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The Tenth Lesson: The Religions of India. Part II1329
favor), with those of the highest form of Modern Christianity, to understand
that the same Deity can mean totally different things to different people.
After all, there is great truth in the well-known sayings that “A man’s God is
himself at his highest,” and that “A man’s idea of God is but the man himself
magnified to infinity.” In spite of the symbol and name, men insist upon
giving to their gods their own attributes, qualities and feelings—and if one
knows a man’s idea of God, he may form a very fair idea of the man himself;
and if he knows the man himself, he may form a very fair idea of his God.
The Shaktas.
In our preceding lesson, we pointed out to you the relation of Shakti
worship, with that of Shiva worship. Shakta worship is the worship of Shakti
or the Creative Principle of the Universe, conceived of as being of the female
nature or quality—the Universal Mother. It is believed by some authorities
that Shakta worship is the survival of an elementary worship of the Female
Principle in Creation, or the Female Side of Nature or Divinity, possibly
acquired by the Aryans from the native tribes of India with whom they came
in contact. However this may be, the conception has taken a strong hold on
the Shaivas, in its high and low forms, corresponding to the high and low
forms of the Shiva worship itself, and generally accompanying it.
In its higher form, Shakta worship consists of the worship and adoration
of the Mother Aspect of Nature, or the Divine Motherhood. It attracts many
Sankhyas who see in Shakti the principle of Prakriti, or the Creative Energy
of Nature, or Nature itself, as contrasted with Purusha or Spirit, which latter
they held to be represented by Shiva. Others are attracted to Shakta worship
in a manner similar to the attraction that Nature Worship has for certain of
the early Greeks and other peoples, and which has led many of our Western
poets to rhapsodies over Nature, personified as a Being. Admirers of Walt
Whitman and other Nature lovers among the poets, could understand some
of the more refined and subtle of the conceptions of the Shaktas. Some of