Short Introduction to Sakta Philosophy

Contents: Introduction/Hans Keoster. 1. Sakti in the Upa-Puranas. 2. The Tantric Sakti-Cult. 3. Ritualistic aspect of the Puranic Sakti-cult. 4. Saktism, or Goddess-worship.

"There is no word of wider content in any language than this Sanskrit term meaning \'Power\'. For Shakti in the highest causal sense is God as Mother, and in another sense it is the universe which issues from Her Womb. Therefore, the Yogini-hridaya Tantra thus salutes Her who conceives, bears, produces and thereafter nourishes all worlds.

Their doctrine is to be found in the traditions, oral and written, which are contained in the Agamas, which (with Purana, Smriti and Veda) constitute one of the four great classes of Scripture of the Hindus. The Tantras are Scriptures of the Agama. The notion that they are some queer by-product of Hinduism and not an integral part of it, is erroneous.

This concise manual will introduce the reader to the splendorous path of the Saktas and open for him the door to the mystical doctrines of the Sakta Philosophy." (jacket)