Srichakra: Role Of Srichakra In Devi Worship  

By SWAMI TAPASYANANDA  

In Hindu devotional practice, three kinds of external symbols are used for worship of the Supreme Being, who is actually formless and nameless. The most external is that of divine images cast in human form, with paraphernalia symbolising supra-human divinity.

The most subtle is that of the mantras or divine names with certain sounds. A mantra is divine power clothed in sound. Between these two come the yantras or chakras , representing the deity in geometrical diagrams. Worshippers of Shakti consider the Srichakra the holiest and most significant of divine symbols.

The Srichakra is conceived as Shiva-Shakti in the macrocosmic as well as microcosmic aspects, as the cosmos and as the individual. The diagram consists of a series of nine triangles superimposed around a small central circle, Bindu, forming 43 konas or triangular projections. In the centre is the Bindu , representing Shiva-Shakti in union in the causal state from which all other parts of the diagram representing the cosmos are evolved.

The Bindu is in a central triangle with apex downwards - alternatively, it is below the base of the central triangle with its apex upwards, depending on whether it is a samhara-chakra or srishti-chakra. Enclosing it and super- imposed on one another are the four Shiva triangles with apex upwards and five Shakti triangles inclusive of the central one, with apex downwards. These are surrounded by two circles of lotuses, one with eight petals and the other, with 16. Outside these, there are three circles around and a rectangular enclosure of three lines for the whole figure, with four entrances on the four sides.

In the Bindu, Shakti i s represented as Maha-Tripura-Sundari, the great mother. The Bindu contains the potentiality of the universe within itself. It is spoken of as three to indicate the three stresses when the unified non-dual Shiva- Shakti becomes separated into the two aspects: prakasa, the aham or I-consciousness, and vimarsa, the idam or this-consciousness.

These three stresses are technically called Nada, Kala and Bindu. Bindu is the potential universe ready to separate into various categories. All these three stresses, mudras of Shiva-Shakti together, is represented by the central red line with an imaginary line across it to represent the polarity in that supreme category as Shiva-Shakti.

The Bindu , the creative Shakti , is the Mahatripurasundari , the 'pride of Shiva' or Shiva as prakasa - luminosity or consciousness - who realises Himself through Her, the vimarsa shakti.

The rest of the Srichakra represents the whole of the cosmos, Brahmananda , as evolved from the Bindu, standing for Tripurasundari or creative cosmic power... Just as Tripurasundari the Divine Mother is Shakti , depicted as the consort of Shiva, the Supreme Being, the Kundalini is the segment of that cosmic power as the Shakti of the Jiva, which is an amsa or particle of the Supreme Shiva embodied as the individual (microcosm). It is this Shakti that evolves in the individual the counterparts of all the 25 cosmic categories...

As the Supreme Will, Shakti is described as Consciousness-Bliss. The Saundarya Lahiri describes the universe in its subtle and gross forms as the trans- formation of Shakti. Though undergoing actual trans- formation into all these elements in their gross macro-cosmic aspect as the universe and in their subtle micro-cosmic aspect as the six chakras in the body, Shakti is not lost in the effects - she retains her identity as the Supreme Will or Consciousness-Bliss.

(Excerpted from 'Saundarya Lahiri of Sri Sankaracharya' )

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See also: Srichakra, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)