Difference between revisions of "Shakti" - New World Encyclopedia

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[[Image:meru1.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Sri Yantra]]'' (shown here in the three-dimensional projection known as ''Sri Meru'' or ''Maha Meru'' used mainly in rituals of the [[Shri Vidya|Srividya]] [[Shakta]] sects) is central to most Tantric forms of Shaktism.]]
 
'''Shakti''' (meaning ''force'', ''power'' or ''energy'') is the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] conception or personification of [[God]]'s female aspect, sometimes referred to as "The Divine Mother" or [[Kali]] Ma. In the highest philosophical sense, Shakti represents the active, creative and dynamic principle of feminine power, and is often related to the male God's role in the creation of the phenomenal world. Though the supreme God in its masculine aspect is inactive and ineffable, he is perpetually drawn into activity through the power of shakti through which the world comes into being and is again destroyed. <ref>R.C. Zaenher, ''Hinduism''. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 82.</ref>
 
'''Shakti''' (meaning ''force'', ''power'' or ''energy'') is the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] conception or personification of [[God]]'s female aspect, sometimes referred to as "The Divine Mother" or [[Kali]] Ma. In the highest philosophical sense, Shakti represents the active, creative and dynamic principle of feminine power, and is often related to the male God's role in the creation of the phenomenal world. Though the supreme God in its masculine aspect is inactive and ineffable, he is perpetually drawn into activity through the power of shakti through which the world comes into being and is again destroyed. <ref>R.C. Zaenher, ''Hinduism''. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 82.</ref>
  
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==Mythology==
 
==Mythology==
 
 
In her function as the supreme divinity and also the obvious archetype of fertility, Shakti's mythology often holds her solely responsible for the creation of the universe. One oral folk song performed annually on Madesvara Hill in Karnataka tells a tale in which primordial gender roles are opposite of those in usual Sanskrit tellings. In this story, the goddess comes into being three days before the rest of the cosmos. She grows up quickly and finds herself desperate for a man to satiate her emergent sex drive. She creates [[Brahma]] in the hope that he will bed down with her. However, Brahma refuses her advances, uncomfortable with the thought of sleeping with his own mother. Shakti promptly incinerates him with fire generated from the palm of her hand. The next day, she creates [[Vishnu]] and attempts to seduce him, but he too resists for the same reasons as Brahma and is also burnt by Shakti's palm. The next day, Shakti creates [[Shiva]]. Seeing what has happened to his brothers, Shiva, although uncomfortable, agrees to be her husband, offering to teach her his skills. He begins to teach her the Tandava, the dance of destruction, with Shakti following along by mirroring his movements. Suddenly, Shiva performed a move in which he puts his hand on his forehead. Following along, Shakti burns herself with her fiery palm. In the wake of her incineration, Shiva observed the two heaps of ash that had been his brothers and revived them. Together, the three gods decide that the heap of ash that was their mother should be divided into three smaller heaps. When these three heaps are given life, they become [[Sarasvati]], [[Lakshmi]] and [[Parvati]], the three consorts of the [[Trimurti|Hindu Trinity]].<ref>A.K. Ramanujan, ''The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan.'' ed. Vinay Dharwadker. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 545-546.</ref>
 
In her function as the supreme divinity and also the obvious archetype of fertility, Shakti's mythology often holds her solely responsible for the creation of the universe. One oral folk song performed annually on Madesvara Hill in Karnataka tells a tale in which primordial gender roles are opposite of those in usual Sanskrit tellings. In this story, the goddess comes into being three days before the rest of the cosmos. She grows up quickly and finds herself desperate for a man to satiate her emergent sex drive. She creates [[Brahma]] in the hope that he will bed down with her. However, Brahma refuses her advances, uncomfortable with the thought of sleeping with his own mother. Shakti promptly incinerates him with fire generated from the palm of her hand. The next day, she creates [[Vishnu]] and attempts to seduce him, but he too resists for the same reasons as Brahma and is also burnt by Shakti's palm. The next day, Shakti creates [[Shiva]]. Seeing what has happened to his brothers, Shiva, although uncomfortable, agrees to be her husband, offering to teach her his skills. He begins to teach her the Tandava, the dance of destruction, with Shakti following along by mirroring his movements. Suddenly, Shiva performed a move in which he puts his hand on his forehead. Following along, Shakti burns herself with her fiery palm. In the wake of her incineration, Shiva observed the two heaps of ash that had been his brothers and revived them. Together, the three gods decide that the heap of ash that was their mother should be divided into three smaller heaps. When these three heaps are given life, they become [[Sarasvati]], [[Lakshmi]] and [[Parvati]], the three consorts of the [[Trimurti|Hindu Trinity]].<ref>A.K. Ramanujan, ''The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan.'' ed. Vinay Dharwadker. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 545-546.</ref>
  
