Shakti and Shakta: Essays and Addresses on the Shakta Tantrashastra c19.17

c19.17

The Mother Devî is Îshvara considered in His feminine aspect (Îshvarî) as the Mother and Nourisher of the world. The Jîva or individual self is an Amsha or fragment of that great Shakti : the difference being that whilst Îshvara is Mâyâvin or the controller of Mâyâ, Jîva is subject to Mâyâ. The World-thinker retains His Supreme undual Consciousness even in creation, but His thought, that is the forms created by His thinking are bound by His Mâyâ, that is the forms with which they identify themselves until by the power of the Vidyâ Shakti in them they are liberated. All is truly Sat—or Brahman. In creation Shiva extends His power, and at Pralaya withdraws it into Himself. In creation, Mâyâ is in itself Consciousness which appears as unconsciousness. Before creation it is as consciousness.