Wiki / Sri Yantra

The Sri Yantra – also known as Shri Chakra – is regarded as the most significant and powerful yantra of Hindu Tantrism. It consists of nine interlocking triangles: four pointing upwards (the masculine principle, Shiva) and five pointing downwards (the feminine principle, Shakti). Their interpenetration creates 43 smaller triangles, surrounded by a lotus with eight petals and one with sixteen petals, all enclosed in a triple square frame with four gates aligned to the cardinal directions.

The Sri Yantra is the geometric representation of the goddess Tripura Sundari, the embodiment of the highest cosmic creative force. At its centre, the bindu, rests the unmanifest primordial state of pure consciousness – from which the entire creation unfolds outwards in layers. The Sri Yantra is therefore both a cosmological map and a meditation tool: those who contemplate it or trace its layers from the outside inwards symbolically retrace the journey from multiplicity back to unity.

Its origins reach back more than 2,000 years into the Vedic-Tantric tradition. In temples of South India it is venerated as a three-dimensional Meru made of crystal, copper or gold; in the Shri Vidya school it forms the core of a highly developed meditative practice. Today it is used worldwide as a symbol of prosperity, spiritual growth and the harmonious union of masculine and feminine energy.

Use: As wall art or mandala to harmonise rooms, as a meditation object for trataka (focused gazing), as a pendant or placed beneath the meditation cushion. In classical practice the Sri Yantra is combined with a mantra (such as the Shri Sukta) and inward-moving visualisation to centre consciousness and energy.