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In its most abstract sense, Shakti refers to the cosmic energy which allows the ineffable male aspect of god to bring the universe into material creation. Shakti provides God with the skill of ''[[maya]]'': illussion or trickery which enables him to manipulate ''[[prakriti]]'', the basic matter of the physical universe, and thereby shape forms as we perceive them in the phenomenal world. These distinctly "feminine" powers of maya, illusion, and ultimately Shakti itself, were conceptualized as negative entities in the [[Upanishads]], as they were thought to blur one's ability to perceive the true, ineffeable [[Brahman]], thereby impeding the progress of the soul (or [[atman]]) to spiritual liberation. However, this ancient view does not represent the full spectrum of Hindu thought on the matter. The ''Kulacudamani Nigama'', for example, states that even God himself could not rise to his position of supremacy were it not for Shakti's entrance within him.<ref>Barbara G. Walker, ''The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets''. (San Francisco: Harper, 1983), 930.</ref> God, as it were, requires the power of Shakti before he can perform any of his great feats of creation.<ref>Arthur Avalon, ''Shakti and Shakta''. (New York: Dover Publications, 1978), 396.</ref>  
 
In its most abstract sense, Shakti refers to the cosmic energy which allows the ineffable male aspect of god to bring the universe into material creation. Shakti provides God with the skill of ''[[maya]]'': illussion or trickery which enables him to manipulate ''[[prakriti]]'', the basic matter of the physical universe, and thereby shape forms as we perceive them in the phenomenal world. These distinctly "feminine" powers of maya, illusion, and ultimately Shakti itself, were conceptualized as negative entities in the [[Upanishads]], as they were thought to blur one's ability to perceive the true, ineffeable [[Brahman]], thereby impeding the progress of the soul (or [[atman]]) to spiritual liberation. However, this ancient view does not represent the full spectrum of Hindu thought on the matter. The ''Kulacudamani Nigama'', for example, states that even God himself could not rise to his position of supremacy were it not for Shakti's entrance within him.<ref>Barbara G. Walker, ''The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets''. (San Francisco: Harper, 1983), 930.</ref> God, as it were, requires the power of Shakti before he can perform any of his great feats of creation.<ref>Arthur Avalon, ''Shakti and Shakta''. (New York: Dover Publications, 1978), 396.</ref>  
 
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[[Image:Kali Dakshineswar.jpg|thumb|Statue of the Tantric goddess [[Kali]] from [[Dakshineswar]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]]; along with her [[Yantra]].]]
 
Tantric thought has historically held women to embody Shakti, the essence of life itself. Accordingly, Tantric philosophers believed that each woman possesses goddess-like characteristics, and are often referred to as ''Shaktiman'', or "possessor of shakti" by these thinkers.<ref>Avalon, 172.</ref> To mistreat a woman is a severe trangression in the Tantric fold. Shakti the goddess also played an indispensible role in Tantric soteriology. Final mystical union with Shakti, according to Tantric sages, occurred at the precise instant of death. At this point, Shakti would absorb both the soul and the body of the dying sage, bestowing a sensation of unmatched bliss upon him. This was, and still is, the highest reward for the Tantric practicioner.<ref>Walker, 929.</ref>
 
