Vision at the Yoni and the Discovery of the Meru Yantra

A rare photograph of the Meru unearthed by Guruji at the yoni shrine; the gold devotional figures were placed on it by a visitor seeking blessings.

(from "The Goddess and the Guru"):

During another meditation at the yoni, Guruji felt himself swept backward through time. He saw a magnificent yagna being performed on the very spot where he sat, but judging by the participants’ dress, speech, and manners, he understood that the event was taking place at least two centuries earlier. Kamakhya seemed to be showing him an episode from the history of her shrine—were these the people who originally sculpted the yoni? Or simply the last ones who worshiped here? They seemed to be performing a rare and unusual sort of yagna as well, Guruji noted, employing chants from the Sama Veda rather than the more commonly used Rig Veda.

As he contemplated the scene, his point of view suddenly shifted. Instead of merely observing the yagna, he was now at its center—inside the kunda or fire pit itself.

“I had the experience of lying on this peetam with flames emanating from my body while four priests performed a homa,” he said. “During purnahuti, I felt a heavy object about the size of a fist being placed on my heart.”

As the rishis continued their chant, the Goddess materialized above Guruji “in the form of Nadabindu Kaladhari” and a deafening voice filled the heavens.

“I am the Power! I am the Source! I am the Womb of the Universe! I am the Universal Mother!”

Kamakhya then transformed back into her more familiar form and told Guruji that a precious relic of the yagna he had just witnessed remained buried at the peetam: a Meru yantra—the very same object, in fact, that he had felt placed upon his chest in the fire. She instructed him to retrieve the Meru and install it in the sanctum of the Shiva temple he would build atop the hill. Guruji then awoke from his meditation, sitting alone again on the yoni in the present day.

“I was shaken,” he said. Even experienced centuries later through a meditative state, the revelation’s intensity packed an emotional impact that seemed “beyond all limits.” He immediately rushed to narrate the experience to Anakapalle Gurugaru, who advised, “Well, do as she said! Dig at that very spot.”

Guruji returned with a couple of laborers, who dug to a depth of about two and a half feet before unearthing a small, scorched metal pyramid.

“It was a panchaloha yantra of a unique design like none I had ever seen before,” Guruji said. A mere two and a half inches square and an inch and a quarter high, the object was nonetheless fascinating in its details.

“It resembled a typical Maha Meru, but with some significant differences. A Sri Chakra is always considered to encompass the Shakti Pancha Ayatanam—the Five Seats of Shakti. But this Meru differed from most Sri Chakra Merus to such an extent that I don’t really know whether it can be called a conventional Meru at all. It was based on a Kailasha Prastara with an almost hemispherical shape and a radius height equal to half of its base width.

“But since I found it at the same place where I had darshan of Goddess Kamakhya, I attach great significance to it,” he continued. “The Meru I found had several extra diamond-shaped plates inserted above each of the star shapes, having 14, 10, 10, and 8 corners respectively. The diamond-shaped plates have no puja relevance; they serve simply to show the separation between one star and the next, demarcating the triangles from the undefined areas, which seemed so much more logical. But it was unusual. On the other hand, the accuracy—three lines joined without forming triangles—was very good. This characteristic does qualify it to be a good Sri Chakra.”