Is Shakti Force?

[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.

>

 

 

Is Shakti Force?

 

There are some persons who have thought, and still think, that

Shakti means force and that the worship of Shakti is the worship of

force. Thus Keshub Chunder Sen (New Dispensation, p. 108), wrote:

 

Four centuries ago the Shaktas gave way before the Bhaktas.

Chaitanya's army proved invincible, and carried all Bengal captive.

Even to-day his gospel of love rules as a living force, though his

followers have considerably declined both in faith and in morals.

Just the reverse of this we find in England and other European

countries. There the Shaktas are driving the Bhaktas out of the

field. Look at the Huxleys, the Tyndalls and the Spencers of the

day. What are they but Shaktas, worshippers of Shakti or Force? The

only Deity they adore, if they at all adore one, is the Prime Force

of the universe. To it they offer dry homage. Surely then the

scientists and materialists of the day are a sect of Shakti-

worshippers, who are chasing away the true Christian devotees who

adore the God of Love. Alas! for European Vaishnavas; they are

retreating before the advancing millions of Western Shaktas. We

sincerely trust, however, the discomfiture of devotion and Bhakti

will be only for a time, and that a Chaitanya will yet arise in the

West, crush the Shaktas, who only recognize Force as Deity and are

sunk in carnality and voluptuousness, and lead natures into the

loving faith, spirituality, simplicity, and rapturous devotion of

the Vaishnava.

 

Professor Monier Williams ( " Hinduism " ) also called it a doctrine of

Force.

 

Recently the poet Rabindranath Tagore has given the authority of his

great name to this error (Modern Review, July, 1919). After pointing

out that Egoism is the price paid for the fact of existence and that

the whole universe is assisting in the desire that the " I " should

be, he says that man has viewed this desire in two different ways,

either as a whim of Creative Power, or a joyous self-expression of

Creative Love. Is the fact then of his being, he asks, a revealment

of Force or of Love? Those who hold to the first view must also, he

thinks, recognize conflict as inevitable and eternal. For according

to them Peace and Love are but a precarious coat of armor within

which the weak seek shelter, whereas that which the timid

anathematize as unrighteousness, that alone is the road to

success. " The pride of prosperity throws man's mind outwards and the

misery and insult of destitution draws man's hungering desires

likewise outwards. These two conditions alike leave man unashamed to

place above all other gods, Shakti the Deity of Power -- the Cruel

One, whose right hand wields the weapon of guile. In the politics of

Europe drunk with Power we see the worship of Shakti. "

 

In the same way the poet says that in the days of their political

disruption, the cowed and down-trodden Indian people through the

mouths of their poets sang the praises of the same Shakti. " The

Chandi of Kavikangkan and of the Annadamangala, the Ballad of

Manasa, the Goddess of Snakes, what are they but Paeans of the

triumph of Evil? The burden of their song is the defeat of Shiva the

good at the hands of the cruel deceitful criminal Shakti. " " The male

Deity who was in possession was fairly harmless. But all of a sudden

a feminine Deity turns up and demands to be worshipped in his stead.

That is to say that she insisted on thrusting herself where she had

no right. Under what title? Force! By what method? Any that would

serve. "

 

The Deity of Peace and Renunciation did not survive. Thus he adds

that in Europe the modern Cult of Shakti says that the pale anaemic

Jesus will not do. But with high pomp and activity Europe celebrates

her Shakti worship.

 

" Lastly the Indians of to-day have set to the worship Europe's

Divinity. In the name of religion some are saying that it is

cowardly to be afraid of wrong-doing. Both those who have attained

worldly success, and those who have failed to attain it are singing

the same tune. Both fret at righteousness as an obstacle which both

would overcome by physical force. " I am not concerned here with any

popular errors that there may be. After all, when we deal with a

Shastrik term it is to the Shastra itself that we must look for its

meaning. Shakti comes from the root Shak " to be able, " " to do " . It

indicates both activity and capacity therefor. The world, as word,

is activity. But when we have said that, we have already indicated

that it is erroneous to confine the meaning of the term Shakti to

any special form of activity. On the contrary Shakti means both

power in general and every particular form of power. Mind is a

Power: so is Matter. Mind is constantly functioning in the form of

Vritti; Reasoning, Will and Feeling (Bhava) such as love, aversion

and so forth are all aspects of Mind-power in its general sense.

