In the dark environs of Tantrik supremacy, every step into a physical temple is a leap into once own divine self. Kamakshi, as she is called, gives a deep flavour of the nature of Sati, that of Parvati, that of the consort of the great Lord Rudra. Kamakhya beholds a shrine, Kanchipuram displays her feminine beauty. Great poets like Adi Shankara have sung her praise, outlined her potential physical form, not just as a Goddess, but as that element of power that adorns the features of what we experience as a “woman”.
The Kalika Purana describes the beauty of Sati, the essence of womanhood, the one who all the Gods believe is the right consort to Lord Shiva. Kamakshi, the essence of love, describes her form as the powerful lover, with sweetness that can intoxicate, and potency that can blind the senses of any Bhakta. Saktaism is not for the weak, when it comes to the Goddess, Bhakti alone speaks. This state of heightened emotions leaves us aspiring for more of that divine love. What is that state of love, what is that state of emotion that makes the physical, spiritual and mental states come together. Surrendering oneself to the divine force brings that sacred numbness to our thoughts. All that matters is the Goddess within.
The din of the surroundings are no longer heard, the jostling crowds no longer bother us, the darkness of the cave brings us closer to what is the potency of the goddess. Love isn’t just about sexuality, love is about intellect, love is about unpredictability, love is about miracles and love is about fearlessness. These emotions rule us and guide us, making us ever aware that a career in spiritualism is not a joke, it demands way more diligence from us … the question is are we ready to give it, are we capable of such love.
The poetry of Adi Shankar in the Soundarya Lahari can be taken as a sensual reproduction of the Goddess’s physical form. But what the Soundarya Lahari actually wants to convey is the power of the mystical beauty of the Goddess. It is not just about how she looks, it is about the nature of her power. The sacred SriChakra is her mystical embodiment, mixed with the essence of sacred syllables and offered to the fire. She is the one who glows in the heat of divine love, the one who raises the potency of sacred juices, the one who rules the mystical sciences of tantra, and the one who extracts the abstraction of divinity in miracles.
Miracles are not a one of experience, they can be a regularity which means that life is transforming from within and people in the mundane don’t matter anymore. Worshipping her sacred feet delivers the power of the mystical arrows that adorn her toes. She is a throbbing energy that is within me, one that people can feel but cannot describe. The prescribed existence of human behaviour is questioned by the unpredictability of the spiritual universe, yes, these two worlds are not the same and when the rules of the spiritual world start to apply in the Maya that we live in, the outcome is baffling, even to the Bhakta. Transformation in spiritualism is the maturity one achieves in the mind, in the body and in the soul after complete surrender. The meaning of surrender here is the complete acceptance and consciousness that the divine parent is her, and not our earthly parent, that we are here temporarily and we shall go, that the people we call family are lost souls brought together into a bond with rules that apply only in earthy relationship and in no other realm and finally that we are alone, we came here alone and we will leave alone. A long as this reality is achieved and all attachments broken, the essence of life, and death, and the soaring love between the understanding of these two events brings the much needed enlightenment into our otherwise insipid lives.
Ritual worship is an outward expression of an inner desire to seek the supreme, the depth of one’s own emotion (if we are ever capable) stitched together with the bringing together of all our senses. 5 senses offer 5 elements to the Gods, fusing what is material with what is spiritual in the presence of sacred white fire. Miracles are the outcome of such worship, events that are unpredictable leaving us asking for more of such sacred occurrences. But to get here, one needs to give up fear, and the familiar. The question is - are we capable?
