"Mahamaya; The World as Power: Power as Consciousness (Chit-Shakti)" is a collaborative work by John Woodroffe and Pramatha Natha Mukhopadhyay, blending the profound insights of Eastern philosophy with Western scholarly analysis. This book delves into the concept of Mahamaya or the great illusion, exploring how the universe manifests through the dynamic interplay of power and consciousness. Both authors contribute their unique perspectives: Woodroffe, under his pseudonym Arthur Avalon, brings his expertise in Tantric studies, while Mukhopadhyay offers a modernist Bengali literary approach that challenges traditional narratives. Together, they present a nuanced examination of how power, in the form of divine feminine Shakti, shapes reality through consciousness, providing a significant philosophical and cultural synthesis.
Sir John George Woodroffe (1865-1936), also known by his pseudonym Arthur Avalon, was a British orientalist and judge whose work helped illuminate Tantric practices to the Western world. His seminal text, "The Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shak tic Yoga," delves into the Kundalini Yoga philosophy and the chakra system, offering detailed interpretations and translations of Sanskrit texts. Woodroffe's writings, which bridge Eastern spiritual traditions and Western scholarly interest, remain influential in the study of Indian Tantra.
Pramatha Natha Mukhopadhyay, a key figure in Bengal's literary and educational spheres, significantly contributed to early 20th-century educational reforms. Involved with the National Council of Education, Bengal, he aimed to promote indigenous scientific and technical education. He passed away on August 23, 1937, leaving a lasting legacy in literature and education.
THE English reader is recommended to have recourse to the authors' previously published books (set out in the advertisement) for a better understanding of the present volume. Its subject is an exposition of some aspects only of the Indian doctrine of the "World as Power" (Shakti-vada), as also a comparison between this and the better-known Vedanta system called Mayavada. Both systems speak of Maya, but understand the term differently as explained in the first and following Chapters. Consequences of prime importance follow therefrom.
All the known ancient religions of the world including those of what are called "lower culture" have believed in a universal fund of Power which cannot be defined and circumscribed. All imply a universal, indefinable, all-pervading Power, not necessarily in itself "personal," but of which personality is an expression. So Dr. Carpenter (Comparative Religion, p. 81) speaking of the concept Orenda "of the North American Indians" says that it expresses an incalculable Energy manifesting in and as the sun, moon, and stars, waters, plants and animals, and all other objects of nature, breathing in the winds and heard in the thunder. This belief commonly called Animism is a crude form of the doctrine of an Anima Mundi held by some of the greatest thinkers. It is the universal background of the doctrine of Power on which ancient faiths, higher or lower, have rested and out of which they have evolved. When all such faiths and conceptions are reduced to a common denominator, we find a doctrine of Cosmic Power itself unmeasured and undefined, but which "measures" out (the root meaning of Maya), or makes finite forms in the formless infinite which together (form and formlessness) constitute one alogical Whole (Purna). That Power was called the Magna Mater in the antique West, and in India is named Maya when it finitizes and Mahamaya when it liberates from the finite. The finite is conditioned Being, and that is the universe or Sangsara.
Nirvana is Being unconditioned. The two are at base one, since the finite beings spring from the infinite and re-enter it, the latter yet remaining unaffected.
The "World as Power" doctrine has grown from simple origins to which expression is given in sexual imagery. It, like all else, has been sublimated by the Vedanta of which as Shrividya it is a form. Sex is here both the symbol and sensuous manifestation of a fundamental dichotomy or diremption evolving in Consciousness and of a fundamental polarity appearing in its Power. It is with the doctrine thus philosophically developed that we deal.
As later and further explained, the Universe of Experience is said to be analysable into five aspects, namely, Being, Consciousness, Bliss, Name and Form. These are called the Five Predicable. For any object is, is known, is pleasant to some experiencer or another, in some relation or another, and has a Name and a Form or a defining set of qualities. Form is the defined object denoted by Name which is the idea of it expressed in word' of which the thing spoken of is the meaning."
Of these five predicable the first three are common to all object experiences. The last two terms, Name and Form, differ from object to object; the Name and Form of one are not those of another.
All five predicable taken together stand for the Reducible Real or World-Order, that is, Being-Consciousness-Bliss appearing as Name and Form, or the psycho-physical Universe of limited Selves. The Universe as the psycho-physical is the Reducible Real because it derives from, and on dissolution is resolved into, the Irreducible Real as God. The Universe is thus imaged as the super-imposition of Name and Form on the basis of Being-Consciousness-Bliss. In the words of one of the Tantras the Lord paints the World-Picture on this basis with the "Brush" which is His Will and with which He as the great Artist, the Poet or Maker, expresses Himself to be well pleased. If we abstract Name and Form, the three first predicable, or Being-Consciousness-Bliss, stand for the Irreducible Real¹ whether as the thinkable Supreme Self or God, or as a logical Godhead. The Irreducible Real as Power to evolve as the Reducible Real and involve it again (Itself remaining unreduced) is the Reality-Whole or Parna. It has an infinity of aspects of which 'irreducible' and 'reducible' are two, logically appreciated.
Vedas (1182)
Upanishads (493)
Puranas (624)
Ramayana (741)
Mahabharata (354)
Dharmasastras (165)
Goddess (496)
Bhakti (242)
Saints (1503)
Gods (1290)
Shiva (370)
Journal (187)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (362)
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