ON the GODDESS' "PHASES of LIFE" in SOME HINDUISTIC TEXTS Teun Goudriaan May Be Called Remarkable, That the Recent

ON THE GODDESS' "PHASES OF LIFE" IN SOME HINDUISTIC TEXTS Teun Goudriaan 1. It may be called remarkable, that the recent movement in Christiani ty which is orienting itself towards a female nature of God seems to be inspired almost completely by women, while the traditional paternalistic idea of God is being defended most emphatically by male authorities. Within Hinduism, the worship of, and speculation about, the feminine conception of the Godhead (afterwards: 'The Goddess') by theologians, philosophers, and mythographers - not to speak of many millions of believers - is a well-known phenomenon. This statement is, however, in need of some qualification at the outset. Although the Goddess is being worshipped by many people as omnipotent, source and ultimate destina tion of all life, she is often considered in Sanskrit religious literature, especially the literature of Slktism as the active, self-manifesting and self-transforming part of the bipolar Cosmic Being: Brahman or gva. The term Si.ktism 'the doctrine of Sikti' is a device for summarizing the ideas and conventions of the followers of the feminine view of God. The concept of Sikti 'power, energy' can hardly be detached from a male counterpart2 . 'Sikti' can be described as the spontaneous, pulsating, expanding, creative aspect of the Supreme Being, as has for instance been expressed by the eighteenth-century philosopher Bhaskararaya in his work Varivasyarahasya3 'Secret of Worship', vs. 4: 'The Sikti is His innate luminous vibration in the shape of reflection; only in connection with Her, gva creates, maintains and destroys the world.' In this view, the male aspect of divine nature is at the same time its innermost core, its primeval base. This core remains unaffected, self -absorbed, and unchanging; the female aspect is moving, changing, erupting in cosmic creativity. In a radically Slkta orientation, the male aspect, being formless and undefinable, stands completely - or almost completely - in the background, while all attention is concentrated on the Goddess Who is alone active. Such a position is found i. a. in the -- -4 -- -5 Devi-Bhagavata Purana. and the Kalika Purana. , medieval texts of a narrative-speculative character and unknown age and place of origin. In sources like these, the reader encounters statements to the extent that 70 TEUN GOUDRIAAN the Goddess acts completely autonomous as the ground of existence, and as such is to be equated with the universe. 2. It may happen that mutually differing viewpoints are represented in the same source, so that the author's final view of the nature of God does not become completely clear. A case in point is the Mahanirvana Tantra (MNT) 6 'Tantra of the Final Release', a very young text (second half of the 1sth century), which, however, managed to obtain an impor tant status among the followers of the Si.kti and of Tantrism in Bengal and elsewhere. In its third chapter, a reformistic worship of the imper sonal Brahman is expounded, while ch. 5 is devoted to the figure of Adya Kali 'the Primeval Kali', who seems to be a personally conceived female alternative to Brahman. She can, says the text ( 5, 137f.) be meditated upon in two ways: abstract (arupa) and concrete (sarupa). The abstract form is unmanifested and therefore also undescribable, even unknowable: 'Who is able to know Thee ? ' ( 4, 15) . She can be approached only by expert yogins in meditative trance, is unlimited in time and space, etc. Out of compassion for less talented worshippers, for the well-being of the world in general, and for the destruction of the demons (clearly 'popularizing' motivations), the Goddess has mani fested herself in concrete shape in a variety of ways. The meditation on the concrete form has three aims or results: 1) The mind is trained in the concentration upon the Goddess' nature. 2) The faculty to comprehend her abstract form is stimulated. 3) Desires in the mundane sphere are brought te realization. The meditation on the most sublime concrete manifestation of the Prime val Kali is described, in accordance with tradition, in a stanza com posed after the standards of court poetry in a complicated metre (lost in the translation): 'I worship the Primeval Kali, Whose body resembles a (black) cloud; the Three-eyed One, Who is dressed in red, Who is standing upon a red lotus. Who carries the moon in Her crown, Whose gestures symbolize safety and liherality. With Her large eyes She watches .

Load more