Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

It is She who manifests, and not without a purpose, in the vast outpouring of Sanghara Shakti which is witnessed in the great world-conflict of to-day. The terrible beauty of such forms is not understood. And so we get the recent utterance of a Missionary Professor at Madras who being moved to horror at the sight of (I think) the Chamundamarti called the Devi a “She-Devil.” Lastly She takes to Herself the dead body in the fierce tongues of flame which light the funeral pyre.

The Monist is naturally unsectarian and so the Shakta taith, as held by those who understand it, is free from a narrow sectarian spirit.

Nextly it, like the other Agamas, makes provision for all castes and both sexes. Whatever be the true doctrine of the Vaidikas, their practice is in fact marked by exclusiveness. Thus they exclude woman and Shiidras. It is easy to understand why the so-called Anaryya Sampradayas did not do so. A glorious feature of the Shakta faith is the honour which it pays to woman. And this is natural for those who worship the Great Mother, whose representative (Vigraha) all earthly women are. Striyo devéh striyah pranah. “ Women are Devas; women are life itself,” as an old Hymn in the Sarvollasa has it. It is because Woman is a Vigraha of the Amba Devi, Her likeness in flesh and blood, that the Shakta Tantras enjoin the honour and worship of women and girls (KumAris), and forbade all harm to them such as the Sati rite, enjoining that not even a female animal is to be sacrificed. With the same solicitude for women, the Mahanirvana prescribes that even if a man speaks rudely (Durvvachyang kathayan) to his wife, he must fast fora whole day, and enjoins the education of daughters before their marriage. The Shakta Tantras again allow of women being Guru, or Spiritual Director, a reverence which the West has not (with rare exceptions) yet given them. Initiation by a Mother bears eightfold fruit. Indeed to the enlightened Shakta the whole universe is Stri or,