The Heart of the Yogini

Book excerpt: Though many practitioners of yoga and meditation are familiar with the Shri Chakra, a sacred diagram, few fully understand the depth of meaning in this representation of the cosmos. The Yoginihrdaya, a Hindu tantric text dating back to the tenth or eleventh century CE, discloses to initiates the secret of the Heart of the Yogini, or the supreme Reality: the divine plane where the Goddess (Tripurasundari, or Consciousness itself) manifests her power and glory, through her yantra, mantra, and worship. Andr Padoux, with Roger Orphe-Jeanty, offers the first English translation of this seminal text. Padoux demonstrates that the Yoginihrdaya is not a philosophical treatise aimed at expounding particular metaphysical tenets. Rather it aims to show a way towards liberation, or, more precisely, to a tantric form of liberation in this life-jivanmukti, which grants both liberation from the fetters of the world and domination over it.