M MAHSHAKTI According to Tantra Shstra, the Mahshakti is a fully conscious Spirit and hence is an object of worship and veneration.

Instead of controlling, Tantra endeavours to establish communion with Shakti. Shakti for a Tntric is not only conscious but benignantly gracious also. The kindly disposition and heartfelt affection of the Shakti is deeply personal and unfathomably profound. No phrase of dictionary can adequately give expression to this gracious aspect of te Shakti. One single term and that one only, that possesses magically curative power is M. This is the most magnificent of all designations of the Great Shakti. Mahshakti is the Highest Being, the Brahman of the Upanishads. She is supremely motherly accrding to Tantra. She is all-existent, all-consciousness and supreme beatitude. She is an object of highest love and adoration. Devilish Shumbha and Nishumbha wanted to control the Mother and the outcome was total frustration and ultimate destruction. Modern science is taking recourse to this Asuric way in attempting to control the forces of nature. The Tantra Shstra longs for establishing communion with Her through loving Puja i.e. Worship. MANIFESTATIONS OF CHANDIK Chandik, the Divine Mother, embodies in Herself the multifarious modes of life. All contradictions merge in Her dynamic personality. She is tranquil and turbulent, serene and fierce, Soumya and Roudra at the same time. She is serene like the azure sky but boisterous like the thunderbolt. Etymologically, Chandik means vehement. She is an affectionate Mother but a frantic Killer. Her all-embracing motherliness makes her intolerant of those who are inimically disposed towards Her human and divine children. With all Her might does She destroy the demon of darkness that hinders the evolution of Her creation and revelation of the Divine Light. The Tantras maintain that Chandik is the queen-consort (Patta-Mahish) of the Absolute Brahman, meaning thereby that She is the Supreme Energy and Absolute Beingthe Agent. For the purpose of creation, the Absolute Being divides Itself into twoShiva and Shakti. They are essentially identical but functionally different. For the object of creation, prservation and destruction, she assumes triune forms: Mah-Klik, Mah-Lakshm, Mah-Saraswat. SHE IS YOGA-NIDR The Vedas begin with the Great Purusha with a desire to be many. The Tantra goes deeper. With Purusha it starts, to be sure, but having no desire or action. The Purusha, in the Saptashati, rests in deep slumber. He is existent and nonexistent at the same time, so to say. Who does then exist in that nocturnal abyss of complete silence? She is the Yoganidr, the great motherly energy that upholds the Cosmmic Sleep, the Mah-Klik, who embosoms even the Supreme Purusha Vishnu and reigns all over that is or was or will ever be. SHE IS MAH-KLIK On the navel lotus, the centre of creative vibration of Vishnu, is seated the Creative Energy, embodied in Brahm, the Logos, Shabda-Brahma, lost in the contemplation of the new creation to dawn. Madhu and Kaitabha, the two principlesRajas and TamasPassion and Ignorance, that bring friction to cosmic motion, came out of Vishnu and aimed at destroying the creative meditation, personified in the Logos Brahm. He was to awaken Vishnu and with that end in view, sang a panegyrical hymn to eulogise Mah-Klik and implored her earnestly and reverently to give up Her hold on Supreme Purusha Vishnu. She did accordingly relinquish Him and appeared before Brahma who witnessed Her all-veiling existence. This is Mah-Klik. ASHTA-SHAKTI Shaktithe source, support and end of all Existence and Life, is one and unique, but She does retain the potentiality of manifesting Herself in innumberable forms. Expressing, as She does, motherly affection, She is pre-eminently a mother, so tender, so benignant, but controlling, as She does, the destructive agencies, She is terrific and fierce. She is Kal of extremely black complexion. She is Uma of golden hue. Uma imparts highest knowledge to the enghtened devas. Kal devours Her own sucklings and keeps them in bondage by the chain of Maya. All these contradictions find harmony in the all-embracing totality of Shaktis that is Mahshakti. Force is inherent in existence, so is Shakti in Sadshiva, the eternal Brahman. The primordial Shakti is identical with Brahman, the Absolute. The objective universe is a projection of Her inner being. She is endowed with all-will, allknowledge and all-action. She is Mahdev. Multifarious are Her emanations and She is one-in-many.

Chanda and Munda, the two generals of the demon king Shumbha,were beheaded by her dazzling sword, and when that information reached Shumbha, he was mad with rage and very wrathfully issued an order to all his batallions to proceed to the war front and fight their umost to win. Pull that proud Durg by hair to my harem or finish her for goodwas the standing order of the demon king. The mighty army, headed by Raktabja, whose each drop of blood could produce another Raktabja of equal valour, marched onward and Mahdev cast a significance glance at the enemy, blew Her conch and threw down the gauntlet. The devas in heaven, however, were much troubled and alarmed. Their perturbation created a throbbing in their hearts and out of the emotion came out of the devas their respective Shaktis. These Shaktis were in fat inherent in Mahdev as an integral part of Her all-absorbing Being, hithertofore unmanifest and then incarnate. And again, to anticipate the final stage, all would be found merging completely in the Supreme Personality of Mahdev called Mah-Saraswat in Tantra. Seven matronly Shaktis descanded and one came forth out of her own person and thus the mystic number Eight was reached, Brahmn, Mheshwar, Kumr, Vaishnavi, Vrhi, Nrsimh , Aindr and Chandikthey are known as Ashta-Shakti. CHANDIK The Seven Shaktis spoken above of, came from Chandik, the eighth and last of Ashta Shaktis manifested herself from the very person of Mahdev Herself. She is otherwise named, the unconquerable one. She is the emblem of dismay and dreadfulness. She remains surrounded by innumerable jackals, who inhabit graveyards and live on carcasses. In brief, Chandik stands for Death itself. She sent Shiva on an embassy to the opponent with the ultimatum that either Indra should have his heavenly throne back or the demon armies should perish and their flesh eaten up by her jackals. Thus Shiva being Her messenger, She is Shiva-dti or Shiva-envoy. Chandik is essentially the transforming energy of Time, which works from within and makes every object on the mundane plane attain maturity. Everything that is mortal is controlled and conditioned by the great time energy. Chandik, though dismal and indomitable, has Shiva, the goodness as Her envoy, indicating thereby that all transformations aim at ultimate excellence. Death, though terrific in appearance, is in reality the single gateway to a realm of beautiful existence. May the Ashta-Shakti of the great Mother protect us from eight directions, so that we may live in peace and have spiritual growth in harmony. Mahnmbrata Brahmachr