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Shaivism - Concepts and symbols - Energy
Identifier
022560
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Alain Danielou – While the Gods Play
THE second of the Tattva(s) is the energetic principle from which thought, perception, matter, and life stem. This principle is called Prakriti…..
Nothing exists that is not made from the energetic material which Prakriti represents. But the universe is not eternal: all that we perceive is, in the final analysis, only composed of unstable and immaterial combinations of elements that continually transform themselves and will one day cease to exist. This is why Prakriti is also called Maya, the Power of Illusion.
The reason for the existence of Prakriti is to put Purusha, the model, that will enable the primordial energy to be manifested in the multiple aspects of creation, into a concrete form. The universe therefore originated from two complementary and contrary fundamental entities, which are not derived from each other.
On the one hand is the model (Purusha) and on the other the material (Prakriti). According to Gaudpada: "Purusha, Universal Man, …. is inactive, immobile, external to the visible world”.