The Shakti Tradition

The worship of the Mother Goddess is one of the oldest traditions of the world. In ancient India, the goddess was considered the supreme power (Shakti) responsible for the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world. The followers of Shakti (Shaktas) and their doctrines (Tantras) are part of the scripture Agamas, one of the four main scriptures of Hinduism that include the Vedas, the Smriti and the Puranas.

These Tantrik followers believed in a supreme Being (Paramshiva). But this Being had a static, unchanging Self called Shiva, while Shakti was its dynamic power that was the Becoming of Being. Shakti controlled the universe, beginning with its creation and evolution (Pravrtti) from Being and ending with its return or involution to Being (Nivrtti), an endless cycle. 

Before the universe was created, Shiva and Shakti were tightly coupled inside a dot (bindu) hemmed by a serpent-like coiled line called Maya Shakti (illusive power). Inside the dot, Shiva was a white point like the Moon, while Shakti was a red point like Fire. Together, the white and red points (the Self in its own Self) are the “I” of oneness. Since this dot also contained the previous universes, their memory awakened Shakti and it began to uncoil. Thus began one of the most fascinating and detailed descriptions of the world’s creation in all the world’s religions. 

In the process of creation, Shakti went forth in a series of 36 transformations (Tattvas). During this process, the Self that is Shiva was gradually separated from itself through phases that began with the Shiva Tattva and end with the Prakriti Tattvas. In the latter phases, Maya Shakti made beings forget their essential Shiva/Shakti nature and instead they saw themselves as finite and separate from one another and Shiva/Shakti. 

The 36 Tattvas proceeded as follows. Within the dot are the first two of six pure Tattvas: Shiva Tattva, the static aspect of Supreme Consciousness and Shakti Tattva, its dynamic activity. As the process of creation begins inside the dot, three other Shaktis are created corresponding to Will, Knowledge and Action (Iccha Shakti, Jnana Shakti and Kriya Shakti). As Maya Shakti (the last of the six pure Tattvas) begins to uncoil, it creates a series of coverings or veils (kanchukas) around the essential nature of Shiva/Shakti. 

First come the five Tattvas of mixed purity: Conditioned Action (kalaa), Conditioned Knowledge (avidya), Root of Desire (raga), Time (kaala) and Fate (niyati). The subsequent Tattvas, considered impure, include the five Tattvas that determine the individual being, comprising the spark of the Self (purusha), the combination of three factors (gunas), and intelligence (buddhi), ego (ahamkara) and mind (manas). Then come the remaining 20 Prakriti Tattvas in successive order: the senses, the instruments of action, the five sense-impressions (like sound and taste) and the five physical elements of fire, water, earth, air and space.

The effects of these Tattvas of Maya Shakti in the manifest world is that mind and matter appear as the subjective and objective aspects of the same underlying static Consciousness (Chit Shakti). Shakti operates in the world through an evolutionary process where the bonds holding down static Consciousness are released gradually. As beings evolve from plants to animals to humans, the mind begins to increase in importance as static Consciousness is set loose. To the Tantriks, the human state is therefore rare, obtained after much effort and struggle over time and across beings. 

It is important to note that the Tantras of the Agama are open to everyone, regardless of gender, caste, class or other distinctions – an egalitarianism unlike other ancient Indian philosophies and practices that privileged the males and were restricted to certain castes.