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Do
God and the Gods have Gender?
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| This article is
taken from Hinduism Today |
| Esoterically,
it must be admitted that none of the Gods has a wife. Their consorts are not to be
considered as separate from them, but as aspects of their being, as their shakti
or power. The Mahadevas who live in the Third World cannot be likened to
men and women who live on the earth. They exist in perfectly evolved soul bodies, bodies
which are not properly differentiated by sex. They are pure beings made of pure
consciousness and light; they are neither male nor female. To better understand these
Divine Gods, we sometimes conceive them as being the man if they are strong in expression
or the woman if they are gentle and compassionate. There are no husbands and wives in the
vast, superconscious realms of the Third World. The husband/wife notion is a
puranic myth. The term Goddess can refer to a female perception or depiction of a
Third World being (Mahadeva) in its natural state, which is genderless,
or to a Second World being residing in a female astral-mental body. For example,
Lakshmi and Sarasvati are not wives of Vishnu and Brahma, but personified powers of a
sexless Deity who extends abundance and learning through the motherly empathy of a female
form. And many of the village deities who protect children and crops are actually souls
living close to earth in the astral plane, still functioning through the astral female or
male body that is a duplicate of their last physical body.
"They meditate on Her to become immortal. The
Lord of immortals blesses you. He who wears the Ganga and contains Her - strive to reach
Him."
- St. Tirumular of the Natha Sampradaya
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