थे श्री Chakra

Nicole at Peedam in 2005.

Nicole Azzopardi sent this in - thank you!!

Writes Nicole: During my last stay in India, Amma confirmed that the 1.8km star path surrounding the golden temple had been built in the shape of a Sri Chakra.

I did note at the time that Amma seemed particularly keen to have us doing volunteer work at the temple or at least spending time at Sri Puram walking the star path.

When I got back to Melbourne I did feel curious to find out exactly what a Sri Chakra was and what I found blew my mind.

A visit to the Theosophical Society Bookshop in Melbourne landed me with a book called Sri Chakra by S.K. Ramachandra Rao by Sri Satguru Publications.

S.K. says that Sri Chakra is essentially worship of the mother goddess.

The diagrammatic representation involves the basic form of triangle, the typical symbol of Yoni.

If you have a copy of Address of the Divine, the map on the inside cover should help illustrate what S.K. is talking about.

The author says that over the centuries there was great secrecy was attached to the worship of the mother-goddess in her Sri-Chakra form.

Anyone who has been to Malaikodi will have sat on the rooftop at Kemala Nivas and taken in the view of beautiful mountain peaks that ring the whole area.

Tantrik ideology, S.K.says, is intimately related to the culture of mountains; and mountains are especially dear and sacred to the mother-goddess for whom the mountain peaks, difficult to ascend, serve as fortresses (durga).

As many will know, Sri Puram was consecrated on August 24 last year with Amma leading many, many elaborate rituals in the lead up to and on the day of this inauguration.

From S.K.’s standpoint, the Sri Chakra becomes powerful when a yogin who has acquired spiritual power consecrates it. It is for him a projection of his power.

But for the devotee for whom it is meant, it is a storehouse of energies from which he could draw at will and enrich his interior.

The book goes on to reveal that Sri Chakra is also known as Sri Yantra. The Sanskrit word yantra means a device or mechanism to serve a specific and predetermined purpose; something of instrumental value.

A yantra is therefore a mechanism which the psycho-physical energies of the devotee are regulated and protected by their appropriate alignment with the divine energy.

The word has two aspects: Yam (to regulate) and tra (to protect).

Yantra is a device and involves mandala as a graphic representation.

Sri chakra as visually represented is a mandala which is regarded as the city, palace, island or body of the mother goddess.

The design also represents this divinity’s court, with all the attendant-deities, aids, guards, pavilions, enclosures and entrances.

The principal divinity (the mother goddess) is imagined as being seated in the central point (bindu) on the cot.

I find this particularly interesting in the case of Sri Puram.

For those who have not been there, the whole walk around the star path is dotted with statues of all sorts of goddesses and gods.

There are the major ones, Saraswati, Durga and Lakshmi in the inner-sanctum but there are a host of other ones that line the path.

I still don’t know their names but there’s a mermaid looking one and one that shoots lightening from his hand, there’s one with an animal’s head. It goes on and on.

It makes me wonder if these are the attendant deities S.K. is referring to.

Also, that central point that Lakshmi sits in, the bindu perhaps, is pretty interesting. To think of this place as being the centre of her vast palace, a palace with rooms and walkways.

I recall seeing the priests putting Laskshmi to bed. She even wears these cute little shortie pyjamas.

I know it’s ritual but what on earth is going on energetically when you are there staring straight into this very sacred central point?

S.K. says the symbolism of male-female dualism in representation and the male female union in worship is basic to Sri Chakra.

Being a tantrik ideology, the female is the more predominant aspect here and the male is subordinated to her.

The male is therefore the cot on which the female rests.

Lakshmi in this case rests on a lotus flower. I don’t know if this holds the same meaning. The cot is inert but the goddess is dynamic but it should be noted that the goddess has nowhere to sit but on the cot.

In effect, the two cannot be separated, he says.

The symbolism permeates the whole composition of Sri Chakra which is described as the body of Siva and Sakthi.

Of course, this follows the example of Amma’s physical form being male. The male symbolised in the triangle with its apex upwards and the female with its apex downwards. It’s a pattern of interwoven triangles, nine in number. The numbers three and nine are significant.

S.K. goes on to say a whole lot more about this but it got pretty complex and I don’t really get it. Any takers?

As visitors to the Lakshmi Narayani Temple will know, the temple structure itself is made out of gold. It’s gold-plated and there are nine layers which have been designed with an interior layer of copper. The structure surrounding Lakshmi’s head in the inner sanctum is made of silver.

According to S.K., the potency of the yantra in gold is said to endure for a life-time, of the yantra in silver for 32 years and of the yantra in copper for 12 years.

The golden yantra is said to promote worldly influence, the silver health and long life, the copper one wealth and the one made in all three metals together is said to secure all accomplishments.

As mentioned, Sri Chakra is visualised as an elaborate mansion, in the inner-most apartment of which abides the mother-goddess in all her majesty and glory.

But the mansion represents a series of coverings or enclosures, passing successively through which we reach the sanctum.

Each of these coverings hides the divine presence in a series of phenomenal and psychical projections and presentations but it is nevertheless suffused by the divine presence.

It can also illumine the devotee’s path.

That’s why each of these enclosures is regarded as a step in our journey towards the sanctum of the mother-goddess, as a station in our onward spiritual progress which consists in the increasing identification of the individuated being with the absolute being.

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone had anything to add to this.

It’s really just from one source, so others would help our understanding much more.

Anyone with a deeper understanding of Sri Puram who cares to contribute would also be beneficial.

For now, I leave you with this quote.

In the Devi Upanishad (1-3) the supreme goddess explains her true nature:

“Great, Goddess, who art Thou?
She replied: I am essentially Brahman (the Absolute).
From me has proceeded the world comprising Prakriti (material substance)
and Purusha (cosmic consciousness), the Void and the Plenum.
I am (all forms of) bliss and non-bliss.

Knowledge and ignorance are Myself.
I am the five elements and also what is different from them, the panchabhutas (five gross elements) and tanmatras (five subtle elements).

I am the entire world.
I am the Veda as well as what is different from it.
I am unknown; I am born.
Below and above and around am I.”