By Victor M Fontane
Yantras are secret geometrical diagrams representation of divine energies of the structure of creation. Yantra comes from the sanskrit root Yan meaning hold or sustain and refers to a tool or instrument for focusing the mind and sustaining the awareness of a divine truth. They are intricate maps of consciousness designed to aid spiritual progress and acting as symbolic representations of cosmic energies, they serve as instruments for meditation and pathways to spiritual realizations.
The study and use of Yantras date back over 5,000 years to the Vedic period in India where they were first mentioned in the sacred texts. Yantras are more than artistic or ritualistic devices, they are tools for alining the practitioner with universal patterns. They have been depicted in various forms engraved on copper plates, painted on temple walls or inscribed onto amulets. While their physical appearance may vary their purpose remains the same, to invoke divine energy and focus the mind into a particular deity or concept. On a macrocosmic level Yantras reelects the geometrical order, and as Galileo Galilei famously observed that the Universe is written in a language of mathematics. When you meditate deeply you’ll se figures called fractals endlessly repeating self similar shapes and capture this cosmic geometry in a concentrated form aligning the practitioner’s mind with it the cosmo. On a microcosmic level Yantras are symbolic maps showing the journey towards self realization.
The Sri Yantra consist of nine interlocking triangles radiating from the center. Each triangle represents an aspect of existence, from the physical to the spiritual. Unconscious resonance within the mind defy logical explanation and their structure is rich with meaning.
The base of a Yantra is often a square symbolizing stability and roundedness. Provides a firm foundation for spiritual practice representing the practitioner first step in ascending from the material world. The center of the Yantra known as the Bindu symbolizes the ultimate reality, the source of all creation, is the focal point from which all energy radiates the journey through the Yantra. Often begins at one of its four gateways symbolizing the four primary paths to spiritual realization, selfless service, knowledge meditation and devotion.
These gateways lead the practitioner toward the inner layers of the Yantra where they encounter challenges represented by eight Lotus petals and these petals symbolize barriers or Fetters that hinder spiritual progress such as fear, doubt, aversion and attachment.
The tantric tradition emphasizes the importance of transcending these fets to realize one’s divine nature. The upward pointing triangles represent the masculine energy (Shiva) while the downward pointing triangles symbolize the feminine energy (Shakti) and together these interlocking triangles represent the interplay of dualities, creation and destruction, activity and inertia. The observed through meditation on these patterns, practitioners move toward a state of unity realizing that these dualities are illusory and that all opposites are reconciled with the Ultimate Reality.Yantras also carry profound psychological and spiritual symbolism. The triangles can represent various Triads: waking, dreaming and deep sleep states, creation, preservation and destruction or mind, intellect and ego. By meditating on the Yantra the practitioner transcends these layers moving toward the center where all dualities dissolve, being not only mere intellectual but deeply experiential, culminating in a direct encounter with the Divine Essence represented by the Bindu.
The geometric proportions of Yantras resonate with the subconscious mind aligning it with universal patterns that meditating on a Yantra can bring about profound inner clarity and transformation even without a full intellectual understanding of its structure.
The journey through a Yantra mirrors the spiritual journey itself, beginning at the periphery the practitioner encounters various layers of existence from the material to the spiritual, each step inward represents a deeper level of awareness culminating at the center where the ultimate truth is revealed.
This process is not about escaping the world but embracing it fully recognizing the Divine Essence in all things as the tantric tradition teaches. The material and the spiritual are not separate, they are two aspects of the same reality. Bridges between the finite and the infinite remind that the Divine is not a distant abstract concept but an ever present reality woven into the fabric of existence. By meditating on Yantras one learns to see beyond the surface to the underlying Unity that connects all things transforming the mundane into the sacred and the finite into the infinite.|
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