Goddesses in Hinduism:
The Icons of Female Power

      The concept of goddess has been present since the prehistoric period of the Indus-Saraswati civilization. Around the same time, a similar female goddess phenomenon also became noticeable in other world cultures. There are carvings of exuberant feminine deities in the Indus excavations, and there are similar figures in the Greek and Egyptian cultures. In the agrarian society of the Indus-Saraswati civilization, Mother Earth became the symbol of fertility. The male power was recognized as the fire, Agni, and the sun, Surya that would combine with the female energy, Shakti, and yield the produce.

      In the early Vedic period, the female aspect of the Divine was pushed to the background by the prominently masculine Brahminic tradition. Even though there appeared to be serious discrimination against women in the Vedic laws and rituals, this soon was more than compensated by assigning high status to female goddesses. Although most Vedic gods were male, a few female goddesses, or Devi—such as the goddess of the earth, Prthivi; the mother of the universe, Aditi; and the goddesses of the dawn, Usha; and of speech, Vac—have been mentioned in the Vedas.63 The Vedas asserted man as the head of the family. Soon, however, the female goddesses projected women in an equal, occasionally superior position, thus making adequate counterchecks for a power struggle between the two genders!

      Goddesses in human form also appeared later as consorts of their male gods: Parvati, the goddess of power, with Lord Shiva; Saraswati, the goddess of learning, with Lord Brahma; and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, with Lord Vishnu. Saraswati sits elegantly on a lotus flower, playing a stringed musical instrument known as veena. In her right hand she holds a book, signifying her status as goddess of learning. She is also regarded to be the goddess of wisdom and speech. Artists and learning students venerate this goddess. She always appears graceful and serene. In her character and attributes, she is associated with ancient river Saraswati, ascribing both purity and fertility.64

      Lakshmi is seen as offering gold coins, recognizing the power of wealth in the sustenance of the universe. These human-form goddesses were representative of the power of the original goddess of nature, Prakruti. The pattern of a goddess with every god became established. Obviously, this connection was taken from nature itself. The female creates from within but only with the union of the male. Hindus recognized women as the creative power, or Shakti. After the merger and fusion of the Aryan and pre-Aryan cultures, the concept and importance of the female goddess was revived—and sometimes enhanced even more than before. In all Hindu rituals, the female consort became an essential and equal participant. The Puranic scripture Devi Mahatmya, which was most likely compiled between the fifth and the seventh centuries, describes at length the concept and phenomenon of the supreme goddess in all her glory.

     The Shakta sect dedicated to the divine power of the goddess Devi uses mantra, tantra, yantra, yoga, and puja techniques to invoke cosmic forces and awaken the Kundalini power. As in other Hindu sects, it, too, has different schools: devotional Bhakti, prehistoric folk Shamanic, Yogic, and universalistic. The Shamanic division employs old tantric methods such as magic, fire-walking, animal sacrifice, and trance. The Universalists, on the other hand, have employed a reformed Vedantic style of worship techniques, as directed by Sri Ramakrishna in the recent times.

     There are also examples of many smaller goddesses, such as the goddess of smallpox and other pustular diseases, which are treated by worshipping the concerned goddess with rituals.65 
     Unlike most other religions, Hinduism recognizes both the father and the mother aspect of God, the mother aspect being even more appealing to many devotees. When in distress, one is apt to approach mother more likely than father!
     Introduction of such a high status to womanhood in Hinduism heralded a great revolution in human society. It may be interesting to note that in no other living culture were women elevated to this status so early in history. The downgrading of women was perhaps the legacy of the olden times, when men wielded the power by hunting and other physical activities, and women served as humble submissive partners. In many other cultures, women would have to wait until almost the twentieth century to gain equal rights. Even so, human nature betrayed its weakness time and again, and women did suffer many hardships and humiliations over the centuries in Hindu society.

     Hailing the Ganges and a few other rivers as goddesses is rather unique in Hindu culture. As with the cow, the river, especially the Ganges, has been accorded the highest status because of its enormous contribution toward man’s life and prosperity. The onset of an agrarian society made this even more relevant. According to the scriptures, a few drops of water from the Holy Ganges would attain salvation for a dying man.

     In her book Hindu Goddesses, Chitralekha Singh mentions:

Durga worship occupies a prominent place. Her name implies that she is “invincible,” “inaccessible,” or a terrific goddess. She appears as Uma, Parvati, Gauri, Kali, Sati, Tara, and other 1008 names. (Each name would have her own attributes.) In all these forms, the goddess conquered the demons and upheld the reign of virtue over vice.

     The mother aspect of the Hindu goddess has been eulogized repeatedly. Alongside the energy (Shakti) component, the abundant motherly love of the female goddesses of the Hindu religion has been the subject of much study and propagation. In the recent times especially, the erotic nature of the female goddess has been severely curtailed. The mother phenomenon has been instead promoted.
 The most popular images of Vaishnodevi, Maa Ambaji, and Santoshi Maa, may be seen as a religious movement in this direction.66
 
 This shift in the attribute of the Shakti goddess from the fierce expression of the destroyer to the loving expression of a mother has become more prominent in recent times. This, in fact, is in accordance with the basic pattern of the Hindu dynamic philosophy, which opts for change with times and situations.

     One of the most popular versions of the Hindu goddess is of Kali. She is portrayed as black female with a protruding tongue, wearing a necklace of human skulls and standing over the body of her consort, Lord Shiva. She took on this fearful form to kill the demon Mahishasura and many other wicked demons, or asuras. Goddess Kali originally hails from prehistoric times. Her fierce looks are meant to challenge and frighten the wrongdoer. Sri Ramakrishna however has adopted the recent shift in the attributes of Kali, to demonstrate the compassionate and loving motherhood of the goddess. A similar transformation of the ferocious black goddess into the benevolent goddess Sri Vidya has taken place in the South.67
     Sri Ramakrishna Paramhans eulogized the motherly love of the goddess Kali in most superlative terms. He even projected his own consort, Sri Sardadevi, in the similar divine mother status. It is rather interesting that the holy mother, as Sri Sardadevi has been affectionately called, recently attained even higher status, as the world celebrated the 150th anniversary of her birth. For an illiterate woman who was married at the age of five years, she continued to grow in her spiritual stature long after her death until she became a goddess in the true sense. Devotees have hailed and adored her with greatest respect and affection.

     There also has been an unmistakable spurt of activity in the female religious leadership in modern Hindu society that is unmatched by any other culture. Sri Sarda Devi, who held the highest position of authority after her husband, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, passed away, is a shining example of divinity in the human form in our own times. She also brought her own unique spiritual character into prominence. She adopted the ancient dictum of the Mahabharata: tasmat tikshnataram mridu, which translates to “by gentleness one can overcome the greatest difficulty in the world.” She treated her devotees with the compassion and unconditional love of a mother. Repeatedly, she emphasized, “Do not look at the faults of others, lest your eyes should become impure.”

     The energy, or the Shakti, phenomenon has often been associated with animal sacrifices and eating meat by the devotees. This is especially noticeable in the Kali temples of Bengal, but many other Shakti goddesses, such as Vaishnodevi, Ambaji, and Santoshi Maa, as well as the present Hindu female spiritual leaders, dispensed with animal sacrifices and meat eating.
 There is a growing feeling in the world that the female power of spiritual energy, Shakti, in the form of love, compassion, and the strong arm of protection will become the savior of the mankind in future.

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