The Courtship of Shakti: the Hindu Goddess in Myth and Philosophy

SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY The courtship of Shakti: the Hindu goddess in myth and philosophy Travis L. Palmer Goddess Traditions, University of Tennessee 1 SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 2 Abstract In Hinduism, the meaning of shakti primarily concerns the nature of ontology and the power behind cosmological energy. Sanskrit for "to be able", the most basic definition of shakti pertains to the creative activity of Brahman, believed to be the formless source of all existence or ultimate reality. Brahman depends upon the power of shakti in order to manifest in the physical world as Paramātmā, or supreme soul. Usually, but not always, the goddess serves the shakti principle, whereas, the male aspect expresses the essence of Brahman or pure consciousness. Various sampradāyas, or denominations regard the Paramātmā to be one of the male deities of Vishnu, Shiva, Rama or Krishna, and their consort as their shakti. Nevertheless, Hindus generally assign the character of "Shakti" to the goddess Pārvatī, Shiva's consort. Therefore, the focus throughout this analysis of shakti will primarily involve Shiva and Pārvatī. SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 3 The courtship of Shakti: the Hindu goddess in myth and philosophy Hindu philosophy has predominantly developed out of the mythologies of the gods and goddesses from the great epics of the Mahābhārata, Ramayana, and the various Puranas reinforcing archetypal imagery to convey philosophical thought as means to explaining religious practices. In mythology, Shakti is seen as the inspiration and eternal consort to the male deity, and sometimes through rebirth the male deities are often seen with apparently multiple wives. William P. Harman (1989) examined the significance of the goddess in relation to her role as consort in his book, The Sacred Marriage of a Hindu Goddess. Although each of the divine couples bear some similarity, their personalities and relationships are distinct, and oftentimes do not accurately reflect cultural norms. For instance, it would be unacceptable for a man to marry multiple wives, yet there appears to be polygamous unions in the figures of Shiva and Vishnu, especially in Vishnu's avatāra as Krishna. Contrary to Krishna's multiple love affairs from Rukmini and Satyabhama, both considered to be incarnations of Lakshmī, to the eight queens of the Ashtabharya, the 16,000 maidens, and Nappinnai who may have been the prototype of Rādhā, in Shiva's marriages, however, the same goddess rejoins him from Satī to Pārvatī. Not only are the two goddesses understood to be two separate incarnations of Shiva's one eternal consort, but they all have darker manifestations in the goddesses of Chandi, Kālī, Durga and Chāmundā. These convoluted variations are likely due to a syncretism of several myths throughout different regions by effect of societal growth (Claus & Mills, 2003). Tracing the first Shakti in worship is at best futile. Nevertheless, current evidence has argued that goddess worship might actually have been present long before the first written Hindu scriptures, known as the Vedas, were devised. According to the discoveries found by archaeologists when excavating what is believed to be the oldest village known to the Indian subcontinent in a place called Harappa (present day Pakistan), seals dating as long ago as 2600 BCE reveals an interest in a male god and goddess with depictions of a phallus and vulva (Swaminathan, 2013). The archaeologist who led SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 4 these excavations, John Marshall, identified a particular seal with an icon of a male deity in a yogic posture surrounded by animals to be the prototype of Shiva. Some figurines displaying various asanas (postures) proposes the Harappans had knowledge of Yoga practices (Frawley, Rajaram & Navaratna, 2013). However, such a hypothesis remains inconclusive. Some scholars maintain skepticism over the Pashupati seal being the proto-Shiva. Gregory Possehl (2002), Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, speculates the seal likely identifies a buffalo god, but notes the significance of the asana posture and the devotion to ritualistic concentration and meditation. Nonetheless, Marshall also found several female figures which historians have thought to be icons of a mother goddess amiably linked with Aruru in the Sumerian myth (Feuerstein & Frawley, 2005). These discoveries, unfortunately, provide only a limited understanding of the religious practice of the ancient civilization and continues to be a source of debate. Other determinations for goddess worship among ancient Hindus readily finds erudition within the Vedas (c. 1900-1200 B.C.E.) which incorporates several deities attached to the natural forces and earthly elements where the goddess emerges from the Saraswati River; Śrī