Milk & Yogurt
There is a wonderful analogy used in Brahma Samhita to describe the difference between Vishnu and Shiva. However, I would like to steal this analogy for a slightly different purpose: Shiva and Shakti. Shiva is (for our purposes) the Absolute, the pre-coognitive Is-ness, the Infinite Being. Shakti is that which arises from the Shiva - the manifest, the relative, the objective. So, you might say they are the "Spiritual" and the "Material" or the Absolute and Relative existence. Shiva is pure unadulterated Milk; Shakti is Yogurt. What is the difference between milk and yogurt? In one sense, nothing. Yogurt is nothing but milk, and yet milk to which a bacteria has been added, which under fairly simple circumstances begins to cultivate itself more and more. Still milk, but now cultivated, or you might even say contaminated. When people say that all is the Absolute, they are correct - All is Milk. However, there is a culture in that milk, a bacteria, that makes it milk an...