Shakti: The World as Power

[Guest guest]

> , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org> wrote:

> >

> >

> > Dear Semira,

> >

> > Definitely and without question the Divine Message will triumph

> > over the organization itself. In future more and more people

> > will embrace its central message of evolving into the eternal

> > spirit that all religions, holy scriptures and prophets have

> > since time immemorial upheld. The Divine Message is a spiritual

> > sanctuary, a beacon of hope, joy, peace of eternal life to all

> > humans. The Shakti/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Aykaa Mayee is the Divine

> > Feminine that gives Self-realization/Birth of Spirit/Baptism of

> > Allah/Opens Dasam Dwar for humanity to enter the Sahasrara/

> > Kingdom of God/Niche of lights/Inner Sanctuary within where

> > Brahman/God Almighty/Allah/ Waheguru resides as THE LIGHT.

> > Semira, not only the current Sahaja Yoga organisation but all

> > religious organizations as well have merely been intended as

> > temporary vehicles and starting points for the Divine Message.

> >

> > jagbir

> >

> >

> > , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org> wrote:

>

> By the way things are moving the Adi Shakti will eventually

> triumph. All we need to do as Her bhaktas is to stand our ground

> and not yield an inch because Truth always triumphs. Years of

> silence from religious regimes is the sure sign that the Devi and

> Her Divine Message to all humanity cannot be challenged, and will

> eventually be victorious in Her battle against the evil forces.

> All we need to do is to fearlessly announce the Truth. Shanti,

> Shanti, Shanti.

>

 

 

Shakti: The World as Power

 

There is no word of wider content in any language than this Sanskrit

term meaning 'Power'. For Shakti in the highest causal sense is God

as Mother, and in another sense it is the universe which issues from

Her Womb. And what is there which is neither one nor the other?

Therefore, the Yoginihridaya Tantra thus salutes Her who conceives,

bears, produces and thereafter nourishes all worlds: " Obeisance be

to Her who is pure Being-Consciousness-Bliss, as Power, who exists

in the form of Time and Space and all that is therein, and who is

the radiant Illuminatrix in all beings. "

 

It is therefore possible only to outline here in a very general way

a few of the more important principles of the Shakti-doctrine,

omitting its deeply interesting practice (Sadhana) in its forms as

ritual worship and Yoga.

 

Today Western science speaks of Energy as the physical ultimate of

all forms of Matter. So has it been for ages to the Shaktas, as the

worshippers of Shakti are called. But they add that such Energy is

only a limited manifestation (as Mind and Matter) of the almighty

infinite Supreme Power (Maha-Shakti) of Becoming in 'That' (Tat),

which is unitary Being (Sat) itself.

 

Their doctrine is to be found in the traditions, oral and written,

which are contained in the Agamas, which (with Purana, Smriti and

Veda) constitute one of the four great classes of Scripture of the

Hindus. The Tantras are Scriptures of the Agama. The notion that

they are some queer bye-product of Hinduism and not an integral part

of it, is erroneous. The three chief divisions of the Agama are

locally named Bengal (Gauda), Kashmira and Kerala. That Bengal is a

home of Tantra-shastra is well known. It is, however, little known

that Kashmir was in the past a land where Tantrik doctrine and

practice were widely followed.

 

The communities of so-called 'Tantrik' worshippers are five-fold

according as the cult is of the Sun, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva or

Shakti. To the Knower, however, the five named are not distinct

Divinities, but different aspects of the one Power or Shakti. An

instructed Shakti-worshipper is one of the least sectarian of men.

He can worship in all temples, as the saying is. Thus the Sammohana

Tantra says that " he is a fool who sees any difference between Rama

(an Avatara of Vishnu) and Shiva'. " What matters the name, " says the

Commentator of the Satcakranirupana, after running through the gamut

of them.

 

The Shakta is so called because the chosen Deity of his worship

(Ishta-devata) is Shakti. In his cult, both in doctrine and

practice, emphasis is laid on that aspect of the One in which It is

the Source of Change and, in the form of Time and Space and all

objects therein, Change itself. The word Shakti is grammatically

feminine. For this reason an American Orientalist critic of the

doctrine has described it as a worthless system, a mere feminization

of orthodox (whatever that be) Vedanta -- a doctrine teaching the

primacy of the Female and thus fit only for " suffragette monists " .

It is absurd criticism of this kind which makes the Hindu sometimes

wonder whether the Western psyche has even the capacity to

understand his beliefs. It is said of the Mother (in the Hymn to Her

in the Mahakala-Samhita): " Thou art neither girl, nor maid, nor old.

Indeed Thou art neither female nor male, nor neuter. Thou art

inconceivable, immeasurable Power, the Being of all which exists,

void of all duality, the Supreme Brahman, attainable in Illumination

alone. " Those who cannot understand lofty ideas when presented in

ritual and symbolic garb will serve their reputation best by not

speaking of them.

 

The Shaiva is so called because his chosen Divinity is Shiva, the

name for the changeless aspect of the One whose power of action and

activity is Shakti. But as the two are necessarily associated, all

communities acknowledge Shakti. It is, for the above reason, a

mistake to suppose that a 'Tantrik,' or follower of the Agama, is

necessarily a Shakta, and that the 'Tantra' is a Shakta Scripture

only. Not at all. The Shakta is only one branch of the Agamik

school. And so we find the Scriptures of Saivaism, whether of North

or South, called Tantras, as also those of that ancient form of

Vaishnavism which is called the Pancaratra. The doctrine of these

communities, which share certain common ideas, varies from the

monism of the Shaktas and Northern Shaivas to the more or less

dualistic systems of others. The ritual is to a large extent common

in all communities, though there are necessarily variations, due

both to the nature of the divine aspect worshipped and to the

particular form of theology taught. Shakta doctrine and practice are

contained primarily in the Shakta Tantras and the oral traditions,

some of which are secret. As the Tantras are mainly Scriptures of

Worship such doctrine is contained by implication in the ritual. For

reasons above stated recourse may be had to other Scriptures in so

far as they share with those of the Shakta certain common doctrines

and practices. The Tantras proper are the Word of Shiva and Shakti.

