Devi: "Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness arises, there is no liberation.”

Devi “is the origin of the universe, the resort of all, the primordial prakrti.” She is the “supreme vidya (knowledge) which is the cause of liberation.”

“The Devimahatmya refers to two different traditions regarding the origin of the Great Goddess: in the first Devi is explained as the Mahanidra of Visnu embodied as the universe, eternal, incarnated in many forms. She is "drawing herself out from the eyes and the various organs and limbs" of Visnu: when Great Sleep leaves Visnu, he awakens. In this form she is the great creator: she creates the entire universe, she is the cause of bondage and transmigration, the cause of final liberation too. She is both fierce and auspicious: she gives to mankind boons for their final liberation.

The second account of Devi's origin has a different ring and seems to be the older one. It not only mentions the Vedic gods but it is somehow reminiscent of the Indra-Vrtra myth—the fight of the High God against the demon usurper, who has conquered the gods and assumed the place of Indra. Devi here is no longer the prakrti of Visnu but the essence of all the gods, "godhead"In a concrete sense. She surpasses all the individual gods in power and glory because in her all the qualities of the gods are embodied...

Thus the salvation of gods and men has been accomplished, and Devi receives praise from all the devas. In the cause of this prayer all the essential qualities of the Devi are mentioned, and the basic Devi philosophy comes to the fore: Devi “is the origin of the universe, the resort of all, the primordial prakrti.” She is the “supreme vidya (knowledge) which is the cause of liberation.” She is “Durga, the boat that carries men across the difficult ocean of worldly existence,” she is “Sri who has taken her abode in the heart of Visnu,” and she is “Gauri, who has established herself with Siva.” Devi offers a boon, and the devas choose the following: “Whenever we think of you again, destroy our direst calamities.”...

Devi-avataras are also found in the Puranas. They have the same function which Vainavas ascribe to Visnu-avataras, namely to protect the world in successive ages from demons and other evil. This theory also helps to explain the numerous goddesses as manifestations of One Supreme Goddess: “Bhavani is worshipped by the gods in all her repeated incarnations. She always kills demons by incarnating herself on earth and she protects all creation in heaven, earth and the nether world...”

She explains her own nature according to Advaita: “I and Brahman are one.”...

The Goddess is the great Sakti. She is Maya, for of her the maya which produces the samsara is. As Lord of Maya she is Mahamaya. Devi is avidya because she binds, and vidya because she liberates and destroys the samsara. She is praktri and as existing before creation is the Adya Sakti. Devi is the Vacaka Sakti, the manifestation of Cit in Praktri, and the Vicya Sakti or Cit itself. The Atma should be contemplated as Devi. Sakti or Devi is thus the Brahman revealed in The Mother aspect (Srimata) as creatrix and nourisher of the worlds. Kali says of herself in Yogini Tantra: “I am the bodily form of Saccidananda and I am the brahman that has emanated from brahman.” "

K. K. Klostermaier, Hinduism: A Short History
Oneworld Pub., 2000, p. 200-211.

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4) Sri Cidagni-Kunda-sambhuta
— Born from the Pit of the Fire of Consciousness.
— Burns out ignorance and confers Immortality.
— She who rose from the fire of knowledge and is the ultimate truth.

68) Sri Chakra-raja-ratha-rudha-sarvayudha-pariskrta
— Mounted on Sri Chakra inside body with all weapons i.e. Powers.
— Enlightens mind to realise Ultimate Reality as an All Pervading-Consciousness.

207) Sri Manonmani
— Highest state of Consciousness.
— Secret name of Sri Durga.

367) Sri Pratyak-Chiti-Rupa
— Inner Consciousness or Knowledge.

404) Sri Bhakta-harda-tamo-bheda-bhanumad-bhanu- santaih
— Effulgence of the Sun; dispels Darkness of Ignorance.
— Giver of the Vision of the Ocean of Consciousness.

573) Sri Prajnana Ghana-rupini
— Supreme Wisdom
— State of Consciousness where nothing else is experienced except Self.
—"Like the taste of salt in the sea (It) is everywhere; Prajnana is All Pervasive.”Brahadaranyaka Upanisad

669) Sri Annada
— The Giver of Food.
— Sustains Life and Consciousness.

