Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

beat of his heart the rhythm which throbs through and is the sign of the Universal Life. To neglect or to deny the needs of the body, to think of it as something not divine, is to neglect and deny the greater life of which it is a part; and to falsify the great doctrine of the unity of all and of the ultimate identity of Matter and Spirit. Governed by such a concept even the lowliest physical needs take on a cosmic significance. The body is Shakti. Its needs are Shakti’s needs; when man enjoys, it is Shakti who enjoys through him. In all he sees and does it is the Mother who looks and acts. His eyes and hands are Hers. The whole body and all its functions are Her manifestation. To fully realise Her as such is to perfect this particular manifestation of Hers which is himself. Man when seeking to be the master of himself so seeks on all the planes physical, mental and spiritual ; nor can they be severed for they are all related, being but differing aspects of the one all pervading Consciousness. Who is the more divine; he who neglects and spurns the body or mind that he may attain some fancied spiritual superiority, or he who rightly cherishes both as forms of the one Spirit which they clothe ? Realisation is more speedily and truly attained by discerning Spirit in and as all being and its activities, than by fleeing from and casting these aside as being either unspiritual or illusory and impediments in the path. If not rightly conceived they may be impediments and the cause of fall; otherwise they become instruments of attainment; and what others are there to hand? And so the Kularnava Tantra says “ By what men fall by that they rise.’ When acts are done in the right feeling and frame of mind (Bhava) those acts give enjoyment (Bhukti) and the repeated and prolonged Bhava produces at length that divine experience (TattvajnAna) which is Liberation. When the Mother isseen 77 all things She is at length realised as She who is beyond them all. These general principles have their more frequent application in the life of the world before entrance on the path 418