But there are also valuable Tantrik works in the nature of compendia

and commentaries which are not of divine authorship.

 

The concept 'Shakti' is not however peculiar to the Shaktas. Every

Hindu believes in Shakti as God's Power, though he may differ as to

the nature of the universe created by it. Shakta doctrine is a

special presentment of so-called monism (Advaita: lit. 'not-two')

and Shakta ritual, even in those condemned forms which have given

rise to the abuses by which this Scripture is most generally known,

is a practical application of it. Whatever may have been the case at

the origin of these Agamic cults, all, now and for ages past,

recognize and claim to base themselves on the Vedas. With these are

coupled the Word of Shiva-Shakti as revealed in the Tantras. Shakta-

doctrine is (like the Vedanta in general) what in Western parlance

would be called a theology based on revelation that is, so-

called 'spiritual' or supersensual experience, in its primary or

secondary sense. For Veda is that.

 

This leads to a consideration of the measure of man's knowing and of

the basis of Vedantik knowledge. It is a fundamental error to regard

the Vedanta as simply a speculative metaphysic in the modern Western

sense. It is not so; if it were, it would have no greater right to

acceptance than any other of the many systems which jostle one

another for our custom in the Philosophical Fair. It claims that its

supersensual teachings can be established with certainty by the

practice of its methods. Theorizing alone is insufficient. The

Shakta, above all, is a practical and active man, worshipping the

Divine Activity; his watchword is Kriya or Action. Taught that he is

Power, he desires fully to realize himself in fact as such. A

Tantrik poem (Anandastotra) speaks with amused disdain of the

learned chatterers who pass their time in futile debate around the

shores of the 'Lake of Doubt'.

 

The basis of knowing, whether in super-sense or sense-knowledge, is

actual experience. Experience is of two kinds: the whole or full

experience; and incomplete experience -- that is, of parts, not of,

but in, the whole. In the first experience, Consciousness is said to

be 'upward-looking' (Unmukhi) -- that is, 'not looking to another'.

In the second experience it is 'outward-looking' (Bahirmukhi) The

first is not an experience of the whole, but the Experience-whole.

The second is an experience not of parts of the whole, for the

latter is partless, but of parts in the whole, and issuing from its

infinite Power to know itself in and as the finite centers, as the

many. The works of an Indian philosopher, my friend Professor

Pramatha Natha Mukhyopadhyaya, aptly call the first the Fact, and

the second the Fact-section. The Isha Upanishad calls the Supreme

Experience -- Purna, the Full or Whole.

 

It is not, be it noted, a residue of the abstracting intellect,

which is itself only a limited stress in Consciousness, but a

Plenum, in which the Existent All is as one Whole. Theologically

this full experience is Shiva, with Shakti at rest or as Potency.

The second experience is that of the finite centers, the numerous

Purushas or Jivas, which are also Shiva-Shakti as Potency

actualized. Both experiences are real. In fact there is nothing

unreal anywhere. All is the Mother and She is reality

itself. " Sa'ham " ( " She I am " ), the Shakta says, and all that he

senses is She in the form in which he perceives Her. It is She who

in, and as, he drinks the consecrated wine, and She is the wine. All

is manifested Power, which has the reality of Being from which it is

put forth. But the reality of the manifestation is of something

which appears and disappears, while that of Causal Power to appear

is enduring. But this disappearance is only the ceasing to be for a

limited consciousness. The seed of Power, which appears as a thing

for such consciousness, remains as the potency in infinite Being

itself. The infinite Experience is real as the Full (Purna); that

is, its reality is fullness. The finite experience is real, as such.

There is, perhaps, no subject in Vedanta, which is more

misunderstood than that of the so-called 'Unreality' of the World.

Every School admits the reality of all finite experience (even

of 'illusive' experience strictly so-called) while such experience

lasts. But Shamkaracarya, defines the truly Real as that which is

changeless. In this sense, the World as a changing thing has

relative reality only. Shamkara so defines Reality because he sets

forth his doctrine from the standpoint of transcendent Being. The

Shakta Shastra, on the other hand, is a practical Scripture of

Worship, delivered from the world-standpoint, according to which the

world is necessarily real. According to this view a thing may be

real and yet be the subject of change. But its reality as a thing

ceases with the passing of the finite experiencer to whom it is

real. The supreme Shiva-Shakti is, on the other hand, a real, full

Experience which ever endures. A worshipper must, as such, believe

in the reality of himself, of the world as his field of action and

instrument, in its causation by God, and in God Himself as the

object of worship. Moreover to him the world is real because Shiva-

Shakti, which is its material cause, is real. That cause, without

ceasing to be what it is, becomes the effect. Further the World is

the Lord's Experience. He as Lord (Pati) is the whole Experience,

and as creature (Pashu) he is the experiencer of parts in it. The

Experience of the Lord is never unreal. The reality, however, which

changelessly endures may (if we so choose) be said to be Reality in

its fullest sense.

