Bowing to goddess: Energy in everything
The word ‘shakti’ is derived from the potential indicator root ‘shak’. Therefore, ‘Shakti’ is the ability to do something. Outcome is inherent in the cause, in its unmanifest form, and requires Shakti to manifest itself as action.
Shakti Puja is the process of awakening this inherent energy and making it useful. Without Shakti, there can be no work. Without Shakti, Shiv is incapable of performing actions and is no more than a corpse.
But this does not mean that Shiv and Shakti are two separate entities. Infinite energy lies in every substance, even in a vacuum. Similarly, even though there is a difference between Shiv and Shakti from a practical point of view, Shiv and Shakti are virtually the same.
When Shiv is not united with Shakti, He is inactive, non-creative but Shiv is never powerless. In a powerless state, Shakti remains absorbed in Shiv in an unmanifest form.
In such a state, Shakti is not in union with Shiv. Union with Shiv happens only when Shakti is in manifest form.
How can this dormant energy be awakened and the purpose achieved? How can one become powerful with the help of those within whom this power is awakened?
This is the mystery of Shakti Puja. Shakti is worshipped to express. Without worshipping Shakti or without taking refuge in the awakened Shakti, the soul cannot experience its Shiv-ness. There is no lack of light in the world, but the person with eyes closed can’t see it.
To realise light, one must first open their eyes. There is no lack of knowledge in the world, but the ignorant can’t achieve it. To achieve knowledge, one must awaken one’s inner Jnan-Shakti.
In the same way, God is self-revealed or self-illuminating, but to realise God, one has to remove the veil over one’s senses and awaken one’s inherent power.
God cannot be realised without the full manifestation of the latent power of our senses. With the awakening of this power, God is visualised in celestial form, Vishwarup , and then it is also realised that there is only one entity manifested in everything in the world.
But we are incapable of realising Shakti on our own, so it is natural to pray to God for enabling us to realise Her vision. When there is grace from Ma Adhyashakti, illumination happens in two ways: The mother destroys our vices in the form of Kali and then empowers us in the form of Shri. In this way, She enables us to realise God within. This is the sole purpose of Shakti Puja.
It should be remembered that there is no difference between Shakti and the holder of Shakti, Shaktiman, and Shaktiman brings his beloved jiva closer with the help of Shakti. Ma AdhyaShakti is the primordial energy that empowers everything and performs every work in this world. Everything in the world is her expression.
Ya Devi sarvabhutesu saktirupena samsthita, namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namah – I bow to the goddess who is inherent in the form of energy in everything.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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