Creation is physical, but creation has an energy behind it. Rocks, plants, animals, planets – everything that we see around us – there’s an energy behind it. This energy not only creates but also sustains. In Sanatan Dharma, the physical is represented as masculine, and its driving energy if feminine. This feminine is the Shakti. It is this aspect of Dharma – the co-existence and inseparability of matter and energy – that is represented in various forms of divinity, some of which are Shiv-Shakti, Vishnu-Laxmi, etc.
Shakti, therefore, is the energy and the spark behind any action that happens in this universe. Three excellent examples to cite are Jvala, Hladini, and Stambhini. The shakti that kindles a knowledge-fire and instills a sense of aversion for worldly pleasures in an individual is called Jvala. The shakti that directs him/her towards a competent guru is Hladini. And, the shakti that keeps an individual steadfast, “fixed like a pillar, is known as Stambhini.
The embodiment of different aspects/kinds of shakti in Sanatan Dharma’s divinity is multi-faceted. Sarasvati, Laxmi, and Kali are the feminine divine. Sarasvati represents a bundle of shakti that should be an endeavor for a knowledge seeker. Similarly, Laxmi encompasses all that is required to persist on the path of vocational/occupational success. Kali represents the energy that is required to kill the ego. Kali “reminds us that every minute is constantly destroyed in the cycle of time”. The death and destruction that Kali represents is the annihilation of various perceptions of reality that prevents a human being from attaining moksha; any evil including lust.
धार्मिक छवियाँ 