 

Real however as all experience is, the knowing differs according as

the experience is infinite or finite, and in the latter case

according to various grades of knowing. Full experience, as its name

implies, is full in every way. Assume that there is at any 'time' no

universe at all, that there is then a complete dissolution of all

universes, and not of any particular universe -- even then the Power

which produced past, and will produce future universes, is one with

the Supreme Consciousness whose Shakti it is. When again this Power

actualizes as a universe, the Lord-Consciousness from and in Whom it

issues is the All-knower. As Sarvajña He knows all generals, and as

Sarvavit, all particulars. But all is known by Him as the Supreme

Self, and not, as in the case of the finite center, as objects other

than the limited self.

 

Finite experience is by its definition a limited thing. As the

experience is of a sectional character, it is obvious that the

knowing can only be of parts, and not of the whole, as the part

cannot know the whole of which it is a part. But the finite is not

always so. It may expand into the infinite by processes which bridge

the one to the other. The essential of Partial Experience is knowing

in Time and Space; the Supreme Experience, being changeless, is

beyond both Time and Space as aspects of change. The latter is the

alteration of parts relative to one another in the changeless Whole.

Full experience is not sense-knowledge. The latter is worldly

knowledge (Laukika Jñana), by a limited knowing center, of material

objects, whether gross or subtle. Full Experience is the Supreme

Knowing Self which is not an object at all. This is unworldly

knowledge (Alaukika Jñana) or Veda. Sense-knowledge varies according

to the capacity and attainments of the experiencer. But the normal

experience may be enhanced in two ways: either physically by

scientific instruments such as the telescope and microscope which

enhance the natural capacity to see; or psychically by the

attainment of what are called psychic powers. Everything is Shakti;

but psychic power denotes that enhancement of normal capacity which

gives knowledge of matter in its subtle form, while the normal man

can perceive it only in the gross form as a compound of sensible

matter (the Bhutas). Psychic power is thus an extension of natural

faculty. There is nothing 'supernatural' about it. All is natural,

all is real. It is simply a power above the normal. Thus the

clairvoyant can see what the normal sense-experiencer cannot. He

does so by the mind. The gross sense-organs are not, according to

Vedanta, the senses (Indriya.) The sense is the mind, which normally

works through the appropriate physical organs, but which, as the

real factor in sensation, may do without them, as is seen both in

hypnotic and yogic states. The area of knowledge is thus very widely

increased. Knowledge may be gained of subtle chemistry, subtle

physiology (as of the cakras or subtle bodily centers), of various

powers, of the 'world of Spirits,' and so forth. But though we are

here dealing with subtle things, they are still things and thus part

of the sense-world of objects -- that is, of the world of Maya.

Maya, as later explained, is, not 'illusion,' but Experience in time

and space of Self and Not-Self. This is by no means necessarily

illusion. The Whole therefore cannot be known by sense-knowledge. In

short, sense or worldly knowledge cannot establish, that is, prove,

what is super-sensual, such as the Whole, its nature and the 'other

side' of its processes taken as a collectivity. Reasoning, whether

working in metaphysic or science, is based on the data of sense and

governed by those forms of understanding which constitute the nature

of finite mind. It may establish a conclusion of probability, but

not of certainty. Grounds of probability may be made out for

Idealism, Realism, Pluralism and Monism, or any other philosophical

system. In fact, from what we see, the balance of probability

perhaps favors Realism and Pluralism. Reason may thus establish that

an effect must have a cause, but not that the cause is one, For all

that we can say, there may be as many causes as effects. Therefore

it is said in Vedanta that " nothing (in these matters) is

established by argument. " All Western systems which do not possess

actual spiritual experience as their basis are systems which can

claim no certainty as regards any matter not verifiable by sense-

knowledge and reasoning thereon.

 

Shakta, and indeed all Vedantik teaching, holds that the only source

and authority (Pramana) as regards supersensual matters, such as the

nature of Being in itself, and the like, is Veda. Veda, which comes

from the root vid, to know, is knowledge par excellence, that is

super-sensual experience, which according to the Monist (to use the

nearest English term) is the Experience-Whole. It may be primary or

secondary. As the first it is actual experience (Sakshatkara) which

in English is called 'spiritual' experience.

 

The Shakta, as a 'monist,' says that Veda is full experience as the

One. This is not an object of knowledge. This knowing is Being. " To

know Brahman is to be Brahman. " He is a " monist,' not because of

rational argument only (though he can adduce reasoning in his

support), but because he, or those whom he follows, have had in fact

such 'monistic' experience, and therefore (in the light of such

experience) interpret the Vedantik texts.

 

But 'spiritual' experience (to use that English term) may be

incomplete both as to duration and nature. Thus from the imperfect

ecstasy (Savikalpa-Samadhi), even when of a 'monistic' character,

there is a return to world-experience. Again it may not be

completely 'monistic' in form, or may be even of a distinctly

dualistic character. This only means that the realization has

stopped short of the final goal. This being the case, that goal is

still perceived through the forms of duality which linger as part of

the constitution of the experiencer. Thus there are Vedantik and

other schools which are not 'monistic'. The spiritual experiences of

all are real experiences, whatever be their character, and they are

true according to the truth of the stage in which the experience is

had. Do they contradict one another? The experience which a man has

of a mountain at fifty miles distance, is not false because it is at

variance with that of the man who has climbed it. What he sees is

the thing from where he sees it. The first question then is: Is

there a 'monistic' experience in fact? Not whether 'monism' is

rational or not, and shown to be probable to the intellect. But how

can we know this ~ With certainty only by having the experience

oneself. The validity of the experience for the experiencer cannot

be assailed otherwise than by alleging fraud or self-deception. But

how can this be proved? To the experiencer his experience is real,

and nothing else is of any account. But the spiritual experience of

one is no proof to another who refuses to accept it. A man may,

however, accept what another says, having faith in the latter's

alleged experience. Here we have the secondary meaning of Veda, that

is secondary knowledge of super-sensual truth, not based on actual

experience of the believer, but on the experience of some other

which the former accepts. In this sense Veda is recorded for

Brahmanism in the Scriptures called Vedas, which contain the

standard experience of those whom Brahmanism recognizes as its

Rishis or Seers. But the interpretation of the Vaidik record is in

question, just as that of the Bible is. Why accept one

interpretation rather than another'? This is a lengthy matter.

