Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

SHAKTI AND SHAKTA

says (Ch. 1) is Consciousness (Chaitanyarfipini) and Bliss (Anandarfpini). She is at the same time support of (Gunashraya) and composed of the Gunas (Gunamayi). May 4 is however explained from the standpoint of Sadhana, the Tantra Shastra being a Sadhan& Shastra, and not according to the Mayavada, that is transcendental standpoint, of Shangkara.

What is there in the great Devi Sfikta of the Rigveda (Mandala X Sfikta 125) which the Shakta Tantra does not teach? The Rishi of this revelation was a woman the daughter of Rishi Ambhrina. It was fitting that a woman should proclaim the Divine Motherhood. Her Hymn says “T am the Sovereign Queen the Treasury of all treasures; the chief of all objects of worship whose all-pervading Self all Devatas manifest ; whose birthplace is in the midst of the causal waters: who breathing forth gives form to all created worlds and yet extends beyond them, so vast am I in greatness.”

It is useless to cite quotations to show that the Shakta Tantra accepts the doctrine of Karma which as the Kularnava (IX. 125) says Jiva cannot give up until he renounces the fruit of it; an infinite number of universes, and their transitoriness (Mahanirvana ITI. 7,) the plurality of worlds, Heaven and Hell, the seven Lokas, the Devas and Devis, who as the Kulachfidamani (following the Devisfikta) says (Ch. 1) are but parts of the great Shakti (Shaktanandatarangini ITI); the state of liberation and so forth. Being Advaitavada, Moksha is the state of Paramatma. It accepts Smriti and Purfinas; the Mahdnirvana and other Tantras saying that they are the governing Shastras of the Treta and Dvapara ages respectively, as Tantra is that of the Kaliyuga. So the Tarapradfpa (Ch. 1) says that in the Kaliyuga the Tantrika and not the Vaidika Dharma is to be followed. It is said that in Satya, Veda was undivided. In Dvapara, Krishnadvaipayana separated it into four parts. In Satya, Vaidika Upasan& was Pradhana, Sadhakas

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