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Saktism
The close doctrinal relationship between Saktism and Saivism is embodied in tantric iconography by the ecstatic coupling of Sakti
and Siva. In both religious cults Siva is pure, indeterminate awareness (prakasa), both impersonal and inactive, while Sakti as the mother of all manifestation is the self-awareness of Siva, bearing the triple nature of knowledge (jnana), will (iccha) and action (kriya).
The opening verse of the Saundaryalahiri (a devotional hymn attributed to Samkara) expresses this relationship more concretely: ‘Siva, when he is united with Sakti, is able to create; otherwise he is unable even to stir.’ As the consort of Siva, the Great Mother Sakti personifies the dynamic and creative principle that gives form to a potentiality that would otherwise remain latent and unexpressed. Ultimately Siva and Sakti are inseparable, but from the perspective of the phenomenal universe Siva (from the verb root si = ‘to lie’) is transcendent and quiescent, while Sakti (from the verb root sak = ‘to be able’) is immanent and responsible for all creation and dissolution.
The Mahanirvana Tantra describes Siva as both the Lord of the Universe and its very Self:
He is One. He ever is. He is the truth. He is supreme unity without a second. He is ever-full and self-manifest. He is eternal consciousness and bliss (1:33.3-4);
while Sakti is portrayed as,
the very Para Prakrti (supreme matter) … and from thee has sprung the whole universe …. whatever is in this world, of things that have and are without motion, from Mahat (the Great) to an atom, owes its origin to and is dependent on thee…. Thou art both subtle and gross, manifested and veiled, though in Thyself formless, yet thou hast form. (4:10-11, 15)
As the mother of creation or prakrti (from the verb root kr = ‘to make, to do’ + pra = ‘forth’), Sakti is responsible for the cycle of birth, death and rebirth to which all individuals or jivas (from the verb root jiv = ‘to live’ or ‘to continue breathing’) are bound, as well as being the means of gaining liberation from this cycle.
As essentially inseparable from Siva, Sakti, and by implication the realm of empirical existence or samsara (from the verb root sr = ‘to flow’ and sam = ‘together’), receives a status commensurate with the transcendent that is unique in the Hindu tradition. This is reflected in Tantra’s affirmation rather than renunciation of sense experience, the body and indeed empirical existence in general. It is also reflected in the goal of Tantric sadhana, which is to dissolve the distinction between the transcendent and the jiva that keeps the latter bound to the wheel of birth, death and rebirth.
In representing the primordial unity of the totality of experience, the divine embrace of Siva and Sakti also conveys Tantra’s recognition of the value of both masculine and feminine aspects of experience. Tantra’s valuing of the feminine coincides with its affirmation of sense experience, and both are personified in Sakti as the active spouse of the masculine Siva.
Even though all Tantric cults characteristically acknowledge the value the feminine, Saktism places the worship of the Divine in the feminine form at the forefront of its religious practices. There is some evidence that Goddess worship may have pre-dated the Vedas, or at least co-existed alongside Vedic orthodoxy among the lower classes of Indian society. Within the orthodox tradition Sakti is portrayed in one of the hymns of the Rg Veda as the embodiment of power, ‘the supporter of the earth living in heaven’ (i.136.3), as the supreme power by ‘which the universe is upheld’ in the Chandogya Upanisad (iii. 12), and as ‘the great mother of the devotees’ in the Brihadaranyaka Upanisad (v. 14). She is the consort of Siva for Saivas, Vaisnavas know her as the sister of Krsna in the Mahabharata, she is known as Candi in the Puranas, and is also referred to as Kali, Uma, Durga, Parvati, Mahamaya, among others, or is simply known as Devi, ‘the shining one’ who is at one with Brahman or the Absolute.
Worship of the various goddesses of the Hindu pantheon remained marginal until the emergence of a recognisable Tantric movement from around the middle of the first millennium CE. From around this time devotional cults gradually displaced Vedic ritualism, with the Great Mother Sakti becoming increasingly central to Hindu religious life. This was reflected in the appearance of a new sacred literature called the Tantras, which are usually in the form of dialogue between Siva and Sakti, and are considered by adherents to be a divinely revealed literature equal in status to the Vedas. The most widely recognised of these are the Mahanirvana Tantra and the Kularnava Tantra.
The Hindu Tantras are practical treatises that deal with a wide range of subjects which characteristically include instructions for spiritual disciplines that presuppose esoteric correspondences between the individual and the cosmos. These correspondences are underpinned by the creative power of Sakti which manifests not only as the cosmos but also in a latent, individualised form known as kundalini (from the verb root kund = ‘to burn’). When the latent kundalini is awakened the correspondences between the individual and the cosmos are fully realised as both forms of sakti coalesce in a living unity with the Divine.
Even though Saktism is one of several strands of Hindu Tantra, the unique contribution that Tantra has made to Indian spirituality generally is embodied in its conception of the goddess Sakti. The inseparability of Sakti and Siva dissolves traditional distinctions in orthodox Hinduism between the Divine and worldly experience, spiritual liberation (mukti) and worldly enjoyment (bhukti), which have led to a strong association between spiritual aspiration and worldly renunciation. For example in the Samkhya and Yoga darsanas (philosophical schools) the two basic principles: purusa and prakrti, are equally real but ultimately distinct. This means that liberation (kaivalya or ‘aloneness’ in these schools) requires the individual soul or purusa as pure awareness to realise its complete separation from the manifest forms it falsely believes it is associated with. In the non-dualist Advaita Vedanta school the Absolute or Brahman is the only Real, with maya or the principle that gives rise to the phenomenal world being a mere projection that conceals the ultimate Reality of Brahman. Here bondage is understood as the false identification with the determinations of a world that is only apparent. Liberation or moksa arises when this false indentification or avidya (from the verb root vid = ‘to know’ + a = ‘not’) is dissolved by the knowledge that Brahman is all there is.
In Samkhya, Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and other orthodox Hindu darsanas, then, the distinction between the Divine and worldly experience coincides with forms of spiritual discipline that seek liberation by detaching from the world we experience through the senses. Tantric schools attempt to transcend this distinction by making Siva and Sakti equally real and ultimately inseparable, and this translates into an understanding of liberation as the realisation of the fundamental unity that underlies all experience. Just as Sakti is responsible for manifesting the latent potentiality of Siva in the form of the cosmos, she is also the means by which the jiva or individual seeks to awaken an innate potential to realise this unity. The awakening of kundalini-sakti is therefore not achieved by detaching from worldly experience, but by realising its true essence in dissolving the distinction between the individual and the Divine that keeps the jiva bound to the cylcle of birth, death and rebirth. In this sense the jivanmukta (one who is liberated while still living) is the living embodiment of the unity of Siva and Sakti.
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