Suffice to say here that each chooses the spiritual food which his

spiritual body needs, and which it is capable of eating and

assimilating. This is the doctrine of Adhikara. Here, as elsewhere,

what is one man's meat is another man's poison. Nature works in all

who are not altogether beyond her workings. What is called the 'will

to believe' involves the affirmation that the form of a man's faith

is the expression of his nature; the faith is the man. It is not

man's reason only which leads to the adoption of a particular

religious belief. It is the whole man as evolved at that particular

time which does so. His affirmation of faith is an affirmation of

his self in terms of it. The Shakta is therefore a 'monist,' either

because he has had himself spiritual experiences of this character,

or because he accepts the teaching of those who claim to have had

such experience. This is Apta knowledge, that is received from a

source of authority, just as knowledge of the scientific or other

expert is received. It is true that the latter may be verified. But

so in its own way can the former be. Revelation to the Hindu is not

something stated 'from above,' incapable of verification 'below'. He

who accepts revelation as teaching the unity of the many in the One,

may himself verify it in his own experience. How? If the disciple is

what is called not fit to receive truth in this 'monistic' form, he

will probably declare it to be untrue and, adhering to what he

thinks is true, will not further trouble himself in the matter. If

he is disposed to accept the teachings of 'monistic' religion-

philosophy, it is because his own spiritual and psychical nature is

at a stage which leads directly (though in a longer or shorter time

as may be the case) to actual 'monistic' experience. A particular

form of 'spiritual' knowledge like a particular psychic power can be

developed only in him who has the capacity for it. To such an one

asking, with desire for the fruit, how he may gather it, the Guru

says: Follow the path of those who have achieved (Siddha) and you

will gain what they gained. This is the 'Path of the Great' who are

those whom we esteem to be such. We esteem them because they have

achieved that which we believe to be both worthy and possible. If a

would-be disciple refuses to follow the method (Sadhana) he cannot

complain that he has not had its result. Though reason by itself

cannot establish more than a probability, yet when the super-sensual

truth has been learnt by Veda, it may be shown to be conformable to

reason. And this must be so, for all realities are of one piece.

Reason is a limited manifestation of the same Shakti, who is fully

known in ecstasy (Samadhi) which transcends all reasoning. What,

therefore, is irrational can never be spiritually true. With the aid

of the light of Revelation the path is made clear, and all that is

seen tells of the Unseen. Facts of daily life give auxiliary proof.

So many miss the truth which lies under their eyes, because to find

it they look away or upwards to some fancied 'Heaven'. The

sophisticated mind fears the obvious. " It is here; it is here, " the

Shakta and others say. For he and every other being is a microcosm,

and so the Vishvasara Tantra says: " What is here, is elsewhere. What

is not here, is nowhere. " The unseen is the seen, which is not some

alien disguise behind which it lurks. Experience of the seen is the

experience of the unseen in time and space. The life of the

individual is an expression of the same laws which govern the

universe. Thus the Hindu knows, from his own daily rest, that the

Power which projects the universe rests. His dreamless slumber when

only Bliss is known tells him, in some fashion, of the causal state

of universal rest. From the mode of his awakening and other

psychological processes he divines the nature of creative thinking.

To the Shakta the thrill of union with his Shakti is a faint

reflection of the infinite Shiva-Shakti Bliss in and with which all

universes are born. All matter is a relatively stable form of

Energy. It lasts awhile and disappears into Energy. The universe is

maintained awhile. This is Shakti as Vaishnavi, the Maintainer. At

every moment creation, as rejuvenascent molecular activity, is going

on as the Shakti Brahmani. At every moment there is molecular death

and loosening of the forms, the work of Rudrani Shakti. Creation did

not take place only at some past time, nor is dissolution only in

the future. At every moment of time there is both. As it is now and

before us here, so it was 'in the beginning'.

 

In short the world is real. It is a true experience. Observation and

reason are here the guide. Even Veda is no authority in matters

falling within sense-knowledge. If Veda were to contradict such

knowledge, it would, as Shamkara says, be in this respect no Veda at

all. The Hindu is not troubled by 'biblical science'. Here and now

the existence of the many is established for the sense-experiencer.

But there is another and Full Experience which also may be had here

and now and is in any case also a fact, -- that is, when the

Self 'stands out' (ekstasis) from mind and body and sense-

experience. This Full Experience is attained in ecstasy (Samadhi).

Both experiences may be had by the same experiencer. It is thus the

same One who became many. " He said: May I be many, " as Veda tells.

The 'will to be many' is Power or Shakti which operates as Maya.

 

In the preceding portion of this paper it was pointed out that the

Power whereby the One gives effect to Its Will to be Many is Maya

Shakti.

 

What are called the 36 Tattvas (accepted by both Shaktas and

Shaivas) are the stages of evolution of the One into the Many as

mind and matter.

 

Again with what warrant is this affirmed? The secondary proof is the

Word of Shiva and Shakti. Revealers of the Tantra-shastra, as such

Word is expounded in the teachings of the Masters (Acaryas) in the

Agama.

 

Corroboration of their teaching may be had by observation of

psychological stages in normal life and reasoning thereon. These

psychological states again are the individual representation of the

collective cosmic processes. " As here, so elsewhere. " Primary

evidence is actual experience of the surrounding and supreme states.

