Invoking the divine female principle.

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Invoking the divine female principle

Jamuna Rangachari

 

The female Divine has always been an intrinsic part of Indian tradition.

Shakti and Shiva, the female and the male, are revered as essential parts of

being and the cosmic power.

 

The concept of ardhangini, of women being an equal part of men and vice versa,

clearly states that without one, the other is incomplete. This is evident in

Hindu rituals and symbols. Marriage is seen as a sacred union.

 

The gods were perturbed when Shiva was devoid of his union with Sati, and

rejoiced when Parvati, incarnated as Sati, wooed him into matrimony, through

severe austerities.

 

The scriptures are clear that while the bride must recognise her husband as her

Lord, the husband must appreciate the wife as the source of his position and

strength as provider and protector.

 

In pure Shaktiism, Devi is worshipped as the highest divinity, the supreme

Brahmn, with all other forms of divi-nity, female or male, considered to be

merely her diverse manifestations.

 

The tantra tradition highlights the union of Shiva, the male principle, with

Shakti, the female principle or energy. The masculine signifies the stable,

static force while the feminine signifies the kinetic, dynamic force. Shakti is

energy.

 

Androgynous is a relatively new term. However, since ancient times, we have

celebrated the concept of Ardhanarishvara. The term Ardhanarishvara is a

combination of three words: 'ardha', 'nari' and 'ishvara', meaning respectively,

'half', 'woman' and 'Lord' or 'God'.

 

That is, Ardhanarishvara is half-man and half-woman. Because the Vedic period

celebrated many women philosophers of great merit. Maitreyi and Gargi are some

of the prominent ones.

 

The 1,000-odd hymns of the Rig Veda include 10 hymns that are accredited to

Maitreyi, the woman seer and philosopher. She contributed towards the

enhancement of her sage-husband Yajnavalkya's perso-nality and the flowering of

his spiritual thoughts.

 

When the sage decided to settle his worldly possessions and renounce the world

by taking up asceticism, Maitreyi asked her husband if all the wealth in the

world would make her immortal. The sage replied that wealth could only make one

rich, nothing else. She then asked for the wealth of immortality.

 

An overjoyed Yajnavalkya imparted to Maitreyi the doctrine of the soul and his

knowledge of attaining immortality.

 

Gargi, the Vedic prophet and daughter of sage Vachaknu, composed several hymns

that questioned the origin of all existence. When King Janaka of Videha

organised a 'brahma-yajna', a philosophic congress, Gargi was an eminent

participant.

 

She challenged Yajna-valkya with a volley of erudite questions on existence:

"The layer that is above the sky and below the earth, which is described as

being situated between the earth and the sky and which is indicated as the

symbol of the past, present and future, where is that situated?" she asked.

 

In later times, too, Andal in the south and Meerabai in the north, have been

immortalised through their bhakti compositions.

 

Today's tide against gender bias will turn only if Shakti comes back into our

lives not just as a symbol or deity but as an essential part of our

consciousness and being.

 

http://spirituality.indiatimes.com

 

 

 

 

 

"Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

 

 

 

 

 

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