Who or what is Shakti, this creative power of the universe? She is the Universe; this shameless, creative cosmic energy that pulsates & enlivens everything. She is everywhere and in everything. We feel her vibration in our breath, in our heart beat and our very lives are an expression of her.
Shakti, Mahadevi, Bhuvaneshvari, is the initiator, the origin of all life. She is the source of life, of love, of our enjoyment and the path toward our true essence. Shaki is the active energy that both creates and dissolves the entire universe. Everything that is around is, whether physical, psychic or mental, is Shakti. Everything - from a blade of grass to the oceans to the smallest of pepples. While Shiva represents the unmanifest, Shakti is the manifest; Shiva the formless and Shakti, the formed; Shiva is consciousness and Shakti is energy, in the universe as a whole and in every one of us. Yet, they are the same, not this or that, simply as one. In the microcosm, our own body, the entire universe is contained in the small space that dwells within the infinite space of our heart. Not simply as the heart chakra, but the heart centre which is the seat of self awareness.
Where Kali represents time, Bhuvaneshvari represents space. As David Frawley* writes in, Bhuvaneshvari creates the stage on which Kali performs her dance of life and death and she is the witness, the observer and the enjoyer of this dance. As Kali creates all events in time, Bhuvaneshvari creates all the objects in space. She is the cosmos and as space is the root of all the elements. As Kali is the force of action (kriya-shakti) and Sundari is the force of knowledge (jnana-shakti), so Bhuvaneshvari is the power of love (iccha-shakti).
Loves creates space and gives freedom, not limiting or possessing. This space of love is nurturing, given freely with no attachment or expectation. The love of Bhuvaneshvari breaks us free of attachment and suffering by making us aware that true love has no form and all forms. Bhuvaneshvari is the power of love that celebrates the universe as creative play. Her primary mantra (chant to invoke her blessing) is the repetition of the single syllable 'Hrim', which means the Goddess heart. Her blessing is equated to the embrace of the consciousness.
Bhuvaneshvari is always within us and in our hearts as, and in our hearts, with infinite love, is where the treasures of the universe lie.
* Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses by Dr David Frawley