Man does not leap at one bound from ordinary finite sense-experience

to the Full Experience. By stages he advances thereto, and by stages

he retraces his steps to the world, unless the fullness of

experience has been such as to burn up in the fire of Self-knowledge

the seed of desire which is the germ of the world. Man's

consciousness has no fixed boundary. On the contrary, it is at root

the Infinite Consciousness, which appears in the form of a

contraction (Shamkoca), due to limitation as Shakti in the form of

mind and matter. This contraction may be greater or less. As it is

gradually loosened, consciousness expands by degrees until, all

bonds being gone, it becomes one with the Full Consciousness or

Purna. Thus there are, according to common teaching, seven ascending

light planes of experience, called Lokas, that is 'what are seen'

(lokyante) or experienced; and seven dark descending planes, or

Talas, that is 'places'. It will be observed that one name is given

from the subjective and the other from the objective standpoint. The

center of these planes is the 'Earth-plane' (Bhurloka). This is not

the same as experience on earth, for every experience, including the

highest and lowest, can be had here. The planes are not like

geological strata, though necessity may picture them thus. The Earth-

plane is the normal experience. The ascending planes are states of

super-normal, and the descending planes of sub-normal experience.

The highest of the planes is the Truth-plane (Satya-loka). Beyond

this is the Supreme Experience, which is above all planes, which is

Light itself, and the love of Shiva and Shakti, the 'Heart of the

Supreme Lord' (Hridayam parameshituh). The lowest Tala on the dark

side is described in the Puranas with wonderful symbolic imagery as

a Place of Darkness where monster serpents, crowned with dim light,

live in perpetual anger. Below this is the Shakti of the Lord called

Tamomayi Shakti -- that is, the Veiling Power of Being in all its

infinite intensity.

 

What then is the Reality -- Whole or Purna? It is certainly not a

bare abstraction of intellect, for the intellect is only a

fractional Power or Shakti in it. Such an abstraction has no worth

for man. In the Supreme Reality, which is the Whole, there is

everything which is of worth to men, and which proceeds from it. In

fact, as a Kashmir Scripture says: " The 'without' appears without

only because it is within. " Unworthy also proceeds from it, not in

the sense that it is there as unworthy, but because the experience

of duality, to which evil is attached, arises in the Blissful Whole.

The Full is not merely the collectively (Samashti) of all which

exists, for it is both immanent in and transcends the universe. It

is a commonplace that it is unknowable except to Itself. Shiva in

the Yoginihridaya Tantra, says: " Who knows the heart of a woman?

Only Shiva knows the Heart of Yogini (the Supreme Shakti). " For this

reason the Buddhist Tantrik schools call it Shunya or the Void. This

is not 'nothing' but nothing known to mind and senses. Both Shaktas

and some Vaishnavas use the term Shunya, and no one suspects them of

being 'Nihilists'.

 

Relatively, however, the One is said to be Being (Sat), Bliss

(Ananda) and Cit -- an untranslatable term which has been most

accurately defined as the Changeless Principle of all changing

experience, a Principle of which sensation, perception, conception,

self-consciousness, feeling, memory, will, and all other psychic

states are limited modes. It is not therefore Consciousness or

Feeling as we understand these words, for these are directed and

limited. It is the infinite root of which they are the finite

flower. But Consciousness and possibly (according to the more

ancient views) Feeling approach the most nearly to a definition,

provided that we do not understand thereby Consciousness and Feeling

in man's sense. We may thus (to distinguish it) call Cit, Pure

Consciousness or Pure Feeling as Bliss (Ananda) knowing and enjoying

its own full Reality. This, as such Pure Consciousness or Feeling,

endures even when finite centers of Consciousness or Feeling arise

in It. If (as this system assumes) there is a real causal nexus

between the two, then Being, as Shiva, is also a Power, or Shakti,

which is the source of all Becoming. The fully Real, therefore, has

two aspects: one called Shiva, the static aspect of Consciousness,

and the other called Shakti, the kinetic aspect of the same. For

this reason Kali Shakti, dark as a thundercloud, is represented

standing and moving on the white inert body of Shiva. He is white as

Illumination (Prakasha). He is inert, for Pure Consciousness is

without action and at rest. It is She, His Power, who moves. Dark is

She here because, as Kali, She dissolves all in darkness, that is

vacuity of existence, which is the Light of Being Itself. Again She

is Creatrix. Five corpse-like Shivas form the support of Her throne,

set in the wish-granting groves of the Isle of Gems (Manidvipa), the

golden sands of which are laved by the still waters of the Ocean of

Nectar (Amrita), which is Immortality. In both cases we have a

pictorial presentment in theological form of the scientific doctrine

that to every form of activity there is a static background.

 

But until there is in fact Change, Shakti is merely the Potency of

Becoming in Being and, as such, is wholly one with it. The Power

(Shakti) and the possessor of Power (Shaktiman) are one. As

therefore He is Being-Bliss-Consciousness, so is She. She is also

the Full (Purna), which is no mere abstraction from its evolved

manifestations. On the contrary, of Her the Mahakali Stotra

says: " Though without feet, Thou movest more quickly than air.

Though without ears, Thou dost hear. Though without nostrils, Thou

dost smell. Though without eyes, Thou dost see. Though without

tongue, Thou dost taste all tastes. " Those who talk of

the 'bloodless abstractions' of Vedanta, have not understood it. The

ground of Man's Being is the Supreme 'I' (Purnosham) which, though

in Itself beyond finite personality, is yet ever finitely

personalizing as the beings of the universe. " Sa'ham, " -- " She I am. "

 

This is the Supreme Shakti, the ultimate object of the Shaktas'

adoration, though worshipped in several forms, some gentle, some

formidable.

