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The
ultimate goal of human life is liberation or moksha, the realization
of the Pure Self or Brahman beyond all time, space and karma . In
that alone is complete and lasting peace and freedom. This is made
clear in many great spiritual teachings since the Vedas.
This
supreme reality of pure unity is not hard to describe and the quest
for it is something that we know in our hearts, where we seek oneness
with all. The important and difficult question that arises, however,
is how to get there? That pure Self is so far removed from our
ordinary life experience that it requires a radical change of our
entire way of life to even approach.
Brahman
is nirguna (devoid of qualities), nishkriya (beyond action) and
nishkama (beyond desire). It is extremely difficult to access
even for those with the sharpest minds and the purest life-styles.
Brahman, moreover, is beyond all paths, all efforts and all striving.
It is outside of time, space and causation and cannot be produced by
anything. The very one who seeks it must himself disappear before
finding it. Yet even having that thought about its ultimacy does not
take one there or even insure that one is going in the right
direction.
Only
if our minds can be fully concentrated within the heart can we know
That Supreme Being. Those whose minds are clear and internally
focused can certainly enter into that formless Brahman. But if there
is any unfulfilled desire, we cannot reach it, or if we touch it, we
cannot abide in it. The problem is that we are full of desires, even
if our minds are strong. Desire is the essence of all that we do and
the very force behind our lives.
We
do not live in Brahman or the unmanifest beyond time and space but in
the manifest realm of life experience, filled with its energies,
attractions, repulsions and attachments. In our ordinary minds and
emotions, we are products of time and space. We are caught in place,
person, form and karma as the very foundation of our personal and
social reality.
We
cannot go beyond this manifest realm unless we first recognize the
power behind it. It is not within our power to go beyond the realm in
which we exist and of which we are a product. Only the power that has
created us can do this for us. So the real question, what is the
power behind the universe, behind our bodies and minds and how can we
work with it to reach the Ultimate?
The
real power behind this manifest universe is Shakti or the energy of
the Goddess, which is Brahman’s force of expression and
manifestation. Shakti or the power of creation controls everything
that occurs within her field. The formless Brahman beyond creation
has no concern about this realm or anything that we do within it. It
can neither help us nor hinder us in any way. From its point of view,
there never has been any birth or death, individual or cosmos,
bondage or liberation. Even our seeking of liberation has no meaning
for it.
Our
lives depend entirely upon Shakti, which grants us vitality, feeling
and awareness, through which we operate on all levels and can set in
motion both our outer actions and inner sadhana or spiritual
practice. Shakti controls the entire manifestation, just as
electricity allows all appliances to work. She rules over the
processes of birth and death and the unfoldment karma. She provides
our souls with the bodies and minds and the worlds in which to
experience life. All that we eat, breathe, perceive, feel or know
consists of some portion of her energy and an aspect of Her dynamic
processes that surround us on every side. All that we seek to acquire
for sustenance, happiness, knowledge or growth is part of Her
and comes from Her.
Yet
Shakti also controls the way beyond manifestation, the return to
Brahman. Even to seek Brahman, to seek what is beyond Shakti, we must
work with Shakti. Shakti provides us the power of meditation and the
discriminating insight through which we can transcend time and space.
This means that the best means for both spiritual realization and for
gaining all the other goals of life is to worship Shakti, to work
with and for the Goddess. There is no other way as effective, if
there is any other way at all. If the Brahman is the goal, the Shakti
is both the path and the power to traverse it. We can awaken and
follow her current to Brahman, or remain asleep and get caught in her
outside streams that move in different directions.
Therefore,
the issue is not Brahman, which is beyond everything, but Shakti that
manifests everywhere. Shakti is all around us, flashing forth in
everything, whether we recognize Her play or not. The issue is how to
gain the grace of that Shakti – How to ally ourselves with the
right Shaktis to facilitate our development as a soul.
We
must recognize the primacy of Shakti, or few if any of us can ever
come to Brahman, or even successfully gain the ordinary goals of
life. Even great Vedantins first worshipped Shakti, as in the case of
the great teachings of the text the Tripura Rahasya, or had to
recognize Shakti eventually, as in the case of Tota Puri, the guru of
Ramakrishna.
