers happiness, not by her philosophy, but by her being. The crescent moon is so to speak "athirst" for plenitude, which is conceived as solar; thus the feminization of spiritual plenitude is partly explained by the metaphysics of men. (In German as in Arabic and Lithuanian, the word 'sun' is feminine and the word 'moon' is masculine, which evokes the perspective of matriarchy, of feminine priesthood, of women-prophetesses, and obviously of Shaktism. Tacitus made much of the respect ancient Germans had for women. And let us recall here the beatific function of the Valkyries, and also this

quasi-Tantric sentence from Goethe: "The Eternal Feminine draws us heavenward" [Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan]).

But there is more: the feminine character that one can discern in Wisdom (Hikmah, Sophia) results moreover from the fact that the concrete knowledge of God coincides with the love of God; this love, which to the extent it is sincere implies the virtues, is like the criterion of real knowledge. And it is in this sense that the saving Shakti is identified at once with Love and with Gnosis, with maHabbah and with Haqîqah.

In his Fusûs al-Hikam—in the chapter on Muhammad—Ibn al-‘Arabî develops a doctrine which on the whole is Shaktic and Tantric, by taking as his point of departure the famous hadith on women, perfume, and prayer: the "three things" that God "made lovable" to the Prophet. This symbolism signifies above all that for the male, woman occupies the center among the objects of love, whereas all the other things that are lovable—such as a garden, a piece of music, a glass of wine—are situated on the periphery, which is what the "perfumes" indicate—prayer represents the quintessential element—the relationship with the sovereign Good—which gives meaning to everything else. Now, according to Ibn al-‘Arabî, man, the male, loves woman as God loves man, the human being; for the whole loves its part, and the prototype loves its image; and this implies metaphysically and mystically the inverse movement, proceeding from the creature to the Creator

and from woman to man. To say love, is to say desire for union, and union is a relationship of reciprocity, whether it be between the sexes or between the human being and God.

In loving woman, man tends unconsciously toward the Infinite, and for that very reason he has to learn to do so consciously, by interiorizing and sublimizing the immediate object of his love; just as woman, in loving man, tends in reality toward the Absolute, with the same transpersonal virtualities.

In Sufi mysticism the Divine Presence, or God Himself as object of love or of nostalgia, is readily presented as a woman. To quote the Dîwân of Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawî: "I drew near to Layla's dwelling, when I heard her call. O would that sweet voice never fall silent! She favored me, drew me toward her, and took me into her precinct; then with words most intimate addressed me. She sat by me, then came closer, and raised the garment that veiled her from my gaze; she took me out of myself, amazed me with her beauty . . . She changed me and transfigured me, marked me with her special seal, pressed me to her, granted me a unique station and named me with her name." The "divine dimension" is called Layla, 'Night', for its a priori nonmanifested quality; this makes one think of the dark color of Parvati and of the Black Madonnas in Christian art.

Prophet Muhammad's love of women had the spiritual capacity to find concretely in Woman all the aspects of the Divine Femininity, from immanent Mercy to the infinitude of universal Possibility. The sensory experience that produces in the ordinary man an inflation of the ego, actualizes in the "deified" man an extinction in the Divine Self.

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers are loved for their perfume as well as for their beauty; now both these qualities relate to femininity and thus to the Shakti; beauty gladdens the heart and appeases it, and perfume makes one breathe, it evokes the limitlessness and purity of air; the "dilation of the breast," as one would say in Sufi mysticism.

Every virtuous or beautiful woman is in her way a manifestation of Shakti; and since virtue is a moral beauty, it can also be said that beauty is a physical virtue. The merit of this virtue devolves upon its Creator and, by participation, to the creature as well if she is morally and spiritually up to this gift; this is to say that beauty and virtue on the one hand pertain a priori to God, and on the other hand, for that very reason, demand that their spiritual implications be brought out by the creature.

The quality of Shakti in woman goes with the quality of deva in man. Each sex participates—or can participate—in the opposite sex. (This is shown graphically by that fundamental symbol that is the Chinese Yin-Yang, which in all its applications expresses the principle of compensating reciprocity.) The human quality is one and has priority over the sex, but without in the least abolishing the latter's capacities, functions, duties, and rights.

