Shiva and Shakti: This is what I know.

According to Hindu theology, Shakti is the absolute power of Shiva, the Supreme Being.  Shakti activates Shiva’s desire to create, sustain and dissolve back to Shiva.  Shakti is the energy aspect of Shiva, the supreme cause of existence, the cause of all causes.  Without Shakti, the Supreme Being is impotent and without Supreme Being, Shakti is barren.

Shiva and Shakti are supreme, primeval, and immutable.  They are one and non-dual as Shiva is matter, and Shakti is the energy of the matter.  Shakti, as the active aspect of Shiva, embodies all forms of existential power and responsible for the eternal continuum of phenomenal existence.  Shakti permeates our outer and inner consciousness, and encompasses both positive or constructive and negative or destructive energies. 

On positive and creative aspect, Shakti manifests in feminine form as Devi -Goddess.  The absolute primeval form of Shakti is Adi-Shakti from whom all Goddesses manifest as her immanent aspects.  Thus, all Goddesses revered in Hinduism are the manifestations of one primeval absolute Adi-Shakti. 

The essential natures of Shiva and Shakti have no forms.  Shiva is omnipotent, impersonal and inactive, and Sakti is the embodiment of Shiva’s power.  Shiva is pure consciousness and Shakti is the power of it, the truth imbedded in omniscience.  

Shakti is Sarwa Bhutesu –present in everything we see or imagine.

Shakti, as the creative aspect of the Absolute, is the Cosmic Energy that underlies all existence.  In form, the five great elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Ether, and their combinations are the external manifestations of Shakti.  Pure consciousness, awareness, mindfulness, knowledge of ‘self’, wisdom and will power are her internal manifestations.  Humanity is her visible form.  Service to humanity is, therefore, the worship of the divine Shakti. 

Since the dawn of civilization, Shakti is worshiped as Devi, the Divine Mother, in her multiple manifestations as Goddesses.  The Devi-Sukta of Rig Veda and Ratri-Sukta of Sam Veda bears testimony of worshipping Shakti since pre-Vedic Era.  

In form, Shiva and Shakti are Mahadev and Parvati.  Of all Goddesses of Hindu pantheon, Parvati is the complete incarnation of Adi-Shakti.  In Parvati all other goddesses are present. 

Before Parvati, Adi Shakti had incarnated herself in form as Sati, the daughter of Daktsa Prajapati, responsible to worldly norms, tradition, and code of conduct and ethics.  Adi-Shakti Sati, is also referred as Daktsayani.  She married to Mahadev, but ended her life by burning her body in the Yogic fire to destroy Daktsa Prajapati’s pride, anger, hatred, disrespect and discrimination towards Shiva.