739) Sri Layakari
—The Fifth State beyond Turiya.
—The State where individual and Cosmic Consciousness merge.

854) Sri Gambhira
— The Bottomless Lake.
—"The Ultimate Mother is to be visualised as a great and deep lake of Consciousness, uncomprehended by Space and Time.”Siva Sutra 1.23

858) Sri Kalpana-rahita
— Pure Consciousness.

907) Sri Tattvamayi
— The Mother of the Ultimate State of Consciousness.

Sri Lalita Sahasranama,
C. S. Murthy, Assoc. Advertisers and Printers, 1989.

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“The Devi declares that prior to creation, She is the only existent entity, the one supreme Brahman and is pure consciousness.”

The Devi Gita is the final and best-known portion of the vast 11th-century scripture known as the Devi Bhagavata Purana, a text exclusively dedicated to the Devi “in her highest iconic mode, as the supreme World-Mother Bhuvaneshvari, beyond birth, beyond marriage, beyond any possible subordination to Shiva.” Indeed, the Purana's "most significant contribution to the Shakta theological tradition is the ideal of a Goddess both single and benign.”

In the Devi Gita the Devi proceeds to describe her essential forms. The Devi declares that prior to creation, She is the only existent entity, the one supreme Brahman and is pure consciousness. The Devi Gita is clear about salvation and attainment of eternal life: “Even when a person performs bhakti, knowledge need not arise. He will go to the Devi's Island. Till the complete knowledge in the form of my consciousness arises, there is no liberation.”

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“A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna; another was Buddha.”

“The Saktas worship the Universal Energy as Mother; it is the sweetest name they know. The Mother is the highest ideal of womanhood in India...

Mother is the first manifestation of power and is considered a higher idea than father. The name of mother brings the idea of Shakti, Divine energy and omnipotence. The baby believes its mother to be all-powerful, able to do anything. The Divine Mother is the Kundalini sleeping in us; without worshipping Her, we can never know ourselves. All merciful, all-powerful, omnipresent - these are attributes of the Divine Mother. She is the sum total of the energy in the Universe.

Every manifestation of power in the universe is Mother. She is Life, She is Intelligence, She is Love. She is in the universe, yet separate from it. She is a person, and can be seen and known - as Sri Ramakrishna saw and knew Her. Established in the idea of Mother, we can do anything. She quickly answers prayers.

She can show Herself to us in any form at any moment. The Divine Mother can have form (rupa) and name (nama), or name without form; and as we worship Her in these various aspects, we can rise to Pure Being, having neither form nor name.

The sum-total of all the cells in an organism is one person. Each soul is like one cell, and the sum of them is God. And beyond that is the Absolute. The sea calm is the Absolute; the same sea in waves is the Divine Mother. She is time, space and causation. Mother is the same as Brahman and has two natures; the conditioned and the unconditioned. As the former, She is God, nature and soul. As the latter, she is unknown and unknowable. Out of the Unconditioned came the trinity, God, nature and soul - the triangle of existence.

A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna; another was Buddha. The worship of even one spark of Mother in our earthly mother leads to greatness. Worship Her if you want love and wisdom.”

Swami Vivekananda, "Inspired Talks, My Master and Other Writings",
Wed. July 2,1895, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, NY, pp. 48-49.

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“The Devi-Bhagavata was intended not only to show the superiority of the Goddess over various male deities, but also to clarify and elaborate on her nature on her own terms.”

The Devi-Bhagavata Purana (The Old Book of the Goddess), also known as Shrimad Devi Bhagvatam or Devi Bhagavatam, is one of the most important work in Shaktism, the veneration in Hinduism of the divine feminine, next to Devi Mahatmya. The Devi-Bhagavata Purana retells the tales of the Devi Mahatmya in much greater length and detail, embellishing them with Shakta philosophical reflections, while recasting many classic tales from other schools of Hinduism (particularly Vaishnavism) in a distinctly Shakta light:

“The Devi-Bhagavata was intended not only to show the superiority of the Goddess over various male deities, but also to clarify and elaborate on her nature on her own terms.”.. The Goddess in the Devi-Bhagavata becomes less of a warrior goddess, and more a nurturer and comforter of her devotees, and a teacher of wisdom. This development in the character of the Goddess culminates in the Devi Gita, which “repeatedly stresses the necessity of love for the goddess, with no mention of one's gender, as the primary qualification,” a view “inspired by the devotional ideals of Shaktism.”

