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Is Shakti Force?
From: "jagbir singh" <adishakti_org@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:41 am
Subject: Is Shakti Force?
> —- In adishakti_sahaja_yoga@yahoogroups.com, "jagbir
singh"
<adishakti_org@y...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Dear Semira,
> >
> > Definitely and without question the Divine Message will
triumph
> > over the organization itself. In future more and more
people
> > will embrace its central message of evolving into the
eternal
> > spirit that all religions, holy scriptures and prophets
have
> > since time immemorial upheld. The Divine Message is a
spiritual
> > sanctuary, a beacon of hope, joy, peace of eternal life
to all
> > humans. The Shakti/Holy Spirit/Ruh/Aykaa Mayee is the
Divine
> > Feminine that gives Self-realization/Birth of
Spirit/Baptism of
> > Allah/Opens Dasam Dwar for humanity to enter the
Sahasrara/
> > Kingdom of God/Niche of lights/Inner Sanctuary within
where
> > Brahman/God Almighty/Allah/ Waheguru resides as THE
LIGHT.
> > Semira, not only the current Sahaja Yoga organisation
but all
> > religious organizations as well have merely been
intended as
> > temporary vehicles and starting points for the Divine
Message.
> >
> > jagbir
> >
> >
> > —- In adishakti_sahaja_yoga@yahoogroups.com, "jagbir
singh"
<adishakti_org@y...> wrote:
>
> By the way things are moving the Adi Shakti will
eventually
> triumph. All we need to do as Her bhaktas is to stand our
ground
> and not yield an inch because Truth always triumphs. Years
of
> silence from religious regimes is the sure sign that the
Devi and
> Her Divine Message to all humanity cannot be challenged,
and will
> eventually be victorious in Her battle against the evil
forces.
> All we need to do is to fearlessly announce the Truth.
Shanti,
> Shanti, Shanti.
>
Is Shakti Force?
There are some persons who have thought, and still think,
that
Shakti means force and that the worship of Shakti is the
worship of
force. Thus Keshub Chunder Sen (New Dispensation, p. 108),
wrote:
Four centuries ago the Shaktas gave way before the Bhaktas.
Chaitanya's army proved invincible, and carried all Bengal
captive.
Even to-day his gospel of love rules as a living force,
though his
followers have considerably declined both in faith and in
morals.
Just the reverse of this we find in England and other
European
countries. There the Shaktas are driving the Bhaktas out of
the
field. Look at the Huxleys, the Tyndalls and the Spencers of
the
day. What are they but Shaktas, worshipers of Shakti or
Force? The
only Deity they adore, if they at all adore one, is the
Prime Force
of the universe. To it they offer dry homage. Surely then
the
scientists and materialists of the day are a sect of Shakti-
worshipers, who are chasing away the true Christian
devotees who
adore the God of Love. Alas! for European Vaishnavas; they
are
retreating before the advancing millions of Western Shaktas.
We
sincerely trust, however, the discomfiture of devotion and
Bhakti
will be only for a time, and that a Chaitanya will yet arise
in the
West, crush the Shaktas, who only recognize Force as Deity
and are
sunk in carnality and voluptuousness, and lead natures into
the
loving faith, spirituality, simplicity, and rapturous
devotion of
the Vaishnava.
Professor Monier Williams ("Hinduism") also called it a
doctrine of
Force.
Recently the poet Rabindranath Tagore has given the
authority of his
great name to this error (Modern Review, July, 1919). After
pointing
out that Egoism is the price paid for the fact of existence
and that
the whole universe is assisting in the desire that the "I"
should
be, he says that man has viewed this desire in two different
ways,
either as a whim of Creative Power, or a joyous
self-expression of
Creative Love. Is the fact then of his being, he asks, a
revealment
of Force or of Love? Those who hold to the first view must
also, he
thinks, recognize conflict as inevitable and eternal. For
according
to them Peace and Love are but a precarious coat of armor
within
which the weak seek shelter, whereas that which the timid
anathematize as unrighteousness, that alone is the road to
success. "The pride of prosperity throws man's mind outwards
and the
misery and insult of destitution draws man's hungering
desires
likewise outwards. These two conditions alike leave man
unashamed to
place above all other gods, Shakti the Deity of Power—the
Cruel
One, whose right hand wields the weapon of guile. In the
politics of
Europe drunk with Power we see the worship of Shakti."
In the same way the poet says that in the days of their
political
disruption, the cowed and down-trodden Indian people through
the
mouths of their poets sang the praises of the same Shakti.
"The
Chandi of Kavikangkan and of the Annadamangala, the Ballad
of
Manasa, the Goddess of Snakes, what are they but Paeans of
the
triumph of Evil? The burden of their song is the defeat of
Shiva the
good at the hands of the cruel deceitful criminal Shakti."
"The male
Deity who was in possession was fairly harmless. But all of
a sudden
a feminine Deity turns up and demands to be worshipped in
his stead.
That is to say that she insisted on thrusting herself where
she had
no right. Under what title? Force! By what method? Any that
would
serve."
