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When we call the Deity Goddess,
we affirm the feminine nature or aspect of the divine. Three
beliefs are common: revering Mother Nature, or the Earth, as divine
(see Gaia),
worshiping a female deity (often linked to primitive pagan religions,
as in Wicca),
and the search by some women for the divine sparkof the goddess within
them.
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most of us, when we say "Divine Mother" or "The
Goddess" we are talking about the Supreme Being as the creatrix of
the universe who expresses compassion and love in a very personal, direct,
and intimate way in the same way that a loving mother cares for her
children.
Words
fail to say who or what the Goddess is but She can be known and
experienced in a direct and personal way. This means that we can't say for
sure how big She is or where She came from or what Her ultimate form is or
why She is. What we can do is enter into a relationship with Her, a
communion that is very intimate, close, loving and personal. She will be
our best friend and confidant and our patient teacher.
Both the creation stories in Genesis and in the Hindu Rig Veda begin with
the idea of the formless, the void, and the absolute. Then creation arose
(or is continually arising) out of this. The Rig Veda describes this
"arising" as a divine whim or play of the Supreme. The creation
that occurs is Mother (maya), the divine whim (Shakti or power) is also
Mother and the absolute formless ground of being is, again, Mother. We can
grab hold of Her skirt at any point along this timeless expression of the
Divine and, if we hold on tightly, She will dispel our illusions and
deliver us to the blissful and peaceful realization of Divine Truth.
Maya, in Her potential aspect, is the divine power of the Lord. She has
no beginning. She is composed of the three universal qualities (gunas),
subtle, beyond perception. It is from the effects She produces that Her
existence is inferred by the wise. It is She who gives birth to the
whole universe. - Adi Shankara, The
Crest Jewel of Discrimination Translated
by Swami Prabhavananda & Christopher Isherwood
When the Supreme Being is thought of as actionless - neither creating,
sustaining nor destroying - I call Him by the name of Brahman (pure
absolute formless being) or Purusha. But when I think of him as active -
creating, sustaining and destroying - I call him by the name of Shakti
(Divine Mother as primal energy) or Maya (the veiling power of the
Divine Mother by which the One appears as many) or Prakriti (Divine
Mother as primordial nature which, in association with Purusha, creates
the universe).
The actionless Brahman and the active Shakti are in fact one and the
same. He, who is the Absolute Existence-Intelligence-Bliss, is also the
All-knowing, the All-intelligent and All-blissful Mother of the
universe. A precious stone and its luminosity are one and the same, for
you cannot imagine a diamond without it, and vice versa.
God the absolute (formless) and God the personal (Divine Mother; form)
are one and the same. A belief in one implies a belief in the other.
Fire cannot be thought of apart from its burning power; nor can its
burning power be thought of apart from it. Thus God the absolute cannot
be thought of apart from the idea of God with attributes (Mother). -
Ramakrishna - The
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Translated
by Swami Nikhilananda
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