Hari Om.
Om Sri Durgayai Namah.
Om Sri Mahalakshmyai Namah.
While I was in Rishikesh last month, I came across a very nice shop with lots of different spiritual materials for worship.
I had a small list of items that I needed and obtained these. However, while I was as there, I noticed a large number of beautiful crystals and particularly, a selection of Sri yantras made of clear quartz. I already had a brass Sri yantra with which I have been conducting worship of the Divine Mother. However, I now felt deeply drawn to purchasing a crystal one—they looked so beautiful.
I asked the shopkeeper if they were made of clear quartz (they seemed to be based on my experience of owning some crystals) and he confirmed they were. This crystal is particularly associated with Divine Mother worship (and I do japa of Her mantras with a mini-mala made of this material).
Crystals can magnify energy and should be generally used with caution in worship (as I’ve mentioned in a previous post from autumn 2022).
However, it felt right to me to obtain a crystal Sri yantra to worship the Goddess. I therefore spent some time examining various yantras and finally selected one that seemed just right for me. It was beautifully carved and just the right size (medium sized, fitting comfortably within my palm).
I conducted some simple pujas of Lakshmi with the yantra while in Rishikesh and again on returning to my usual home. After this, I began to feel that I would like to study this subject further.
I am therefore actively reading and exploring this topic currently (including the Sri Vidya tradition taught by the organisation Devipuram). I do not know whether I will become a full student of Tantra but there are aspects of this worship that have always felt completely natural and intuitive to me. I also had a dream years ago about meeting yogis in an ashram who practiced Tantra in the Kaula tradition.
I feel somewhat drawn to study Tantra and to practice simple pujas of Devi using the crystal Sri yantra. We are in the auspicious month of Kartika currently. This is a good time to explore, start and continue sadhana.
I wish all of you a very happy Diwali. May Sri Sita-Rama bless us all.
Om Sri Lakshmi-Narayanabhyam Namah.
P.S. Twin souls and Tantra
I intuitively feel that many twin souls are naturally suited to the path of Tantra. We experience the kundalini, intense cleansing of our energy body/chakras, we dream of Shiva and Shakti, and of each other. We are each other’s natural spiritual counterparts.
On an astral/mind-based level, we feel each other all the time, we feel the flow of energy and thoughts subconsciously and at times, consciously. We experience a natural sense of union in the astral realms.
Tantra is a clean spiritual path. It is fit for those who adhere firmly to yogic ethics (which many twin souls naturally do based upon their unique spiritual paths).
It involves development of devotion to the Divine Mother. It involves becoming receptive to Her guidance from within (She resides in the hearts of all beings and things).
It is the Divine Mother who draws us to worship Her through the sadhana of Tantra. She who is Durga, who is Kali, who is Lakshmi and Saraswati (the One Mother has many names and many forms).
I may write again about this subject depending upon how my studies of Tantra go.
In the meantime, I want to tell my twin that I miss you so. I want the Divine Mother to help bring us into a harmonious union in this lifetime to perform Her work and be Her instruments—if and only if, this is Her will (and I feel it is). The Divine has gone out of His/Her way to create this connection for us and other twin souls. There must be a task to fulfill —I hope and pray we are able to.
(Part of my sadhana with the Sri Yantra is to ask Lakshmi to help bring you to back in my life in a way that She wants —and we had both better keep our egos in check this time for this to happen, otherwise we will end up in yet another unwanted separation.)
In the meantime, I want to say that I love you and I miss you—intensely, the twin soul way. The Shiva-Shakti way (which is never in half-measures as you might have noticed yourself!).
P.P.S.
With regard to Tantra, I intuitively feel that the mind is the real tool for all practices related to this subject (and not the body though this is our physical instrument as souls).
Through mind alone, there is bondage to this world. Through mind alone, there is liberation— as Krishna says in the Gita.
All spiritual practices (including those of Tantra) are therefore naturally most effective when performed by the mind (and not the body).
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