 

But Potency is actualized as the universe, and this also is Shakti,

for the effect is the cause modified. Monistic Vedanta teaches that

God is the material cause of the world. The statement that the

Supreme Shakti also exists as the Forms evolved from It, may seem to

conflict with the doctrine that Power is ultimately one with Shiva

who is changeless Being. Shamkara answers that the existence of a

causal nexus is Maya, and that there is (from the transcendental

standpoint) only a seeming cause and seeming modification or effect.

The Shakta, who from his world-standpoint posits the reality of God

as the Cause of the universe, replies that, while it is true that

the effect (as effect) is the cause modified, the cause (as cause)

remains what it was and is and will be. Creative evolution of the

universe thus differs from the evolution in it. In the latter case

the material cause when producing an effect ceases to be what it

was. Thus milk turned into curd ceases to be milk. But the simile

given of the other evolutionary process is that of 'Light from

Light'. There is a similarity between the 'conventional' standpoint

of Shamkara and the explanation of the Shakta; the difference being

that, while to the former the effect is (from the transcendental

standpoint) 'unreal,' it is from the Shakta's immanent

standpoint 'real'.

 

It will have been observed that cosmic evolution is in the nature of

a polarization in Being into static and kinetic aspects. This is

symbolized in the Shakta Tantras by their comparison of Shiva-Shakti

to a grain of gram (Canaka). This has two seeds which are so close

together as to seem one, and which are surrounded by a single

sheath. The seeds are Shiva and Shakti and the sheath is Maya. When

the sheath is unpeeled, that is when Maya Shakti operates, the two

seeds come apart. The sheath unrolls when the seeds are ready to

germinate, that is when in the dreamless slumber (Sushupti) of the

World-Consciousness the remembrance of past enjoyment in Form gives

rise to that divine creative 'thinking' of 'imagining'

(Srishtikalpana) which is 'creation'. As the universe in dissolution

sinks into a Memory which is lost, so it is born again from the germ

of recalled Memory or Shakti. Why? Such a question may be answered

when we are dealing with facts in the whole; but the latter itself

is uncaused, and what is caused is not the whole. Manifestation is

of the nature of Being-Power, just as it is Its nature to return to

Itself after the actualization of Power. To the devotee who speaks

in theological language, " It is His Will " . As the Yoginihridaya

says: " He painted the World-Picture on Himself with the Brush which

is His Will and was pleased therewith. "

 

Again the World is called a Prapañca, that is an extension of the

five forms of sensible matter (Bhuta.) Where does it go at

dissolution? It collapses into a Point (Bindu). We may regard it as

a metaphysical point which is the complete 'subjectification' of the

divine or full 'I' (Purnahanta), or objectively as a mathematical

point without magnitude. Round that Point is coiled a mathematical

Line which, being in touch with every part of the surface of the

Point, makes one Point with it. What then is meant by these symbols

of the Point and Line? It is said that the Supreme Shiva sees

Himself in and as His own Power or Shakti. He is the 'White Point'

or 'Moon' (Candra), which is Illumination and in the completed

process, the 'I' (Aham), side of experience, She is the 'Red Point'.

Both colors are seen in the microcosmic generation of the child. Red

too is the color of Desire. She is 'Fire' which is the object of

experience or 'This' (Idam), the objective side of experience.

The 'This' here is nothing but a mass of Shiva's own illuminating

rays. These are reflected in Himself as Shakti, who, in the

Kamakalavilasa, is called the 'Pure Mirror' of Shiva. The Self sees

the Self, the rays being thrown back on their source. The 'This' is

the germ of what we call 'Otherness,' but here the 'Other' is and is

known as the Self. The relation and fusion of these two Points,

White and Red, is called the Mixed Point or 'Sun'. These are the

three Supreme Lights. A = Shiva, Ha = Shakti, which united

spell 'Aham' or 'I'. This 'Sun' is thus the state of full 'I-ness'

(Purnaham-bhava). This is the Point into which the World at

dissolution lapses, and from which in due time it comes forth again.

In the latter case it is the Lord-Consciousness as the Supreme 'I'

and Power about to create. For this reason Bindu is called a

condensed or massive form of Shakti. It is the tense state of Power

immediately prior to its first actualization. That form of Shakti,

again by which the actualization takes place is Maya; and this is

the Line round the Point. As coiled round the Point, it is the

Supreme Serpent-Power (Mahakundalini) encircling the Shiva-Linga.

From out of this Power comes the whisper to enjoy, in worlds of

form, as the memory of past universes arises therein. Shakti

then 'sees'. Shakti opens Her eyes as She reawakens from the Cosmic

Sleep (Nimesha), which is dissolution. The Line is at first coiled

and one with the Point, for Power is then at rest. Creation is

movement, an uncoiling of Maya-Shakti. Hence is the world called

Jagat, which means 'what moves'. The nature of this Power is

circular or spiraline; hence the roundness and 'curvature' of things

of which we now hear. Nothing moves in a really straight line. Hence

again the universe is also called a spheroid (Brahmanda). The gross

worlds are circular universal movements in space, in which, is the

Ether (Akasha), Consciousness, as the Full (Purna), is never

dichotomized, but the finite centers which arise in it, are so. The

Point, or Bindu, then divides into three, in various ways, the chief

of which is Knower, Knowing and Known, which constitute the duality

of the world-experience by Mind of Matter.

 

Unsurpassed for its profound analysis is the account of the thirty-

six Tattvas or stages of Cosmic Evolution (accepted by both Shaivas

and Shaktas) given by the Northern Shaiva School of the Agama, which

flourished after the date which Western Orientalists assign to

Shamkaracarya, and which was therefore in a position to criticize

him. According to this account (which I greatly condense) Subject

and Object in Pure Being are in indistinguishable union as the

Supreme Shiva-Shakti. We have then to see how this unity is broken

up into Subject and Object. This does not take place all at once.

