Kriyā-śakti
Kriyā-śakti · kriyā-śakti, “the power of action”
Grammar: feminine noun; a compound of kriyā (action, doing) and śakti (power): “the power of action”.
Meaning: the power by which things act and are joined in action; with jñāna-śakti, the power of knowing, one of the two ways in which Parameśvara’s māyā-śakti shows itself.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa names the kriyā-śakti in creation and in the stutis.
Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that when Bhagavān Vishṇu entered the separated group of the twenty-three tattvas, he awakened the kriyā-śakti that lay dormant in them and brought about their union, and impelled by him they brought forth the Virāṭ Purusha. The māyā-śakti of Parameśvara shows itself as jñāna-śakti and kriyā-śakti; these powers are in Hiraṇyagarbha, his very first avatāra, and through them he divided himself as one, as three and as ten (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 6).
In Ilāvṛta varsha Bhagavān Śiva praises Bhagavān Saṅkarshaṇa: “We, the mahat-tattva (Brahmā), I, the class of devatās, the class of the five bhūtas and the class of the indriyas, are bound to that Parameśvara by the collective kriyā-śakti, like birds tied with a string. Only by his grace do we all create this world” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 17).
When Brahmā saw the calves and gopa boys of Vraja as forms of Bhagavān Vishṇu, four-armed and in yellow silk, each was surrounded by the eight siddhis, by the śaktis, māyā-śakti, kriyā-śakti and the rest, and by the twenty-four tattvas, all in embodied form (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 13).
Related terms: Jñāna-śakti · Māyā · Śakti · Cit-śakti · Tattva · Hiraṇyagarbha
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 6; Skandha 5, Chapter 17; Skandha 10, Chapter 13