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the cosmos or the potent core of psychic energy, and is a perennial<br />
balance of foree whose beginning is in its end, whose end is in its<br />
beginning. Within its perimeter a complexity of visual metaphors<br />
- square, triangle, labyrinthine patterns - represent the absolute<br />
and the paradoxical elements of totality. Usually painted on cloth<br />
or paper, the mandala is widely used in tantric worship and forms<br />
an essential part of the ritual. The adept is initiated to visualize the<br />
primal essence of the mandala in its external form and then to<br />
internalize it through contemplation into a psychic force. Thus the<br />
circle as a symbol of wholeness functions as a 'paradigm of<br />
involution and evolution'.<br />
Like the mandalas and yantras, the egg-shaped Brahmanda, the<br />
globe-shaped Salagrama, and the Siva-linga, mostly in stone and<br />
used for ritual, manifest a realization of the wholeness. In the<br />
Brahmanda, 'Brahma-Anda', the totality is represented in the<br />
form of an egg. The Brahman (the Absolute) is symbolized as a<br />
curve which surrounds the universe and forms the egg (Anda), the<br />
Cosmic Egg (Brahmanda). Siva-linga is a term commonly applied<br />
to the phallus, though according to the Skanda Purana, the linga<br />
means the all-pervading space in which the whole universe is in the<br />
process of formation and dissolution. Linga stands in the yoni - the<br />
Shyama (Kali) Yantra. Rajasthan<br />
18th century. Gouache on paper.<br />
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