I’ve been attracted to symbols since I was little, the more spiritual or esoterical the more interest I had. Would that mean, that it was a quest for power, curiosity, or another form of a spiritual pursuit? well, by now, I could check all boxes, consciously or not, at every stage of my journey it would come to a shared interested between those points.
My intention here is not to rate a symbol to be more powerful than the other, but by now up to my awareness, I see nothing stronger than Yantra. Because independently of your belief system, of your attention placed on it, its meaning, value, and manifestation would still manifest as it is a living form.
What is a Yantra?
Yantra is a presence, that is the clearest description, because more than any other symbols which point to something, the Yantra is by itself something. Again, I don’t want to go in examples to compare against different symbols or idols you consider holy, but those themselves represent a channel, a middle point. If you have a picture of a dear friend, when you see that and have some thoughts, those yes are connecting you to that person but not as directly as you can call that person and have a conversation, or be in their presence. Yantra here refers to the latest. Now, having that said, it is also true, that a yantra that is not created in a specific way does not have more power, meaning, or presence than a symbol itself.
In Tantra, the 2-dimensional representation of a mantra is yantra. Just to be clear, here the mantra is nothing less than the 5th level of reality, of truth, the pancha tattva, where all sub-representations of the Divine are in the form of deities, live as a form of vibration, sound. Whatever you have in your faith or nature of your belief is present there, angels, diety, demi-gods.. all observable aspects of the Truth, Divine.
“A yantra is not limited as a divine manifestation. A Yantra literally holds the energy of a particular deity.” [source]
Drawing or creating a Yantra
I don’t want to rephrase my guru’s words, to place my understanding or more complete English sentence on what he expressed, but I was present to what he described as 3 types of yantras, by the method of creation/drawing. When we were using earth as a base for drawing a Yantra and then on top putting seeds to germinate, he described that as living, or plus (+), or positive.. probably rajasic yantra. The one we constructed with colored rice was communicated to be the (-), the opposite pole and yes we have also a neutral one. For each of them, there are special ceremonies and details to create and activate, and guruji took care of many adjustments – what we would call calibrations – that the manifested energy & presence was the one intended for.
So back to what I said before, it is not easy to create a Yantra that is what it should be and not just a mere symbol. Still 🙂 again not trying to rate one product or another but by the way of creating something like a jewelry yantra, a continuous process is closer to vitalize a yantra than one shot, e.g. painted, manual, or laser graving is preferred than embossing, printing, or melting.
House or Wearable Yantras?
Both… but… let’s say a yantra is a source of energy like a candle if it’s preserved in the same place, the distribution of the heat (energy) is more efficient than walking with the candle around the house. At the same time, if you keep on your body that yantra in the same, more or less, spot and not using it as an accessory it will have a more significant impact.
Most of the in-house yantras are navagrahas (related to planets), Vastu (related to house energy regulations), but in the North-East corner, some might spot also deities yantras. While the wear-able yantras go more in specific deity energy, like Shiva, Shakti, Vishu, Laxmi, Ganesha, etc.
Yantra tattoo?
very sensitive topic… more NO than yes… sacred symbols, no matter the belief system is usually contra-indicated to be permanently placed to the body – in the same time – I’ve heard in exception, opposite recommendations, that come from the same Vedic astrologers, who would ask to remove words or sacred symbols in general. So, basically, without a direct clearance or instruction, no.
Why wearing it is different?
most of the time we have a window of opportunities, to change an effect of some planet using a [nava]graha yantra, preparing for a special process or calendar event like Shivaratri, Navaratri, etc. While some of us will take a yantra to remind ourselves that we are one with that deity, or that our spiritual path is towards that direction – which can be temporarily in life or can transcend many lifetimes.
Activating / Energising a Yantra
Apart from being a living thing, many processes are conducted. Even for a yantra created in the ashram, continuous light offerings, accordingly, mantras, meditations are performed. This is like cleaning a river, the purer and abundant energy will be manifested as also increasing your personal space and retention for that.
Do you have any other questions regarding a Yantra?
