Talk:Sakti
Śakti (‘[Divine] Power [as Goddess]’) The universe that we see and expe¬rience is a bundle of energy, both packed and unpacked. This is the discovery of modern science, which incidentally, has demolished the distinction between matter and energy. According to it, there is one basic energy behind all forms of matter and energy. However, it seems to be still far off from discovering the relationship between matter on the one hand, and, mind and life on the other. Are they also, though apparently poles apart, manifesta¬tions of the same basic energy? Could it be that the same energy or matter, at one level of vibration, is called ‘matter’, at another, ‘mind’ and yet another, ‘life’? Modern science or the modern scientists, devoting most of their attention to the manifest material universe may not even be prepared to concede this possibility! Hindu philosophy, based on the Vedānta and a group of works based on the Vedānta and more commonly known as the Tantras* postulates exactly this! The source and sustenance of all creation, whether at the level of matter or life or mind, is one and one only. It is Śakti (= energy). Brahman (the Absolute) of the Vedānta and Śakti or Devī of the Tantras are identical. When that ‘energy’ is in a static condition, with neither evolution nor involution, when the universe to be created is not even in a seed-form as it were, it is called Brahman. When it starts evolving into this creation, sustains it and with¬draws it back into itself, it is called Śakti. If Brahman is the coiled serpent in sleep, Śakti is the same serpent in motion. If Brahman is likened to the word, Śakti is its meaning. If Brahman is like fire, Śakti is its burning power. The two are insepa-rable: one in two and two in one. In the Hindu mythological literature, as also in the Tantras, this energy is always pictured as a female deity, the Devī, as the consort of its counterpart male deity. Each member of the Trinity has his Śakti or Devī as his consort: Sarasvatī of Brahmā, Lakṣmī of Viṣṇu and Pārvatī of Śiva. However, the mother-cult that has evolved over the last few centuries is predominantly centered round Pārvatī, the consort of Siva. Mother-worship and mother-cult are not alien to the Vedic religion as some suggest. The concept of Aditi—the mother of gods, personification of nature, and the Ambhrnīsukta as also the Rātrlsukta of the Rgveda clearly contain the origins of mother-worship See also LAKṣMĪ, PĀRVATĪ, and SARASVATĪ.