The Devi-Bhagavata Purana vividly describes the concept of supreme devotion (parabhakti), a central component of all the Puranas. One passage explains that there are three kinds of Yoga: that of action (karma), knowledge (jnana), and devotion (bhakti). According to Devi, who narrates the text herself, “Of these three, the Yoga of devotion is the easiest in all respects.” However, she explains, there are three lower forms of devotion that should be avoided. Some people worship Devi to spite other people. Others worship Devi hoping to attain some personal desire, such as fame. Still others worship Devi as a means of purifying their actions. A fourth type of devotion, though, is supreme devotion, which is completely selfless. As described below, it is so selfless that the worshiper does not even desire the experience of release itself:

“Now listen attentively about the supreme devotion (parabhakti) which I will now describe to you. He always hears my glories and recites my name. His mind always dwells in me, like the incessant flow of oil, and he is the receptacle of all good qualities and gunas. But he does not have the least trace of any desire to get the fruits of his actions (karma). Indeed, he does not want the various levels of release (moksha), including being on the same plane as God (salokya), nearness to God (samipya), having the form of God (sarsti), union with God (sayujya) and other forms of release.”

Devi continues noting that true worshipers abandons all concepts of themselves, completely identify themselves with Devi, and make no distinctions between themselves and anything else. Worshipers find Devi in everything, including other souls:

He becomes filled with devotion for me alone, worships me only, knows nothing higher than to serve me, and he does not even want final release. He does not like neglecting the notions of "serving" (sevya) and the "servant who serves" (sevaka). He always meditates on me with a constant vigilance, actuated by a feeling of supreme devotion. He does not think of himself as separate from me, but rather thinks to himself, “I am the Lord (Bhagavati).” He considers all souls (jivas) as myself, and loves me as he loves himself. He makes no distinction between the souls and myself since he finds the same pure consciousness (caitanya) everywhere and manifested in all. He does not quarrel with anyone since he has abandoned all ideas of separateness. He bows down and worships the pure consciousness and all the souls. He becomes filled with the highest love when he sees my place, sees my devotees, hears the scriptures, describes my deeds, and meditates on my mantras. His hairs stand on end out of love for me and his tears of love flow incessantly from both of his eyes. He recites my name, deeds in a voice that is choked with feelings of love for me. With intense feeling he worships me as The Mother of this universe and the cause of all causes.”

Devi Bhagavata Purana, 7.37

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THE PRIMEVAL ENERGY

One of the unique features of Hinduism is the fact that it conceives Divinity also as Mother Goddess. When Divinity has no name or form—which is the most important declaration of the Upanishads, the next logical step is to recognize that the Supreme has no specificity in terms of gender. The Upanishads transcend the gender-specific connotation and invent the unique Sanskrit word tat, meaning 'that' for that Supreme Reality. And therefore they argue, whatever reason or rhyme we have in referring to God by a masculine pronoun, the same right there is for us to call God by a feminine pronoun. The energy of every Cosmic Divinity is taken to be feminine and thus arises the interesting concept of primordial power or the [Parashakti], which means 'Power Supreme'.

BRAHMAN TO BE KNOWN, SHAKTI TO BE WORSHIPPED

The primordial Parashakti is therefore the ultimate dynamic energy of the transcendental Brahman, than which there is no other existence. In fact it is technically wrong to say that She (Parashakti) is the Energy of Brahman, because the nature of Brahman does not allow any attributes or predicates.The moment we attribute anything to Brahman we have already delimited and circumscribed it. When we talk of the Energy of the Ultimate Reality we have already descended one step from the supreme pedestal of the Unmanifested Attributeless Ultimate.

