The divine Shakti - we need to open the heart to Her

(from "The Yoga of Kashmir Shaivism"):

O Lord, how fruitful can this neuter Brahman be without the beautiful female of Your devotion which makes of You a person? (Bhatta Nayaka)

The Kashmir Shaivite masters did not reject the world. They were not elitist. Their emphasis was on love and devotion. At the centre of Kashmir Shaivism is the opening of the heart to the divine Shakti. The world is seen as the embodiment of the divine Mother, the eternal feminine who is always one with Shiva.

Maheshwarananda says (in Maharthamanjari):

Shiva Himself full of joy enhanced by the honey of the three corners of His heart (knowledge, will and action), raising up His face to gaze at His own splendour is called Shakti.

The proper attitude towards Her is devotional: to love and adore Her, not reject or control Her as in some forms of yoga and Vedanta. Focusing on the heart, the yogi of Shaivism sees the Mother, the Shakti, everywhere, and celebrates Her sport. An old Shaivite aphorism says that 'Without Shakti, Shiva is shava, a corpse'.

Scripture says:

The Goddess Shakti is always engaged in enjoying the taste of manifestation and yet She is never depleted. She is a wave on the ocean of Consciousness, the volitional power of the Lord.

Shakti and Chiti, the ever-sporting Goddess of divine Consciousness are not different. Few of Her devotees reach the lyrical heights of my Guru in his frequent hymns to the Goddess:

Chiti is supremely free. She is self-revealing. She is the only cause of the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the universe. She exists, holding the power within Her that creates, sustains and destroys. The prime cause of everything, She is also the means to highest bliss. All forms, all places and all instants of time are manifested from Her. She is all-pervading, always completely free and of everlasting light. Manifesting as the universe, still She remains established in Her indivisibility and unity. Within the Blue Light, She pulsates with ambrosial bliss. There is only one, the supreme witness, the One who is called cosmic Consciousness of Supreme Shiva. She is ever solitary. In the beginning, in the middle and in the end, only Chiti is. She does not depend on any agency; She is Her own basis and support. As She alone exists, She is in perfect freedom.

Shakti is always one with Shiva, She is never separate. The divine pair, yamala, like the yin-yang, incorporate all the dualities within them: heaven and earth, matter and Consciousness, world and spirit. The Tantras are usually in the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Shakti. Shakti asks questions and Shiva gives the answers. At the highest level, the reader understands the oneness of Shakti with Shiva. She is supreme Consciousness, His own power of Self-reflection. Abhinavagupta writes (In Paratrishika Vivarana):

Self who is the natural state of all existence, who is self-luminous, amusing Himself with question-answer which is not different from Himself, and in which both the questioner (as Devi) and the answerer (as Bhairava) are only Himself, enjoys Self-reflection.

Shakti is the active, manifesting aspect of the Lord. That She is revered by the Shaivite sages gives Shaivism its warmth and quality of heart. Such a 'this-worldly' approach resonates with the modern Western sensibility. Notice also, Baba's use of the word freedom (svatantrya), in the last sentence. The Shaivite masters emphasize this characteristic of Consciousness. Consciousness freely creates and freely sports. As we liberate ourselves from our dependencies, more and more we take on the characteristic of Chiti, this sportive, Self-generated freedom.