The essays contained in this book traverse new ground in the literature of religion, for they are the first attempts to give an authenticated understanding, from the Indian standpoint rather than the western, of the chief features of the doctrine and practice of those Indian worshippers, who are known as Śāktas, or those who worship the Divine Power, or Mahāśakti. The Śāktas are prominent all over India, but are largely predominant in Bengal and Assam. The Śākta Tantra is a Sādhana Śāstra of monistic Vedānta and is considered by the author the most profound and powerful system, and its doctrine of Śakti, one of the greatest, evolved through spiritual intuition by the human mind, which, according to its teachings, is a manifestation of the Divine Consciousness itself. About the Author John George Woodroffe (1865-1936), also known by his nom de plume Arthur Avalon, was a British Orientalist, who published several works on the Tantras. He translated some twenty original Sanskrit texts on Tantra into English.

English