SAKTISM. Saktism is a form or kind of worship among the Hindus. It is connected closely with Saivism or the worship of Siva (q.v.). In fact it is the worship of the female side of Siva, the female energy. Monier Williams points out that the duality of the divine nature (male and female) is first enunciated clearly in the Brahraapas and Upanishads. According to Manu, the Self-existent divided his own substance and became half male half female. Siva came to be depicted sometimes as a male on his right side and a female on his left side. But it is the latest of the sacred writings, the Tantras, that make the female energy, personified as a goddess, a special object of worship. In course of time a large section of the Hindus devoted themselves exclusively to the worship of the female side of Siva and Vishnu, to the worship of Durga or Kali, wife of Siva, of Radha, wife of Krishna, of Situ, wife of Rama, of Amba or Devi, the Mother-goddess, and of Sakti, the great Power of Nature. Sakti, however, came to be regarded by the worshippers of the female energy as the embodiment of all the powers and virtues of all the other deities, male and female. As might be expected, developed
into gross sensuality. " In Saktism we are confronted with the worst results of the worst superstitious ideas that have ever disgraced and degraded the human race. It is by offering to women the so-called homage of sensual love and carnal passion, and by yielding free course to all the grosser appetites, wholly regardless of social rules and restrictions, that the worshippers of the female power (Sakti) in Nature seek to gratify the goddess representing that power, and through her aid to acquire supernatural faculties, and even ultimately to obtain union with the Supreme Being. Incredible as it may appear, these so-called worshippers actually affect to pride themselves on their debasing doctrines, while they maintain that their creed is the grandest of all religions, because to indulge the grosser appetites and passions, with the mind fixed on union with the Supreme Being, is believed to be the highest of all pious achievements " (Monier-Williams). See Monier-Williams; E. W. Hop kins: J. A. Dubois and H. K. Beauchamp.