who is poetically described in the Vedic hymns as beauty, born of a lotus, who later came to be known as Lakshmī (Olson, 1983). Shiva's marriage to Sati-Pārvatī was likely a later development from the Mahābhārata as the Vedas only mention Rudrāni. The concept of shakti as divine power may have originally been described in the Vedas as maya ("not this") denoting a veil of illusion over Brahman. Such a concept reaches fruition within the development of the Sāṅkhya philosophy in the early centuries of the common era where maya equates to the consequence of prakriti, physical matter or nature (Svetasvataropanisad, IV.10). It is through shakti which all creation takes form including the frabric of prakriti and maya. Without shakti, Brahman cannot create, no physical subject can exist, and the male deities are subsequently without power. Some scholars, such as Georg Feuerstein (1998, p. 226), view a sort of female antagonism in the philosophy, explaining, "a whole series of philosophical/cosmological equations, SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 5 namely, "Nature (prakriti) ≠ Spirit (purusha)," "Nature = suffering (duhkha)," "Spirit = Bliss (ānanda)," "Suffering = Undesirable (akāmya)," "Bliss = Desirable (kāmya)," and "Man (pums) = Spirit," "Woman (strī) = Nature," arriving at the unfortunate and fateful equation "Woman = Suffering = Undesirable". In spite of many Hindus recognizing the male aspect as the supreme consciousness, or purusha, she is vital for action and creation. The soul (or jivatma) is believed to be in bondage to prakriti under the illusion of maya, subsequently trapped in the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara), until such time the purusha is realized and liberation (moksha) occurs. Therefore, to one extent the goddess is the villain behind samsara, an obstacle toward God-realization. But she is also described as the force through which the truth of Brahman can be known. Shakti is inseparable from Brahman, and for shaktas, she is the supreme reality, the Adi Parashakti, revealing the means of liberation. The polemical attributes of the goddess can most profoundly be seen in the figure of Kālī, who is depicted with fangs and blood dripping from her mouth with human heads for a necklace and arms for a skirt and a sword in one hand and an ax in another. She is referred to as the "Terrible Mother", a mother, because she has a benign aspect in teaching the transitory essence of the universe. In her terrible form, she seeks to slay the illusion of permanence, an illusion which she is apparently responsible for according to mainstream Hindu cosmology. It must be recognized then that shakti has a dual nature. In one respect she is the creative force, and in another, she is the destructive force helping the spiritual aspirant to realize Brahman. The darker sides of shakti are seen to manifest in a fit of rage or war, such as when Satī's father, Daksha, decided to host a prestigious yajna (or sacrifice) inviting all of the gods except Shiva (Skanda-purana 5.82.1-21). Seeing "all the great souls of the world assembled there... she became furious. Her eyes burned like red-hot coals and flashed with blue fire" (Vanamali, 2013, p. 105). Momentarily, Satī was Kālī acting upon a need for justice, and finally chooses to liberate herself by way of suicide. Her remains were believed to have spread throughout the region, thus, SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 6 sanctifying the grounds and making Shiva accessible to her devotees. This event in the epic has stimulated the practice of widow burning known as "Sati". Though illegal today, women continue to practice it as it is deemed to liberate her and her husband from samsara (Heaphy, n.d.). David Kinsley (1986, p. 39) speculates Shiva's exclusion concerned his non-Āryan origin "who was looked upon with considerable suspicion by the Brahmin custodians of the sacrificial cult. His association with world renunciation, asceticism, and the powers of fertility as symbolized by the linga probably marked him as a deity who belonged to the fringes of society from the point of view of the Brahmin establishment." Satī represented the established religion expressing fierce discontentment for Shiva's absence, and thus, the narrative attempts to bridge what was likely a tribal deity with a mainstream goddess. It is likely because of his indigenous quality that in the story Shiva was excluded from this sacrifice. Perhaps, not surprisingly, Shiva also characterizes a dual nature, creating and destroying, exhibiting qualities described as an "erotic ascetic", both renouncing his passions as well as embracing his shakti (Feuerstein, 1998). After Satī's death, Shiva withdraws to the Himalayas in grief to be absorbed into deep meditation. His eventual reunion with her, as Pārvatī ("she who dwells in the mountains" as originally mentioned in the Kena Upanishad 3.12) is sent by Brahma in