Personal Mandala

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Dear Sji, Nothing is a digression as long as it supports the spirit. I have always been interested in the concept of a personal Mandala. When I was in my eight standard, I read a book by Shakthi Gawain which held out a unique concept of creating our own meditational shpere by the process of creative visualization.I have been fascinated ever since. Example of a Mandala Drawing I then came across an ancient book(samhita) which contained the very same visualization and so knew She had picked it from there and had popularized it in the west. The Mandala can be visualized as a personal space where you sit and meditate. It can be your own planet-there is no stopping you. Having your Guru and necessary sealing of energies is necessary before you venture out in this direction. Example of a personal Mandala Drawing where the artist has included whatever spirituality he believes in . One can also draw a personal Mandala like the Tibetan Buddhists who draw Sand Mandalas. Your mandala can be drawn on papre using water-clour. Having a Mandala of one’s own be it mental or physical like the Mandala drawing can be healing and accelerative of one’s spiritual progress. The word “mandala” is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean “circle,” a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be

seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself–a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.Mandala is Sanskrit for circle, polygon, community, connection.The Mandala is a symbol of man or woman in the world, a support for the meditating person.The mandala is often illustrated as a palace with four gates, facing the four corners of the Earth.. Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own

life purpose. The “circle with a center” pattern is the basic structure of creation that is reflected from the micro to the macro in the world as we know it. It is a pattern found in nature and is seen in biology, geology, chemistry, physics and astronomy. On our planet, living things are made of cells and each cell has a nucleus – all display circles with centers. The crystals that form ice, rocks, and mountains are made of atoms. Each atom is a mandala. Within the Milky Way galaxy is our solar system and within our solar system, is Earth. Each is a mandala that is part of a larger mandala. Flowers, the rings found in tree trunks and the spiraling outward and inward of a snail’s shell all reflect the primal mandala pattern. Wherever a center is found

radiating outward and inward, there is wholeness–a mandala. Mandala does not necessarily mean Buddhism,Infact the idea originated from Tantra and the Shaakthas knew about it aeons ago(much before Buddhism even arrived). However there are five concepts for a Mandala-drawing to Tantra, they are Mentor, Mantra, Medium, Mind and Mandala There must

be a mentor, because a mentor-less drawing will not give any success except a euphoric aesthetic feeling. Mantra-baddha Mandala will prove to be the real fire. Even in Sri Chakra if the mantras are inscribed in it with the Guru’s thumb impressions it becomes a very powerful tool to meditate upon or worship. Medium on which the Mandala is drawn is also important. Bhorja patra (Bhoorja leaves) to Gold can be selected. Even chart

paper can be selected. Mind-The mind of the drawer must be ‘vimala’(pure) and devoted to the single task at hand. Mandala-the selection of the Tantreeka Mandala is very important, if one is doing a Bala Sadhana and draws a Kali Mandala, it will be of no use! So one should select the Mandala pattern appropriately. Having a Mandala drawn and placing lamps on it at proper positions and offering naivedya to the Goddesses in it will prove to be a very powerful experience. I have done it twice and since Iam blessed with a good hand at drawing it was not a problem for me, but even otherwise it can be made to order from a spiritual artist. Sri Chakra Mandala around our body I have found many Srividya Upasaka’s pooh-poohing the concept of Mandalas and terming it childish. Well, the very Navavarna Puja they do is an expansion of this Mandala concept. If one draws a proper Navavarna Mandala with the figures of each Navavarna devi in it.(I plan to do it soon as a Tanjore painting, as Iam trained in that art) and then fixes at the gateway into the mandala the appropritae gate=keeper deity and then goes by the ‘krama’ and then finishes of at the bindu the central point, one can even get Moksha! Also satisfying each Navavarna devi with a naivedya/Bali(anna bali) during the Mandala worship process and lighting lamps on the Mandala will energize the doer and will even grant Him the 8 siddhis if properly worshipped

for a 7 weeks(One Mandalam!). Now, the very word one mandala for worship is got from the word circular as the planetary positions revolve one full circle in the 7 weeks. There are ofcourse Rishi Mandalas where the Rishis with their immense Taposhakthi created their own physical spheres of existence like Earth(which itself is a Mandala) With this I stop my speeding fingers Sji,I will dilate on this later. Yours yogically, Shreeram Balijepalli Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam... IIश्रीराम बलिजेपल्ली II Purity, Powers, Parabrahmam... IIश्रीराम बलिजेपल्ली II Click to join Rajarajeshwari_Kalpataru

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