As published in Perfect Presence: Tantra, Jain and Ritual Art from India
Yantras in Practice
by Zoë Slatoff
The Sanskrit word “tantra” literally means an instrument for stretching. Traditionally this refers to threads on a loom, but it has come to indicate a system which weaves together various techniques and practices to seek liberation and mystical powers. Unlike other systems of Indian thought, which involve various forms of renunciation and sensory withdrawal and control, in order to attain liberation, Tantra invites one to find freedom by consciously engaging with the world in an embodied way, utilizing experience to attain the ultimate realization of the oneness of the individual and the universal. In other words, it uses the mundane for transformative experience, rather than aiming for transcendence. This is illustrated in the 10th century Vijñānabhairava Tantra (verse 118):
At the beginning and end of a sneeze, in fear, in sorrow,
Above an abyss, or while running from battle.
In curiosity, at the beginning and end of hunger,
Such a state comes near to the experience of Brahman.[1]
Brahman is the universal self, whose identity with ātman, the individual self, is the essential idea of the Upaniṣads, the classical philosophical Sanskrit texts. Central to this understanding in Tantra, as opposed to other Indian schools of thought, is the emphasis on ritual practices which use material things to awaken a subtle awareness of this equation of the microcosm and macrocosm, male and female, Śiva and Śakti. One of the main methods employed, containing the same suffix -tra, which indicates a “tool,” is a yantra – an instrument for restraining. A yantra is generally a diagram that is used as a prop or support to restrain and focus the mind in one place. Mantras are often inscribed inside of a yantra, indicating that they are meant to be used together. A mantra is an instrument of the manas or mind.
There are different kinds of yantras – sometimes they are designed with a particular god or goddess in mind, who might bestow specific blessings. With these you will see their name written in the middle of the diagram with obeisances, for example, Oṃ Gaṇeśāya Namaḥ – Salutations to Gaṇeśa, the elephant-headed god of beginnings, the remover of obstacles. These yantras can be either iconic – with a picture of the deity, or aniconic – using just words to depict them. The rest of the yantra will often contain mantras and salutations to other gods and goddesses who are meant to protect the various directions (the cardinals: North, South, East, and West, and often the ordinal directions in between as well). These mantras are meant to be chanted in a prescribed order and way, while focusing on the drawing.
There are also what are sometimes known as occult yantras, which can be used for medicinal or healing purposes, or to cast spells, both for good and evil. These often have the word “Devadatta” in the middle, literally meaning “given by God” and used to stand in for any name, as we might say “John Doe.” A priest might make this yantra and then give it to the right person as a prescription. Or it may be given to help a person become free of a difficult situation or person. A yantra can be written on a piece of paper and folded up and carried around in one’s pocket or sometimes placed in a locket to be worn around one’s neck. A yantra can also be inscribed in metal.
The sixteenth century text, the Yantra-cintāmaṇi (also known as the Kalpa-cintāmaṇi), “The Wish-fulfilling Jewel of Yantra,” written by Dāmodara Bhaṭṭa and described as the secret of secrets, consists of a dialogue between Śiva and the Goddess in which he answers her request to describe many yantras, which “create the fulfillment of desire through ritual.” Here is part of the dialogue between them:
Lord Śiva said:
Among the great-souled seers, the Vedic customs have been taught by me,
Śiva dharma among Śaivites and Viṣṇu dharma among Vaiṣṇavites.
Celestial calculation has been taught by me among many desiring supernatural powers,
The many forms of Śakti and Śiva have been explained O dear one.
And knowledge of right action, prosperity, desire and liberation has been made clear,
But this secret mystical teaching O good lady is not anywhere, without a doubt.
Mantras without the secret knowledge and also specific meditation,
Are not effective, O woman with beautiful hips, even with billions of rituals.
The Goddess spoke:
Do me this kindness, O lord of gods, tell me the easy means,
Magical, easy to understand and effective, and producing assurance.
