[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Elements of Hindu Iconography](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914) › v3.c19.1 # Elements of Hindu Iconography v3.c19.1 Elements of Hindu Iconography v3.c19.1 - **Language:** English ### [v3.c19.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914.v3.c19.1) GOD, according to Hindu philosophy and theology, may be viewed as being either with or without attributes, that is, as \*saguṇa\* or \*nirguṇa\*. In the former case God is spoken of as He or She, and in the latter case as It. In the \*saguṇa\* form of worship, which is prescribed for all common people, the Vaiṣṇavas worship him as Viṣṇu and the Śaivas as Śiva. Those Hindus who worship the Supreme deity exclusively as a female principle are called Śāktas. The classification of Hindu worshippers into Vaiṣṇavas and Śaivas on the one hand and Śāktas on the other is not, however, exclusively rigid or inviolable, in as much as Vaiṣṇavas and Śaivas also worship the Dēvī in the form of Lakshmī and Pārvatī, although the supreme place of honour is reserved for the male Dēva, that is, for Viṣṇu or Śiva as the case may be. Here the Dēvī comes only next to the Dēva. But the Śāktas make the Dēvī supreme deity and assert that without the co-operation of this goddess the absolute Brahman of itself can achieve nothing. This Śakti may be conceived to be the personification of universal energy in the abstract. She resides in the macrocosm as well as in the microcosm. The discovery and development of Śakti or psychic energy in man is the aim of the Mantra-śāstras. The Śakti which resides in man, and the development of which is one of the aims of the Yōga-śāstra, is called the Kuṇḍalini Śakti. The place where it resides is called the Mūlādhāra, and is understood to be at the lower extremity of the spinal cord. By a successful development and working of this Śakti at the Mūlādhāra, even the attainment of mōksha or the liberation of the soul is believed to become possible. In the ordinary condition the Kuṇḍalini Śakti is latent and sleeps quietly at the Mūlādhāra. The yōgic aspirant may first awaken the sleeping faculty in two ways, that is, either by means of the prāṇāyāma or by means of mantras. Of these the former process consists in the regulation and the holding of the breath for certain definite periods of time. This is the course advocated in works on the Yōga śāstra. The second process requires the aspirant to be initiated in certain mantras or incantations which he has to repeat a fixed number of times at certain hours of the day, keeping all the while before his mental vision the image of the deity associated with the mantra. When thus roused up, the Kuṇḍalinī ascends from the Mūlādhāra to the next higher centre the Svādhiṣṭhāna: thence to the centres Maṇipūra and Anāhata in the latter of which this psychic śakti is transformed into sound; then to the centre Viśuddhi where it becomes sāttvic; and then at last to the centre Ājñā where the śakti becomes manifest in the form of a flash of light. By repeatedly practising the process of holding the breath and controlling it, as laid down in the Yōga śāstras, one may be enabled to enjoy this divine light perpetually, and thus be in union with Divinity itself. The practice of holding the breath and controlling it for the purpose of rousing the Kuṇḍalinī śakti possibly brings into active play some latent power residing in the several parts of the spinal cord of the human being, which has not been as yet examined by Western Science. - [Previous: v3.c18.s1.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914.v3.c18.s1.19) - [Next: v3.c19.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914.v3.c19.2) - [Up: v3.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914.v3.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914.v3.c19.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.rao-1914.v3.c19.1) · Pramāṇa