The Forms of Parashakti

Parashakti is God's Consciousness that pervades all existence. As the orginal consciousness of all that exists Parashakti is Pure Consciousness; from which all energy, intelligence and awareness arises. Thus Parashakti is experienced and depicted in amorphous forms such as Divine Light, Pure Love, Pure Consciousness, Pure Space and Pure Intelligence. Amorphous forms are not equal to formlessness. Some Hindu scholars equate Parashakti or Satchitananda to formlessness. This is not theologically accurate. Formlessness is the realm of Parabrahman, the third Aspect of God. Infact part of the mystery of God is how form and formlessness co-exist, (It is actually a mistake for me to use the word co-exist to describe the relationship between Parashakti and Parabrahman, but this is for the lack of a better word) but then again God is All-Mighty.

Knowledgeable Hindu pundits describe the Aspects of God tersely as: rupa – easily tangible form; rupa-arupa, form-formlessness – less tangible form, and arupa, formlessness absolutely intangible. Parashakti is rupa-arupa, less tangible form. To be clear, tangible form (rupa) is anything that is constrainted by the three dimentions of height, lenght and width, within the fourth dimension of space. In other words just about anything we can see and touch in the physical or spiritual worlds. From the spiritual perspective, rupa also includes spiritual forms, even forms we visualize in our mind are considered rupa. Whereas rupa-arupa are forms that are less tangible and not constrsint by height, lenght and width, but do take up space. Light, sound, space, even mental or spiritual space, feelings such a love and hate; all this are examples of rupa-arupa. The distinctions between the three Aspects of God, become especially important to understand properly in the quest for God Realization. Generally a guru will help the sishya with this understanding when the sishya begins to experience God mystically.

Back to the forms of Parashakti. Just as the Shivalingam is used to represent formless Parabrahman in worship, Parashakti is also deified symbolically in a unique way. The most common forms of Parashakti, though this deity is rarely used in worship is Ardhnaraishwarar. Ardhanarishwarar, is a single deity whose form encompasses both male and female genders. On the right half of Ardhanarishwarar is Lord Shiva and the left side of the deity is Lord Shiva's consort, Goddess Parvathi. This deity is a mystically symbolic deity. The male right side represents the masculine energy of willpower known as the pingala nadi and the feminine energy of passion courses through the left side of the body, known as the ida nadi. These two energy currents flows within both men and women to varying degrees, depending on their personality.  Ardhanarishwarar represents the perfect balance of masculine and feminine energies, a state of equilibrium of these energies. Ardhanarishwarar depicts that God (Parashakti), can be realized or experienced when a seeker achieves a similar equilibrium of energies within himself or herself. Indeed spiritual disciplines when perfected bring about this equilibrium that leads the devotee to God Consciousness.

Ardhanarishwarar is a deity shared by Saivite, Shakta and Smarta sects of Hinduism to represent Parashakti. In the Vaishnavite sect there is a similar deity that is half male and half female. This deity is more rarely used in worshipped compared to Ardharaniswara. The deity is Vishnu-Durga. The right half of the diety is Lord Vishnu where as the left half is Goddess Durga. The philosophy behind this deity is the same as Ardhanarishwarar.

More common depictions of Parashakti in worship are indirect application of elements such as light. In any puja worship of God the light or deepam and arati are showed at various times. Oil lamps are also kept lit in shrines during worship not only to keep the deity lit but also to depict God as Parashakti. The use of incense too represents Parashakti in a similar way. Apart from uplifting the mood of devotees through aroma, it also represents the All-Pervasive attribute of Parashakti.

The homa or the havana ceremony is centered around worhip of the fire. The fire that is ceremoniously kindled for worship is purely Parashakti worship. All elements of Parashakti is used to invoke God through the homa ceremony–the fire invokes Divine LIght which is God's Omniscience, the chanting invokes Pure Consciousness, the substances devotedly offered to feed the fire invokes Pure Love.