Sublime

Devipuram—“The Goddess’s Abode”—the temple complex that Guruji had spent more than three decades building up from almost nothing in the rural wilds of eastern India.

In her many forms, Devī resides in the Śrīcakra, with the nine enclosures (āvaraṇas) representing nine types of borders around her palace in Śrī Nagara15 in the midst of a forest thick with Kadamba trees, which bear highly fragrant flowers that she favors

an immense Śrīcakra (see Figure 2) arises from the great sacrificial fire. The astounded devas watch as this Cakrarāja Ratha grows out of the pit that had consumed so many of their comrades. Ratha is chariot; Cakrarāja is the King of Cakras. It simultaneously emits the brilliance of a million suns and the cooling effect of a million moons. Seated i

I especially enjoyed the work of Sir John Woodroffe (1865–1936), a.k.a. “Arthur Avalon,” who—while prominently serving as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in British India—spent his private hours explaining, defending and ultimately practicing in the then widely reviled Hindu religious schools of Shaiva and Shakta Tantrism.

The origin of Śakti worship can be traced to such Vedic texts as Śri-Sūktam, Durgā-Sūktam, Bhū-Sūktam, Bahvrcopaniṣad, Tripuropaniṣad, Bhāvanopaniṣad and other Devī Upaniṣads. In Sandhyā Upāsanā, we think of Gāyatrī Devī in the solar orb and imagine that the sun shines by Her effulgence and that She is also the Truth which has kindled the light of