In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says,

देवान भावयतानेन ते देवा भावयन्तु वह।
dEvAn bhAvayatAnEna tE dEvA bhAvayantu vaH।

The purpose behind we creating, and worshipping a divine entity, is so that, that divine entity reflects that action back on our own self, thereby raising us, to a higher level of living, ascribed with that deity.

Goddess

This is the idea behind worshipping saraswati, the goddess of knowledge to make us cleverer, or worshipping lakshmi, the goddess of wealth to make us wealthier.

These deities which we create, are not just a figment of our imagination, we breathe life into them, every time we meditate-upon or worship them. There are many ways of creating such divine entities, and energizing them, so that they magnify, and reflect that energy back into us.

deity / mantra / yantra

One of the direct forms of doing this, is
through reciting the sound, mantra and realizing the form, yantra of the corresponding energy.

In this article, let's look at the science behind these yantras, and how one can make use of them.

kinds of yantras

There are many many kinds of yantras, some

in a circular pattern, called mandalas, some in a pyramid shape, called as mErus and some with numbers in them, called as sankhya yantras. There are many categorizations based on where they are drawn, and how they are used, but the basic principles behind the working of all these yantras are the same.

4 aspects of yantra

There are four basic aspects to understand

any yantra. 

The first is the symbols used to create it. Second the surface on which it is created, third the ingredients which are used to make it,and finally, the process of energozing and benefitting from it.

Let us have a brief look at all these aspects step by step. We will go into a deeper study when dealing with individual yantras.

symbols used yantras

Firstly, Yantras are just varying complexities of geometrical shapes, which have a direct physiological impact on the geometrical shapes within the human body. They are made up of simple symbols like dots, circles, lines and polygons. There is an established science on how to create a divine entity using precise geometric arrangements. This knowledge is spread across hundreds of textbooks of Agama and Tantra shAstras, like yantra chintAmaNi, brhat samhita, mrgEndrAgama and kiraNAgama. The word Agama literally means "the arrival of something", in this context it means "making the divine arrive".