Ritual

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