All World
Gayatri Pariwar

Among the sacred symbols compiled/designed by the Vedic Rishis, Yantras are predominantly regarded as devices for devotional sadhanas. These are used as tools for mental concentration and meditation. Keeping specific Yantra in specific direction in the home and worshiping it and concentrating upon it is said to have distinct auspicious effects.  A Mantra is the generator of specific currents of sublime sound and its perceivable manifestation, a Yantra is a monogram – a spectrograph, of this sonic energy. In terms of their spiritual effects, Yantras are like schematic sketches of the contours or structures of divine energy fields. 

Use of Yantras as the object of sadhana enables focused use of specific currents of cosmic energy. Incidentally, the Sanskrit word for machines, instruments or technological devices is also “yantra”. As we all know, advanced machines produce large-scale outcomes rapidly. The Vedic Yantras are also attributed in the scriptures, e.g. in the following shloka, as source of beneficial results in short time. These are like ‘super machines’ having components as syllables, symbols and geometric figures that encode cosmic energy currents.    

According to Sanskrit Grammar, the word “Yantra” is derived from the conjugation of the verb “yam” with suffix “tra” or with the verb “traña”. Both ways its implied meaning is similar to that of Mantra and Tantra; viz, the protector and liberator (from sorrows and thralldoms) of the sincere devotee. 

Like the idols of gods in the temples, Yantras are revered and worshiped as symbols of divine powers. Devi Bhagvat (3|26|21) states –– Archabhave Tatha Yantram; meaning – a Yantra symbolizes a divine power.   Similar meanings are indicated in Nardiya Puran, Gautamiya Tantra, Yogini Tantra and several other Vedic scriptures. 

Some Shastras (ancient Indian scriptures derived from Vedic literature) prescribe that a sadhana should begin with the meditational worship of a Yantra that represents the object of devotion, because it would give quick liberation from negative tendencies like sensual lust, anger, etc, which are major hindrances in the process of self-refinement.   Yantras are also referred as the abodes of the divine powers of God.  This is why most of the Vedic Yantras are named after different manifestations of God – such as, Ganesha-Yantra, SHri-Yantra, etc. Which Yantra is placed in which direction and how its worship and devotional sadhana is to be performed  – the knowledge of these constitutes a science in itself that has linkage with the Vedic cosmology and sciences of Mantra, Tantra and Vastu.      

The sublime self-existent sound (O®) of the cosmic pulse is affirmed in the scriptures as the source of all creations of Nature and the originator of all subtle and audible manifestations of sounds (and hence all the words). It is said to be the root of all Mantras.  Its syllabic structure (---) symbolizes the seed Yantra.   All syllables of ancient Sanskrit, Devnagri and other scripts have emanated from this geometrical representation of the vibrations of the ‘primordial sound’. 

In the scheme of atomic structure of a chemical compound, different letters represent single or multiple letter codes of different atoms (e.g. ‘C’ for carbon, ‘NH2’ for ammonia group, etc), digits in the suffixes, straight lines and bars etc, represent numbers of atoms, chemical bonds and valences etc. A more evolved and structured coding system seems to have been used by the ancient Indian sages who invented the designs of Yantras. The symbols and codes used here have multiple meanings in terms of physical, mental and spiritual elements and expressions. 

A dot (.) in the cryptography of Yantra symbolizes absoluteness, completeness. In terms of the manifestation of Nature in the universe, it is a symbol of the nucleus of cosmic energy and hence represents the power-source of all activities and motion. In the mental (psychological) domain it represents the root of all desires and emotions. Its spiritual implication is –– pure knowledge, enlightenment, ultimate realization. The expansions of a dot in circular forms, in a Yantra, symbolize related expressions in varied forms.    Combining the dots results in a triangle. Different lengths of the straight lines joining the dots, different angles between them and the different triangular and other shapes generated thereby together with free dots, circles, straight, curvilinear, convergent and divergent lines are the basic features/components of the structure of a Yantra.  

Everything that exists in the cosmos has some size and structure – perceivable or conceptualized – in subliminal, astronomical or intermediate dimensions. Even the invisible subtle entities have ‘shapes’ which could be ‘seen’ through inner vision. A mathematical genius visualizes abstract concepts; this is how one mathematician is often able to grasp the half-expressed and half-imaginary ideas of some other mathematicians of high caliber and communicates the same in the abstract language of mathematics. The sagacious minds of the Vedic Age had a deeper insight to ‘see’ the invisible or sublime elements of Nature and express them in a universal language of symbols.  They had thus invented a coding system of symbols, signs and alphabets (including digits) to represent –– the syllables of the seed Mantras associated with the sublime fields of divine powers (devatas), natural tendencies of consciousness, emotional impulses in a being, etc; and the five basic elements (pancha-tatvas2), their etheric vibrations and energy fields, and the states and motions of enormous varieties of sub-atomic, atomic and molecular structures generated thereby. Specific configurations of these codes were then incorporated in different Yantras. 

In the process of speech or vocal communication, the expressions of face, movements of hands and other body parts, tuning and pitch of the voice and the type of words spoken, etc all play important roles. In introvert ‘silent communication’ (via thoughts) or meditational prayers, all these are projected in the mental domain, where the expressions are seen and the words are spoken and heard internally – voice is not physically audible but the mind hears; it also sees the shapes, movements of the associated things, or characters in its imagination. This cycle of ‘audible to mental’ is reversed in the case of written communication.   

The syllables (vowels and consonants) of the ancient languages have originated from the shapes that appeared in the imaginations of finest of human minds after audio or mental perception of different sounds and expressions. Accordingly, savants describe four broad stages of the evolution of written scripts –– Ideographic, Pictographic, Syllabic, and Alphabetic.  The highly evolved and comprehensive languages like Sanskrit or Devnagari also included Phonetic or Phonographic components.  

The primitive designs of many Yantras were represented in the shapes of humans, animals, etc. The sculptures and stone carvings at Khajuraho (in MP, India), which due to lack of knowledge are misinterpreted by many people as artistic forms of erotic postures, are in fact sculptural designs of these kinds of mystic Yantras.  One of the reasons for designing Yantras in the human and animal forms was ––most people find it easier to understand gestures rather than symbols or to focus attention upon familiar objects rather than abstract or geometrical complexities.  (Look, for example, the emotional linkage and reverence the masses have with the graceful, inspiring pictures and idols of manifestations of God in human forms!)

Another reason for designing Yantras in this form is that –– the scriptures like Varnanighantu regard every syllable as a symbol of some manifestation of God :- 

Meaning: A syllable (of Vedic Sanskrit – Prakrat) combined with a vowel, nasal sound [a®], visarga [a¡], or any phoneme, becomes a symbol of a god. 

As a Mantra is created by conjunction of letters with phonemes, etc it is regarded as the source (or, an abode or carrier) of divine powers. Therefore a Mantra should also be represented – in the associated Yantra – like a sketch of a divine idol enshrined in a temple while also taking care of correct positioning of each syllable and symbol according to the symbolic and geometric language of Yantras and also in consonance with the fundamental notion of ‘energy fields’ coded by them.