Happy Navaratri

[Guest guest]

Jai Maan Mahakali,

 

Some thoughts on the ocassion of Navaratris.

 

This combination of the product of human consciousness (thought)

with Shakti makes manifestation of things possible. The clothes we

wear, the chair on which we seat, the books we read, the computers

we use; all these were first conceived as ideas in the human

mind. The chairman of a big corporation conceives of an

idea that a fifty story sky-scraper building should be

built. He conveys this idea, using his power (shakti) of

speech, to the board of directors who approve it.

 

 

The idea is then conveyed with the aid of Mother Saraswati (speech

or written words) to the financiers, to the architect, to the

contractors, to the labourers on site. The result is the

manifestation of a fifty story building. The thought became a

thing . Thoughts are things. Examine everything that surrounds one

in the house. Everything before being made existed as thought or idea

before becoming a stove, table, clock, calender, screw-driver, soap

powder. This is at the human level of microcosm.<br>At the cosmic

level of macrocosm, the combination of Shiva and Shakti (Spirit and

Matter) makes possible the manifestation of the universe.The dynamic

shakti functions on the static Shiva. The substratum is Shiva and the

vibrant manifestation is shakti. Like the screen (the substratum)

and the projected image upon the screen.

 

Shiva and shakti are inseparable aspects of the one Reality, like

the whiteness in milk; like the brilliance in diamond and like the

word and its meaning. Just as heat is inherent in fire, the power

inherent in God (Shiva) is maya (shakti). The manifest universe

is the display of shakti or maya. Man is constituted of both Shiva

and and Shakti. The persisting personality in him is Shiva and the

perishing form is shakti.

 

The being in him is Shiva and the becoming in him is shakti. The

awareness or consciousness is Shiva and the physique is shakti. The

sentient Shiva manifests Himself through the insentient matter

viewed as shakti. The insentient physique enshrines and nurtures the

sentient in man. In other words, mother Nature nurtures what is

sentient in man. Shakti rears the Shiva in man. Therefore,

worshipful attitude towards Shakti is incumbent upon man

evolving in Shivahood.

 

Theology abounds in terms such as Uma-Maheshwar, Lakshmi-Narayana,

Radha-Krishna, Sita-Rama, Shiva-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti,

Ardhanarishwar, spirit and matter. These are all

indicative of the fact that existence is a mixture of the

sentient and the insentient.<br>The divine power is addressed as

Amba ,Bhavani Kalyani ,Durga, Chamunda, Saraswati, Bhagavati,

Meenakshi, Kamakshi, Lakshmi, Kali etc.<br>The male and the female

elements coexist even in the vegetable kingdom which is still in the

primitive stage of evolution. In the feathered kingdom as well as in

the animal kingdom, the male and the female do jointly contribute to

the formation of the progeny. If humanity was viewed as a unit it is

found to be constituted with half-man , half-woman. The entire

creation is evidently the embodiment of the masculine and the

feminine principles.

 

Shiva is therefore adored as Ardhanarishwar (ardha = half;

nari=woman;Ishwar=Lord). The sentient and the insentient are the two

categories that constitute nature. Nothing exists outside the pale

of these two.

 

Life in its original state is called Shiva. The apparently

insentient body or the vehicle through which it manifests itself is

called shakti. It is because of the interplay of life and matter

that nature is able to reveal itself in all its splendour and glory.

 

Ramakrishna says :The truth established in the Vedas, the Puranas

and the Tantras is but one Satchdananda. In the Vedas it is called

Brahman, in the Puranas it is called Rama, and in the Tantras it is

called Shiva.One Satchdananda is called Brahman, Rama and Shiva.The

formless God is real , and equally real is God with form. It is like

an infinite ocean, water everywhere, to the right, left, above,

below. Water enveloped in water. It is the water of the great cause,

motionless. Waves spring up when it becomes active. Its activities

are creation(Brahma), preservation(Vishnu) and dissolution(Shiva).

 

Brahman is where reason comes to a stop. There is the instance of

camphor. Nothing remains after it is burnt-not even a trace of

ash.Brahman is beyond mind and speech, beyond reason and logic. A

salt doll entered the ocean to measure its depth; but it did not

return to tell others how deep the ocean was. It melted

in the ocean itself.Like butter and buttermilk, one finds that

Satchidananda Itself has become the universe and the living beings.

The blood and semen are thin liquids, and out of them comes such a

big creature as man. Everything is possible for God. First of

all reach invisible Satchidananda and then coming down, look at the

universe. Everything is its manifestation. It is God alone who has

become everything. The world by no means exists apart from him. The

non-dualistic philosophy of Vedanta says that the acts of creation,

preservation and destruction, the universe itself and all its living

beings are the manifestations of Shakti, the divine power or MAYA.

If we reason it out, we realise that all these are as illusory as a

dream. Brahman alone is the reality, and all else is unreal.

Even this very Shakti is unsubstantial, like a dream.

 

 

Jai Mahakali