Shakti and Shakta: Essays and Addresses on the Shakta Tantrashastra c19.2

c19.2

THE subject of my lecture to-day is Consciousness or Chit, and Matter or Unconsciousness, that is, Achit; the unchanging formlessness and the changing forms. According to Shâkta Advaitavâda, man is Consciousness-Unconsciousness or Chit-Achit; being Chit-Shakti as regards his Antarâtmâ, and the particularized Mâyâ-Shakti as to his material vehicles of mind and body. The reason that I have selected this subject, amongst the many others on which I might have addressed you, is that these two ideas are the key concepts of Indian Philosophy and religion. If they are fully understood both as to their definition and relations, then, all is understood so far as intellect can make such matters intelligible to us; if they are not understood then nothing is properly understood. Nor are they always understood even by those who profess to know and write on Indian Philosophy. Thus, the work on Vedânta, of an English Orientalist, now in its second edition, describes Chit as the condition of a stone or other inert substance. A more absurd error it is hard to imagine. Those who talk in this way have not learnt the elements of their subject. It is true that you will find in the Shâstra, the state of the Yogî described as being like a log (Kâshtavat). But this does not mean that his Consciousness is that of a piece of wood: but that he no more perceives the external world than a log of wood does. He does not do so because he has the Samâdhi consciousness that is Illumination and true Being itself.