Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

PREFACE

THIS present edition is practically a new work, for [ have revised and added to all the original Chapters and written six new ones (1, 5, 6, 10, 14, 15). Seven of the original Chapters embodied a set of Lectures delivered before, and at the request of, the Vivekananda Society in Calcutta, a circumstance which will explain both the manner of them as also the “ Conclusions” with which the volume closes. These conclusions are based on the conviction that the English-educated Indian, (for the question does not arise as regards any other), who has hitherto neglected his Scriptures (Shastra) should adhere to his ancestral religion and thereby save both himself and his country, unless, after restudying it, in the light of his present knowledge, he is satisfied that it is false, in which case he should conscientiously abandon it and accept or (if he can) devise some other. But this Indian religion is not necessarily the Shakta form of it, though my remarks happened to be directed to Shaktas with whose doctrine and practice I alone dealt.

These Lectures and other collected papers traverse new ground in the Literature of Indian Religion, for they are the first attempt to give an authenticated and understanding eeneral account, from the Indian standpoint, of the chief features of the Doctrine and Practice of that class of Indian worshippers who are called Shaktas, that is those who adore the Divine Power (Mah4shakti) as Mahadevi the Great Mother (Magna Mater) of the universe. As this religious community shares in common with others certain principles and practices, the work is also necessarily an account of the worship and spiritual disciplines called Sadhana which, in varying forms, are adopted by all communities of Indian

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