Forms of the Plane · 3D
Maha Meru
The Sri Yantra raised into a mountain
The Sri Yantra built as a mountain: each ring of triangles a terrace, rising in nine steps to the bindu at the summit. Seen from directly above, the flat yantra returns exactly.
- Terraces
- 9
- Summit
- the bindu
- Type
- Meru prastara
Turn it in your hands, strike it to hear the chord of its edges, slice it with a plane.
Facts
- Looking straight down on the mountain you see the flat Sri Yantra: it is the Meru’s shadow.
- Each terrace is bounded by the edges of the 43 small triangles.
- The more triangles enclose a region, the higher its terrace: the centre is inside them all.
- The lotus rings slope down the flanks, and the gated square is the ground it stands on.
History and meaning
Mount Meru is the sacred mountain at the centre of the universe in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cosmology. Carved in crystal or cast in metal, the Maha Meru is worshipped as the Sri Yantra in three dimensions, and ascending it is the journey from the world to its source.
Across the dimensions
- Its shadow Sri YantraRaise each ring of triangles into a terrace and the yantra becomes Mount Meru. From above, it is still the flat yantra.