But the beauty of the concept of Parashakti is that She is transcendent beyond anything that is finite and immanent in everything there is. So while we predicate it and relate it to other things, it is still the Ultimate Supreme that can be talked about. While Brahman has only to be cognized, Parashakti can be worshipped with a name and form. She is the Divine Will personified. She is the Conscious Power beyond everything. She is the Presence, invisible and constant, that sustains the world, linking form and name, holding them in interdependence. There is nothing impossible for Her. She is the Universal Goddess. She is all knowledge, all strength, all triumph and all victory. She is the Goddess Supreme (Maheshvari) who brings to us the total state of illumination.

Devi Mahatmyam
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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“The same principle of matter and form working together can account for the whole evolution of humanity. But what happens in human beings is that this organizing power, this form, begins to emerge into consciousness.”

“In the course of evolution most processes simply follow mechanical laws. Rupert Sheldrake puts this down to a kind of force of habit, in that once a certain pattern of organisation has occurred it tends to repeat itself and so it gets fixed to a certain extent. This pattern appears as a kind of mechanical law. But at the same time there are also continual chance variations and the new form that emerges from these apparently chance changes integrates the chance elements, creating a new structure. So form and matter, order and chance, are working one on the other the whole time. At each stage the organism becomes more complex and the organising principle more powerful and more structured. This is what Teilhard de Chardin calls the principle of complexification. (p.259) An atom of hydrogen is extremely simple, consisting of one proton and one electron. But then as there arise more and more complex atoms, and increasingly complex molecules and cells, at each level there has to be a more complex deep structure to hold it together and the energy within has to be stronger. This is Teilhard's point of the within and the without of things. Atoms, molecules, cells, attain their structure from the outside, as it were, with regard to their matter but at the same time a force is appearing within each one which organises and maintains the structure. Matter is without; form, the organising force, is within. And so the form organises each thing in a more complex way and becomes more manifest as it develops, leading to increasingly greater and more complex formal order.

This process goes on continually, through plants and animals to human beings. It appears that the same forces which are at work in matter and sub-human life operate also in the human person and in human consciousness. The same principle of matter and form working together can account for the whole evolution of humanity. But what happens in human beings is that this organizing power, this form, begins to emerge into consciousness. We have seen that there is an organizing power at every level and this organising power has the character of a mind. Mind, it has been said, reveals itself as “a pattern of self- organisation and a set of dynamic relationships.” In this sense it can be said that mind is present in matter from the beginning. Form in Aristotle's sense of the word is a power of intelligence. It creates order. It causes the self-organisation of all organic structures and creates a set of dynamic relationships. So mind is present in matter, and in plants and animals, and that mind becomes conscious in us. And so, in a very exact sense, it can be said that matter becomes conscious in human beings. This process which has been going on from the beginning of time becomes conscious in us. (p.260) It evolves into consciousness. We are that stage of evolution at which the material universe is emerging into consciousness in each one of us...

In the evolutionary and developmental process, once we reach the level of language we have already crossed a barrier because with language it becomes possible to form symbols and an inner world comes into being. There is the outer world around us consisting of all the energies of matter and nature, and now with language and symbol we create an inner world where we represent, through the imagination, what we take to be the structure of the universe around us. Outside us are all these energies at work, but through our senses, feelings, imagination, reason and will, through all the faculties of our being, we structure a universe around us. It is a very limited universe and a very limited understanding that we have. It is always that we are structuring this appearance of the world around us. It is not as it really is. The world is infinitely greater than we perceive it. We only perceive those aspects of nature, matter and the energies of existence which are reflected through our senses, our feelings, our imagination, our mind and our will, through the whole of our human organism, and this is our particular way of perceiving the universe. So matter emerges into consciousness in us and we create this inner world by which we can represent the world around us and that can gradually be extended. The whole aim of pure science and of philosophy is to get a more and more accurate knowledge of the world around, but we know now that understanding is always conditioned by the limitations of our minds.”

