Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

jar by those Shaékts who take wine. The Shastras also set out the 36 Tattva which are common to Shaktas and Shaivas; the five Kala which are Samanya of the Tattvas namely Nivritti, Pratishtha, Vidya, Shanta, Shantyatita, and the ShadadhvA namely, Varna, Pada, and Mantra. Kala, Tattva, Bhuvana, which represent the Artha aspect and the Shabda aspect respectively.

To pass to more popular matters, a beautiful and tender concept of the Shaktas is the Motherhood of God, that is God as Shakti or the Power which produces, maintains and withdraws the universe. This is the thought of a worshipper. Though the Sammohana Tantra gives high place to Shangkara as conqueror of Buddhism, (speaking of him as a manifestation of Shiva and identifying his five disciples with the five Mahapretas), the Agamas as ShAstras of worship do not teach MayAvada as set forth according to Shangkara’s transcendental method. May& to the Shakta worshipper is not an unconscious something, not real, not unreal, not real-unreal, which is associated with Brahman in its Ishvara aspect, though it isnot Brahman. Brahman is never associated with anything but Itself, Maya to the Shakta is Shakti; Shakti veiling Herself as Consciousness, but which, as being Shakti, is Consciousness. To the Shakta all that he sees is the Mother. Al/ is Consciousness. This is the standpoint of SAdhan&. The Advaitins of Shangkara’s School claim that their doctrine is given from the standpoint of Siddhi. I will not argue this question here. When Siddhi is obtained there will be no argument. Until that event Man is, it is admitted, subject to Maya and must think and act according to the forms which it imposes on him. It is more important after all to realise in fact the universal presence of the Divine Consciousness, than to attempt to explain it in philosophical terms.

The Divine Mother first appears in and as Her worshipper’s earthly mother, then as his wife; thirdly as KAlika, She reveals Herself in old age, disease and death,

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