On 12/6/2014 7:49 PM, s3raphita wrote:
Re "Vishnu sent his discus and cut Shakti's body into pieces, the
various body parts numbering 51, fell at various places":
An intriguing parallel with the Egyptian myth of Osiris whose body was
cut into 14 pieces and scattered throughout the land. Isis gathered up
all the parts of the body, less the phallus (which was eaten by a
catfish!) and bandaged them together for a proper burial.
>
According to Sir James Frazer, the myth of Osiris was part of the "death
and rising gods" myth, featured all across the Near East and is
connected to the personification of vegetation and the yearly death an
re-growth of plants.
My theory is that the death and dying and rebirth of the tree spirit of
ancient Indonesia, which became associated with the Mother Earth myth
and was transported from Indonesian to South Asia and hence to ancient
Egypt. Thousands of stone statues have been found in the area of the
Indus Valley and at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, and Lothal, dating from 2500
to 1500 B.C.E.
According to what I've read, the concept of Shakti, "as both divine
energy and as the goddess is of great importance within Tantric
philosophy and practice, which places much reverence on the feminine
principle of creation. In India the Sri Yantra, symbol of the Shakti
energy, is central to all forms of Tantric Shaktism."
See my essays on the /Sri Vidya/ and on /Eden in the East,/ concerning
the dying and rising tree spirit.
http://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife%40yahoogroups.com/msg337561.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife%40yahoogroups.com/msg295131.html
/Shri Yantra/
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Shakti
>
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <punditster@...> wrote :
According to tantric legend in a nut shell, /Shiva/ was married to
/Shakti,/ the daughter of Daksha, but Daksha did not like Shiva for
some reason, and Daksha did not invite Shiva or Shakti to a perticular
sacrifice. Because of this, Shiva got really angry because Shakti
threw herself on a fire because she was upset. Shakti was then
transformed into the goddess /Tripura Sundari/, also called
/Shodashi/. Shiva was grief-stricken at the loss of his wife Shakti so
he put her body on his shoulders and vowed to keep it there. But,
Vishnu sent his discus and cut Shakti's body into pieces, the various
body parts numbering 51, fell at various places which came to be known
a the 18 /Shakti-peethas/.
The /Kamakhya Temple/ is a Shakti temple situated on top of the
Nilachal Hill in western part of Guwahati city in Assam on the
northern banks of the river Brahmaputra (the son of Brahma), India.
It is the main temple in a complex of individual temples dedicated to
different forms of the mother goddess as the Dasa Mahavidya,
including Bhuvaneshvari, Bagalamukhi, Chinnamasta, Tripura Sundari and
Tara. It is an important pilgrimage destination for general Hindu and
Tantric worshipers.
According to Swami Ageananda Bharati, the body part of Devi that fell
here was the yoni. Go figure.
Works cited:
*The Tantric Tradition*
by Swami Agehananda Bharati
Samueal Weiser, Red Wheel Edition, 1975
*The Light at the Center' *
by Swami Agehananda Bharati
Ross Erikson, April 1976
>
The term "Shaktipat" is the transference of psychic energy to
another person either by means of an initiation, a sacred word or
phrase, a mantra, a touch or even a thought or a mere glance. The
question is, how or why did the Shankara Saraswati tradition
adopt the shakti doctrine?
According to this tradition, Shankara journeyed to Kamarup - the
present Guwahati-in Assam and held a controversy with Abhinava
Gupta, the Shakta commentator. Kamarupa is the site of an ancient
tantric cult of the Shakti Kamakhya which is located in Assam. It
is one of the main Shakti-pithas in the tanric Shakti cult.
Shankara supposedly won an important debate with Abhinava.
Shankara then went to the Himalayas and built a Mutt at Joshi and
a Mandir at Badri and then he then proceeded to Kedarnath higher
up in the Himalayas where he became one with the Shakti Devi in
820 A.D. in his thirty-second year.
The Sharda Temple, which by tradition was visited by Shankara in
his travels, is located in Kishanganga Valley just across the
Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The meaning of this
tradition story is that Shankara reached the peak of spirituality
when he converted to Shaki worship. We can get an idea of his
greatness from the fact that a person of just thirty had adopted
the worship of Sri Vidya, which is similar to Kahmir Shivaism.
As it is not possible to visit this shakti peetha, one can visit
the famous Saraswathi temple in Basara in Nizamabad district of
Andhra Pradesh. Basara is 200 km from Hyderabad. You can read
more about the Shakti Pithas here:
http://www.srinithyakalyani.org/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakhya
Suggested Reading:
*Play of Consciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography*
by Swami Muktananda, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and Paul Muller-Ortega
SYDA Foundation, 1994
*Secret of the Siddhas*
by Swami Muktananda
SYDA Foundation, 1994
*The Doctrine of Vibration*
An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism
by Mark S. G. Dyczkowski
State University of New York Press, 1987
*Meditation Revolution*
A History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage
by S.P. Sabharathnam and Douglas Brooks
Agama Press, 1997
