This painting depicts the Shree Yantra. It is the visual representation of the scared pranava OM. The Shree Yantra ('great object') belongs to a class of devices used in meditation, mainly by those belonging to the Hindu Tantric tradition. The diagram consists of nine interwoven isosceles triangles, with four point upwards, representing Sakti, the primordial female essence of dynamic energy, and five point downwards, representing Shiva, the primordial male essence of static wisdom The triangles are arranged in such a way that they produce 43 subsidiary triangles, at the centre of the smallest of which there is a big dot (known as the bindu). These smaller triangles orm the abodes of different gods, whose names are sometimes entered in their respective places.
In common with many depictions of the Shree Yantra, the one shown here has outer rings consisting of an eight-petalled lotus, enclosed by a sixteen petalled lotus, girdled in turn by three circles, all enclosed in a square with four doors, one on each side. The square represents the boundaries within which the deities reside, protected from the chaos and disorder of the outside world.
For Use During Meditation.
Tantric tradition suggests that there are two ways of using the Shree Yantra for meditation. In the 'outward approach', one begins by contemplating the bindu and proceeds outwards by stages to take in the smallest triangle in which it is enclosed, then the next two triangles, and so on, slowly expanding outwards through a sequence of shapes to the outer shapes in which the whole object is contained. This outward contemplation is associated with an evolutionary view of the development of the universe where, starting with primordial matter represented by the dot, the meditator concentrates on increasingly complex organisms, as indicated by increasingly complex shapes, until reaching the very boundaries of the universe from where escape is possible only through one of the four doors into chaos. The 'inward' approach to meditation, which starts from a circle and then moves inwards, is known in tantric literature as the process of destruction.
In general, the Sri-yantra is a 'cosmogram' - a graphic representation of the universal processes of emanation and reabsorption reduced to their essential outline. It is an expression in terms of linear symbolism of the cosmic manifestations, beginning with the primordial unity.'
The Shree Yantra is a powerful and unfailing instrument that attracts Laxmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity. She is in fact compelled to manifest at the place where such a Mantra-energized and consecrated Yantra is placed.
“Om Shreem Hreem Shreem Mahaalakshmyei Shreem Hreem Shreem Namah”
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