There is an intermediate stage of transition, in which there is a

Subject and Object, but both are part of the Self, which knows its

Object to be Itself. In man's experience they are wholly separate,

the Object then being perceived as outside the Self, the plurality

of Selves being mutually exclusive centers. The process and the

result are the work of Shakti, whose special function is to negate,

that is to negate Her own fullness, so that it becomes the finite

center contracted as a limited Subject perceiving a limited Object,

both being aspects of the one Divine Self.

 

The first stage after the Supreme is that in which Shakti withdraws

Herself and leaves, as it were, standing by itself the 'I' side

(Aham) of what, when completed, is the 'I-This' (Aham-Idam)

experience. But simultaneously (for the 'I' must have its content)

She presents Herself as a 'This' (Idam), at first faintly and then

clearly; the emphasis being at first laid on the 'I' and then on

the 'This'. This last is the stage of Ishvara Tattva or Bindu, as

the Mantra Shastra, dealing with the causal state of 'Sound'

(Shabda), calls it. In the second and third stage, as also in the

fourth which follows, though there is an 'I' and a 'This' and

therefore not the indistinguishable 'I - This' of the Supreme

Experience, yet both the 'I' and the 'This' are experienced as

aspects of and in the Self. Then as a preliminary to the division

which follows, the emphasis is laid equally on the 'I' and

the 'This'. At this point Maya-Shakti intervenes and completely

separates the two. For that Power is the Sense of Difference (Bheda-

Buddhi). We have now the finite centers mutually exclusive one of

the other, each seeing, to the extent of its power, finite centers

as objects outside of and different from the self. Consciousness

thus becomes contracted. In lieu of being All-knowing, it is

a 'Little Knower,' and in lieu of being Almighty Power, it is

a 'Little Doer'.

 

Maya is not rightly rendered 'Illusion'. In the first place it is

conceived as a real Power of Being and as such is one with the Full

Reality. The Full, free of all illusion, experiences the engendering

of the finite centers and the centers themselves in and as Its own

changeless partless Self. It is these individual centers produced

from out of Power as Maya-Shakti which are 'Ignorance' or Avidya

Shakti. They are so called because they are not a full experience

but an experience of parts in the Whole. In another sense

this 'Ignorance' is a knowing, namely, that which a finite center

alone has. Even God cannot have man's mode of knowledge and

enjoyment without becoming man. He by and as His Power does become

man and yet remains Himself. Man is Power in limited form as Avidya.

The Lord is unlimited Power as Maya. In whom then is the 'Illusion'?

Not (all will admit) in the Lord. Nor is it in fact (whatever be the

talk of it) in man whose nature it is to regard his limitations as

real. For these limitations are he. His experience as man provides

no standard whereby it may be adjudged 'Illusion'. The latter is non-

conformity with normal experience, and here it is the normal

experience which is said to be Illusion. If there were no Avidya

Shakti, there would be no man. In short the knowing which is Full

Experience is one thing and the knowing of the limited experience is

another. The latter is Avidya and the Power to produce it is Maya.

Both are eternal aspects of Reality, though the forms which are

Avidya Shakti come and go. If we seek to relate the one to the

other, where and by whom is the comparison made? Not in and by the

Full Experience beyond all relations, where no questions are asked

or answers given, but on the standing ground of present finite

experience where all subjectivity and objectivity are real and where

therefore, ipso facto, Illusion is negative. The two aspects are

never present at one and the same time for comparison. The universe

is real as a limited thing to the limited experiencer who is himself

a part of it. But the experience of the Supreme Person (Parahanta)

is necessarily different, otherwise it would not be the Supreme

Experience at all. A God who experiences just as man does is no God

but man. There is, therefore, no experiencer to whom the World is

Illusion. He who sees the world in the normal waking state, loses it

in that form in ecstasy (Samadhi). It may, however, (with the

Shakta) be said that the Supreme Experience is entire and unchanging

and thus the fully Real; and that, though the limited experience is

also real in its own way, it is yet an experience of change in its

twin aspects of Time and Space. Maya, therefore, is the Power which

engenders in Itself finite centers in Time and Space, and Avidya is

such experience in fact of the finite experiencer in Time and Space.

So much is this so, that the Time-theorists (Kalavadins) give the

name 'Supreme Time' (Parakala) to the Creator, who is also called by

the Shakta 'Great Time' (Mahakala). So in the Bhairavayamala it is

said that Mahadeva (Shiva) distributes His Rays of Power in the form

of the Year. That is, Timeless Experience appears in the finite

centers as broken up into periods of time. This is the 'Lesser Time'

which comes in with the Sun, Moon, Six Seasons and so forth, which

are all Shaktis of the Lord, the existence and movements of which

give rise, in the limited observer, to the notion of Time and Space.

 

That observer is essentially the Self or 'Spirit' vehicled by Its

own Shakti in the form of Mind and Matter. These two are Its Body,

the first subtle, the second gross. Both have a common origin,

namely the Supreme Power. Each is a real mode of It. One therefore

does not produce the other. Both are produced by, and exist as modes

of, the same Cause. There is a necessary parallelism between the

Perceived and the Perceiver and, because Mind and Matter are at base

one as modes of the same Power, one can act on the other. Mind is

the subjective and Matter the objective aspect of the one polarized

Consciousness.

 

With the unimportant exception of the Lokayatas, the Hindus have

never shared what Sir William Jones called " the vulgar notions of

matter, " according to which it is regarded as some gross, lasting

and independently existing outside thing.

