Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

Divine in Liberation only, but here and now in every act we do. For in truth all such is Shakti. It is Shiva who as Shakti is acting in and through the Sadhaka. So though, according to the Vaidik injunctions, there isno eating or drinking before worship, it is said in the ShaktaTantra that he who worships Kaélik& when hungry and thirsty angers Her. Those who worship a God other than their own Essential Self may think to please Him by such acts but to the Shakta, Shiva and Jiva areone and the same. Why then should one give pain to Jiva ? Here is sense indeed. It was I think, Professor Royce who said, borrowing (though probably unconsciously) an essential Tantrik idea, that God suffers and enjoys in and as and through man. This is so. Though the Brahmasvarfipa is nothing but the perfect, actionless Bliss, yet it is also the one Brahman who as Jiva suffers and enjoys; for there is none other. When this is realised in every natural function then each exercise thereof ceases to be a mere animal act and becomes a religious rite—a Yajna. Every function isa part of the Divine Action (Shakti) in Nature. Thus, when taking drink in the form of wine the Vira knows it to be Taré Dravamayi that is “the Saviour Herself in liquid form.” How (it is said) can he who truly sees in it the Saviour Mother receive from it harm? Meditating on Kundalini as pervading his body to the tip of his tongue, thinking himself to be Light which is also the Light of the wine he takes, he says, “ I am She” (SA *ham) ‘I am Brahman” “T Myself offer Ahuti to my own Self, Sv4ha.” When therefore the Vira eats, drinks or has sexual intercourse he does so not with the thought of himself as a separate individual satisfying his own peculiar limited wants ; an animal filching as it were from nature the enjoyment he has, but thinking of himself in such enjoyment as Shiva, saying “ Shivo’ham,” “ Bhairavo’ham.” It is a fact that right sexual union may, if associated with meditation and titual, be the means of spiritual advance; though persons who

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