[8] According to Vaishnava Dharma, the five functions of Shakti are triodhana or triobhava ('delusion'), shrishti ('creation'), sthiti ('sustenance'), laya or samhrti ('dissolution') and anugraha ('grace'); these account for its Kiryashakti ('power of action').
[9] Yoga Vasistha has six prakarnas ('divisions') – vairagya ('renunciation'), mumuksu-vyavahara ('longing for salvation'), utpatti ('cosmological origin'), sthiti ('preservation'), upasama ('quiescence') and nirvana ('absorption').
Pratayabhijna insists on meditation on panca-krtya and the practice of vikalpa-ksaya during which course the retention and enjoyment of what one perceives (abhasana) is rakti or sthiti i.e. preservation, which is withdrawn at the time of knowledge.
[12] The Devi-Bhagavata III.7.25-26 speaks of the three shaktis of the three gunas – jnana-shakti of sattva, kriya-shakti of rajas and artha-shakti or dravya-shakti of tamas; jnana and dravya show the nature of prakasa ('light', 'knowledge') and sthiti ('sustenance', 'existence') in a clearer way.
Shrishti (natural state and Nature), Sthiti (continuation and maintenance) and Samhara (annihilation and reabsorption) constitute the triad which alludes to a ceaseless process of creation, sustenance and dissolution in a repeating cycle starting from the emptiness of a positive content which causes multifarious forms to shine forth in the mid-way of its movement before receding to rest from where the process started.