The character of deva and Shakti show that the human being is, by definition, a theophany and that one has no choice but to be so, any more than one could choose not to be Homo sapiens. The human vocation is to realize that which is man's reason for being: a projection of God and, therefore, a bridge between earth and Heaven; or a point of view allows God to see Himself starting from an other-than-Himself, even though this other, in the final analysis, can only be Himself, for God is known only through God.

— Excerpted from the essay "Mahashakti" by Frithjof Schuon, originally published in Racines de la condition humaine (Paris: La Table Ronde, 1990); English translation in Roots of the Human Condition (Bloomington: World Wisdom Books, 1991), p. 29-45.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we write shakti in the Arabic alphabet, the numerical value of the letters totals 730. (Shîn=300, kâf=20, tâ’=400, yâ’=10.) It is illuminating to compare shakti with the Arabic words that total 730:

dhakî 'intelligent' — this word comes from a root meaning the blazing up of a fire; Shakti is the Power that energizes the Intellect.

dhalla 'to be lowly, humble' — the Feminine is relegated to a lowly status in patriarchal systems.

kathîr 'abundant' — the Supreme Feminine is the Infinite, the divine All-Possibility, the Great Mother bringing forth all things in fruitful abundance.

khalaqa 'to create' — Shakti is the Power that engenders all creation.

khalîs 'pure' — as the divine Power, Shakti is ever pure and holy.

ladhdha 'to be sweet, pleasant, delightful' — Shakti brings transcendental delight and enjoyment to Her lovers.

nafakha 'to breathe' — from the yogic breath arises prâNa kuNDalinî, a form of kundalini shakti. (See Kundalini: The Energy of the Depths by Lilian Silburn, p. 64)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islam and Tantra

 

 

 

At first glance, Islam and Tantrism might seem an unlikely pair for comparison: the former known for its austere simplicity and uncompromising monotheism, the latter presenting a plethora of rituals, mantras, and deities. But looking beneath the surface at the underlying philosophical principles will reveal that the two share much in common.

Both Islam and Tantrism are spiritual paths that arose at the same point in history to allow access to the Divine Reality for ordinary people in the latter age of the world. Both are world-affirming, life-affirming, in contrast to world-denying and life-denying creeds. They see creation and the body not as illusion or evil, but as a positive revelation of the Divine that assists in spiritual realization. Both are socially egalitarian and accord high status to women and the Feminine, in contrast to the milieus they arose in.

Both are paths that lead to the Divine not by shunning or negating this body, but by working through it. The body and the world, when approached in the right way, can become not obstacles, but the very vehicle to the Divine. Life in the world can be sacralized by the divine presence: one needn't be a monk, or a highly spiritually perfected ascetic saint or anchorite, to experience the divine presence. Women are sacred, sex is sacred, eating is sacred, the earth is sacred, the whole world can be transfigured: "and the earth shines with the glory of its Lord (wa-ashraqat al-ardu bi-nûri rabbihâ)," as the Qur’ân ecstatically proclaims (39:69).

 

 

 

 

Salvation for fallen humanity in the Kali Yuga

 

 

 

Islam arose in the seventh century after Christ, and the early texts of Tantrism date from approximately the same time (6th-8th centuries). While Islam is a continuation of the revelations of earlier prophets, its practical approach to worldly and spiritual life contrasts with that of earlier dispensations; for example, the complex Halakhic laws governing Jewish life are very much simplified in Islam. The spiritual life has been made much easier to follow, as the Qur’ân promises: "We make easy for you the way to ease," and Prophet Muhammad said that this way of ours is meant to be easy. No priesthood is required to fulfill any rites, for each individual Muslim man and woman is his or her own priest. The heroic spiritual qualities required of earlier peoples are not required for salvation in Islam, as Allah allowed for the fallen condition of humanity in this late stage of the world and opened access to the highest

spiritual realization for all peoples.

