Everything is considered to be the energy of god. Everything originates from the one original source. It is just different manifestations of the energy of god. In the Vedas there is description of this facet of reality, where the energies of god are called “shakti”. And there are different types of shakti. But they all have the same original source, called “shaktimam”.
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There are three specific types of shakti or expanded energies coming from the source, namely the internal, marginal and external. The spiritual world is the internal potency or shakti, the material world is the external manifestation of the potency or shakti of god, and we living beings are the marginal potency. By marginal it is implied that we can fall under the influence of both the internal or the external potencies. We are by nature pure spirit, in quality one with the original source or godhead, but in quantity only a small part, compared to the original whole. The part cannot be equated to the whole.
When in our original constitutional position, we are under the internal potency, but when we take birth in the material world, we fall under the influence of the external potency or shakti of god. This is how all energy, including our selves, is qualified or described, so that it’s not all one. There are also differences, even though the source is one. This is of course a particularly esoteric revelation, coming from the Sanskrit Vedas, the original texts on yoga and consciousness.
The original source or god is seen as the only male, in Sanskrit called “purusha”, while all else is female, or “prakriti”. The gender terms are thus not literal, as we find here in the material world of men and women. It is more analogous to a leader and his subordinates. The energetic source, and his expanded energies that emanate from him.
There are other expansions, potencies or shaktis, and they are personified as the goddesses that accompany the one original godhead. Krishna, for example is depicted with Radha, and she is the goddess who is also called the “hladini shakti” or pleasure potency. Shiva is depicted with his female consort, called Durga, Kali, Maya, among other names, and she is also known as Shakti. So you get the reference to Shiva and Shakti.
These are different ways in which the potencies or expansions of god – the original source – are described. Vishnu (a form of Krishna) has his female consort called Lakshmi. The feminine aspects of the divinity are all called shakti because they are considered expansions coming directly from the original source.
All of this is described in detail and put into perspective in the Vedas, and it alludes to both the material and spiritual worlds or realities, as well as everything in existence, which all falls under one category or another. In other words there is variety, and this variety exists eternally, despite originating from one source. The concept of everything merging into oneness is an incomplete understanding presented by some schools of thought. It does not concur with the Vedic conclusion, even though some references may say that all energy is spirit in the end.
All energy or shakti may well be from the one source but it has variety and consists of various manifestations with diverse potencies or properties. And all of these variegated potencies exist eternally, even if the material cosmic manifestation does indeed have a beginning and end, where it is created and destroyed over millions of years. Still the energy involved dissolves or becomes unmanifested or deconstructed, only to be reconstructed again, in an eternal cyclic flow of creation and dissolution. Even science has concluded that matter is never destroyed, merely transmuted.
As marginal potencies or expansions of the source or godhead, we become covered by the illusory influence of the material energy when we take a body. We misidentify with this body and mind, thinking it to be ourselves. However, it is merely a temporary covering. We leave it behind at death, and take another body according to our desires and state of consciousness at the time of death. Ideally we can also become liberated from the cycle of repeated birth and death, according to the Vedic conclusion. We then return to the internal potency, regain our original spiritual bodies, or more accurately remember them, since we always are that spiritual person. In the core of the heart, it is described, the real self sits, like an observer in the city of nine gates. That is an analogy mentioned in Bhagavad Gita chapter five, and describes this material body:
सर्वकर्माणि मनसा सन्न्यस्यास्ते सुखं वशी ।
नवद्वारे पुरे देही नैव कुर्वन्न कारयन् ॥ १३ ॥
sarva-karmāṇi manasā
sannyasyāste sukhaṁ vaśī
nava-dvāre pure dehī
naiva kurvan na kārayan
“When the embodied living being controls his nature and mentally renounces all actions, he resides happily in the city of nine gates [the material body], neither working nor causing work to be done.”
Bhagavad Gita As It Is, chapter 5:13 translated by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta
The nine gates are the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, anus and genitals. We are the master of the city, but the city is run by the “mayor”, or the mind, while the real master or king, the spirit soul, merely observes. The real self is not the doer, and does not desire. It is the mind that desires, through the demands of the five senses. Even then, the mind is not the doer or controller.
Everything is going on under the influence of the three modes of material nature – goodness (sattva), rajas (passion), and ignorance (tamas). These three modes of nature (in Sanskrit called “guna”s meaning ropes that bind) are the material cause of everything. We are simply subjected to their dictates.
This may put things into perspective and answer some questions regarding the nature of reality, but it also leaves us with even more questions sometimes, like why do we get the karma if we are not the doer, or responsible for any actions? It’s a complex philosophy and I am not an expert. I simply repeat what I have been taught or have read in the Vedas. From what I understand though, we are all being affected or pushed to act by the modes of nature that dominate our consciousness, but we can become purified of the lower drives that force us into karmic acts and repercussions, specifically by the paths of yoga.
The eternal soul forgets his or her true nature and falls under the influence of the external energy or shakti, but if s/he becomes purified by the practice of the various yoga paths, s/he can remember the original identity and then desire to return back to godhead, so to speak. Some teachers say that we are already there, or in one sense our spiritual identity is never lost, and is already in the original state under the internal shakti, while simultaneously here in the material world under the external potency or shakti. And that even while here, we can use the yoga and meditation practice to cleanse the dust of illusion that covers us and perceive our eternal identity, even while still in our temporary bodies.
This is all highly esoteric or mystical, so I can only allude to what is mentioned from my theoretical understanding. However, I am not concocting anything or speculating or inventing an opinion. I am repeating the authoritative reference on the subject. And that makes all the difference.
(image of Krishna and Radha)