Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra, str. 166

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

since there is nothing but the self. But in the supreme experience the object is one in nature with Shiva being Chaitanya-riipa ; in the universe the object seems to the Jiva, the creation of and subject to Maya and AvidyA Shakti, to be different from the Self as mind and matter. The next point is the nature of creation or rather emanation (Abh4sa) for the former term is associated with dualistic notions of an extra-Cosmic God, who produces a world which is as separate from Himself as is the pot from the potter. According to this doctrine there is an Evolution of Consciousness or ChitShakti associated with M&ya-Shakti into certain forms. This is not to say that the Brahman is wholly transformed into its emanations, that is exhausted by them. The Brahman is infinite and can never, therefore, be wholly held in this sense in any form, or in the universe asa whole. It always transcends the universe. Therefore when Consciousness evolves, it nevertheless does not cease to be what it was, is, and will be. The Supreme Chit becomes as Shakti the universe but still remains supreme Chit. In the same way every stage of the emanation-process prior to the real evolution(Parinama of Prakriti)remains what it is,whilst giving birth to a new Evolution. In Parinama or Evolution as known to us on this plane, when one thing is evolved into another, it ceases to be what it was. Thus when milk is changed into curd, it ceases to be milk. The Evolution from Shiva-Shakti of the Pure Tattvas is not of this kind. It is an Abhasa or “shining forth”, adopting the simile of the sun which shines without (it was supposed) change in, or diminution, of its light. This unaffectedness in spite of its being the material cause is called in the Panchar&tra by the term Viryya, a condition which, the Vaishnava Lakshmi Tantra says, is not found in the world “ where milk quickly loses its nature when curds appear.” It is a process in which one flame springs from another flame. Hence it is called “Flame to Flame.” There is a second Flame but the first from which it comes is unexhausted and still there. The 148