God's Five Shaktis and Symbolism

The 5 Shaktis of God and

Their Symbolism in Deities

The five shaktis of God in His/Her first Aspect are srishti–creation, stithi–perservation, samhara–dissolution, anugraha–revealing grace and tirobhava–concealing grace.

The five shaktis or powers of God govern the universe, including our life. These powers animate nature and life. Just observe the world around, at any place and every point in time the processes of generation, preservation and destruction are in play. There is not one static moment where God's power is not active. 

When a meditator contemplates God's activity in deep meditation. He will experience how seamless, intricate and vibrant the five shaktis animate everything in his body and environment. When he comes out of meditation after this mystical experience he will explain this experience as a divine dance. This is an allegory that describes the workings of God's five shaktis. This is why in Hinduism we term God's activity as the leela or the tandava; and God is also the Divine Dancer or the King of Dance as in the form of Lord Nataraja. 

God's five shaktis operarte in all scales, from the grand cosmic scales of planetary orbits to the minutea in the workings of every cell of our body. Thus God operates in our lives in keeping the world we live in, in balance and body and mind we inhabit in equilibrium. 

In this insight section we will study each of the five shaktis in their function and see how they effect the animation of life around us and within us. The five shaktis can be divided into two category. The first is the are spiritual-physical shaktis. These are shaktis that effect spiritual as well as physical matter. The shaktis in this category are the srishti, stithi and samhara shaktis; or the powers of creation, preservation and dissolution. The other two shaktis, tirobhava and anugraha are spiritual forces, they do not effect physical matter directly. These two purely spiritual shaktis effect mainly the perceptive functions of the soul and the intellect within us.

Srishti, Stithi and Samhara

Srishti, stithi and samhara are energies of nature. Nature in the context of God's powers operates in both the spiritual and the physical realms. Spiritual nature refers to the realm of perception, thoughts and feelings; physical nature refers to the realm of physical elements and the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell). 

Srishti–Creation: The Universe orginated from God's power of Creation. According to the Scriptures and God realized gurus the impulse for Creation came out of God's Being as the vibration of the sound Aum. From the vibration Aum, energy expanded into space and continued to evolve until the creation of physical matter. The description of God's Creative impulse into the evolutes that make and govern Creation is described in the list of the tattvas. The tattvas is an evolution list of all the spiritual and physical elements that make up Creation. 

From a more practical perspective, the manifestations of God's creative energy are easily evident in life. The birth of a child, building of a new building, innovations in technology and social systems (including creation of new laws and philosophy) are all God's shakti of srishti in motion. When our body creates new cells in the process of growth or replacement, it is also srishti at work. Even the process of developing new ideas in our minds is srishti shakti; this is how intimate God is with us, that is even within the processes of our body and mind. It is said by wise gurus, that not even an atom moves but by God's will.

In forms of Paramatma, the power of Creation is represented mainly by implements of sound such as musical instruments or the conch. This is to depict that Creation began as an impulse of vibration, specifically the mystical sound Aum. The damaru drum that God Shiva holds, or the conch that God Vishnu holds or the veenai that Goddess Saraswati holds are all representative of the srishti shakti. Apart from from sound symbols, the lotus bud, writing stylus and Scriptures also represent Creation. 

Among the Trinity as described in the Vedas, Lord Brahma is the manifestation of Paramatma whose duty is Creation. In the mythical stories of the Saivite, Vaishnavite and Smarta sects of Hinduism Lord Brahma is often portrayed as the Creator. Whereas in the Shakta sect, the creator is Goddess Parvathi, or Goddess Saraswathi.

 

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