Mantras and Yantras

Princeton Center for Yoga & Health teaches a way of meditating with geometric symbols.

By: Susan Van Dongen
   Meditating on the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, some believe, can facilitate prosperity and health. Durga can bring strength and protection, while Saraswati helps devotees connect with their higher spiritual aspirations. But Westerners might not feel compelled by the iconic paintings and illustrations of the goddesses Hindus understand and revere.
   Instead, there are yantras, sacred geometric symbols, that represent these qualities through their shapes and colors.
   "For people who are not familiar with the goddesses and spiritual traditions, they resonate more with the vibration of the geometry," says Sarah Tomlinson, founder and co-director of the Ayurveda-Yoga Institute of New York and New Jersey. A teacher of yoga, Ms. Tomlinson studied yantra painting in India with tantric master and artist Harish Johari. She trains teachers and students throughout the United States and the United Kingdom.
   Ms. Tomlinson will be at the Princeton Center for Yoga & Health in Montgomery Feb. 11 to lead the workshop Yantra Painting: Celebrate the Goddess. Participants are encouraged to come and take part in the ritual of preparing yantras, opening the doors to what could bring these special qualities of the goddesses in their own lives. No previous art experience is needed — Ms. Tomlinson will explain the process.
   "I had no art in my life since about age 5 and between the way Harish taught me and teaching my own students, I’ve come up with this step-by-step method," Ms. Tomlinson says, speaking from her home just outside of New York City. "There’s something very natural about it. It’s like walking up a mountain. You look up at the mountain and think, ‘Oh, I’ll never be able to do that.’ But you start with a step and go patiently.
   "Yantra painting is actually more fun for people who’ve never done anything like this before," she adds. "They go all the way through and by the end of the day this beautiful thing has appeared before them."
   The drawing or painting of yantras — of which there are nine — is an ancient practice of active meditation that releases positive healing and centering effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to nine qualities of body and mind essential to well-being — radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness and spirituality.
   "From the basic elements of the square, the circle and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner works clockwise from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, the source of happiness within," Ms. Tomlinson says.
   At the workshop, participants will work with three specific goddesses — Lakshmi, Durga and Saraswati. Participants can decide which resonates for them, which they’re visually drawn to, or which one they need to enhance certain qualities they desire. They’ll choose and create the yantra in a process Ms. Tomlinson says is meditative, even a little addictive.
   "They get so pulled into the painting and its energy, they don’t want to break for lunch," she says.
   Geometry is a key element of the yantras, but so is color. In Western and Eastern (Vedic) astrology, different hues correspond to the energy of the different planets — for example, Mars is connected with the color red, Jupiter to purple.
   "It’s a similar principle to color therapy," Ms. Tomlinson says. "The colors balance or strengthen certain parts of the body."
   But the shapes have the most resonance, evoking the sacred geometry that touches many different cultures, including Western spiritual "societies" like the Masons.
   "The ancients (spiritual masters of India) saw sound vibrations in the patterns," Ms. Tomlinson says.
   Born in England in 1968, Ms. Tomlinson completed her undergraduate work in fine art in London before coming to the U.S. to study the qualities of the sculptural effects of light in architecture. At the same time, she became interested in yoga and holistic healing, delving into yogic studies. She met Harish Johari (Dadaji) and spent time with him in India in the last years of his life, absorbing his teachings on the subtle aspects of yoga and painting.
   Ms. Tomlinson has recently completed a book to be published in 2008 — Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound (Inner Traditions Publishing). It takes her step-by-step approach to yantra painting and puts it in book form, the first of its kind, she believes. All of her teaching and work is to promote healing and higher consciousness, she says.
   "Some people enjoy yoga because it’s physical, others are more sound-oriented so chanting a mantra works for them," Ms. Tomlinson says. "Yantra painting stimulates the visual side of the brain. It’s all just part of understanding the energies that are outside so that you can then awaken the energies that are within."
Yantra Painting: Celebrate the Goddess Within with Sarah Tomlinson, will be
offered at Princeton Center for Yoga & Health, Montgomery Professional Center,
50 Vreeland Dr., Suite 506, Montgomery, Feb. 11, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Fee: $120.
For information, call (609) 924-7294. On the Web: www.princetonyoga.com.
Sarah Tomlinson on the Web: www.yantratecture.com