Similarly, Tantra is understood as a divine concession to the conditions of the Kali Yuga. In contrast to Brahminism where access to the Divine was controlled by a priestly élite, Tantrism is a way open to anyone of any caste, any station in life. Whereas in the early ages, great rigor and austerities were imposed on spiritual seekers, and superhuman efforts were required, Tantrism like Islam does not demand of people more than they can bear, but takes people as they are and shows them the way to ascend spiritually.

 

 

 

 

World-affirmation and life-affirmation

 

 

 

Islam has a totally different orientation from the Manichean type of attitude that the world is evil. Rather, the Qur’ân emphasizes that all of creation holds signs for people with hearts, for those who contemplate, signs that show the truth of the Creator and inspire us spiritually. All of virgin Nature becomes transparent, showing the glory of Allah shining through in every stone, every leaf, every creature. The world is not a barrier to the Spirit when understood by people whose hearts are clean and virtuous. Thus Muslims are not to flee the world and withdraw to monasteries and nunneries; they are encouraged to engage fully in life, to marry and earn a living, to work for good in society. In this way spiritual values are infused throughout the entire civilization. The Muslim esoteric orders, the Sufis, although committed to a holy life, are just as engaged in the life of this world as other Muslims, and through their

prayers and remembrance of Allah in the midst of it alchemically transmute earthly life into something sacred.

The Tantric attitude toward the world or phenomenal existence also values it as a vehicle for the spiritual life. Tantra presented an alternative to the life-denying Hindu doctrine that negated the world as mere illusion. As the classical Tantric dictum says, "What is here is elsewhere. What is not here is nowhere." Mâyâ itself, often translated as "illusion," is in fact the creative, feminine power of the Divine and is related eytmologically to the root mâ, meaning to measure. Far from being mere illusion, it is the power that through cosmological measurement generates this world and constitutes its substance. Far from being unreal, it is in a sense consciousness veiling itself. Spirit, Mind, and Matter are ultimately one, the two latter being the twin aspects of the Fundamental Substance or Brahman and Its power or Shakti.

 

 

The ancient Dravidian tradition was always life-affirming, as the ancient Tamil book of wisdom, the tirukkuraL, demonstrates. Its author tiruvaLLuvar was a member of the lowest caste, the Paraiyans, and his Dravidian vision of the virtuous life is in sharp contrast with that of Vedic Brahminism in its affirmation of worldly life as sacred for everyone. The lowest castes of the ancient Dravidians were essential to the sacred functions that upheld the state and the social order; they fulfilled the roles of sacred drumming and communication, and tiruvaLLuvar continues this perspective in his writing. This world-affirming Dravidian tradition is at the source of Tantra as well, and as such both are congruent with Islam.

 

 

 

 

The sacred body

 

 

 

 

Islam does not condemn the body as a hindrance to the spiritual life, but on the contrary ennobles it as a vehicle to ultimate realization. In Islamic the pleasures of the body are not denied or repressed but integrated into a wholesome way of life. As the Prophet said, your body has its rights over you. The spiritual significance of the body in Islam is shown through the bodily postures used in praying salât: each of them is potent with cosmic symbolism, so that the body itself is transfigured into a spiritual expression. Thus Islamic prayer is congruent with hatha yoga, which is a branch of Tantric yoga. Islam's unitary, holistic view of the body and spirit is evident in the alchemical saying of the Shi‘ite Imams, "arwâhunâ ajsâdunâ wa-ajsâdunâ arwâhunâ" (our spirits are our bodies and our bodies are our spirits). In Islamic spirituality, God-consciousness effects an alchemical transmutation on matter so that

the body and its pleasures are seen as a sacred divine gift.

An early Islamic classic, Rasâ’il Ikhwân al-Safâ’ (The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), discusses the metaphysical significance of the human body as a microcosm corresponding to the macrocosm of the whole of creation. Our inner understanding of our bodies is therefore a key for the understanding of the world of nature, as is our comprehension of the rapport between the soul and the body, their complementarity and integration into a whole. The great Sufi sage Muhyî al-Dîn Ibn al-‘Arabî developed many such themes dealing with the body, including sexuality, on the deepest level of their significance in his writings. He says that the body is the seat of the highest reality created by Allah in the whole universe, the rûh or the Spirit of Allah Himself which He blew into Adam's body. Altogether the Islamic teachings about the body emphasize its Divine Origin—that is, being created by Allah and possessing the greatest

significance for the understanding of the human state.

