Shaktism started with Vedas, one has not seen much to talk about Goddesses except some wives of Gods. Characters of Draupadi and Sita, in the great epics, were the first signs of some significant presence of women in religious horizon of Hinduism. Most Sanskrit texts have referred them merely as Devis having much lower positioning in terms of power and scope. So, it is to the credit of Puranas that Hindus started giving higher respect to Goddesses than before, if not the same status as Gods.
 |
| Shaktism |
Devi Mahatmya, a long story included in Markandeya Purana is by far the first step for showing high and glorified women Shakti having divine power equal or better than some Gods. Eventually, Goddesses got divided into two categories, Goddesses of Breasts (who are wives of main Gods like Laxmi, Parvati, Sarasvati, etc.) and Goddesses of Tooth, the fierce killer with plenty of uncontrolled power, generally celibate and without having children of their own but protecting her followers from all difficulties as a mother. Maa Durga, Maa Kali, Maa Bhawani falling under this category.
Shaktism is worshipped in Tantrik practices where the Goddesses worshipped like Chandika, Ambika, etc. Shaktism also have some other sub sects. Largest schools of Shakti are Sri Kula (Family of Sri) practised in South India and Kali Kula (family of Kali) practised in East and North India. This sect of Hinduism is an exception to the whole world as there is no other example in any other religious liturgical history having such a complete female oriented system.
It is alleged that practising Shaktism leads only to Siddhis (occult power) and Bhukti (material enjoyment) while practising Shaivism or Vaishnavism leads to Moksha, the spiritual liberation.
Post a Comment
Do not post any spam link here.