hopes they would marry and have a child in order to destroy a demon named Tarak. However, the attempts to awaken Shiva was not easy when a cupid-like figure, Madan (or Kāma, implying sexual pleasure), is burned to ashes from the flames of Shiva's third eye for trying to infect him with a spell of lust. What captures his attention to Pārvatī begins with her commitment to fasting and renunciation. (In other instances when Shiva is in meditation, Pārvatī captivates him rather seductively through dance.) Kinsley (1986) noted the persistent practice of tapas ("ascetic austerities") generates a deep concern by the gods to fulfill their wish for the sake of survival. Once Shiva finally awakens and realizes her devotion to his apparently lower status, he takes SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 7 her as his wife. In a retelling of the story by Vanamali (2013, p. 105-106), he describes the duo, "She was as gentle and graceful as he was wild and forceful. Her soft and slow lasya, or woman's movements, and his forceful and masculine thandava, or cosmic dance, together enraptured the entire universe. Her beauty inspired him to create all forms of art, song, and dance." The harmony of Shiva and Pārvatī joining together in marital union provides the basis for creation in Hindu philosophy and Tantric practice. Their union is described as so intense as even to frighten the other gods in anticipation of an indomitable heir. Hindu iconography represents their relationship in the yoni-linga, the symbols of the phallus and vulva. Their mutual bliss "seems to teach that asceticism enhances the intensity of sexuality and makes the orderliness of the householder's world even more attractive. Held together, or in creative tension, yoga and bhoga (worldly or bodily pleasure), dharma and moksha, may be seen to complement and complete each other in the divine pair" (Kinsley, 1986, p. 42). In such a way, the socio-religious implications of their relationship presents an attempt to reconcile the religious life with the layman, between the ascetic Shiva and the family-oriented Pārvatī. Born as a princess, she embodies the role of the householder who domesticates Shiva. She is most definitely the icon of a fertility goddess, encouraging marriage and family life, and philosophically seen as the force of his creative impulse. While she tames Shiva's wild and destructive nature, as Kālī, she also participates in it. "They are the opposite and complementary poles of existence. When they join with each other in cosmic union, the individual soul, or jivatma, ceases to exist and melts into the Paramatma, or cosmic soul" explains Vanamali (2013, p. 105-106). Another striking tale involves a more recent argument in Hindu philosophy by the seventh century saint, Shankara, who emphasized a cosmology of non-duality—that everything is an illusion and there is only Brahman—Shiva engages in a quarrel with Pārvatī who insisted the universe is truly composed of multiple subjects or realities (advocating the Sāṅkhya view), and to prove her point she decided to withdraw from the universe causing obvious chaos (Vanamali, 2013). Her pursuit to win the SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 8 argument can be interpreted as her very nature to incite illusion of one's separation with Brahman, this of course, is the non-dualist argument. The perceived duality of Shiva and Shakti is only the appearance of the pair, but in truth, they are totally united to each other and therefore represent two aspects of the same reality. Practitioners of Tantra, tāntrikas, view the world as "the body of the ultimate Being; women are Shakti in human guise; sex is the love play between Shiva and Shakti; pleasure is a modification of supreme bliss" (Feuerstein, 1998, p. 227). Thus, in many of their controversial practices, they aim to incorporate the motifs and behaviors of the divine couple. "They are a two-in-one reality. In the unmanifest state there is no difference between them. However, when the urge to create occurs, this Para-Prakriti pierces through the bindu in the form of the sound hreem, from which the entire world of manifestation arises. Prakriti is the energy of the Brahman. This energy remains latent during the period of dissolution when the cosmos is in a latent state within her. But during the time of evolution and creation she comes to the forefront and carries out the work of manifesting creation" (Vanamali, 2006, p. 18). This "two-in-one reality" is powerfully displayed in the iconography of an androgynous depiction of Shiva-Shakti known as Ardhanārīśvara (cf. Feuerstein, 1998). Pārvatī compels forth creation, while her alter-ego of Kālī destroys it. Whenever she is engaged in battle (e.g. wars against illusions) she manifests as "The Black One", and her relationship with Shiva takes on an entirely new duet. In the Linga Purana, Shiva elicits Pārvatī's help to destroy the demon, Dārukā. She enters