Force is power translated to the material plane, and is therefore

only one and the grossest aspect of Shakti or power. But all these

special powers are limited forms of the great creative Power which

is the Mother (Ambika) of the Universe. Worship of Shakti is not

worship of these limited forms but of the Divine will, knowledge and

action, the cause of these effects. That Mahashakti is perfect

consciousness (Cidrupini) and Bliss (Anandamayi) which produces from

Itself the contracted consciousness experiencing both pleasure and

pain. This production is not at all a " whim " . It is the nature

(Svabhava) of the ultimate.

 

Bliss is Love (Niratishayapremaspadatvam anandatvam). The production

of the Universe is according to the Shakta an act of love,

illustrated by the so-called erotic imagery of the Shastra. The Self

loves itself whether before, or in, creation. The thrill of human

love which continues the life of humanity is an infinitesimally

small fragment and faint reflection of the creative act in which

Shiva and Shakti join to produce the Bindu which is the seed of the

Universe.

 

I quite agree that the worship of mere Force is Asurik and except in

a transient sense futile. Force, however, may be moralized by the

good purpose which it serves. The antithesis is not rightly between

Might and Right but between Might in the service of Right and Might

in the service of Wrong. To worship force merely is to worship

matter. He however who worships the Mother in Her Material forms

(Sthularupa) will know that She has others, and will worship Her in

all such forms. He will also know that She is beyond all limited

forms as that which gives being to them all. We may then say that

Force is a gross form of Shakti, but Shakti is much more than

that " here " (Iha) and the infinite Power of Consciousness " there "

(Amutra). This last, the Shakti of worship, is called by the Shastra

the Purnahambhava or the experience " All I am " .

 

Is Shakti Force?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas07.htm

 

 

 

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), [1918]

Chapter 1: Indian Religion As Bharata Dharma

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas01.htm

Chapter 2: Shakti: The World as Power

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas02.htm

 

Chapter 3: What Are the Tantras and Their Significance?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas03.htm

 

Chapter 4: Tantra Shastra and Veda

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas04.htm

 

Chapter 5: The Tantras and Religion of the Shaktas

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas05.htm

 

Chapter 6: Shakti and Shakta

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas06.htm

 

Chapter 7: Is Shakti Force?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas07.htm

Chapter 8: Cinacara (Vashishtha and Buddha)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas08.htm

 

Chapter 9: The Tantra Shastras in China

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas09.htm

 

Chapter 10: A Tibetan Tantra

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas10.htm

 

Chapter 11: Shakti in Taoism

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas11.htm

 

Chapter 12: Alleged Conflict of Shastras

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas12.htm

 

Chapter 13: Sarvanandanatha

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas13.htm

 

Chapter 14: Cit-Shakti (The Consciousness Aspect of the Universe)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas14.htm

 

Chapter 15: Maya-Shakti (The Psycho-Physical Aspect of the Universe)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas15.htm

 

Chapter 16: Matter and Consciousness

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas16.htm

 

Chapter 17: Shakti and Maya

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas17.htm

 

Chapter 18: Shakta Advaitavada

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas18.htm

 

Chapter 19: Creation as Explained in the Non-dualist Tantras

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas19.htm

 

Chapter 20: The Indian Magna Mater

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas20.htm

 

Chapter 21: Hindu Ritual

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas21.htm

 

Chapter 22: Vedanta and Tantra Shastra

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas22.htm

 

Chapter 23: The Psychology of Hindu Religious Ritual

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas23.htm

 

Chapter 24: Shakti as Mantra (Mantramayi Shakti)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas24.htm

 

Chapter 25: Varnamala (The Garland of Letters)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas25.htm

 

Chapter 26: Shakta Sadhana (The Ordinary Ritual)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas26.htm

 

Chapter 27: The Pañcatattva (The Secret Ritual)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas27.htm

 

Chapter 28: Matam Rutra (The Right and Wrong Interpretation)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas28.htm

 

Chapter 29: Kundalini Shakta (Yoga)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas29.htm

 

Chapter 30: Conclusions

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas30.htm