The Goddess as Knowledge
Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses’
As in many spiritual traditions, the feminine aspect of Divine reality represents knowledge and wisdom (Sanskrit Vidya). The three Vedas, the most ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition - represent the three faculties of speech, mind and breath - and are called Trayi Vidya or the three wisdoms (feminine). The Greek idea of three graces is similar.
The true worship of the Goddess involves knowledge which is her real form. It is not merely an outer worship, but an inner worship which is meditation. Meditation on the Goddess is a form of self-inquiry or a means of acquiring knowledge.
It is not merely an adulation of the feminine form or qualities. It may start with an image of the Goddess but reaches far beyond the limits of name, form and personality to the impersonal absolute.
Goddess represents what is hidden, secret, subtle and sensitive.
In the process of spiritual learning the Goddess becomes the muse who guides us and inspires us. She is the priestess who unfolds the inner truth. Yet true knowledge as part of an integral comprehension of reality is always related to energy and beauty. The Goddess is not only knowledge but power and delight.
Knowledge of her reveals her powers which are awesome and transformative. Understanding of her reveals bliss, which is the joy of going beyond all the limitations of the body-mind.
Yet the Goddess does not merely give us knowledge. She is knowledge. The inner knowledge is the body of the Goddess, which she unfolds as her various adornments and eventually as her own being. Wisdom is the ultimate form of beauty and delight, the most sought after object in creation, and hence the ultimate embodiment of the Divine feminine.
Ultimately the Goddess is not merely knowledge but pure consciousness itself (Samvit). She is knowledge that puts the mind to rest and returns us to the source.
Through her we discover the serenity of the self.
Ten Wisdom Forms of the
Hindu deities represent the Divine consciousness functioning on all levels of the universe. Both outwardly and inwardly. They represent the various principles, energies and faculties which make up this great universe, manifest and un-manifest.
The Goddess, who represents creation on all levels, possess this same diversity, which is expressed through her Ten Wisdom Forms (Dasha Mahavidya) and their different functions.
Dasha Mahavidya means the ' Ten Great Knowledges'. They reveal the inner workings of both the universe and the psyche, once the veil of appearances is pulled down. They represent the deeper truths of life hidden behind our attachment to the outer form of things. Their messages are sometimes inspiring and sometimes frightening because they represent life itself, but they are always instructive to those who are looking for something beyond the ordinary realm.
The ten forms of the Goddess function not merely to teach us superficially or intellectually but to challenge us to look deeper. As great cosmic forces their energies can be difficult to bear and their extreme appearances may jolt us. Their forms are often disturbing; they are not meant to be merely pleasant. They are meant like mysteries to enter or shock the mind into awakening. They are not meant merely to console or inspire but to promote within us the deepest search. Their forms are ambiguous, contradictory and paradoxical. They are provocative energies designed to take hold of our minds and through their enigmatic nature neutralize the thought process which keeps us in bondage.
Life itself is something awesome and mysterious. We do not know why we are born or when we will die. We do not even know how we move, breathe or drink. Most of what we are seeking is merely transient and does not answer the ultimate question of our destiny: what, if anything in us, transcends death.
Our knowledge only grasps the surface of the world, and we do not have any sense of our ultimate identity. To approach the higher knowledge we must set our lower knowledge aside, which is not to reject it altogether but to recognize its limited place. The wisdom forms of the Goddess are part of a spiritual science, which we can examine only when we have set aside our outer knowing and its grasping for information and ideas.
Also an art
Yet this spiritual science is also an art. It cannot be approached mechanically but requires creative participation. We must become that reality and experience within ourselves all of its manifold dimensions. We must become the Goddess as her power comes to work through us. This way of Yogic knowledge is a theatre or play in the mind. It contains all of life and all of the universe as flowing through our nervous system. It is perhaps the ultimate of all experiences, as through it experience itself is dissolved into the transcendent.
Each of the Ten Forms of the Goddess represents a particular approach to self-realization, to knowledge of that within us which transcends time and transient identity. Yet each of the ten has within itself many layers. Unless we are willing to look deeply, we may become caught in a secondary aspect of the form and function of the Goddess.
As representatives of powerful cosmic forces, the Goddesses can be approached to gain wealth, health, fame or other ordinary goals of life. However, if we approach them with a selfish intention, their inner powers cannot come forth. We cannot manipulate these deep cosmic forces.
