Six Paths Leading To Mother Goddess In Shaktism

According to Shaktism, there are six paths of spiritual discipline that lead to the Divine Mother Goddess. They are:

1. Letters of the alphabet – varnadhva
2. Words made up of these letters - padadhva
3. Mantras comprising of words – mantradhva
4. Aspects such as knowledge peace etc – kaladhva
5. Thirty-six categories of Shaktism – tattvadhva
6. Various worlds – bhuvanadhva

The six paths are together known as Shadadhva.

Instead of following the six paths a devotee can worship Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, Surya, Ganapati and Indusambhava (a Jain deity) to attain the same goal.

The 991st name of Goddess Lalita in the Lalitasaharanama is Shadadhvatita Roopini – the one beyond the six paths.