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith)
Bede Griffiths, Templegate Publishers (May 14, 1990) pp. 258-262

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Consciousness

“All things are made of atoms. Stars are made of atoms. Humans are made of atoms. When we look at a tree, we see ourselves.”

John Holland

“To say that consciousness evolved from matter is to say that a TV evolved from a refrigerator. Such things do not happen.”

Cairns Smith, chemical evolutionist

“When science comes to eventually understand consciousness it will be an achievement in the face of which every other achievement of science will pale into insignificance.”

William James

“The physical basis of the mind is the brain action in each individual. It accompanies the activity of the spirit, but the spirit is free. It is capable of some degree of initiative. The spirit is the man one knows. He must have continuity through periods of coma and sleep. I assume then that the spirit must live on somehow after death. I cannot doubt that many make contact with God and have guidance from a greater spirit. If he had only a brain and not a mind, this difficult decision would not be his.”

W. Penfield, one of the top neuroscientists of the century,
Science, the Ox, and the Spirit

“I went through my entire scientific career searching for life, but now I see that life has somehow slipped through my fingers and all I have is electrons, protons, and particles, which have no life at all. So in my old age I am forced to retrace my steps.”

Szent-Giorgi, the Nobel laureate biologist

“The origin of species and of much of evolution appears to be due to some organizing and partly intelligent spiritual agency associated with the animal or plant, which controls its life processes and tends to keep the being more or less adapted to its environment. But in addition to this there seem to be other spiritual agencies of a much higher type which have been responsible for what may be called greater evolution ... These spiritual agencies appear to have worked by directing from time to time the inferior agencies which are associated with the animals and plants.”

Robert Broom, Evolution—Is There Intelligence Behind It?
South African Journal of science, Vol. 30 (October 1933), pp. 18-19.

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could nave been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species,
New York: New American Library, 1964, p. 168.

“It is difficult to discuss the beginning of the universe without mentioning the concept of god. My work on the origin of the universe is on the borderline between science and religion, but I try to stay on the scientific side of the border. It is quite possible that god acts in ways that cannot be described by scientific laws.”

Stephen Hawking, 2002

The cosmos"reveals an intelligence of such superiority that compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

Albert Einstein

“If there is such an Infinite Being, and if... his will and purpose is the increase of conscious beings, then we can hardly be the first result of this purpose. We conclude, therefore, that there are now in the universe infinite grades of power, infinite grades of knowledge and wisdom, infinite grades of influence of higher beings upon lower. Holding this opinion, I have suggested that this vast and wonderful universe, with its almost infinite variety of forms, motions, and reactions of parts upon part, from suns and systems up to plant-life, animal-life, and the human living soul, has ever required and still requires the continuous coordinated agency of myriads of such intelligences.”

Alfred Russell Wallace, The World of Life
New York: Moffat, Yard & Co., 1911, p. 431

“To understand the esoteric philosophy it is best to forget bodies and to grip the essential consciousness of ourselves. The fatal error of Western thought in all its departments of religion, philosophy and science is that it concentrates on the body-aspects, therefore on the transitory, the ever-changing. We have forgotten that the way by which to understand ultimates is by facing and studying them; and the ultimate of ultimates is the divine Selfhood, essential consciousness.”

G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism,
Theosophical University Press, 1974

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“This change of attitude towards life, this change of complete peace and joy has come to you all because your attention is now on your spirit. Now you don't think of money, money walks your way. You don't think of power, power walks your way. And the power of the spirit is the highest, the most powerful and the most righteous thing. It is not necessary that you should become a sanyasi, sadhu baba, do all kinds of things. No necessity of these rituals. The spirit is residing within you. Already all you have done in last lives. Now this life only thing you have to do is to put attention to your spirit. And that's only possible through the awakening of this Kundalini - the Primordial Mother. When She starts, I mean that's also your own. When She starts rising, She passes through the centers and enriches them, integrates them, and pierces through the last fontanel bone area and makes you connected to this all pervading power of divine love. But this power of divine love is not only ?the love," if you want to say, it is also peace and joy and also it is the superior wisdom.

