Re: ...Shakta...
I am just curious why would someone be drawn to worshipping shakti and not Sri Krishna or Rama.
Namaste Iksvakave,
I am equally curious why someone would be drawn worshipping Lord Vishnu's avatars, Lord Shiva or indeed any other aspect of God. The answers that devotees of the Mother Goddess can give you would be many and multivaried, I would imagine, so perhaps my own response will not be enough to convince you why there is a reason - nay, even a need for some! - to worship Devi. It's important to remember that within Shakta worship, Shakti is no longer just dynamic power as She is understood in male-oriented worship. She is God in Her own right in the form of the Female.
For myself personally, Divine Mother is able to inspire in me the greatest feelings of a tender, immutable Love that in its very nature cannot discriminate or separate. If you can imagine for one moment the devotee as a toddler who in his own clumsy and unlearned way patters on first to his mother for care, nourishment and affection, perhaps you might understand the mindset of a bhakta of Mother Goddess. In childhood we have complete faith and devotion to our mothers; we totally surrender ourselves into their care and are literally at their mercy. When a child stumbles, falls and hurts himself, to whom does he look for first for comfort? Children take their mothers' love almost for granted, and yet they show it to their children unconditionally. This is not confined only in the human species. When you threaten a lioness's cubs, see how ferocious she becomes so that she can protect her babies! In the same way, a devotee puts his faith in Devi with the knowledge that She will protect and watch over him as Her very own dear child. It is also natural to lean towards association of traditionally "feminine" virtues like compassion, gentleness and humility with the mother figure before the father figure.
I don't mean to deny worship of other forms of God, especially not in the male form. For me, gender is ultimately an irrelevant point if the devotee's goal of goals is to enter into total union with Brahman. But for the sake of putting things into perspective and increasing bhakti, it is not without merit to conceive of God as either male or female. Worship of Rama and Krishna therefore is no different from worship of Devi, nor do I personally think it is any different, although I prefer to see God as Devi. The same love that Vishnu and Shiva can inspire in Their devotees is the same kind of love (with the same intensity, too) I can feel for Divine Mother. You'll have heard this a million times, no doubt, that all these forms are God. He/She has many hundreds of thousands of millions of manifestations - more than any of us could ever possibly conceive. Slowly then will you come to realise that this Divine One can be perceived in an infinitely endless number of ways in the kaleidoscope of the mind that we have been born with. So, really, why the curiosity at all?
Om namah Shivaya
"Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
Om Gam Ganapataye namah
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ।
Lokaah SamastaaH Sukhino Bhavantu
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Originally Posted by PatrickMB
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