The Tantric body is considered to be the manifestation of the Divine. The basic tenet of Tantrism is that matter, and therefore the body, is also a manifestation of shakti power, that is, the power emanating from the feminine aspect of Divine Reality. Hence, the body must not be opposed or despised. The body itself is a form of consciousness so veiled that we get the appearance of insensibility, inertia, and mere mechanical energy. But this is only an appearance. One can contemplate even in the gross body the consciousness that underlies its reality. The practice of kuNDalini yoga unites the creating and sustaining shakti of the whole body with the Lord Consciousness. The yogi makes Her introduce him to Her Lord, and enjoys the bliss of union through her. In kuNDalini through the very pulse of life in the body we realize Universal Life. Therefore, the body is to be respected and revered. To deny it is to deny the Divine Life

that flows through it; it is to deny the unity of spirit, soul, and body and to forget that it is the manifestation of the Divine Feminine power, Shakti. From the perspective of Tantrism, because the physical, spiritual, and mental cannot be separated, all being aspects of the one all-pervading consciousness, the body must also be considered in spiritual realization and therefore has profound religious significance.

 

 

One striking congruence between Islam and Tantra is in the symbolism of the Prophet's night journey to Heaven (al-mi‘râj). He mounted on a female riding beast with the head of a woman and ascended through the seven heavens to the Divine Presence. The kuNDalini is a feminine force (shakti) that ascends through the seven cakras to divine realization.

 

 

 

 

Egalitarianism and social leveling

 

 

 

 

Both Islam and Tantra came into their respective cultures as a breath of fresh air, opening up a closed social hierarchy in which the powerful classes dominated the lower classes. Both offered a spiritual brotherhood and sisterhood in which all members shared equal status. In Islamic society, according to a hadith, all are "as equal as the teeth on a comb." The new Islamic order allowed the poor and the slaves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the highborn, with no distinction of class or position. Bilal, the freed African slave, was addressed by the Caliph ‘Umar as "sayyidnâ" (our master), which is the highest term of respect in Arabic; he was accorded that respect for the spiritual nobility of his heart, which is the only distinction recognized in Islam. The Prophet ordered the Muslims to follow leaders who are black slaves. In Tantric circles, this social leveling went even further: not only did tântrika

assemblies bring together people of all castes, there was even a preference for members of the lowest castes, for the greater spiritual power they brought to the working. This is from the ancient Dravidian heritage of Tantra, in which the lowest castes, the holders of the sacred drums, were essential to the sacred functions of the whole civilization.

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Feminism

 

 

 

Islam was the first thoroughgoing feminist restructuring of the Middle Eastern society that had been dominated by patriarchy for millennia. Although in subsequent eras, down to the present day, patriarchy was re-established in Muslim lands due to the inevitable decline of spiritual values in the human world, the fact remains that the Qur’ân and Prophet Muhammad uplifted women to be the full and equal spiritual partners of men and established their civil rights and liberties. This has been well documented in the six-volume Arabic book Tahrîr al-mar’ah fî ‘asr al-risâlah (Women's Liberation in the Era of the Prophet) by ‘Abd al-Halîm Muhammad Abû Shuqqah. The new Islamic social order upholding women's liberation was a reflection of the Prophet's love for women, the Islamic recognition of the Divine Feminine aspect of Allah, and the power of the female. Allah commanded reverence for the female reproductive organs, the Yoni

(al-arhâm) in the Qur’ân (4:1), for its name in Arabic is derived from the divine name al-Rahmân, the All-Merciful. Prophet Muhammad said that woman is the greatest treasure in the world. Through the centuries it has been the Sufi orders who were attuned to the Feminine and kept alive Islam's reverence for the sacredness of women, through the veneration of Mary and of women saints like Râbi‘ah. The present spiritual resurgence of Islamic feminism is also being birthed through the Sufi orders that have kept it alive.

