Shiva and Shakti

1.1. Brahma is the composite of Shiva and Shakti

Brahma [Cosmic Entity] is the composite of:

• Shiva [Consciousness] and
• Shakti [Operative Principle].

A piece of paper has two sides. Although they are two for the sake of argument, they cannot be separated from the one paper entity.

Removal of one side of the paper jeopardizes the existence of the other.

So is the relation of Puruśa [Consciousness] and Prakrti [Operative Principle] in the Cosmic Entity.

None of them can stand without the other. This is why they are an inalienable concomitance.

Shiva or puruśa is extensively used philosophically.

But in common parlance the word átmá [“soul” or “self”] is more extensively used in the same sense.

Shiva means “witnessing consciousness”.

Pure shete yah sah puruśah

Puruśa is “the witness-ship that lies quiescent in every entity is the puruśa.”

Atman means “that which is omni-telepathic”.

The physical sense of the body is telepathized on the mental plate.

The crude physical waves impacts the mental plate.

• This creates a reflection that represents the awakening of the physical sense

The waves of the objects impact the mental plate.

• This creates a reflection that represents the sense of every crude object

Identical mental waves hit the soul entity.

This causes the reflection of those mental waves.

This awakens in the unit a sense of its indivisibility from the soul.

The mental waves in the mental plate are called thought.

• These can be called “thought-waves”

Likewise, the reflection of the mental waves on the soul-plate are called “telepathic waves”.

And so the soul, via the soul-plate, is telepathic to the mind.

All mundane objects, crude, subtle, or causal, consist in mental waves or thought-waves.

This is why the Soul is omni-telepathic.

This omni-telepathy of the Átman lets it recognize the existences of all mundane objects, visible or invisible.

Had there been no Átman, the existence of everything would have been in jeopardy.

1-2. Shakti (the Operative Principle) is the shakti (force) of Shiva

Every object has a material cause and an efficient cause.

Over and above these there is also a conjunctive agency linking the upádána kárańa [material cause] with the nimitta kárańa [efficient or instrumental cause].

The determination of the firmness or laxity of the relation of the material cause with the efficient cause depends on the degree of conjunctive functions.

In the process of creation:

• Puruśa is the material factor
• Prakrti is the linking force between the material and the efficient causes.

As the efficient cause:

• Puruśa is the primary factor
• Prakrti is the secondary one.

Puruśa is the all-pervading entity.

So only He can be the material cause.

Prakrti is not all-pervading.

She is sheltered in Puruśa.

In the body of Puruśa, Prakrti can only work as much as She is given opportunity to by Puruśa.

And so, in the science of creation, Puruśa alone as the doer entity is the chief efficient or instrumental cause.

Prakrti is the subordinate efficient cause since she has been posing as the doer with the authority given to Her by Puruśa.

“Worldly manifestations” are the distortions or expressions in the material cause through the efficient cause.

These are effected by the 3 gunas of Prakrti.

These accounts for Prakrti are the linking force between the efficient cause and the material cause.

So the firmness or feebleness of the object-body fully depends upon the degree of the influence of Prakrti.

In the process of evolution, Puruśa gives Prakrti the authority to work, and She goes on working.

The subtle Puruśa goes on attaining crudity gradually due to the bondage of the 3 guńas of Prakrti.

From the ultimate state of His crudity, Purusa slowly and gradually keeps reduces the opportunity and liberty of Prakrti previously given to Her.

This is how the crudified Puruśa gradually:

• regains His subtlety
• returns to His own ultimate characteristic state

Saincara [crudification] is the flow of manifestations of the Puruśadeha [Cognitive Body] under the binding influence of Prakrti.

Pratisaiṋcara [subtlification] is the gradual process of liberation in the Puruśadeha from the progressive looseness of the bondage.

Prakrti is free to make honest use of Her acquired power. But the attainment or non-attainment of this power depends on Puruśa, or Citishakti [Cognitive Principle].

This is why Prakrti is but the characteristic of Puruśa Himself.