Sakti
The Hindu Goddess
ŚAKTI (Śhakti)
Kundalinī: The Divine Female Energy
Religious Studies 100 - #302
Roman Rushing
October 2, 2007
The dual characteristics of the Hindu gods, the contemplative and the active, the reigning and the conquering, the meditating and the militant are nowhere so prominent as in Śiva and his consorts.[1] When the Śakti is referred to it is the Śakti of the god Śiva that is specifically intended.[2] She is identified with the One, since it is believed that she combines in her person both the Universal Male and the Universal Female.[3] The Female is the complete One and is the central object of worship.[4]
The concept of Śakti is linked to the power of the austerities (tapas), creative and supernatural powers (siddhis), and the power of the sacrifice (mâyâ).[5] A vast number of tribes and groups relate Śakti to the premier powers within the Hindu realm of gods. The relationships with Śakti to its people have created a status of Divine Motherhood between the goddess and its culture. Śaivites claimed it as a property of Śiva, his creative energy (Śhakti).[6] Thus, it could be personified as his wife, Devi.[7] And Śakti was one of Devi’s names and one of her manifestations. [8] However, from a Śakta (a devotee of Śakti as Supreme) perspective, Śakti was and is the cosmic energy of the Supreme Mother.[9] And to illustrate this emphatically, Śakta’s state that Śiva without śakti is only śava, corpse.[10] Thus, it is Mother’s energy that transforms the corpse (śava) to a god (Śiva).[11] The conception of these two Supreme Powers, Śakti and Śiva, create a correlation between the Male and Female, and the meaning of each as One.
The goddess Śakti, and her divine female energy or kundalinī – is united with the divine male principle, Lord Śiva, who dwells in a thousand-petalled lotus in the highest center of energy.[12] The Sanskrit term Kundalinī is used in Hindu yogic and Tantric literature to refer to the divine female...
View Full Essay