Tantrism has been the comparable tradition that has upheld the sacredness of the Feminine in India. Closely interconnected with Shaktism, the Tantric veneration of Woman is central to its spiritual working. The Shaktisangama Tantra says:

Woman is the creator of the universe, the universe is her form; woman is the foundation of the world, she is the true form of the body. Whatever form she takes, whether the form of a man or a woman, is the superior form. In woman is the form of all things, of all that lives and moves in the world. There is no jewel rarer than woman, no condition superior to that of woman. There is not, nor has been, nor will be any destiny to equal that of woman; there is no kingdom, no wealth, to be compared with a woman; there is not, nor has been, nor will be any holy place like unto a woman. There is no prayer to equal a woman. There is not, nor has been, nor will be any yoga to compare with a woman, no mystical formula nor asceticism to match a woman. There are not, nor have been, nor will be any riches more valuable than woman.

This passage is reminiscent of Rumi's poetic lines saying "Woman is a ray of God ... she is Creator, not created." To take another example, the Kaulâvalî Tantra says:

One should bow to any female, be she a young girl, flushed with youth, or be she old, be she beautiful or ugly, good or wicked. One should never deceive, speak ill of, or do ill to, a woman and one should never strike her. All such acts prevent the attainment of siddhi (success in religious exercise)."

The Kaula Tantriks regarded female gurus very highly and there were many examples of yoginis or female tantriks. In the Yoni Tantra, Patala 7, we find: "Women are divinity, women are life, women are truly jewels." This sentiment is echoed in many other tantras such as the Shakti Sangama Tantra, Devirahasya, and elsewhere. A woman is the Goddess: "Worship carefully a woman or a maiden as she is Shakti, sheltered by the Kulas. One should never speak harshly to maidens or women." (Kaula Jñana Nirnaya Tantra, Patala 23)

In both Islam and Tantrism, there is a consistent pattern: high regard for women and empowerment of women are concomitants of veneration for virgin nature, the earth, the body, and sacred sexuality.

 

 

 

 

Interplay of traditions

 

 

 

 

In India, many have seen an opposition between Vedanta and Tantra. The former is centered on transcendence, the negation of everything other than the One Real; the latter is centered on immanence, the experience of the Real within the phenomenal manifestations of this life. One well-known example of the opposition between the two is in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. He began as a devotee of Kali Ma, and was a Shakta Tantric initiate. Later he was initiated into Vedanta by a guru who tried to expunge his Tantric tendencies. The tension between the two produced immense suffering in Ramakrishna's soul. His lineage was carried on by Vivekananda who founded the Vedanta Society and downplayed the Tantric side of Ramakrishna.

 

 

In Sufism, the polar opposition of transcendence and immanence was not a problem, for both are integrated into a holistic spiritual path, just as Sufism combines both bhakti and jñâna, love-devotion and intellective gnosis. The Sufi, when invoking the Divine Name of Allah, meditates alternately on the discernment of the unreality of the world and the self and everything besides Allah; and on the fact that one's own being is nothing other than Allah's Being, immediately present. In this way one realizes the complementarity of the two, how they are the two faces of one and the same ultimate Reality. This esoteric insight is how Sufism was able to overcome the conundrum of divine transcendence (tanzîh) and immanence (tashbîh) that so perplexed rationalist Islamic theologians and philosophers. Indeed, negation (nafy) followed by affirmation (ithbât) is the essential structure of the entire doctrine of

Islam: No reality but the Reality.

Srîvidyâ is a Dravidian Tantric school of South India, tracing its lineage back to the founder of Advaita Vedanta, Adi Sankaracarya. It is interesting for having united Vedanta and Tantra together in a single spiritual path of devotion to Shakti as Sri Vidya, 'Auspicious Wisdom'. As such it has a striking congruence with Sufism, which should make for an interesting comparative study of the two.

