Last Updated on August 12, 2024 by Tejaswini

We are all the indescribable अनिर्वचनीय Anirvachaniya, sometimes referred to as the Paramatma. But we are all so wrapped up in this experience of creation that we firmly believe ourselves to be Jivatma, the individual soul, bound by ties of karma. We think of ourselves as Amit, Priya, girl, boy, student, worker etc, we tie ourselves by our limited self-ego. We take on lives after lives, mostly we become planets, animals, rocks etc and rarely we get a human form. The Vijnyanmaykosh is active only in the human form so it is only in this form that we have a chance to understand and claim our reality as the Paramatma.

The Shatkon is a fundamental geometry of Sanatan Dharma. It is extensively used in Tantra and the Upanishads/ Vedant also refer to it several times. The Shatkon/ hexagon is created by the merger of two triangles/ Trikon, one upward facing and one downward facing. It is considered to be a union of Shiv-Shakti and sometimes used to represent their son Bhagwan Skandah. This is good enough for people who are at the Karmakand/ Vedpurva part of the Ved and worship deities in human forms. But once you intellectually reach the level of the Vedant, you realise that the ‘deities’ can also be represented as numbers, sounds and geometries. Consciousness is clearly manifest in numbers and in sound. At this level the Eternal is visualised in pure Math and Sanskrit.

So let’s see what the Shatkon and the Trikon are at this extremely subtle level, ie near the center of the Shri yantra, very close to the root of creation.

First let’s revise some concepts from my previous posts.

• शिव Shiv – means the auspicious one, bliss, kind, gracious, favourable etc.
• शक्ति Shakti – This word in Sanskrit can be used as a feminine or masculine noun. It means power, weapon, kill, power of sound, configuration of the stars, idea, gift, help, effort, effectiveness, creative power or imagination, ability etc.

Shri Yantra is the basic geometry of creation represented in 2D, in 3D it is called a Meru. If you look carefully, its central Bindu/dot is at the centre of a perfect equilateral triangle. This triangle has several interpretations depending on your level of understanding. The most important one for those aspiring for Moksh is this.

When the triangle has its point downwards then it is called the Shrushti kram, सृष्टि क्रम ie the creation sequence. This is worshiped as the triangle of the Shakti. Generally you will see this form of the Shri chakra being worshipped, with the point of this central equilateral triangle ‘downwards’ ie facing you. This geometry over time grants a deep understanding of the working of the universe and the underlying laws of creation which is necessary for every spiritual aspirant. This ‘downward’ pointing triangle is called the cosmic generative योनि Yoni. योनि in Sanskrit means – the descent, the origin, water, female reproductive organs, seed, form of existence which is fixed by birth, home, family, seat, place of rest, repository, fountain, source etc. Thus the downward pointing triangle, Shrushti kram is how the consciousness flows from its source as a seed to gain a form which gets fixed in this material world. The downward pointing vertex also represents the pashyanti part of speech, ie the uttered sound, which is the first visible sign of the creative force. Worship of such an oriented Shri yantra is generally recommended for everyone who wishes to worship it.

Now if you reorient the Shri Yantra so that this top most triangle is pointed upwards, away from you, then this triangle is called the Samhar kram, संहार क्रम the annihilation sequence. This is now the Shiva triangle which annihilates the fundamental illusion of this creation. Till now you are sure that what you experience is 100% real. Now this Samhar kram trikon will show you what Transience means and what Transcendence Is. Worshipping the Shri yantra in this orientation is a commitment that now you are ready to give up everything you held dear to your heart till now. You ready to give up all attributes, all names, all forms, all descriptions, everything. (Moksh is a Sanskrit word with layers of meanings, but at its simplest it means, Tyag, ie to renounce everything which is not the Self.) As your limited self ego is destroyed you come face to face with the pure Self and you claim it to be your own face. This Shiv trikon allows Atma Jnyan, self-realization, to shine through, ie allows direct understanding of Satyam Jnynam Anantam Brahma. If you are doing Shri chakra puja then when the time is right your Guru will tell you to worship your chakra with the triangle facing upwards. This is the only way to the indescribable अनिर्वचनीय. You have to face the Samhar kram to transcend.