We can only benefit from them if we honor the wisdom at their origin.
Hence these knowledge Forms should not be approached superficially or casually. For them to really work, we must first surrender to the Divine Mother herself and gain her grace. It is her power, her Yoga Shakti that does the work. We can be receptive to its current and learn its rhythms, but we cannot direct its flow. We must not try to use these teachings out of personal willfulness, or they will not be liberating for us. The Ten Forms of Goddess make up a complete and integral teaching but several of them have their special worship as representing the supreme Mother Herself.
Sundari, also called Lalitha or Rajarajeshwari, is the most popular form of the Divine Mother in South India. In the North and west of India, in Tibet and Kashmir and in Buddhist lands, Tara has this importance. In the North and East of India, Bengal and Assam, which is the region of India where the worship of the Goddess has always been the most popular, Kali represents the Great World Mother. Kali is the first and foremost of the Ten Wisdom Goddesses. All ten can be portrayed as the various aspects of Kali. They are often placed around Her as their central deity. Hence the Dashamahavidya is one of the most important forms of Kali worship.
Origin of the Ten Wisdom Goddesses
The first clear reference to the Ten Wisdom Goddesses occurs in the Shiva Purana (V.50). According to this story a demon called Durgama took control of the four Vedas, by a boon of the Creator, Lord Bramha, and through them gained power over the entire universe. This caused a tremendous drought on earth for many years in which all creatures suffered greatly. Hence, the Gods called upon the Goddess to save the world. The Goddess, who always responds to the wished of Her devotees, first eliminated the drought and filled all the waters of the earth. Then the Gods asked an additional boon to destroy the great demon and reclaim the Vedas. In Her battle with the demon, the Goddess brought ten great forms out of her body-the Dashamahavidya, and then took the forms of innumerable Goddesses. She defeated the demon and returned the Vedas to the Gods. As a conqueror of Durgama, the Goddess was named Durga.
The Ten Wisdom Goddesses, are originally associated with the myth of restoring the Vedic teaching, which through the process of time had fallen under the forces of decay and corruption. From the Vedas to the Tantras, is an unbroken line of Mantric and Meditation teachings centered in the Goddess, who Herself is a Divine Word and the Vedas, and who periodically renovates the teaching in order to sustain in this world born by time and death.
Shakti is the Goddess or cosmic feminine force and is generally translated as power. Whereas the God or cosmic masculine force is worshipped as SHIVA, meaning peace, SHAKTI is the power of peace. It is not power born of violence or aggression. It is power born in passivity, in silence of mind, the energy which comes forth from the void, like life that comes forth from the womb. SHAKTI is not power which is asserted against something, but a power that enlivens everything from within.
THE SHIVA-SHAKTI CONCEPT
In the Shiva-Shakti concept the male is passive and the female is active. Whereas in Buddhist thought the male (Upaya or skill) is active and the female is passive. (prajna or Wisdom). In the Vaishnava tradition Vishnu or Krishna (Consciousness or love), the male force is active, whereas LAXMI or RADHA (beauty or devotion), the female force is passive. However, SHAKTI is the power of wisdom and devotion. SHIVA is the passivity of the will, which accomplishes all things without itself moving. Whether the male or female are active or passive is thus a matter of different roles and levels, not of any fundamental difference between these formulations.
In addition, SHAKTI is not an external power but one's own power. To worship the SHAKTI is to take back one's own power, which is to recognize the power of one's own consciousness , the womb in which the energy of enlightenment is born.
SHAKTI is the descent of Divine Grace, which is the power of peace.
Woman has the power and potency to create new life. She has the energy of beauty, delight and creativity. This transformative power of the Divine Mother is the SHAKTI that works behind all changes in the universe, and brings the human beings to the greatest transformation, which is enlightenment. Our purpose is to energize that SHAKTI dormant within us. By unfolding all the different levels of rhythms of her movement, as she naturally seeks her native abode in the supreme.
The Goddess Speaks
I create the Father of the universe On the summit of the world. My origin is within the cosmic waters, In the universal sea. From there I extend to all the worlds and touch the ridge of Heaven. I blow like the wind Setting in motion all the universe. Far beyond Heaven and beyond this earth extends my greatness. - Vak Ambhrini Rig Veda X.125.7-8
Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses’
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