What is shakti?

It works everywhere and in everything, and everything is its manifestation. It is cosmic energy. And everything is constituted of that. Do you know what the latest modern scientific discoveries say? They say that every material object – looking apparently material – is nothing but a formation of cosmic energy. Everything including, your own body, is made up of that one energy, Shakti – which means energy, power, force, etc. It is the stuff of everything, right from earth to heaven. There is nothing else except that. And the more you are able to participate in its working, the more strength you derive. Shakti is not merely physical; it is also psychological, and even spiritual. But you must know how to participate in its working. That means you have to transcend your ego and also, to some extent, your personality and your individuality. Because the cosmic substance is all-pervading, it is not affiliated to some particular individual. So to participate in the universal substance means to get over the limitations of personality – that is, to transcend it.

 Is the Shakti connected with the feminine quality?

No, no! It is not connected with any quality, because it has no such distinction as masculine or feminine. It is a universal, impersonal force. It may split itself into various shapes, into not only into feminine and masculine but also into matter – the animate and the inanimate, etc. This is an issue of animate and inanimate. Even that is the creation of the ways of human perception. It has no such distinctions in itself , but it looks as if there is distinction when you look at it from your point of view. It is not male or female; it is impersonal. It is androgynous.

Swami Krishnananda