Shakti and Shakta: Essays and Addresses on the Shakta Tantrashastra c19.16

c19.16

But Shakti has two aspects (Mûrtti), viz., Vidyâ Shakti or Chit-Shakti, and Avidyâ Shakti or Mâyâ-Shakti. Both as Shakti (which is the same as Shaktimân) are in themselves conscious. But the difference is that whilst Chit-Shakti is illuminating consciousness, Mâyâ is a Shakti which veils consciousness to itself, and by its wondrous power appears as unconscious. This Mâyâ-Shakti is Consciousness which by its power appears as unconsciousness. This Mâyâ-Shakti is Triguna Shakti, that is, Shakti composed of the three Gunas. This is Kâmakâlâ which is the Trigunât-makavibhûti. These Gunas are therefore at base nothing but Chit-Shakti. There is no necessity for the Mâyâvâdin’s Chidâbhâsa, that is, the reflection of conscious reality on unconscious unreality, as Mâyâvâda says. All is real except, in the sense that some things endure and are therefore truly real : others pass and in that sense only are not real. All is Brahman. The Antarâtmâ in man is the enduring Chit-Shakti. His apparently unconscious vehicles of mind and body are Brahman as Mâyâ-Shakti, that is, consciousness appearing as unconsciousness by virtue of its inscrutable power. Îshvara is thus the name for Brahman as Shakti which is conjoined Chit-Shakti and Mâyâ-Shakti.