Shaktism
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Philosophy
In his seminal History of the Shakta Religion, N. N. Bhattacharyya explained that "[those] who worship the Supreme Deity exclusively as a Female Principle are called Shakta. The Shaktas conceive their Great Goddess as the personification of primordial energy and the source of all divine and cosmic evolution. She is identified with the Supreme Being, conceived as the Source and the Spring as well as the Controller of all the forces and potentialities of Nature. Nowhere in the religious history of the world do we come across such a completely female-oriented system."
Alternative interpretations of Shaktism, however -- primarily those of Shaivite scholars, such as Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami -- argue that the feminine manifest is ultimately only the vehicle through which the masculine Un-manifest Parasiva is ultimately reached. In this interpretation, the Divine Mother becomes something of a mediatrix, who bestows advaitic moksha on those who worship Her. Thus, these Shaivite views often conclude that Shaktism is effectively a sub-denomination of Saivism, arguing that Devi is worshipped in order to attain union with Siva, who in Shaktism is the impersonal unmanifest Absolute. This remains a minority view in Shaktism proper, which considers Siva as an equal and inseparable aspect of Devi.
Origin and History
Shaktism as we know it today developed between the 4th and the 7th centuries CE in India. It was during this development that the many religious texts, known as the Tantras, were written. In a certain sense, one could consider oneself a Shakta (a devotee of Shakti), a Shaiva (a devotee of Shiva), and a Vaishnava (a devotee of Vishnu) all at the same time.
Roots in Hinduism
This form of Hinduism is strongly associated with Vedanta, Samkhya and Tantra Hindu philosophies and is ultimately monist, though there is a rich tradition of Bhakti yoga associated with it. The feminine energy (Shakti) is considered to be the motive force behind all action and existence in the phenomenal cosmos in Hinduism. The cosmos itself is Brahman, the concept of the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality that is the Divine Ground of all being, the "world soul". Masculine potentiality is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied in multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately reconciled in one.The keystone text is the Devi Mahatmya which combines earlier Vedic theologies, emergent Upanishadic philosophies and developing tantric cultures in a laudatory exegesis of Shakti religion. Demons of ego, ignorance and desire bind the soul in maya (illusion) (also alternately ethereal or embodied) and it is Mother Maya, shakti, herself, who can free the bonded individual. The immanent Mother, Devi, is for this reason focused on with intensity, love, and self-dissolving concentration in an effort to focus the shakta (as a Shakti worshipper is sometimes known) on the true reality underlying time, space and causation, thus freeing one from karmic cyclism. A common hymn describing the 1000 names of Devi is the Lalita sahasranama.
Worship
Among the manifestations of Devi most favoured for worship by Shaktas are Kali, Durga, and Parvati. Durga is an epithet of Mahadevi, or "Great Goddess," who is celebrated in the Devi Mahatmya. Kali is the goddess of destruction and transformation, as well as the devourer of time, as her name implies (kala means "time," and also means "black"). Parvati is the gentle wife of Shiva, one of the most popular gods of modern Hinduism, and is strongly associated with Kali and other goddesses.
Shakta worship takes many forms, but is heavily influenced by Tantra. Shakti is worshipped in several ways in the course of a puja (worship ceremony), including offerings of sweets and flowers, chanting mantras, using mudras, and typically offering some sort of sacrifice. She is most powerfully worshipped by chanting her bija mantra, which is different for each goddess.
Animal sacrifice is performed in some places in India, including such major sites as Kalighat in Calcutta, West Bengal, where goats are sacrificed daily, but especially on Kali's holy days of Tuesdays and Saturdays, and Kamakhya in Guwahati, Assam. Black male goats are typically sacrificed, as well as male buffalo during Durga Puja, and this practice is a controversial one. Animal rights groups have clashed with those who support the sacrifices, and though Indian law forbids the public slaughter of animals, the rule is rarely, if ever, enforced. There are rules surrounding the sacrifice, however: the brahmin performing the sacrifice is not allowed to cause pain to the animal, and must wait for the animal to surrender before cutting off the head with a single stroke, the least painful method. In addition, according to various traditions, the animal is said to achieve a higher level of rebirth, or in some cases, ultimate liberation. The head is offered to the goddess, the blood is used to bless icons and worshippers, and the meat cooked and served to the worshippers and poor as prasad. Those who are averse to animal sacrifice will use a pumpkin or melon instead, which has become a popular and acceptable substitute.
Shaktism is also fused with local beliefs in villages throughout India. In Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, she is known as Amma (mother). Rural Bengalis know her as Tushu. The Brahmanical idea of Shakti has become fused with local beliefs in protective village goddesses who punish evil, cure diseases and bring boons and blessings to the people of the village. Major annual festivals throughout India include Durga Puja (October, national), Divali (November, national), Kali Puja (October/November, national), Minakshi Kalyanam (April/May in Madurai, Tamil Nadu) and Ambubachi Mela (June/July in Guwahati, Assam), which is the most important festival to Shakta Tantriks.
