A Fight Against Shakti Is A Challenge To All Hindus, And Indeed To India, The Motherland

There is a term called Shakti in Hinduism, we are fighting against that Shakti; so says the perpetual prime minister in waiting, Rahul Gandhi.

Every time one feels the Congress leader has scraped the bottom of the barrel, he goes one better.

Yes, there is a concept of Shakti in Hinduism; it is the cosmic feminine power, the creatrix, the upholder. This foundational Indic concept is to be embraced by all who profess to be Indian, not something to fight against, does the body fight against its atma? 

Brahm or spiritual wisdom and Kshatra or raw power are the two primal forces in the metaphysical Hindu universe. 

In the concept of Adi Shakti, both these have found their most transcendent fusion. The earliest concept of the feminine principle, its power and creative energy in India has been in this context.

From the highest metaphysical and philosophical plane it has found its way into our conceptions of the cosmos, our worship, rituals, our motherland, our way of life.

Is this what Rahul Gandhi’s fight is against? The very foundations of Hindu beliefs which come from the Rig Veda, Upanishads, the Puranas and every Hindu’s heart? The deep core of reverence for the feminine?

Let us understand this term called Shakti and trace its origins.

Shakti first arises before our eyes when we listen to the Devi Suktam of the 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda. Rishika Vak Ambhrini has perhaps the first vision of what is later known as Advaita Vedanta, the eternal and infinite, poorna unity of brahm and atman, the indivisibility of creation. She manifests this indivisibility and suffusion of the feminine principle in the cosmos in the Devi Suktam.

She herself is the creator and the created and it is she who says so.

अ॒हम् ए॒व स्व॒यम् इ॒दं व॑दामि॒; I say so therefore it is. She herself is all the gods and their multifarious works, they  move according to her directions. 

The voice is strong and confident, ringing down the ages:

 अ॒हं रु॒द्रेभि॒र् , अ॒हं सोम॑म्, अ॒हं राष्ट्री॑, मया॒ सो अन्न॑म्, अ॒हं सु॑वे पि॒तर॑म्

She says; I am the ruler, creation, civilisation, one who pervades eating drinking, civilisation, knowledge, in me is the sky, in me the womb of creation.

अथवा बहुनैतेन किं ज्ञातेन तवार्जुन।

विष्टभ्याहमिदं कृत्स्नमेकांशेन स्थितो जगत्।।10.42।।

Briefly, manifested from one little piece of me is the cosmos. 

The idea is repeated multiple times across Indic thought but the first feminine manifestation is in the roots of the ashwatth tree of our wisdom, the Rig Veda.

This abstract idea is given a more earthly form in the Sri Suktam of the Rig Veda Khilani. Shakti is given a more concrete roop as Goddess Sri, the cause of creation, the manifestation of the three worlds and the giver of boons to her children the mortals on this earth.

The first overwhelming impression is of immanent merciless power and transcendent beauty. Devi herself has a blazing yet soft lustre and radiance, a lotus herself and living in one with all the resultant symbolism in Indic thought; purity, beauty, fertility, life, growth, spirituality; the universe in a flower.

The four purusharthas of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha can be attained with the grace of Sri. A detailed study of the shlokas brings out the fact that there are references in them to all aspects of life; food, dress, war, grihasti, desires, fears, enjoyment, they can be understood as a blueprint for a life of earthly aanand.

Creation is seen in terms of the mother earth, the female body is the manifestation of the divine. Shri or Shakti or Stri is not only the worshipper but the worshipped; not only the seeker of boons but also the granter; where stri is the parabrahma behind creation. She is worshipped by all, stri,  or purush.

This is Shakti! Can anyone declare a fight against this?

The strong Shakta tradition of India has its seeds in this very sukta. Devi Durga in the Devi Mahatamya, Devi Upanishad and all the other deeply female centred traditions focused in Eastern India in particular can be traced ideologically speaking, to this Suktam. The Shakta sampradaya worships Shakti, of course. Perhaps this is who Rahul Gandhi wishes to fight against?

Not for nothing is Bharat, or ancient Jambudweepa seen as connected by different parts of the body of Goddess Sati with 51 Shaktipeeths across the Indian sub-continent. This is seed of the idea of Bharat Mata, the country as the mother. 

Shakti goes to the heart of our civilisation, to what makes us unique. No other civilisation, body of thought or metaphysics is stri-pradhan — so strongly woman centric. It is the kernel of our identity and all Hindu, even Indian women are identified with it. Indian women evoke Shakti in their very existence.

To use it as a casual insult is bewildering, is it to belittle Indic ontology, belief; or is it an actual fight against real women of this country? Each woman carries within her the seeds of Shakti, to disparage Shakti is to disparage womankind and Dharmic civilisation in one fell swoop.

To know more of these concepts please visit the Vak Indian History Podcast of the author.