 

Modern Western Science now also dematerializes the ponderable matter

of the universe into Energy. This and the forms in which it is

displayed is the Power of the Self to appear as the object of a

limited center of knowing. Mind again is the Self

as 'Consciousness,' limited by Its Power into such a center. By such

contraction there is in lieu of an 'All-knower' a 'Little Knower,'

and in lieu of an 'All-doer' a 'Little Doer'. Those, however, to

whom this way of looking at things is naturally difficult, may

regard the Supreme Shakti from the objective aspect as holding

within Itself the germ of all Matter which develops in It.

 

Both Mind and Matter exist in every particle of the universe though

not explicitly displayed in the same way in all. There is no corner

of the universe which contains anything either potential or actual,

which is not to be found elsewhere. Some aspect of Matter or Mind,

however, may be more or less explicit or implicit. So in the Mantra

Scripture it is said that each letter of the alphabet contains all

sound. The sound of a particular letter is explicit and the other

sounds are implicit. The sound of a particular letter is a

particular physical audible mode of the Shabdabrahman (Brahman as

the cause of Shabda or 'Sound'), in Whom is all sound, actual and

potential. Pure Consciousness is fully involved in the densest forms

of gross or organic matter, which is not 'inert' but full

of 'movement' (Spanda), for there is naught but the Supreme

Consciousness which does not move. Immanent in Mind and Matter is

Consciousness (Cit Shakti). Inorganic matter is thus Consciousness

in full subjection to the Power of Ignorance. It is thus

Consciousness identifying Itself with such inorganic matter. Matter

in all its five forms of density is present in everything. Mind too

is there, though, owing to its imprisonment in Matter,

undeveloped. " The Brahman sleeps in the stone. " Life too which

displays itself with the organization of matter is potentially

contained in Being, of which such inorganic matter is, to some,

a 'lifeless' form. From this deeply involved state Shakti enters

into higher and higher organized forms. Prana or vitality is a

Shakti -- the Mantra form of which is 'Hangsah'. With the

Mantra 'Hang' the breath goes forth, with 'Sah' it is indrawn, a

fact which anyone can verify for himself if he will attempt to

inspire after putting the mouth in the way it is placed in order to

pronounce the letter 'H'. The Rhythm of Creative Power as of

breathing (a microcosmic form of it) is two-fold -- an outgoing

(Pravritti) or involution as universe, and an evolution or return

(Nivritti) of Supreme Power to Itself. Shakti as the Great Heart of

the universe pulses forth and back in cosmic systole and diastole.

So much for the nature of the Power as an evolutionary process. It

is displayed in the Forms evolved as an increasing exhibition of

Consciousness from apparently, though not truly, unconscious matter,

through the slight consciousness of the plant and the greater

consciousness of the animal, to the more highly developed

consciousness of man, who in the completeness of his own individual

evolution becomes freed of Mind and Matter which constitute the

Form, and thus is one with the Supreme Consciousness Itself. There

are no gaps in the process. In existence there are no rigid

partitions. The vital phenomena, to which we give the name

of 'Life', appear, it is true, with organized Matter. But Life is

not then something entirely new which had no sort of being before.

For such Life is only a limited mode of Being, which itself is no

dead thing but the Infinite Life of all lives. To the Hindu the

difference between plant and animal, and between the latter and man,

has always been one rather of degree than of kind. There is one

Consciousness and one Mind and Matter throughout, though the Matter

is organized and the Mind is exhibited in various ways. The one

Shakti is the Self as the 'String' (Sutratma) on which all the Beads

of Form are strung, and these Beads again are limited modes of

Herself as the 'String'. Evolution is thus the loosening of the

bonds in which Consciousness (itself unchanging) is held, such

loosening being increased and Consciousness more fully exhibited as

the process is carried forward. At length is gained that human state

which the Scripture calls so 'hard to get'. For it has been won by

much striving and through suffering. Therefore the Scripture warns

man not to neglect the opportunities of a stage which is the

necessary preliminary to the attainment of the Full Experience. Man

by his striving must seek to become fully humane, and then to pass

yet further into the Divine Fullness which is beyond all Forms with

their good and evil. This is the work of Sadhana (a word which comes

from the root sadh 'to exert'), which is discipline, ritual, worship

and Yoga. It is that by which any result (Siddhi) is attained. The

Tantrik Shastra is a Sadhana Scripture. As Powers are many, so may

be Sadhana, which is of various kinds and degrees. Man may seek to

realize the Mother-Power in Her limited forms as health, strength,

long life, wealth, magic powers and so forth. The so-called 'New

Thought' and kindred literature which bids men to think Power and

thus to become power, is very ancient, going back at least to the

Upanishad which says: " What a man thinks, that he becomes. "

 

Those who have need for the Infinite Mother as She is, not in any

Form but in Herself, seek directly the Adorable One in whom is the

essence of all which is of finite worth. The gist of a high form of

Kulasadhana is given in the following verse from the Hymn of

Mahakalarudra Himself to Mahakali:

 

" I torture not my body with penances. " (Is not his body Hers? If man

be God in human guise why torment him?) " I lame not my feet in

pilgrimage to Holy Places. " (The body is the Devalaya or Temple of

Divinity. Therein are all the spiritual Tirthas or Holy Places. Why

then trouble to go elsewhere?) " I spend not my time in reading the

Vedas. " (The Vedas, which he has already studied, are the record of

the standard spiritual experience of others. He seeks now to have

that experience himself directly. What is the use of merely reading

about it? The Kularnava Tantra enjoins the mastering of the essence

of all Scriptures which should then be put aside, just as he who has

threshed out the grain throws away the husks and straw.) " But I

strive to attain Thy two sacred Feet. "

 

Shakti: The World as Power

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