An e-mail from shivdooti@y...
Originally
sent: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 04:17:56 PDT
It has been seen that Advaitins,
vedantins, krishna bhaktas, Raj yogis
etc. condemn Shakti upasana taking it
as a lower form of worship and
they have a reason behind this, besides their
other prejudices.
Shakti upasana is mentioned in Rigveda(devi suktham) in
details and is
not against the Vedic path. But by the end of Dwapar, Shakti
upasana
(a branch of which is Tantra) was used by less evolved people who
used the great forces of Tantra for Tamsic gains (like for sex, taking
revenges, money etc). A time came when even the dacoits before going
for
the attack started worshipping Mother Kali, to help them. Benaras
was
defamed for Tantriks who would sacrifice human beings to please
Mother and
to gain powers. Shakti upasana was seen as Tantra and
tantra was seen as a
ritual of the low and dangerous and was feared by
the common
man.
With the start of Bhakti Movement and Advait (by Sri Sankra), the
common enemy was Shakti Upasana, and it was justified in the light of
the gross misuse of the Tantra. Though Sankracharaya himself accepted
Mother Shakti as a part of his Vedanta, he was against the misuse of
sakti upasana for lower Tantrik gains.
If we take tantra in its
deformed way as we see today, then Tantra and
Shaktism are not synonymous.
[But in reality] Shiv, Shakti and Tantra
are interconnected and are
different [only] for ignorants.
Tantra was revealed by Shiva himself
(first to Parvati, at amarnath
cave in kashmir), for the benefit of those
who wished to have a great
leap in Evolution but perhaps we were not ready
for this great leap
and misused it for smaller benefits.
We [should]
not be discussing Tantra for sex or for money or
from lesser gains. We
[should] be worshipping the eternal mother to
give us Moksha and
enlightenment. And Shakti upasana has in it
Shivapuja and tantraa, how can
we avoid that ?
In my understanding Tantra (worldly meaning - system or
mechanism) is
the only perfect definition of Universe and its system of
energies.
Tantra does not avoid Maya as illusion (as vedantins have no
knowledge
about Maya so better ignore it).
Tantraa does not force us
to acccept an imaginary God sitting
somewhere on strange plane of
consciousness.
On the contrary Tantraa turns our attention to Shakti, the
eternal
Mother and tells us how it works in the Universe, how it works in
our
body and lets us find a way from the Tantra of the Universal energies
to get out of it.
In shakti upasana, nothing is Maya nothing is
illusion. all forms are
Mother in her positive or negative aspects. We may
all pray to the
Mother to bring Positivity to us, and show us the path to
Moksha
We may all surrender ourselves to the Divine Mother, who is Maya
her
self and who is knowledge herself. Who is nothing but Brahm/Param Siva
himself in activity. O Gracious Mother prostrations unto thee. Do not
forsake me. I am thy child Take me to the shore of fearlessness and
joy.
When shall i behold thy lotus-feet with my own eyes. Thou art the
boundless
ocean of mercy. When the philosopher's stone turns iron into
gold by
contact, when the ganges turns impure water into pure water,
can'st thou not
turn me, O Mother Divine into a pure soul ? May my
tongue repeat thy name
always.
May Mother accept her children
Jai Mahakaali maa
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