Invoking the divine female principle.

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document.writeln("&lt&nbspPrev"); document.writeln("Next &gt"); http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1773234.cmsInvoking the divine female principleJamuna RangachariThe female Divine has always been an intrinsic part of Indian tradition.Shakti and Shiva, the female and the male, are revered as essential parts ofbeing 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 inHindu rituals and symbols. Marriage is seen as a sacred union.The gods were perturbed when Shiva was devoid of his union with Sati, andrejoiced when Parvati, incarnated as Sati, wooed him into matrimony, throughsevere austerities.The scriptures are clear that while the bride must recognise her husband as herLord, the husband must appreciate

the wife as the source of his position andstrength as provider and protector.In pure Shaktiism, Devi is worshipped as the highest divinity, the supremeBrahmn, with all other forms of divi-nity, female or male, considered to bemerely her diverse manifestations.The tantra tradition highlights the union of Shiva, the male principle, withShakti, the female principle or energy. The masculine signifies the stable,static force while the feminine signifies the kinetic, dynamic force. Shakti isenergy.Androgynous is a relatively new term. However, since ancient times, we havecelebrated the concept of Ardhanarishvara. The term Ardhanarishvara is acombination 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 periodcelebrated many women philosophers of great merit. Maitreyi and Gargi are

someof the prominent ones.The 1,000-odd hymns of the Rig Veda include 10 hymns that are accredited toMaitreyi, the woman seer and philosopher. She contributed towards theenhancement of her sage-husband Yajnavalkya's perso-nality and the flowering ofhis spiritual thoughts.When the sage decided to settle his worldly possessions and renounce the worldby taking up asceticism, Maitreyi asked her husband if all the wealth in theworld would make her immortal. The sage replied that wealth could only make onerich, nothing else. She then asked for the wealth of immortality.An overjoyed Yajnavalkya imparted to Maitreyi the doctrine of the soul and hisknowledge of attaining immortality.Gargi, the Vedic prophet and daughter of sage Vachaknu, composed several hymnsthat questioned the origin of all existence. When King Janaka of Videhaorganised a 'brahma-yajna', a philosophic congress, Gargi was an

eminentparticipant.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 asbeing situated between the earth and the sky and which is indicated as thesymbol 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 beenimmortalised through their bhakti compositions.Today's tide against gender bias will turn only if Shakti comes back into ourlives not just as a symbol or deity but as an essential part of ourconsciousness 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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