The World as Power

by John Woodroffe and Pramatha Natha Mukhopadhyaya

The present book is the first of a series which I hope to be able to complete, explaining succinctly some general philosophical principles of the Doctrine of Sakti or Power from the Sakta Vedantna standpoint. A correspondent once asked me - what was that? The answer is, that is it is that Doctrine which is to be found, expressly or implicity, in the Tantras of the Agama-Sastra of the Advaita Sakta and Saiva communities of worshippers.

The two have points in common in (amongst others) their Doctrine of Sakti and its evolution as the 36 Tattvas and so forth. Thus the latter are explained in the Gandharva-Tantra, the Kashmirian Tattva-Sandoha, and other works. In the Pratah-Krtya as set out in the Mahanirvana-Tantra (V. 39) salution is made to Atma-tattva, Vidya-tattva, and Siva-tattva, these being the three-fold division of the 36 Tattva.

Table of Contents:

1. Power As Reality
2. Power As Life
3. Power As Mind
4. Power As Matter
5. Power As Causality and Continuity
6. Power As Consciousness.

About the Author:

Sir John Woodroffe settled in India and was totally enchanted by the Tantra Sastra. Perhaps he was the first to bring out in English a number of Books on the subject for the benefit of English Reader. He has done immense service to the practitioners of Tantra and has authored more than a dozen Books.