Everything
is controlled by Shakti. Shakti is closely connected to all aspects
of life that we depend on, which attract us and keep life going and
developing. Think about it carefully. Birth, reproduction and
sexuality are all through Shakti. Food and nourishment are another
play of Shakti. Breath, life (Prana), emotion and feeling are all
owing to Shakti. The great elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and
Ether are all forms of Shakti, which is their underlying energy. The
prime gunas of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are root forces of Shakti.
Or successes, gains, goals and achievements in any endeavor are only
possible because of Shakti or the power to accomplish them that we
have been able to discover how to work with.
Energy,
science and technology are means of working with Shakti on an outer
level and have transformed our world. The mass media is a play of
Shakti in the field of communication, which has broken down barriers
of communication everywhere. The Earth itself with its rich diversity
of life is Shakti in manifest form as the land on which we live. The
stars are the flashing forth of the cosmic Shakti through the
unbounded expanse of space. Even subatomic particles are alive with
powerful subtle forces of Shakti, which forms the ocean or matrix
from which they dance in and out of.
All
the things that we are attached to or involved with are forms of
Shakti or are rooted in Shakti. Whatever we love, seek or desire is
some aspect of Shakti that endows forms with color, beauty, charm and
delight. It is not the object, person, place or experience in itself
that is the real source of our fascination with them but the energy,
rasa or essence, the Shakti working through it. We are under the
allure of Shakti in one way or another, whether we recognize that
underlying Shakti or not.
We
cannot get beyond anything unless we first honor the Shakti behind
it, which means to touch its core energy in consciousness. You cannot
renounce anything that you are really attracted to, however hard you
may try. But you can recognize the Shakti behind it and following
that out, get beyond the limitations of the form, like the bee that
can gather the pollen and does not remember the form. The Shakti
within any individual object or experience is ultimately the same
Shakti within all.
We
cannot get out of the realm of Shakti unless we recognize and honor
the Shakti, which is both in this realm and beyond – unless she
decides. If she is not willing, our efforts will be in vain. If she
is willing, then we will be guided along the way and she herself will
lead us forward. We can then just follow her flow and need not
calculate or push our way onward, carried forward by her flow. Yet
for this to occur we must first learn to look within and discover the
deepest movement of the Shakti inside ourselves. This we will
discover as our own most inward seeking of truth and divinity.
Shakti
is the way to God or Brahman. Even if you only want to practice Yoga,
you must awaken and honor the Kundalini Shakti to take you forward.
If you are devoted to God or the Goddess in any form, you must have
that Shakti of devotion to take you forward. For any yantra, puja or
mantra to work, its Shakti must be first be invoked in order to give
it power.
Even
if you are wholly dedicated to Self-realization or Jnana, it is only
possible through the grace of Shakti and her power of knowledge, her
Buddhi Shakti through which the higher discrimination works. Without
that Shakti supporting you any efforts towards Self-realization or
statements of Self-realization that you may make will have no energy,
strength or conviction.
In
that primal Shakti there is no duality between the manifest and the
unmanifest. It is the same Shakti in its active and inactive
modalities. That Shakti holds the formless Brahman in the world of
form, not by limiting it but as part of its overflow which is her
dance. So whether a devotee worships Shakti for home and happiness or
for the highest liberation, it is the same movement of Shakti on
different levels and in different ways.
Even
if you want to change the world through political action, you must
first gain the Shakti or power to do so. If you want to be a great
artist, you need the corresponding capacity of Shakti, the power and
skill in art. Everything has its key Shakti, which contains not only
the energy but the code of its manifestation like DNA, both its
motivation and the energy to bring it about.
So
during whatever spiritual practices you choose or whatever in life
you seek that will bring you peace and happiness, do not forget the
primacy of the Shakti and you will never lose your way. The true
Shakti will gather all the outer Shaktis and lead you to your inner
goal.
There
are two main ways of working with Shakti. The first is to recognize
the different Shaktis in the universe, externally and internally,
their qualities, energies and movements and how to work with them.
This is like a doctor learning the powers of healing on different
levels, including both those of diagnosis and treatment.
The
second and simpler way is simply to worship Shakti directly, seeing
the supreme Shakti in all things. If one honors the Shakti behind all
Shaktis then one will gain their support as well as learn to
understand their specific forms. Yet these two aspects of working
with Shakti are related, by learning to discover the unique Shakti in
each thing, one also touches the supreme Shakti that is everywhere.
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