Shakta Upanishads
Of the 108 Upanishads of the Muktika, 9 are considered Shakta Upanishads. They are listed with their associated Veda (ṚV, KYV, AV):
- Sītā (AV)
- Annapūrṇa (AV)
- Devī (AV)
- Tripurātapani (AV)
- Tripura (RV)
- Bhāvana (AV)
- Saubhāgya (RV)
- Sarasvatīrahasya (KYV)
- Bahvṛca (RV)
Shaktism and the aspects of the Great Goddess
One of the best explanations of how Shakti religion views the aspects of the Great Goddess comes from the Introduction to the poems of the Shakti poet, Ramprasad Sen, entitled "Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair" by Leonard Nathan and Clinton Seely :
How does Shaktism differ from the other bhakti cults?A major difference, obviously, is the worship of a goddess as the prime divinity. The worship of a female principle, if nothing else, permits a range and intensity of relationship to deity not readily available to other forms of bhakti.
That Ramprasad responds to the Goddess in various aspects with various names, and by no means exhaustively, suggests the rich range of emotional expressiveness She opens to Her devotees.
But does his response suggest more?
And what sense is there to be made out of the fact that some of Her forms and titles seem flatly to contradict others and that they all add up to no clear and coherent definition of Her character?
For example, some epithets for Her denote a loving mother or lovable child, while others indicate an overwhelmingly destructive force.
Some point to a transcendent deity, others to the disreputable spouse of the supreme deity, Shiva, forbidding denizen of mountaintop and cremation grounds. Thus, while She is addressed as the Mother (and most often perceived in that role by Ramprasad),
She is also known as Kali, the Dark One, of terrible and menacing aspect. She is sometimes Uma, daughter of the Mountain (Giri), who as a tender girl is married to the unprepossessing Shiva; at other times she is Durga, fair complexioned protectress, who, mounted on Her lion, slays the buffalo demon, Mahishasura, who is released from rebirth by her very touch.
Though conceived as a warrior, She is most often seen as motherly, both to Her divine children (Her sons are Ganesh and Kartik, Her daughters, Lakshmi and Sarasvati) and to her devotees. She presides over men's happier experiences: prosperity, victory, and good luck.
But She has many more names besides these - 108 is one figure - including many that designate Her role as the female counterpart of Shiva. Thus, as He is given the epithet Bhairava (the Terrible One), so She is Bhairavi And so on - a vast collection of titles that seem to add up to no whole, no consistent ethos.
But this confusion holds only if She is seen as human. Seen as a principle, She deserves Her many names. For while it is perhaps true that these epithets indicate that more than one female deity has been absorbed into Her character and that some of the epithets may be ways of explaining otherwise puzzling cult iconography or ritual, Her names, together; do finally describe what She is - the vital principle of the visible universe which has many faces: gracious, cruel, creative, destructive, loving, indifferent - the endless possibility of the active energy at the heart of the world.
If devotees sometimes call Her Kali, sometimes Tara, it is not because they are confused or that She is a chaos of attributes, but because they are addressing the aspect of Her that in the particular circumstances they wish to bring into their consciousness, or they are using one name as a sort of metonymy for all the others.
The aspects of the Great Goddess in ritual (Sanskrit: bhed)
"The goddess is the Adya Shakti, the original energy out of which all things were created. This form has many aspects, and all of them have to be honored and served in the remaining days of the Durgapuja. The long series of oblations, libations, and flower offerings are devoted to the recognition of and deference to the multiple aspects in the original form of the goddess.source : "The Play of the Gods: Locality, Ideology, Structure and Time in the Festivals of a Bengali Town", Akos Ostor, University of Chicago Press (1980).This recognition is central to sakti puja; bhed, division within the one goddess, must be revealed so that the full significance of Durga may be comprehended and everything may be reintegrated into the idea, form, and appearance of the goddess.
These aspects must be adored separately; otherwise the goddess is not satisfied."
Further reading
- Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair : Selected Poems to the Mother Goddess, Ramprasad Sen (1720-1781). (ISBN 0934252947)
- The Play of the Gods: Locality, Ideology, Structure and Time in the Festivals of a Bengali Town, Akos Ostor, University of Chicago Press (1980), (ISBN 0226639541)
External links
- [SHAKTI SADHANA: Shakti Sadhana is a Hindu spiritual practice that focuses worship upon Devi, the Goddess, the Divine Mother who creates and embodies all the Universe.] An international, non-profit organization based in Kerala, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Boston, USA. Its core practitioners adhere to authentic Shakta Tantra paths within several ancient South Indian Srividya lineages; its more than 2,000 members hail from around the world and across the spiritual spectrum.
- [SHARANYA: The Maa Batakali Cultural Mission, Inc.:] An international non-profit organization based in San Francisco and Orissa, which teaches authentic Shakta Tantra through a Western framework.
- [Shakti Wicca: An Eastern Oriented, Western Path of Balance.:]a Western Universalist Shakta Bhakti Wiccan tradition, that seeks to make a synergistic combination of the Hindu Shakta and Wiccan spiritualities, providing a ritual, education, and training structure that is familiar and accessible to Westerners.
See also
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