Shaktism

[RajputMaster24]

Dear friends, is Shaktism dualistic or monistic? Is Shakti a personal god or impersonal god?

 

[Aupmanyav]

IMHO, Shakti can be a personal or an impersonal deity, but seems to be dualistic. Seek inputs from other forum members.

 

[SomeRandom]

Dualistic. Personal or impersonable depending on your interpretation. I'm sure there's non dualistic or monistic Shaktas though.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

While one's relationship to Devi is ultimately non-dualistic, I think relating to "her" in a dualistic sense is very useful for bhakti and spiritual growth in the early stages of one's journey. I intellectually understand Devi as being the AdiShakti or universal energy/force behind all material and non-material things, but that's very difficult to connect with on a day to day basis, so in practice, Devi is a dualistic, personal experience for me.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Why should that be? We can relate to a monistic Brahman and not to monistic Shakti? Perhaps when Shakti emanates from Brahman, it is already dualistic.

 

[Shrew]

IMHO, Shakti can be a personal or an impersonal deity, but seems to be dualistic. Seek inputs from other forum members.

How is Shaktism dualistic when it asumes one power to be the underlying reality?
(By the way, this thread would be better placed in Hinduism dirctory.)

 

[Shrew]

Why should that be? We can relate to a monistic Brahman and not to monistic Shakti? Perhaps when Shakti emanates from Brahman, it is already dualistic.

Excuse me, but according to my understanding Shakti doesn't emanate from Brahman, Shakti is Brahman.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Excuse me, but according to my understanding Shakti doesn't emanate from Brahman, Shakti is Brahman.

Oh, that solves the problem.

 

[Bhairava]

Monistic to me. I follow Trika Saivism and feel like its the brother religion of Shaktism and secretly Shaktism at least to me.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Welcome Bhairava. KP or not?

 

[DeviChaaya]

Monistic to me. I follow Trika Saivism and feel like its the brother religion of Shaktism and secretly Shaktism at least to me.

From what I've read about Trika Saivism I have to agree @Bhairava. It holds Shakti as inseparable to Shiva and even a surface reading - which is all I've done - also implies a heavy Shakti focus.