These two triangles, the utterly effulgent Shiv and Shakti trikons, together form the Shatkon, ie the incessantly manifesting and unmanifesting universes. So as you near the end of your spiritual journey, you will be given an experience of the Shrushti kram and Samhar kram operating together. You will be shown the simultaneous processes of creation and annihilation whirling incessantly around the Self. You yourSelf sit passive in in the centre of these whirling energies and this cosmic dance swirls around you. You are the Self, in the Shatkon, yet so much more than all this.

I will try to explain this concept in another way.

In school, physics class we have all used a prism to change white light into its constituent rainbow of colours. And then placed a second inverted prism to recombine this rainbow of light back into the same ray of white light. This white light is like the Light of the Self, the first prism is the Shrushti Kram. The rainbow light is the creation manifested, apparently separated colored light which technically still is the same white light. The second prism is the Samhar kram. And moving through all this is the light of the Self.

If you can understand this much then next try and visualise this process going on infinitely, alternating triangles with opposite polarities, incessantly separating and combining the light of the Self. Manifesting the universes and unmanifesting them. Like pearls on a string, expansion from a point, contraction back to a point, going on continuously.

Then if you can visualise the two triangles doing this incessant manifestation/ unmanifestation but superimposed on each other in a Shatkon. And the white light flowing out from the central Bindu and then encompassing everything. At this stage you understand that the creation and dissolution is simultaneous. This is the union of Shiv Shakti which is described in Tantra. This energy when presented in human forms is the Ardhnarinareshwar. Here you understand that the Light of the Self does not change. There is no change, there are no two, there is no duality. And you measure change in terms of Time, so you understand here that there is no Time, no Space. It is only the Self, the only real existent. ‘I’ standing unmoving in the flow of experience. At this point geometry and sound both stop. Here you understand that you are even more than the non-dual. This is the ‘god’ of Sanatan Dharma, this is you, your own self. This is the Parashivah, the ‘beyond Shivah’, the Soham, the indescribable, अनिर्वचनीय. 

If your consciousness remains at the level of the triangles caught in their continuous motion then you are still caught in the illusion of creation. But if you can identify the unchanging light of the Self in all this and claim it as yours then you are transcendent. Now you are the hexagon, both triangles, the central Bindu and yet you are beyond all these geometries. Understanding this intellectually and then claiming it without the slightest doubt in your heart is transcendence.

99.99% of us are at the level of the hexagon. Whirling mindlessly and unintelligently in the illusion of creation. Buffeted by the winds of the three Gun, our internal geometry is out of sync. This also creates karmic ties which hit at the 5 layered body, continually agitating it, keeping it highly unstable so that the self-ego can never reach the level of the subtle vijnyanmaykosh. For 99.99% of us, the constituent trikons are distorted, not perfectly equilateral.

The energies of the fundamental Bindu, its expansion into the Visarga, its further expansion into the trikon + Bindu and its further cyclic expansion and its contraction in the hexagon is the highest secret and clearly given in the tantra books and the upanishads. But to read these books and to understand them requires the blessings of an Atmajnyani Mahapurush. And such a Guru, the Swami, arrives in your life only when you have worked hard through several lives. First you have to internalise Vedpurva – Karma kand and Upasana Kand. Only then you are eligible to enter the Vedant – Jnyan kand. Tantra too has the same corresponding stages, ie Sookshma tantra and Jnyankand are the same.

So to understand this deepest secret and to claim it as your very own you need extraordinary courage. To hold the bare truth in your heart requires धैर्य – firmness, precision, calmness, patience, intelligence, perseverance, steadiness. And you get this धैर्य only through the Guru. And remember that the true Guru is right within you. To hear what he is says you have to still your mind. So you have to do your daily practice, in the morning and evening. And whenever you have some free time, instead of mindlessly wasting it watching reels online, you must focus on your breath and mentally recite Soham with your breath, ‘So’ while inhaling and ‘hmmm’ while exhaling. My Guru, the Swami himself, would say that one must take each breath knowing that it is his last. Once you exhale there is no guarantee that you will be able to inhale again. Every breath is important and it must be converted to Soham.

I started writing this post, thinking I would write on the triangle of satva raja tamo gun, but the triangle took a very different turn. My writing this is a आश्चर्य, your reading this is equally an आश्चर्य, and if you choose to find this within you it too would also be a आश्चर्य.