Translation: OM, I bow to Sri Lalita Tripurasundarii.
OM, I bow to MahaLakshmi. I honor you, I honor you, I honor you,
I honor your name. OM, Peace, Peace, Peace.
How to draw Sri Yantra, an open-eyed AUM (OM) meditation. Mother of All Yantras. Attracter of the Great Goddess of Wealth and Luck Sri MahaLakshmi.
Subtle form of Sri Lalita Tripurasudariidevi, the Great Queen of the 3 worlds.
A procedure by Vishvamitra
To construct the Sri Yantra, you will need a protractor, a compass, a pencil, and a ruler. Graph paper is helpful but not required. It is important to be as exact as possible with all your calculations and measurements. It is also important to do these steps in order. Try to be intuitive, subtle and focused. Use the drawing of the Sri Yantra as a meditative exercise. You will experience peace.
1. Using a compass, draw a circle of any radius you like. Radius is the distance from the center of the circle to it’s diameter. Call this r1. You can use standard or metric measurements, it doesn’t matter.
2. Multiply r1 x 1.35. This gives you the radius of the second circle. Call the second circle r2. R1 and r2 are to be concentric circles. Notice that 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, the number of the Goddess. The center is the bindu, the third eye.
3. Multiply r2 x 1.20. This gives you the radius of the third circle r3, concentric r1 and r2. Notice that 1 + 2 + 0 = 3, the number of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. And notice the meditative feeling you begin to get just by observing the harmonious ratios of the 3 radii. It is similar to watching ripples on the surface of a very undisturbed pond.
 Figure 1 |
 Water Photography by Andrew Davidhazy http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/exhibit-3.html |
4. Using a protractor, divide r3 into 32 equal parts. 360 degrees / 32 = 11.25 degrees per section, 1 + 1 + 2 + 5 = 9. Lightly draw lines between points along the circumference of r3 and r1, clearly demarcating the 32 equal sections. Draw lightly because later on we will draw in the lotus petals and then erase these lines. It is very important to mark the degrees as accurately as possible. Incorrect degree measurements will result in an incorrectly constructed triangle matrix.
 Figure 2 |
 Figure 3 (click to enlarge) |
5. Using the 32 equal sections as guides, draw 8 lotus petals of equal size and shape along the circumference of r1 as shown in figure 4. The 8 lotus petals represent the 4 cardinal directions North, South, East, and West, and the 4 intermediate directions NE, SE, SW, NW.
6. Using the 32 equal sections as guides, draw 16 lotus petals of equal size and shape along the circumference of r2 as shown in figure 5. The 16 lotus petals represent the 16 forms Prana, Desire, Space, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Senses, Mind, Food, Strength, Austerity, Scriptures, Sacrifice, All the Worlds, and Names radiating out into the 4 corners of the world from the creative center. (see Prashna Upanishad, Question VI)
The lotus petals will be used as reference points for creation of the triangle matrix.
 Figure 4 (click to enlarge) |
 Figure 5 (click to enlarge) |
8. Draw the first female triangle (f1) as shown in figure 6. Horizontal A-B sets the vertical location of the base of f1. Point E at the intersection of vertical center and 180 degrees r1 sets the apex of f1. Connect points C-D, D-E and E-C. There she is, the field of time/space/matter/energy. The manifest divine energy.
9. Enter the male (m1). The un-manifest divine energy penetrating the field. In figure 6, horizontal line G-H sets the vertical location of the base of m1. Intersection vertical center and Horizontal A-B/C-D (point I) sets the apex of m1 (point I).
10. Draw diagonals J-L and L-K an un-known distance as shown in figure 7, this sets up the slope angles of f2 and the base location of m2 (shown as a dashed line in figure 7).
 Figure 6 (click to enlarge) |
 Figure 7 (click to enlarge) |
11. Draw the large male triangle m2 as shown in figure 8. Make sure intersections 1 and 2 are clean. NOTE: triangle designations "m#" and "f#"etc., are references to male (upward-pointing) triangles and female (downward-pointing) triangles being discussed in a particular step and shaded blue.
12. Draw m3 as shown in figure 9. Draw a horizontal line an unknown length through intersections 3 and 4. Points 7 and 8 are the intersections of slopes L-K and L-J with horizontal center. Extend diagonal (slope) 5-7 to intersect base 3-4 and vertical center. Extend diagonal 6– 8 to intersect base 3-4 and vertical center.
 Figure 8 (click to enlarge) |
 Figure 9 (click to enlarge) |
13. Draw f3 as shown in figure 10. Points s1 and s2 are located at mid-point along the slopes of the female subsidiary triangles shaded green. The apex of f3 is the intersection of the vertical center of the Yantra and horizontal line 3-4.
14. Draw m4 as shown in figure 11. Points s3 and s4 are located at mid-point along the slopes of the male subsidiary triangles shaded green. Points M and N set the slope angles of m4.
 Figure 10 (click to enlarge) |
 Figure 11 (click to enlarge) |
15. Use apex m4 to complete f2 as shown in figure 12.
16. Draw f4 as shown in figure 13. Be careful to keep all intersections clean.
 Figure 12 (click to enlarge) |
 Figure 13 (click to enlarge) |
15. Draw f5 as shown in figure 14.
16. Add 3 outer rings and the world as shown in figure 15. To get outer ring radii r4, r5, and r6, multiply the distance between r2 and r3 by 0.25, representing one quarter of the world with it’s four directions. The width of the doors is equal to the width of one inner lotus petal L1. The size of the inner square Sq1 is established by adding one outer ring width to r6 and then drawing a box around that distance. Add outer borders equal in width to r4, r5, and r6. Shade subsidiary triangles.
The completed Sri Yantra should have 4 upward-pointing triangles and 5 downward-pointing triangles. There should be 43 subsidiary triangles counting the bindu triangle.
 Figure 14 (click to enlarge) |
 Figure 15 (click to enlarge) |