4

The Power of Woman

Kashmiri Shaivism stands in opposition to Indian tradition because it does not recognize castes and disagrees that mystical teachings and intimacy with the sacred texts be reserved for one of these castes, the brahmans. It disagrees as well with all discrimination between men and women, and all social or ethnic discrimination. Indeed, not only do women have access to the teachings, but Kashmiris have also always believed that their capacities are deeper and more direct than men’s. The tradition therefore includes a great number of yoginis and women of knowledge who serve the gods through the exercising of their art, the depth of their practice or their life force, all of which permit them to penetrate the most subtle mysteries. Navjivan Rastogi, an eminent specialist in Kashmiri Shaivism, writes in this regard:

It may not be entirely out of point to connect this tremendous emphasis on the Shakti aspect [in the Krama system of Kashmiri Shaivism] with the spiritual activity undertaken by the women preceptors. The importance of the role played by the female teachers may be assessed from the fact that this system is said to have originated from the mouth of the Yoginis (lady ascetics).⁶

Yoginis, like all women, enjoy immense respect from Kashmiris; there is not a single text in which their value is minimized. They are often given the role of mothering the cyclical vision of things, a characteristic of Tantrism, as well as that of a teaching linked to an immediately comprehensible reality—one that knows how to avoid the trappings of a superfluous philosophical sophistication while reaching the greatest depth.

It is also said that Tantrism’s attachment to reality rather than to the concept of illusion shared by certain Buddhists (from which Ch’an and the Yogacaras must be excluded) and by the Vedantins is due, in part, to women’s vision. For yoginis, there is absolutely no philosophy that cannot be understood and presented clearly to all people. No rituals, dogmas, beliefs, or biases isolate their followers from the rest of the world.

The power of woman finds its origin in the legendary tales where it is told that the gods were troubled by the appearance of a giant phallus that set about destroying paradise. This black stone linga was devastating forests and palaces, boring through lakes, filing down mountains and hills. The gods launched their armies against him, but no force could bring an end to the situation. Then the powerless gods remembered the Great Goddess whom, out of vanity, they had been ignoring. They went and bowed before her, made amends, and unanimously recognized her supremacy—on the condition that she put an end to the destructive linga. So the Great Goddess manifested herself in the sky, took hold of the giant phallus, and slipped him into her, whereupon he experienced such pleasure that his destructive madness was completely pacified.

Since then, it is said in Tantrism that woman represents power and that man incarnates the capacity for wonder, for marvel. A hymn to the goddess of the Saktisangama Tantra honors this creative force:

Woman is the creator of the universe,
the universe is her form;
woman is the foundation of the world,
she is the true form of the body.
Whatever form she takes,
whether the form of a man or a woman,
is the superior form.
In woman is the form of all things,
of all that lives and moves in the world.
There is no jewel rarer than woman,
no condition superior to that of woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any destiny to equal that of woman;
there is no kingdom, no wealth,
to be compared with a woman;
there is not, nor has been, nor will be
any holy place like unto a woman.
There is no prayer to equal a woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any yoga to compare with a woman,
no mystical formula nor asceticism
to match a woman.
There are not, nor have been, nor will be
any riches more valuable than woman.⁷