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    The Shakti Tradition: Beingfulness

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    Yash Chaudhari
    The document discusses the Shakti tradition of Hinduism. It describes Shakti as the supreme power responsible for creation, sustenance, and dissolution of the world. Followers of Shakti believed in a supreme being called Paramshiva, with Shakti as its dynamic power. Shakti went through 36 transformations in the process of creation, gradually separating the Self from itself and making beings forget their essential nature. The human state is considered rare after this evolutionary process across beings. The Tantras of the tradition were open to all regardless of social distinctions.

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    The Shakti Tradition: Beingfulness

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    Yash Chaudhari
    30 views7 pages
    The document discusses the Shakti tradition of Hinduism. It describes Shakti as the supreme power responsible for creation, sustenance, and dissolution of the world. Followers of Shakti believed in a supreme being called Paramshiva, with Shakti as its dynamic power. Shakti went through 36 transformations in the process of creation, gradually separating the Self from itself and making beings forget their essential nature. The human state is considered rare after this evolutionary process across beings. The Tantras of the tradition were open to all regardless of social distinctions.

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    The document discusses the Shakti tradition of Hinduism. It describes Shakti as the supreme power responsible for creation, sustenance, and dissolution of the world. Followers of Shakti believed in a supreme being called Paramshiva, with Shakti as its dynamic power. Shakti went through 36 transformations in the process of creation, gradually separating the Self from itself and making beings forget their essential nature. The human state is considered rare after this evolutionary process across beings. The Tantras of the tradition were open to all regardless of social distinctions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    30 views7 pages

    The Shakti Tradition: Beingfulness

    Uploaded by

    Yash Chaudhari
    The document discusses the Shakti tradition of Hinduism. It describes Shakti as the supreme power responsible for creation, sustenance, and dissolution of the world. Followers of Shakti believed in a supreme being called Paramshiva, with Shakti as its dynamic power. Shakti went through 36 transformations in the process of creation, gradually separating the Self from itself and making beings forget their essential nature. The human state is considered rare after this evolutionary process across beings. The Tantras of the tradition were open to all regardless of social distinctions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    4/18/23, 8:49 PM The Shakti Tradition — BEINGFULNESS

    BEINGFULNESS

    The Shakti Tradition


    RAM NIDUMOLU · JANUARY 21, 2020

    https://www.beingfulness.com/new-blog/the-shakti-tradition 1/7
    4/18/23, 8:49 PM The Shakti Tradition — BEINGFULNESS

    The worship of the Mother Goddess is one of the oldest traditions of the world. In
    ancient India, the goddess was considered the supreme power ( Shakti ) responsible
    for the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world. The followers of Shakti
    (Shaktas) and their doctrines (Tantras) are part of the scripture Agamas , one of the
    four main scriptures of Hinduism that include the Vedas , the Smriti and the Puranas .

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    4/18/23, 8:49 PM The Shakti Tradition — BEINGFULNESS

    These Tantrik followers believed in a supreme Being ( Paramshiva ). But this Being
    had a static, unchanging Self called Shiva , while Shakti was its dynamic power that
    was the Becoming of Being. Shakti controlled the universe, beginning with its
    creation and evolution ( Pravrtti ) from Being and ending with its return or involution
    to Being ( Nivrtti ), an endless cycle. 

    Before the universe was created, Shiva and Shakti were tightly coupled inside a dot
    (bindu ) hemmed by a serpent-like coiled line called Maya Shakti (illusive power).
    Inside the dot, Shiva was a white point like the Moon, while Shakti was a red point
    like Fire. Together, the white and red points (the Self in its own Self) are the “I” of
    oneness. Since this dot also contained the previous universes, their memory
    awakened Shakti and it began to uncoil. Thus began one of the most fascinating
    and detailed descriptions of the world’s creation in all the world’s religions. 

    In the process of creation, Shakti went forth in a series of 36 transformations


    (Tattvas ) . During this process, the Self that is Shiva was gradually separated from
    itself through phases that began with the Shiva Tattva and end with the Prakriti
    Tattvas. In the latter phases, Maya Shakti made beings forget their essential
    Shiva/Shakti nature and instead they saw themselves as finite and separate from
    one another and Shiva/Shakti . 

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    The 36 Tattvas proceeded as follows. Within the dot are the first two of six pure
    Tattvas: Shiva Tattva, the static aspect of Supreme Consciousness and Shakti Tattva,
    its dynamic activity. As the process of creation begins inside the dot, three other
    Shaktis are created corresponding to Will, Knowledge and Action ( Iccha Shakti,
    Jnana Shakti and Kriya Shakti). As Maya Shakti (the last of the six pure Tattvas)
    begins to uncoil, it creates a series of coverings or veils ( kanchukas ) around the
    essential nature of Shiva/Shakti . 

    First come the five Tattvas of mixed purity: Conditioned Action ( kalaa ), Conditioned
    Knowledge ( avidya ), Root of Desire ( raga ), Time ( kaala ) and Fate ( niyati ). The
    subsequent Tattvas , considered impure, include the five Tattvas that determine the
    individual being, comprising the spark of the Self ( purusha ), the combination of
    three factors ( gunas ), and intelligence ( buddhi ), ego ( ahamkara ) and mind ( manas ).
    Then come the remaining 20 Prakriti Tattvas in successive order: the senses, the
    instruments of action, the five sense-impressions (like sound and taste) and the five
    physical elements of fire, water, earth, air and space.

    The effects of these Tattvas of Maya Shakti in the manifest world is that mind and
    matter appear as the subjective and objective aspects of the same underlying static
    Consciousness ( Chit Shakti ). Shakti operates in the world through an evolutionary
    process where the bonds holding down static Consciousness are released gradually.

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    As beings evolve from plants to animals to humans, the mind begins to increase in
    importance as static Consciousness is set loose. To the Tantriks, the human state is
    therefore rare, obtained after much effort and struggle over time and across
    beings. 

    It is important to note that the Tantras of the Agama are open to everyone,
    regardless of gender, caste, class or other distinctions – an egalitarianism unlike
    other ancient Indian philosophies and practices that privileged the males and were
    restricted to certain castes. 

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