Shiva and transforms from the poison within his throat (alluding to another story when Shiva consumed the halahala to save the universe) to emerge as Kālī and in her chaotic fury destroys the demon and nearly the universe along with him until Shiva appears as an infant. Suddenly, she feels the need to nurse him, and in the process, he sucks out her anger (Linga-purana 1.106.20-28). The story evokes the path of reaching Kālī is through emulating the innocence of a child, taking her as mother despite her antithetical motherly nature. Only by one's own self-purification and familial SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 9 adoption to Kālī that she reveals the forbidding truths of life all too often avoided by society: everything is transient and death is imminent (Kinsley, 1986). The spiritual aspirant confronts this terrifying reality by submission to the inevitable, thereby, realizing the need to end grasping and attain union with Brahman. The contrasting behavior between Shiva and Kālī psychologically expresses the same capriciousness of the mind which must be tamed by the stillness of Shiva. In another similar motif commonly displayed in paintings and sculptures, the "Daksinakālī", a pose where she stands on his corpse-like body (while he appears to be in ecstatic submission with an erection), she bestows upon him life's energy, and simultaneously, he calms her erratic behavior. Tāntrikas, believing reality is the interplay of Shiva-Shakti, will imitate the two deities with the male yogi covering himself in ashes (to resemble Shiva) and join the female yogini (who resembles Kālī) in conjugal union in graveyards and cremation grounds. The male (like Shiva) must be dead to his passions (Feuerstein, 1998). The perspective of the Tāntrikas essentially treat the body as the microcosmic reflection of whole universe similar to the Hermetic principle in Greek philosophy. Both Shiva and Shakti are within one's soul as Tantric literature describes (Feuerstein, 1998). In Kundalini Yoga, shakti corresponds to the "serpent power" coiled up and dormant at the base of one's spine. Through breath control and meditative practices (as described in the "Eight Limbs of Yoga" from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras), the kundalini energy is stimulated up the spine through various blockage points, known as cakras, to finally unite at the crown of the head (the bindu which corresponds to Shiva) resulting in the experience of samadhi and the point which advaitists argue that non-dual perception is reached (Feuerstein, 1998). "Psychologically speaking, the unitive relationship of Shiva and Shakti can be understood as a symbol for intrapsychic unity... Conversely, because the ultimate Reality has these two aspects, our psyche also exhibits a feminine and a masculine side" explained Feuerstein (1998, p.83-84). Hence, their unity with each other is often symbolized in sexual imagery, such as the yoni-linga. The SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 10 multiplicity of the universe is the effect of their sexual union. Tantra utilizes various practices as a means to realizing their union in which it is believed the transcendental consciousness of Parama-Shiva can be attained. The early rishis in describing the divine play of Shiva-Shakti in relation to a philosophical construct kept rather abstruse by the mythologies they told. They did not resort to any quick explanations by way of prose. To the contrary, they alluded to these ideas which served as the foundation for philosophical thought, but most importantly to provide ways of discovering personal insight into the nature of reality and one's existence. What was originally conceived as a matrix of gods and goddesses evolved into complex systems of yogic practices. The precise procedures in realizing the higher consciousness of Brahman is only cryptic to it's progression of thought throughout history. Consequently, several interpretations arguing different systems of ontology, duality versus non-duality, merely served to reinforce the fundamental goal of the yogi. Therefore, the most important role of the Hindu goddess concerns an explanation of existential causality. For the anthropologist, she is the reason for the social conventions within Indian society. But for the yogi, she teaches the extraordinary phenomenon behind the polemical forces of the universe. Ultimately, she challenges us to see the same divine play within ourselves. That is her role as Shakti—to uncover the very fabric of creativity in our own being so that we may realize our essence as ultimate reality. SHAKTI IN MYTH AND PHILOSOPHY 11 Bibliography Claus, P.J. and Mills, M.A. "Syncretism." South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Garland Publishing, Inc., 2003. Feuerstein, G; Kak, S. and Frawley, D. In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India. 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