Tantric thought has historically held women to embody Shakti, the essence of life itself. Accordingly, Tantric philosophers believed that each woman possesses goddess-like characteristics, and are often referred to as ''Shaktiman'', or "possessor of shakti" by these thinkers.<ref>Avalon, 172.</ref> To mistreat a woman is a severe trangression in the Tantric fold. Shakti the goddess also played an indispensible role in Tantric soteriology. Final mystical union with Shakti, according to Tantric sages, occurred at the precise instant of death. At this point, Shakti would absorb both the soul and the body of the dying sage, bestowing a sensation of unmatched bliss upon him. This was, and still is, the highest reward for the Tantric practicioner.<ref>Walker, 929.</ref>
  

Revision as of 22:37, 6 October 2007

The Sri Yantra (shown here in the three-dimensional projection known as Sri Meru or Maha Meru used mainly in rituals of the Srividya Shakta sects) is central to most Tantric forms of Shaktism.

Shakti (meaning force, power or energy) is the Hindu conception or personification of God's female aspect, sometimes referred to as "The Divine Mother" or Kali Ma. In the highest philosophical sense, Shakti represents the active, creative and dynamic principle of feminine power, and is often related to the male God's role in the creation of the phenomenal world. Though the supreme God in its masculine aspect is inactive and ineffable, he is perpetually drawn into activity through the power of shakti through which the world comes into being and is again destroyed. [1]

In Shaktism, one of the three foremost Hindu monotheistic schools, Shakti herself is worshiped as the Supreme Being, however, in other Hindu traditions, Shakti embodies the active energy and power of male deities. As such, the term shakti is also used in Hindu mythology to refer to the consort of any given male diety, a female who is considered an inextricable component of that god's personality. Shakti, as both divine energy and as the goddess is also of great import within Tantric philosophy and practice.

Mythology

In her function as the supreme divinity and also the obvious archetype of fertility, Shakti's mythology often holds her solely responsible for the creation of the universe. One oral folk song performed annually on Madesvara Hill in Karnataka tells a tale in which primordial gender roles are opposite of those in usual Sanskrit tellings. In this story, the goddess comes into being three days before the rest of the cosmos. She grows up quickly and finds herself desperate for a man to satiate her emergent sex drive. She creates Brahma in the hope that he will bed down with her. However, Brahma refuses her advances, uncomfortable with the thought of sleeping with his own mother. Shakti promptly incinerates him with fire generated from the palm of her hand. The next day, she creates Vishnu and attempts to seduce him, but he too resists for the same reasons as Brahma and is also burnt by Shakti's palm. The next day, Shakti creates Shiva. Seeing what has happened to his brothers, Shiva, although uncomfortable, agrees to be her husband, offering to teach her his skills. He begins to teach her the Tandava, the dance of destruction, with Shakti following along by mirroring his movements. Suddenly, Shiva performed a move in which he puts his hand on his forehead. Following along, Shakti burns herself with her fiery palm. In the wake of her incineration, Shiva observed the two heaps of ash that had been his brothers and revived them. Together, the three gods decide that the heap of ash that was their mother should be divided into three smaller heaps. When these three heaps are given life, they become Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Parvati, the three consorts of the Hindu Trinity.[2]

Theology

In its most abstract sense, Shakti refers to the cosmic energy which allows the ineffable male aspect of god to bring the universe into material creation. Shakti provides God with the skill of maya: illussion or trickery which enables him to manipulate prakriti, the basic matter of the physical universe, and thereby shape forms as we perceive them in the phenomenal world. These distinctly "feminine" powers of maya, illusion, and ultimately Shakti itself, were conceptualized as negative entities in the Upanishads, as they were thought to blur one's ability to perceive the true, ineffeable Brahman, thereby impeding the progress of the soul (or atman) to spiritual liberation. However, this ancient view does not represent the full spectrum of Hindu thought on the matter. The Kulacudamani Nigama, for example, states that even God himself could not rise to his position of supremacy were it not for Shakti's entrance within him.[3] God, as it were, requires the power of Shakti before he can perform any of his great feats of creation.[4]

File:Kali Dakshineswar.jpg
Statue of the Tantric goddess Kali from Dakshineswar, West Bengal, India; along with her Yantra.

