The real beauty of Sanatana Dharma cannot be comprehended without the detailed knowledge of the Science of Tantra, Mantra, Yantra, and Yoga. This is the Truth that Tantra sadhana ensures that sadhaka can obtain moksha (spiritual liberation) and get siddhis (supernormal powers). The roots of tantra can be traced back to the pre-vedic civilization.
The word, Tantra, is derived from Sanskrit root, Tan, which means the human body, and Shashtra, which means the knowledge. Hence, Tantra means the gross, subtle, and absolute wisdom of the hundred trillion cells of the perfect adult human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and psychology.
Mantra is a sound that evokes a set of vibrations in the cosmos. Yantra is the Space and Energy; namely body, its chakras and geometric shapes of 2D and 3D as idols or Chakras. Each of these three has varied meaning in every context.
Space, Energy and Time are ones that has to be connected to Mantra, Yantra and Tantra, astrologically. Space governs Eye and Ear and its properties namely Seeing and Hearing. Energy is the body which gives energy to the mantra uttered. When these are synced, then the Karma of a person dissolves, good or bad.
In the yogic culture Mantra Sadhana, Bhakti Sadhana and Dhyan Sadhana are different styles that are used to attain a certain level of accomplishment in Sadhana. The Murti is representational meditation form of the deity, the Mantra is the Divine name, the Yantra is the energy pattern or subtle body.
Tantra is the procedure namely yoga, astrological things like nakshatra, tithi etc namely Time. Yantra is a buffer where you store the energy of mantra and take it back. Yantra is the basis of Drishti Yoga, the Yoga of Seeing, which is the means of Dharana or yogic concentration. Shows us the inner reality behind the outer appearance, which is infinitely over flowing.
Tantra Vidya is the detailed knowledge of Chakras, Nadis, Kundalini, Kundalini Awakening, Kundalini Ascension, Kundalini Yoga, Self Realization, and Moksha (Salvation). Tantra is the technique or technology for putting the energies of mantra into the yantra.
The term mantra basically means a “tool of thought” in Sanskrit. Mantra Sadhana is something that you strive to become because unless you become the key, existence will not open up for you. Becoming the mantra means you are becoming the key. Only if you are the key can you open the lock. Otherwise someone else has to open it for you and you have to listen to him.
They can be an effective force in creating something but only if they come from that kind of a source where there is a complete understanding of all that is sound. People around the world use positive affirmations (mantras) in order to harness positive energy, so the nerves and ensure superior focus and concentration.
Repetitive chanting of mantras helps the mind to enter a distinct meditative state, which subsequently aids the practitioners to connect to a higher spiritual power. Mantras always come from a Sanskrit basis, and the basic aspects of Sanskrit language are so sound sensitive. But when different people speak, each one says it in their own way. In fact each languages and style of expressions effects mantra sakti.
The word “tantra” literally means a technique or a technology. This is an inner technology. These are subjective methods not objective methods. But in the current understanding in society, the word "tantra" refers to very unorthodox or socially unacceptable methods. It is just that certain aspects are used in a certain way. It is not any different from yoga. It is a limb of yoga called tantra yoga.
Tantra means you are able to use your energies to make things happen. If you make your energies work upon your heart to become utterly loving and you can burst forth with enormous love that just overwhelms everyone, this is also tantra. If you make your physical body enormously powerful to make it do incredible feats, this is also tantra. The simple principle of tantra yoga is whatever can take you down can also take you up.
A yantra literally means a machine. A machine is a combination of very purposeful forms. As Yantras are diagrams that are composed of geometrical patterns that are used to visualize mantras and are Used to be encapsulations of a deity or power in Tantric ritual. Yantras are tools to enhance our life in different ways. They are made for specific purposes and different types of yantras reverberate in different ways.
Looking at the kind of energy that is to be created, we can create that kind of yantra. The most basic yantra is a simple triangle. An upward facing triangle is one kind of yantra, a downward facing triangle is another kind. You can mix them in many different ways and make a variety of yantras. In Sanskrit, the word Yantra comes from the root word Yam which means instrument and or support and Tra which is derived from Trana which means release from bondage.
Therefore, a Yantra is an instrument or tool that helps one with spiritual and material liberation. Swami Ji defines Yantras as powerhouses of energy. All deities, Gods and Goddesses are full of divine cosmic energy and this energy is concentrated and stored in an instrument which is a Yantra.
Indian Tantra is divided into the following major areas; Tantra of Natha, Sri Vidya Tantra, Trika or Kashmir Shaivism, Kali-vidya, Kula, Vaishnava-tantra, Saura-tantra, Ganapatya-tantra. Generally all these different directions with their branches are divided into dakshinachara and vamachara.
The power principle is the true meaning of the yantra and can only be achieved by transcending form and function. It is the power principle, that tantric Hindus believe to be contained in a yantra, only emerges when it is no longer perceived as shapes and symbols.
When the bliss of Consciousness is attained, there is the lasting acquisition of that state in which Consciousness is one's only Self, and in which all that appears is identical with Consciousness. Even the body is experienced as identical with Consciousness. Awareness of the perceiver and the perceived is common to all beings. But with Self-realized yogis it is different; they are aware of them as one.
Authored by Anadi Sahoo
