[This is an old article, and some of you might
have read it, but yet thought to share it with you all here again, as I found
some new faces off the record here...]
To deny the feminine aspect of self is to deny a complete life. The completeness of God is owing to this melding of both the female and the male aspects. Sacred feminine therefore is a pursuit of those looking to achieve God-like completeness...A FRIEND ASKED me once about my thoughts on being a devotee of sacred feminine. I did would like to share with you what I conveyed to him. As far as my concept of divinity is concerned, I believe God is beyond number, count and gender. God is one and more than one. God is both male and female and beyond the male-female dichotomy. We may worship the divine in any form we choose and God responds in kind. Lord Krishna says: “In whatever form people relate to Me, I respond in the same form.”Several relationships with the Divine are described: the Divine as father, as mother, as friend, as husband or wife and as child. In our country, the Divine is worshiped in all these forms, and by true nature I accept all the people as they are (but it does not mean I follow them...). And, I am, from my basic nature, Matri-shakti Upasak. So, you can call me a devotee of sacred feminine.Not just in India, but there is a resurgence of interest in the sacred feminine, especially in the West. Recently, the whole world was discussing about the Da Vinci Code and an analysis given by Dan Brown, which is as follows.Early Christianity entailed "the cult of the Great Mother". Mary Magdalene represented the feminine cult and the Holy Grail of traditional loreShe was also Jesus’ wife and the mother of his childrenMagdalene’s womb, carrying Jesus offspring, was the legendary Holy Grail (as seen in Da Vinci’s encoded painting, The Last Supper)Jesus was not seen as divine (God) by his followers until Emperor Constantine declared him so for his own purposesThe "truth" about Christ and Mary Magdalene has been kept alive by a secret society named the Priory of Sion that was lead by great minds like Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton.I would say that we could be truly human only through our connection to the sacred feminine. She is part of us and we are part of Her. If we deny our feminine aspect, we lead incomplete lives. She helps us to integrate our body, mind and soul. It is the integration of our masculine and feminine aspects that makes us whole and holy. We can be gentle and strong, intuitive and intellectual, inward and outward, reflective and active. We can love one another and care for each as brothers and sisters, as husbands and wives. We need the Goddess in our lives to repair, to nurture and to heal.I don’t expect anyone to agree with all these, but just put what I have been thinking about our Feminine Aspects of Nature... and I am sorry to say that I havn’t read much of philosophy. But I think the phenomena that everybody is talking about, has already been there in the roots of our country… it is not like whatever the screnario (unluckily a bitter truth of male dominance) is there, is there from the start, it is all man-made, and nowhere mentioned in any of our Veda/Upnishad/Aranyak or Sanhita, and I am sure that everyone who has written the Bhashya (which is nothing but individual’s understanding of Veda) or tried to explain the concept of Sacred Feminie, has just accumulated the ideas from those roots. Sometimes I wonder so much is said and too little is followed. If you will go through our creation story (as it is mentioned in Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad or the Book of Forest Teaching), you will find that in the beginning was the Self in the form of Purusha, or the Great Being. He looked around and found none else but himself. And, the Great Being said Aham in Sanskrit, or I am. That is how the Self came to be known as I am. He was afraid. But then he said to himself, "Of what am I afraid? There is none other than myself. Once he realized this, the fear was gone. But he had no delight, for one who is all alone, does not rejoice. The Great Being desired a second. He caused himself to grow as big as a man and woman closely embracing. He then caused himself to fall into two parts, and from this, a husband and wife were born.Sage Yagna-valkya says: “One is like a half fragment, and this incompleteness is filled by a woman. The Great Being united with her, and thus the human race was born. But the woman reflected, how can he unite with me after producing me from himself? For shame, I will conceal myself. Thus followed the game of hide and seek between him and her. She hid herself becoming the cow. He became the bull and united with her; the bovine creation followed. She concealed herself as the mare; he became the stallion and the horse race ensued. She became a female-goat, and he a billy-goat, and from their union all goats were born. Thus followed several orders of creation, down even to the ants.” Says the scripture, “The Great Being then created the five elements: fire, wind, earth, water and space. He then created speech and names and forms to distinguish one from the other. God also created the fourfold order of society. Finally, he created Dharma, the Law that holds together the whole Creation.Once the creation was in place, He saw that He Himself was the creation for indeed He had released it from Himself. The creation is He Himself. And he who realizes this truth of creation becomes himself a Creator for he is identified with the creative process and the Creator. To know is to become. So, in this creation story, the whole existence is One, for it originates from the One. It is the One Self that has entered into every object and into these bodies, down to the very tips of the fingernails. God therefore is not aloof from His/Her creation.The creation is a manifestation of the powers and potentialities that reside within the Divine. Creation is not an illusion, or Maya. If God is real, then this creation is real since it originates from God. So, the Divine assumes a double form at the very moment of creation. The Great Being becomes two: male and female. God’s dual form represents two sides of One Reality — positive and negative, yin and yang, him and her.If you will observe then you will find that the act of creation is joyful and fun-filled. So, I will conclude it on the note: "To know is to become."
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