The Deity of Peace and Renunciation did not survive. Thus he
adds
that in Europe the modern Cult of Shakti says that the pale
anaemic
Jesus will not do. But with high pomp and activity Europe
celebrates
her Shakti worship.
"Lastly the Indians of to-day have set to the worship
Europe's
Divinity. In the name of religion some are saying that it is
cowardly to be afraid of wrong-doing. Both those who have
attained
worldly success, and those who have failed to attain it are
singing
the same tune. Both fret at righteousness as an obstacle
which both
would overcome by physical force." I am not concerned here
with any
popular errors that there may be. After all, when we deal
with a
Shastrik term it is to the Shastra itself that we must look
for its
meaning. Shakti comes from the root Shak "to be able," "to
do". It
indicates both activity and capacity therefor. The world, as
word,
is activity. But when we have said that, we have already
indicated
that it is erroneous to confine the meaning of the term
Shakti to
any special form of activity. On the contrary Shakti means
both
power in general and every particular form of power. Mind is
a
Power: so is Matter. Mind is constantly functioning in the
form of
Vritti; Reasoning, Will and Feeling (Bhava) such as love,
aversion
and so forth are all aspects of Mind-power in its general
sense.
Force is power translated to the material plane, and is
therefore
only one and the grossest aspect of Shakti or power. But all
these
special powers are limited forms of the great creative Power
which
is The Mother (Ambika) of the Universe. Worship of Shakti is
not
worship of these limited forms but of the Divine will,
knowledge and
action, the cause of these effects. That Mahashakti is
perfect
consciousness (Cidrupini) and Bliss (Anandamayi) which
produces from
Itself the contracted consciousness experiencing both
pleasure and
pain. This production is not at all a "whim". It is the
nature
(Svabhava) of the ultimate.
Bliss is Love (Niratishayapremaspadatvam anandatvam). The
production
of the Universe is according to the Shakta an act of love,
illustrated by the so-called erotic imagery of the Shastra.
The Self
loves itself whether before, or in, creation. The thrill of
human
love which continues the life of humanity is an
infinitesimally
small fragment and faint reflection of the creative act in
which
Shiva and Shakti join to produce the Bindu which is the seed
of the
Universe.
I quite agree that the worship of mere Force is Asurik and
except in
a transient sense futile. Force, however, may be moralized
by the
good purpose which it serves. The antithesis is not rightly
between
Might and Right but between Might in the service of Right
and Might
in the service of Wrong. To worship force merely is to
worship
matter. He however who worships The Mother in Her Material
forms
(Sthularupa) will know that She has others, and will worship
Her in
all such forms. He will also know that She is beyond all
limited
forms as that which gives being to them all. We may then say
that
Force is a gross form of Shakti, but Shakti is much more
than
that "here" (Iha) and the infinite Power of Consciousness
"there"
(Amutra). This last, the Shakti of worship, is called by the
Shastra
the Purnahambhava or the experience "All I am".
Is Shakti Force?
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas07.htm
SHAKTI AND SHAKTA
by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), [1918]
Chapter 1: Indian Religion As Bharata Dharma
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas01.htm
Chapter 2: Shakti: The World as Power
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas02.htm
Chapter 3: What Are the Tantras and Their Significance?
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas03.htm
Chapter 4: Tantra Shastra and Veda
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas04.htm
Chapter 5: The Tantras and Religion of the Shaktas
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas05.htm
Chapter 6: Shakti and Shakta
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas06.htm
Chapter 7: Is Shakti Force?
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas07.htm
Chapter 8: Cinacara (Vashishtha and Buddha)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas08.htm
Chapter 9: The Tantra Shastras in China
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas09.htm
Chapter 10: A Tibetan Tantra
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas10.htm
Chapter 11: Shakti in Taoism
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas11.htm
Chapter 12: Alleged Conflict of Shastras
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas12.htm
Chapter 13: Sarvanandanatha
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas13.htm
Chapter 14: Cit-Shakti (The Consciousness Aspect of the
Universe)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas14.htm
Chapter 15: Maya-Shakti (The Psycho-Physical Aspect of the
Universe)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas15.htm
Chapter 16: Matter and Consciousness
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas16.htm
Chapter 17: Shakti and Maya
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas17.htm
Chapter 18: Shakta Advaitavada
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas18.htm
Chapter 19: Creation as Explained in the Non-dualist Tantras
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas19.htm
Chapter 20: The Indian Magna Mater
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas20.htm
Chapter 21: Hindu Ritual
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas21.htm
Chapter 22: Vedanta and Tantra Shastra
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas22.htm
Chapter 23: The Psychology of Hindu Religious Ritual
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas23.htm
Chapter 24: Shakti as Mantra (Mantramayi Shakti)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas24.htm
Chapter 25: Varnamala (The Garland of Letters)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas25.htm
Chapter 26: Shakta Sadhana (The Ordinary Ritual)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas26.htm
Chapter 27: The Pa—catattva (The Secret Ritual)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas27.htm
Chapter 28: Matam Rutra (The Right and Wrong Interpretation)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas28.htm
Chapter 29: Kundalini Shakta (Yoga)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas29.htm
Chapter 30: Conclusions
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas30.htm
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