Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

Consciousness veils Itself to itself and negates and limits itself in order that it May experience itself as form.

This Maya Shakti assumes the form of Prakriti Tattva, which is composed of three Gunas or Factors called Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. The function of Prakriti is to veil, limit, or finitise pure infinite formless Consciousness, SO as to produce form,for without such limitation there cannot be the appearance of form. These Gunas work by mutual suppression, The function of Tamas is to veil] consciousness, of Sattva to reveal it, and of Rajas the active principle to make either Tamas suppress Sattva or Sattva Suppress Tamas. These Gunas are present in all particular existence, as in the general cause or Prakriti Shakti. Evolution means the increased operation of Sattva guna. Thus the mineral] world is more subject to Tamas than the rest. There is less Tamas and more Sattva in the vegetable world. In the animal world Sattva is increased, and stil] more so in man, who may rise through the cultivation of the Sattva euna to Pure Consciousness (Moksha) Itself. To use Western parlance consciousness more and more appears as forms evolve and rise to man. Consciousness does not change, but its mental and material envelopes do, thus releasing and giving consciousness more play. As Pure Consciousness is Spirit, the release of It from the bonds of matter means that Forms which issue from the Power of Spirit (Shakti) become more and more Sattvik. A truly Sattvik man is therefore a spiritual man. The aim of Sadhana is therefore the cultivation of the Sattva Guna. Nature (Prakriti) is

thus the Veil of Spirit as Tamas Guna, the Revealer of

Spirit as Sattva Guna, and the Activity (Rajas Guna) which makes either work. Thus the upward or revealing movement from the predominance of Tamas to that of Sattva represents the spiritual progress of the embodied Spirit or Jivatma.

It is the desire:for the life of form which produces the universe, This desire exists in the collective VAsana, held

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