Tell me the means which may lead to success in kali yuga[2],
Without fire ceremonies, mantra recitation, or the practice of preparatory rites.
Lord Śiva spoke:
Well done, bravo, O woman of great wisdom, doing a service for the people of the world
This knowledge I have not been asked by anyone, O lotus-eyed woman.
Listen with a one-pointed mind to the secret which bestows success in an instant,
This treatise on ritual, named “the wish-fulfilling gem,” the greatest secret of secrets.
The essence of all the tantras and the best essence of the mantras,
The highest essence among essences of the Atharva Veda.
In this auspicious treatise, consisting of a wish-fulfilling gem there are
Many yantras, O Goddess, creating through ritual the fulfillment of desire.[3]
These yantras are then described in great detail, with very specific instructions, which have been passed down through generations by oral tradition. Some manuscripts of this text have illustrations, as well. The yantras are divided into subjugation, attraction, paralyzing, causing enmity, causing death, driving away, and causing peace, which includes curing disease and creating auspiciousness. All of these yantras are to be used not merely for personal worldly gain, but to remove obstacles on the spiritual path. The yantras are clearly not to be used lightly but only after serious consideration and consultation with an expert. To give you an example, which may or may not apply to modern times, here is the description of the first yantra, which is for subjugation of the king:
Lord Śiva said:
Listen, O Goddess, to the excellent, great yantra for subjugation of the king,
Having brought a copper vessel, made purified by ashes, etc.
One should write, with jasmine wood, yellow pigment, and sandalwood,
The name of the person to be subdued, and then one should enclose it in the middle of a circle.
Around that, [one should draw] 8 petals, and place in them the letter “va.”
Then one should enclose it in a circle, in the same way as done previously, O dear one.
Around that one should make a lotus with 16 petals,
Write the vowels, beginning with “a” in the petals, one by one, in sequence.
Then enclose it completely with 3 lines,
One should worship it with jasmine flowers and white lotuses.
And with other white flowers with sweet smell and with white cloths,
Having worshipped that king of yantras, it is known as “the great bewilderer.”[4]
Thus having done this for 7 days, one should then encircle it with 3 iron pieces.
And one should wear it on the head, upper arms or neck.
Endowed with resolution, any woman or man,
Will become obedient, just like a servant.[5]
So, while we may look at these yantras as objects of art and appreciate their intricate symmetry and patterns, it is important to recognize that they were created with strong and specific intention and hold great power and potential within them. While there may be prescribed methods, each priest may add their own spin. Sometimes the remedy is enacted through the practice of nyāsa, the ritual of placing the hands onto specific parts of the body while reciting different mantras and visualizing different deities or mantras. The yantras that represent this are generally in the shape of a person. There are mantras for a marriage and yantras for naming babies, mantras for world peace and yantras for individual protection. They can be used to represent and enact all kinds of desires from the profane to the sacred and are used to bring the worldly and otherworldly together.
I have spent a considerable amount of time looking at yantras over the last few years, puzzling over their meaning. In modern practice, while the mantras and much of the text is in Sanskrit, this will often be mixed in with Hindi and sometimes the local language, often Rajasthani. The individual and universal are represented simultaneously; boundaries blur in ways that both follow and defy convention. These drawings can represent both a very specific intention and all of space and time in a beginning-less universe of cyclical time, with no contradiction. I continue to be awed by the amount of knowledge and layers of meaning that can be contained within a single image and the many levels on which it can speak at once if you know how to understand it. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but if it contains words too, what is its value?
[1] All translations are my own. Vijñānabhairava Tantra 118: kṣutādyante bhave śoke gahvare vā raṇād drute | kutūhale kṣudhādyante brahma-sattā-samīpagā ||
[2] The “dark age” we now live in.
[3] Yantra Cintāmaṇi 2.12 – 21.
[4] mahā-mohana
[5] Yantra Cintāmaṇi 3.3-10