Kriyāśakti
A latent power of thought in human beings that enables one to produce a visible form from one’s thoughts. T. Subba Row describes it as a power that enables thought “to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy” (Esoteric Writings, p. 11; also in SD II:173). The word is derived from two Sanskrit words, kriya, meaning action, and akti, power. It is the externalization of an idea or thought when one’s attention and will are sufficiently concentrated. “Like the lightning conductor which leads the electric fluid, the faculty of Kriyâakti conducts the creative Quintessence and gives it direction. Led haphazardly, it can kill; directed by the human intellect, it can create according to a predetermined plan” (CW XI:529). Kriy€akti is one of the six primary powers or aktis in nature. The others are paraakti or the supreme power, icch€akti or will- or desire-power, jnanaakti or the power of wisdom or knowledge, kuŠalin…-akti, the power of the latent coiled energy at the human spine, and mantrika-akti, the power of mantras. In Kashmir Shaivism, two other kinds of aktis are mentioned: chitakti, or the power of awareness, and anandaakti, the power of bliss. Helena P. Blavatsky states that the creation of the projected illusory body (mayavi-rupa) is also the result of the unconscious use of kriy€akti. But an adept can perform this consciously (CW XII:706-7). Adepts can also consciously produce photographs through this power (ibid., 672). The Secret Doctrine states that certain human beings in the Third Root Race were born through the power of kriy€akti. They were called the Sons of Will and Yoga (SD II:173), also called Sons of the Fire Mist and “Sons of Ad.” Thus they were referred to as the “Mind-born Sons” (SD I:211). It also mentions that the first women were created by kriy€akti before they were naturally born as an independent sex (SD II:140).
V.H.C.
