Sri Yantra is the most auspicious of all Yantras and is also referred to as Yantra Raja- i.e King of Yantra. ‘Sri’ means- most respected, a commonly used as prefix to names of Saints and distinguished personalities in India.
It has an intricate design of 9 interlocking triangles involving meticulous attention to detail needed to reproduce with hand. During my initial days of trying to understand formation of Sri Yantra, I did notice that just by focused look into it gave me a higher level psyche albeit only for very brief moments. Sri Vidya helps us to bring back our attention towards it as much as possible to understand how this creation all spring forth from one Bindu in the center and, in due course let its geometry elevate our subtler consciousness. While we just started Beginner’s course on Sri Vidya, I’ll cover in a later article about what aspects of geometry makes Sri Yantra so special.
There are three types of Sri Yantra: regular 2-dimensional seen above, a pyramidal (Meru) and a spherical form (Kurma, ie Tortoise Shell).
Vaastu-shastra (hindu science of architectures) recommends placing Sri Yantra in home or office to correct defects of North and NorthEast directions and improve its spatial energies. Word caution: its suggested not to place too big Sri Meru or Sri Kurma in our house as their energy fields and flux could create more harm than good, unless its worshipped daily with prescribed Sri Yantra puja procedures. It demands attention beyond a size and is recommended that householders donate such big ones to nearby Temples as worship continues daily at such places. Rule of thumb is not to place a Meru at home if it can’t fit in your palm. There are no such restrictions for 2D yantras though.
If you have a Sri Yantra at your home, whenever possible you can offer Kumkum upon it for each name of Lalita Sahasranam, at least on Fridays as its most auspicious day for Shree Mata Lalita. As aspiring Sri Vidya upasakas, our goal is to make everyday a Friday!
Namaste Rama maa, Upāsana means 'upa' - near ; 'asana' - sit. 'Sri Vidya upasana' means to sit near Sri Vidya to learn and practice it. Upasaka is he/she who practices it.
Pranam Swami Pranava, where does upasana and upasakas come from and refer to?
Bhuta suddhi procedure is a preliminary cleansing procedure which we’ll be performing before beginning worship of nine chakras in Sri Yantra. If you can imagine Sri Yantra puja as going into Sanctum Sanctorium of a Temple, Bhuta suddhi is akin to washing our feet and hands before entering the Temple compound.
Moola bandha (piercing of mooladhara) procedure you’re referring to is mostly practiced in Hatha Yoga and not in Sri Vidya. In case you’re thinking about Bhuta suddhi procedure from Durga Vidya, while these mantras have some overlap with what we do in Sri Vidya, the visualization is completely different.
For Sri Vidya with the energy vortice of each chakra, how is this similar to Bhuta Shuddhi with its bija mantras (Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Om) which purifies the elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether, the Ultimate) in each location, corresponding senses (smell, taste, sight, touch, hearing, orders from HQ), Gods (Indra, Varuna, Agni, Vayu, Soma, Isvari)? What is the experience like of piercing the triangular junction (yantra) in the Muladhara, centre of energy between the genital and the rectum?
Absolutely! Human body itself is a living Sri Yantra/Meru and its each chakra represents corresponding energy vortices in our body with spine being its Meru-danda (supporting pillar). Our final goal is to worship Sri Yantra internally but in beginning we need a representation of it outside so we can visualize and worship energies, personified as Dieties, of each chakra and dissolve them one-by-one so that our highest potential/shakti, referred to as Kundalini, can reach Sada-Shiva (pure consciousness) residing at Brahmarandra.