The Nath Siddhas are an alchemical Tantric tradition that was widespread in medieval India, studied extensively in David Gordon White's fascinating book The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Their activity flowed into many spheres of esoteric activity including hatha yoga, alchemical working, and sacred sex. One major branch of this school was the Tamil cittar (Siddhas). The Tamil Tantric master tirumûlar, author of the classic tirumantiram, is considered the first in the line of eighteen Saiva cittars and is still influential in the present day. The Nath Siddhas were, according to White, more amenable than any other Hindu sect to interaction with Islam. This can be explained through the congruence of the metaphysical principles of Islam and Tantrism. Many are the Nath Siddhas who are known as "Guru" or "Nâth" by their Hindu disciples and "Pîr" by Muslims. The Bauls of Bengal

are a prime example of this interaction of Tantrism with Islam; many of them are Muslims who revere Gorakh and other Nath Siddhas, and their songs resemble those of the Buddhist Mahasiddha Tantrists. There is also a prominent place occupied by "Jogis" (Tantric alchemical yogis) in Indian Sufi hagiography. There were prominent Tamil Muslims among the cittar such as kuNankuTi mastân sâhib, a Sufi poet. The earliest Tamil Muslim author whose works have survived was Yakopu Cittar, also called Yuki Munivar (c. 13th century?), a Siddha physician, originally named Iramatevar, who coverted to Islam and wrote a book of verses on alchemy and medicine titled Vaittiya cintâmani, poems in which he integrated Tantric and Islamic wisdom, describing his Hajj and paying homage to the Tamil Tantric tradition he emerged from.

These exchanges went both ways. According to the Kalaikkalañciyam (Tamil Encyclopaedia), Islam made its own contribution to Tamil Siddha tradition: "The Arabians joining hands with the Tamils sailed ships and fought the Portuguese. The Arab contact gave a further impetus to the Siddha system of [Tantric-alchemical] medicine here. The Tamil Muslims of Kayalpattinam were poets who made use of books expounding the Siddha system of medicine. The influence of Islamic Sufis like Rumi found its way into the poetical works of Tamil Siddhars. "Gnanarathina Kuravanji," composed by Pir Muhammad Sahib, was included in the collection of Siddhar devotional songs entitled Periyagnanakovai." (Tamil Encyclopaedia, vol. 4, p. 643. Quoted by S. M. Sulaiman in Islam, Indian Religions, and Tamil Culture, p. 15-16.)

An eighteenth-century Gujarati text of the Satpanth Nizari Isma‘ilis tells of a renowned Isma‘ili and Sufi master imparting Tantric spiritual instruction to a Nath Siddha Jogi master. It includes both Islamic and Tantric terms, and demonstrates the intersection of these two traditions. A portion of this document has been published with a study by Dominique Sila Khan as "Conversation between Guru Hasan Kabiruddin and Jogi Kanipha: Tantra Revisited by the Isma‘ili Preachers" in Tantra in Practice, edited by David Gordon White, Princeton Readings in Religions.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion: a meeting of two spiritual oceans

 

 

 

There is something providential about the meeting of the world's oldest religion, Hinduism, and the youngest, Islam, in India. The congruence between the two is aided by the Tantric philosophical tendencies shared by both the ancient Dravidian world (which extended into the Middle East in prehistory) and Islam.

Vedic Brahmanism allowed only the males of the upper castes any spiritual validity. Tantra spiritually empowered women and men of any caste or no-caste whatsoever. Tantra's egalitarian spirituality and upliftment of women, so similar to that of Islam, arose from the primal Dravidian world where women were revered for their female sacred power, and the low castes performed vital religious and state functions.

Naturally, in the course of the playing out of infinite possibilities, there did appear ascetic and monastic, life-denying tendencies among Sufis and yogis. But on the whole, both Tantra and Islam are notable for their life-affirming, nondualist spiritual paths. Most Sufis, as in the Shâdhilî order, are people who live fully in the world and yet live fully in the Sacred.

Both Sufism and Tantra share a vision of God experiencing God's Being concretized, through us as us, the human form and heart being the only vehicle capacious enough and refined enough to fully accommodate the embodied Divine Consciousness.

Yaa Allah! Yaa Ammi!

Yours Yogically,

Shreeram Balijepalli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam...

 

 

 

 

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