Tantric thought has historically held women to embody Shakti, the essence of life itself. Accordingly, Tantric philosophers believed that each woman possesses goddess-like characteristics, and are often referred to as Shaktiman, or "possessor of shakti" by these thinkers.[5] To mistreat a woman is a severe trangression in the Tantric fold. Shakti the goddess also played an indispensible role in Tantric soteriology. Final mystical union with Shakti, according to Tantric sages, occurred at the precise instant of death. At this point, Shakti would absorb both the soul and the body of the dying sage, bestowing a sensation of unmatched bliss upon him. This was, and still is, the highest reward for the Tantric practicioner.[6]

Shakti also shares theological traits complementary to Shiva. Shiva is often represented iconographically and symbolically by the linga, a phallic object of devotion which suggests the eternal presence of Shiva, and Shakti, his eternal compliment, has traditionally been represented by the yoni (meaning "divine passage" or "place of birth" in Sanskrit), a corresponding vulvular symbol. Shakti, then, was the female organ itself, speaking to her infinitely fecund creative power. Yonis are often found in close proximity to Shiva-lingas in Shakta temples, usually forming the base of the phallic structure. This attempts to demonstrate the eternal interdependence of the male and female in material creation.

Shakti As Consort

Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, is one commonly recognized aspect of Shakti

Shakti embodies the active energy and power of male deities, with whom she is often personified as a wife. For example, among the Trimurti, a group of three of the most prominent gods in Hindu myth, Brahma's shakti is Saraswati, the goddess of learning, harmony and artistic endeavor, Vishnu's Shakti is Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty and fortune, and Shiva's shakti is considered to be Parvati, a goddess of the mountains and motherhood.

This latter relationship between Shiva and Parvati is one of the most remarkable described between god and goddess in the Hindu tradition. Together, Shiva and Parvati are thought to embody an absolute state of oneness, and are often pictured together as the aforementioned Ardhanarisvara. This divine being is depicted as being split into male and female halves along a central vertical axis in order to convey this message. The term 'Ardhanarishvara' is a combination of three words-'ardha', 'nari' and 'ishvara', meaning "the Lord whose half is woman". Some scholars translate the term to read as the more equalitarian 'half male' and 'the half female'.[7] Most feminists, however, interpret the "Lord who is half woman" to suggest the inherent maleness of the divine, in accordance with the typical Shaivic advaitic view, and therefore his perpetual supremacy over the female aspect of reality. [8]

Although Shiva and Shakti are widely agreed to be one in this form, together they share in a multiplicity of powers, which are themselves collectively referred to as the five shaktis. These are 1) the ability to conceive of each other as separate, 2) absolute satisfaction in their unity, 3) divine will, 4) full and complete knowledge and 5) the power to act. [9]

In addition to her ubiquitous role as wife of the gods, Shakti is also viewed more generally as a spirit wife. That is, she is attributed the power to incarnate her spirit within an earthly wife or mistress. Alternatively, she appears as an entirely spiritual being, serving as a guardian angel, of sorts, in the lives of human beings.[10]

Worship

Followers of Shaktism, commonly known as Shaktas, acknowledge Shakti as their primary divine archetype, and seek to recapitulate in the phenomenal world the union of the Shiva and Shakti. This is often performed by restraining the senses during the act of intercourse, in which the male partner staves off ejaculation in hopes of re-channeling seminal flow to the base of the spine.[11] With this act, the male participant realizes for himself the all powerful nature of Shiva, eternally chaste while at the same time ithyphallic.[12] As well, this process supposedly fuses male and female principles (purusha and prakriti respectively), as one. Through this recaptulation of divine embrace, the inseperable nature of male and female is realized by the sexual partners, and the distinction between material creation and moksha, or liberation, dissolves along with all other opposites. This kind of sexual union, as it were, serves the Shakta as a temporary experience of salvation, as it provides the most obvious earthly representation of the transcendence of opposites that characterizes the divine. [13] This state can also be experienced on a non-sexual level through mental concentration. Just as Shiva and Shakti are one in their eternal love, yet also eternally distinct, so to is the human soul fused with the divine at the culmation of this process, while still remaining individual. Among the Kashmir Shaivites, for instance, liberation itself is described as becoming one with Shiva and his five shaktis.

