YOGA
Realising perfection through Yantra
The Tribune, Saturday, June 24, 2006, Chandigarh, India
Jyoti Subramanian

As the tantra adept chants the 'japa' constantly with complete concentration, the frequency of the sound vibration forms a visual picture. Yantra is the visual tool of tantra seen by the practitioner as energy patterns.

The meaning of the word tantra is in two parts- it means to 'hold' and to 'liberate'. Just as esoterically death sets you free, yantra is a step to setting the practitioner free from the attachments of the mind by withdrawing the mind from the external to the internal.

An exercise in yantra formation: Identify the 'japa' that is closest to your heart. Sit facing east and chant this mantra. As you chant, relax and allow the geometric pattern of this sound vibration to be revealed to you. This will depend on your sincerity, the depth of your 'japa' and the amount of practice. But you may be surprised by the result!

Once the yantra is revealed to the practitioner through the chanting of the 'japa', the stage that follows is of drawing and colouring these realised patterns.

These are geometric patterns composed of triangles, squares, circles, hexagons, octagons and require single-pointed concentration to execute.

Amazingly, it has been scientifically observed that this process activates and synchronises the right and the left brain of the person drawing them.

Beginning from the eye muscles while drawing, the effort to balance and synchronise the brain begins. Once again the importance of balancing the left and the right brain to achieve a state of perfection in yoga is revealed. The mind is gradually harnessed and brought in to the point in the centre- the bindu.

The images in the yantra consist of the circle, the square, the triangle, the star, lotus petals; all these perfect shapes are drawn to form a perfect pattern.

Perfection in the outer leads to perfection in the inner; and all eight tools in yoga strive for this balance and precision.

There are many varieties of yantra, the object of desire as chanted in the mantra is revealed to the practitioner in the form of a vision, the shakti yantras are that of the ten forms of the divine mother as shown to the sincere seeker. All these are a matter of experience and not speculation.

Kali, Tara, Baglamukhi, Chinnamasta- the devis reveal themselves to the ardent tantra yogi in the form of these geometrical patterns that are a crystallization of the sound vibration of the mantra. There are yantras to achieve perfection in astrology, numerology and archaeology.

The energy released by the mantra forms the yantra and has no positive or negative attributes and can be used according to the nature of the one using it for the following purposes -peace, enslaving, paralyzing, attracting, distracting and death to the physical. What is to be noted here is that though a mantra can be used without a yantra, a yantra is useless without a mantra.