Shakti - the eternal feminine - 1

On this auspicious period of Navaratri and Durag Puja, when India worships the divine mother as Shakti, the universal feminine principle that creates, sustains and destroys the universe as nature or Prakriti and which even transcends nature, which permeates the entire universe as the cosmic energy and yet acts as the container of that very energy, it is probably fit to pay our tributes that eternal feminine.

Why is the eternal feminine worshiped as Shakti? When did the worship of Shakti start? Why is nature called mother and not father? What is this elusive entity called Shakti?

These are some of the questions that have haunted the scholars since time immemorial. However these are the very questions that are conveniently answered by the so called great teachers and mystics. Very few cared to listen to them and those who did had all their problems and doubts resolved.

Who is mother? Mother is one who procreates, nourishes and nurtures and takes care or protects. It is true that father's seed is necessary for procreation, however father's duty ends their and for the next nine months it is mother that sustains the fetus carefully in her womb, feeding it from her own blood and body. During the early childhood mother plays a very important role. She is the trainer and teacher. A baby emulates its mother more than anybody else. It pays more attention to its mother because in general the mother serves her baby in all aspects, from feeding to putting it to sleep by singing lullabies. The mother protects the baby with all her might. She can even sacrifice herself in protecting her cub. Strangely this maternal behavior is universal. It is observed in all advanced animals and even in birds. Therefore is it any wonder that the nature which creates, sustains and protects us would be called mother.

The key point here is mother protects and never destroys. But we know that nature destroys. Then how can nature be compared with a a benevolent mother? The answer is simple. Even though mother protects, she sometimes chastises her errant children more effectively than anybody else. The destruction caused by mother nature is nothing but that chastisement, on a wider scale perhaps. To her who is the time and space personified, a particular event is nothing. She knows that her children take birth again and again, come back to her for learning and goes back to her and even outgrows her when that learning is complete. Therefore destruction is nothing if we take the grandest view of a cosmic scale, the scale by which the divine mother operates.