Shakti Peethas

There are 51 important centres of Shakti worship located in a variety of locations in the Indian sub-continent, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Tibet and even Pakistan. These are called Shakti Peethas, and a popular legend explains their origin. At some time in the Satya Yuga, the older god Daksha performed a sacrifice in hopes of taking revenge upon Shiva, who had married his daughter Sati, an earlier incarnation of Parvati, against his wishes. Daksha invited all the gods to enjoy in his sacrifice, save for Shiva and Sati. Furious with her father's unshakeable disapproval of her new husband, Sati killed herself. Enraged and mournful, Shiva picked up the remains of Sati's body and carried it over the entirety of the universe, causing various cosmic disturbances along the way. The entire pantheon of gods had to combine their efforts in order to stop this, and in the process Vishnu's disk sliced the corpse of Sati to pieces. The various parts of her body fell at numerous spots all throughout the Indian subcontinent and formed the Peethas as they are known today.

Today at each of these spots Shakti is worshipped as a manifestation of Parvati or Durga, along with a Bhairava, referring to her consort, which is invariably a manifestation of Shiva. Each Peetha is noted for the particular body part or piece of jewellery that fell to earth from Sati's body at the location on which the respective temple is built. Two of the most famous of these temples are the Varanasi temple located at Manikarnika Ghat on banks of the Ganges river in Madhya Pradesh, where her earring is said to have fallen, and the Shiva temple at Shuchitirtham in Tamil Nadu, where the teeth of her upper jaw landed.

In addition to these 51 Peethas, there are many other temples devoted to various incarnations of the Shakti goddess in most of the villages in India. Rural people often believe that Shakti is the protector of their village, who dispenses punitive measures upon evil people, cures wasting diseases, and generally concerns herself with the welfare of the village. Villagers celebrate Shakti festivals at least once a year. The Shakti goddess and her incarnations are most popular in south India, especially in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, where she is also known as Amma (meaning 'mother'). Some examples of such incarnations popular in these regions are Gangamma, Aarti, Kamakshamma, Kanakadurga, Mahalakshmammma, Meeenakshamma, Poleramma and Perantalamma.

Significance

Shakti, as both a concept of creative cosmic energy and in the persona of a goddess or the goddesses, is a figure of immense importance of Hinduism. Shaktism exists today as one of the most popular monotheistic systems of worship in contemporary India; therefore, it represents the largest example of worship based around a supreme goddess that the world has ever known. The magnitude of the significance afforded to Shakti illustrates the theological reverence for the female within the Hindu tradition, and points toward the fundamental necessity of a female image of the divine in religious experience. Interestingly enough, while the worship of Shakti venerates the power of not only the goddess but also every woman on earth, women within Hindu society still hold a position which is generally disadvantaged.

Notes

  1. R.C. Zaenher, Hinduism. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 82.
  2. A.K. Ramanujan, The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan. ed. Vinay Dharwadker. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 545-546.
  3. Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. (San Francisco: Harper, 1983), 930.
  4. Arthur Avalon, Shakti and Shakta. (New York: Dover Publications, 1978), 396.
  5. Avalon, 172.
  6. Walker, 929.
  7. Frederique Apffel Marglin, Wives of the God-king: the Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), 216.
  8. Ellen Goldberg, The Lord Who Is Half Woman: Ardhanarisvara in Indian and Feminist Perspective. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 1.
  9. Zaenher, 88.
  10. Walker, 929.
  11. Zaenher, 86.
  12. Zaenher, 87.
  13. Zaenher, 89.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Avalon, Arthur. Shakti and Shakta. New York: Dover Publications, 1978.
  • Goldberg, Ellen. The Lord Who Is Half Woman: Ardhanarisvara in Indian and Feminist Perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0791453261
  • Marglin, Frederique Apffel. Wives of the God-king: the Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989. ISBN 0195617312
  • Ramanujan, A.K. The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan. ed. Vinay Dharwadker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper, 1983. ISBN 978-0062509253
  • Zaenher, R.C. Hinduism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966. ISBN 0-19-888012-X

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