Introduction to Tantra Sastra - Aghori

ŚIVA AND ŚAKTI 15
both male and female forms. 1 But it is in Her female
forms that she is chiefly contemplated. For though existing
in all things, in a peculiar sense female beings are
parts of Her. 2 The Great Mother, who exists in the form
of all Tantras and all Yantras, 3 is, as the Lalita says,
the “unsullied treasure-house of beauty”; the Sapphire
Devī, 4 whose slender waist, 5 bending beneath the burden
of the ripe fruit of her breasts, 6 wells into jewelled hips
heavy 7 with the promise of infinite maternities. 8
As the Mahadevi 9 She exists in all forms as
Sarasvatī, Lakṣmi, Gāyatrī, Durgā, Tripurā-sundarī,
1 Ibid., chap. iii, which also says that there is no eunuch form of God.
2 So in the Candi (Mārkandeya-Purāna) it is said:
Vidyah samastastava devī bhedah
Striyah samastāh sakalā jagatsu.
See author’s “Hymns to the Goddess.” The Tantrika more than all men, recognises
the divinity of woman, as was observed centuries past by the Author
of the Dabistān. The Linga-Purāna also after describing Arundhati, Anasūyā,
and Shachi to be each the manifestation of Devī, concludes: “All things
indicated by words in the feminine gender are manifestations of Devī.”
3 Sarva-tantra-rūpā; Sarva-yantrātmikā (see Lalitā, verses 205-6).
4 Padma-purāṇa says, “Viṣ ṇu ever worships the Sapphire Devī.”
5 Āpivara-stana-tating tanuvrittamadhyām (Bhuvaneśvaristotra), “tanūmadhyā
(Lalitā, verse 79) Krisodar (Ādyakālisvarūpa stotra, Mahā-nirvāṇa-
Tantra, seventh Ullāsa).
6 Pinā-stanādye in Karpūrādistotra, pinonnata-payodharām in Durgādhyāna
of Devī Purāṇa: Vaksho-kumbhāntari in Annapūrṇāstava, āpivarastana-tatim
in Bhuvaneśvaristotra; which weight her limbs, hucha-bharanamitāngim
in Sarasvatī-dhyāna; annapradāna-niratāng-stana-bhāra-namrām
in Anna-pūrṇāstava.
7 So it is said in the tenth sloka of the Karpūrākhyastava—samantādā
pīnastana jaghanadhrikyauvanavati. Śaṃ
karācaryā, in his Tripura-sundarīstotra
speaks of her nitamba (nitamba-jita-bhūdharām) as excelling the
mountains in greatness.
8 The physical characteristics of the Devī in Her swelling breasts and hips
are emblematic of Her great Motherhood for She is Śrīmātā (see as to Her
litanies, “Hymns to the Goddess.”
9 She whose body is, as the Devī Purāṇa says, immeasurable.