Universal Energy as Mother

[Guest guest]

The Saktas worship the Universal Energy as Mother; it is the sweetest

name they know. The mother is the highest ideal of womanhood in

India. When God is worshiped as mother, the Hindus call such worship

the " right hand " way, and it leads to spirituality but never to

material prosperity. When God is worshipped in His terrible aspect,

that is, in the " left hand " way it leads usually to great material

prosperity but rarely to spirituality; and eventually it leads to

degeneration and the obliteration of the race that practices it.

 

Mother is the first manifestation of power and is considered a higher

idea than father. The name of mother brings the idea of sakti, Divine

energy and omnipotence, the baby believes its mother to be all-

powerful, to be able to do anything. The Divine Mother is the

Kundalini sleeping in us; without worshipping Her we can never know

ourselves. All merciful, all powerful, omnipresent - these are

attributes of the Divine Mother. She is the sum total of the energy

in the Universe. Every manifestation of power in the universe is

Mother. She is Life, She is Intelligence, She is Love. She is in the

universe, yet separate from it. She is a person, and can be seen and

known- as Sri Ramakrishna saw and knew Her. Established in the idea

of Mother, we can do anything. She quickly answers prayer.

 

She can show Herself to us in any form at any moment. The Divine

Mother can have form (Rupa) and name (Nama), or name without form;

and as we worship Her in these various aspects, we can rise to Pure

Being, having neither form nor name.

 

The sum-total of all cells in an organism is one person; each soul is

like one cell, and the sum of them is God. And beyond that is the

Absolute. The sea calm is the Absolute; the same sea in Waves is the

Divine Mother. She is time, space and causation. Mother is the same

as Brahman and has two natures; the conditioned and the

unconditioned. As the former She is God, nature and soul- the

triangle of existence. This is the Visishtadvaita idea.

 

A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna; another Buddha; another was

Christ. The worship of even one spark of Mother in our earthly mother

leads to greatness. Worship Her if you want love and wisdom.

 

Swami Vivekananda,  Inspired Talks, July 2, 189