It is rather subtle for normal man to understand. I know that. I've gone through that. For persons to understand that one can become the spirit.. but this is in the evolutionary process. Today is the time for people to become the spirit. This is the blessing of this blossom time as I call it and people have to become the spirit. Otherwise what is left of them is like all other human beings who'll, I don't where they'll end up. So this is an essential step today to become the spirit. All the saints, all the prophets, all the religions have talked about it. Not that they have not. Of course, we have twisted them. We have made separate, separate things. But it's only one simple thing is that you are a spirit and that spirit, unless and until you become, you cannot achieve any peace, any joy and no love.”

The Paraclete Shri Mataji
New Delhi, India—20 March 1998

“It is one of the main teachings of the profound traditional wisdom of India, that the Primordial Mother is the origin of all things and everything tends to flow naturally back towards Her.”

The Paraclete Shri Mataji

“Now to understand the basic character of Kundalini, one has to know that She is your mother. I'm told that German people call their motherland as fatherland, but Father is just a spectator of the play. Only His Shakti, His power, the Primordial Mother, the Holy Ghost does all the job to please this spectator who is sitting alone and watching it. He resides in your heart as spirit. And the Kundalini is the Holy Ghost reflected within you.

The nature of the Kundalini is that She's the pure, ultimate desire. This power is called as a residual, because it has not yet manifested itself. The ultimate desire of every human soul is to become the spirit. You may do this, you may do that, you may try everything - ultimately you will come to the conclusion that, 'I have not become the spirit.'

So when you become the spirit, then only the manifestation of this Kundalini takes place, Her ascent takes place and She is the one who creates the position of yoga, the union with the Divine. This is the Yoga.”

The Paraclete Shri Mataji

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The fulfillment of eschatological instruction promised by Jesus

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (1923-2011) was Christian by birth, Hindu by marriage, and Paraclete by duty.
Total number of recorded talks 3058: Public Programs 1178, Pujas 651, and other (private conversations) 1249

“The Paraclete will come (15:26; 16:7, 8, 13) as Jesus has come into the world (5:43; 16:28; 18:37)... The Paraclete will take the things of Christ (the things that are mine, ek tou emou) and declare them (16:14-15). Bishop Fison describes the humility of the Spirit, 'The true Holy Spirit of God does not advertise Herself: She effaces Herself and advertises Jesus.' ...
It is by the outgoing activity of the Spirit that the divine life communicates itself in and to the creation. The Spirit is God-in-relations. The Paraclete is the divine self-expression which will be and abide with you, and be in you (14:16-17). The Spirit's work is described in terms of utterance: teach you, didasko (14:26), remind you, hypomimnesko (14:26), testify, martyro (15:26), prove wrong, elencho (16:8), guide into truth, hodego (16:13), speak, laleo (16:13, twice), declare, anangello (16:13, 14, 15). The johannine terms describe verbal actions which intend a response in others who will receive (lambano), see (theoreo), or know (ginosko) the Spirit. Such speech-terms link the Spirit with the divine Word. The Spirit's initiatives imply God's personal engagement with humanity. The Spirit comes to be with others; the teaching Spirit implies a community of learners; forgetful persons need a prompter to remind them; one testifies expecting heed to be paid; one speaks and declares in order to be heard. The articulate Spirit is the correlative of the listening, Spirit-informed community.
The final Paraclete passage closes with a threefold repetition of the verb she will declare (anangello), 16:13-15. The Spirit will declare the things that are to come (v.13), and she will declare what is Christ's (vv. 14, 15). The things of Christ are a message that must be heralded...
The intention of the Spirit of truth is the restoration of an alienated, deceived humanity... The teaching role of the Paraclete tends to be remembered as a major emphasis of the Farewell Discourses, yet only 14:26 says She will teach you all things. (Teaching is, however, implied when 16:13-15 says that the Spirit will guide you into all truth, and will speak and declare.) Franz Mussner remarks that the word used in 14:26, didaskein, "means literally 'teach, instruct,' but in John it nearly always means to reveal.” (Stevick 2011, 292-7)
The Holy Spirit as feminine: Early Christian testimonies and their interpretation,
Johannes van Oort, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Department of Church History and Church Polity, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

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