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But Prakṛiti or Nature is feminine and active: to her is due the evolution of the universe: she involves the soul in actions which cause pain but she also helps the work of liberation. In its fully developed form the doctrine of the Tantras teaches that Śakti is not an emanation or aspect of the deity. There is no distinction between Brahman and Śakti.
The commentator thinks that this has reference to the incarnation of Trivikrama i.e., the dwarf suddenly expanding his form till with two steps he covered Heaven and Earth and demanded space for his third step. 168. i.e., thou art possessed of Yoga knowledge. The two together form one name. These are Vija, Sakti, and Kilakani. A kakud is a hump or elevated place in the body.
And at his sight the army of the daityas was suddenly dispirited on the field of battle. And, O great king, the mighty Mahasena discharged a bright Sakti for the destruction of Mahisha. That missile cut off the head of Mahisha, and he fell upon the ground and died.
He states, "This representative of the union of the sexes typifies the divine Sakti, or productive energy, in union with the pro-creative or generative power as seen throughout nature.
The worship of this goddess or goddesses, for it is hard to say if she is one or many, is treated of in a separate chapter. But in Śâktist worship adoration is offered to the Śakti as being the form in which his power is made manifest or even as the essential Godhead. Let us now pass on to Vishṇu. Though not one of the great gods of the Veda, he is mentioned fairly often and with respect.
In Benares, the sacred city, "everywhere, in the temples, in the little shrines in the street, the emblem of the Creator is phallic." Symbols of the male and female sexual organs, the Lingam and the Yoni, have been objects of worship in India from the earliest times. With the Sakti ceremonies, Hindu religion dispenses with symbols, and devotion is paid to a naked woman selected for the occasion.
From this came the teaching, subsequently held by numerous other sects, that those born of the Spirit could not be defiled by any acts of the flesh, and that so-called vicious actions were rather to be encouraged as providing experience useful to spiritual welfare. Some branches of the gnostics had 'spiritual marriages, similar to what existed in India in the Sakti rites already described.
And for the good of the world he promulgated the virtues of the six-faced Skanda, and performed ceremonies in honour of the cock, the goddess Sakti, and the first followers of Skanda. And for this reason he became a great favourite of the celestial youth. That great Muni then informed the seven Rishis, of the transformations of Swaha and told them that their wives were perfectly innocent.
Thus the Śakti who pervades the universe is also present in the body as Kuṇḍalinî, a serpentine coil of energy, and it is part of Sâdhana to arouse this energy and make it mount from the lower to the higher centres. Kuṇḍalinî is also present in sounds and in letters.
Between the world periods there are pauses of quiescence and at the end of these Śiva evolves the universe and souls. But this does not prevent the god himself in a personal and often visible form from being for his devotees the one central and living reality. The Śakti, often called Umâ, is merely Śiva's reflex and hardly an independent existence.
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