Modern Developments
In certain regards, Bhattacharyya notes, Shaktism has so infused mainstream Hinduism that it has "ceased to be a sectarian religion," and presents "no difficulty for anyone to accept its essence."
Shakta-oriented temples and pilgrimage sites draw ever-growing crowds and recognition. For example, in 2004 the monumental Meenakshi Amman Temple was shortlisted in the "New Seven Wonders of the World" competition. Meanwhile, the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir attracts record numbers of pilgrims – five million in the 2007 as of September.
The Indian film industry turns out scores of Shakta devotional films, perhaps none more famous than 1975's Jai Santoshi Maa ("Hail to the Mother of Satisfaction"), a low-budget box-office phenomenon that propelled a previously unknown deity, Santoshi Mata, to dizzying heights of devotional fervor. A 36-episode television miniseries in 2003 and a successful 2006 remake of the original film suggest that this "new" goddess's following continues to expand.
"As her film brought her to life, Santoshi Ma quickly became one of the most important and widely worshiped goddesses in India, taking her place in poster-art form in the altar rooms of millions of Hindu homes. Yet it is hard to conceive that Santoshi Ma could have granted such instant satisfaction to so many people had she not been part of a larger and already well-integrated culture of the Goddess. Her new devotees could immediately recognize many of her characteristic moods and attributes, and feel them deeply, because she shared them with other goddesses long since familiar to them."
Some scholars also identify a Shakta influence in the increasing visibility of Hindu female saints and gurus "through Web sites, world tours, ashrams and devotional groups across the globe, devotional publications and videos." While some of these teachers represent conservative and patriarchal lineages of mainstream Hinduism, Pechilis notes that others – for example Mata Amritanandamayi and Mother Meera – operate in a strongly "feminine mode" that is distinctly bhaktic and Shakta in nature. She observes:
"Female gurus are understood by Hindu tradition and by their followers alike to be manifestations of the Goddess; that is, as perfect embodiments of shakti. The nature, presence, and teaching of the Hindu female gurus is universal. As gurus, they distinctively blend the formality and authority of classical tradition with the spontaneity of interactive encounter, harmonizing personal experience and the ultimate."
Read more about this topic: History Of Shaktism
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or developments:
“I know this, and I know it from actual experience in the Orient, that the progress of modern Christian civilization has largely depended on the earnest hard work of the Christian missions of every denomination.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)