Interviewer: What is the origin of the Devipuram Maha Meru?
Guruji: In 1984, before the Sri Meru temple was built at Devipuram, there was a small hillock where I would often spend time in meditation. On the slopes of this hillock, I noticed a formation very similar to that of the Kamakhya Peetam in Assam. One day while in meditation, I had the experience of lying on this peetam while four others performed a homam, with flames emanating from my body. During purnahuti, I felt a heavy object being placed on my heart. Awakening from my meditative state, I was prompted to dig at that very spot, where I unearthed a yantra resembling a Maha Meru, but of a unique design like none I had seen before. It had some significant differences from the typical Sri Chakra Meru.
I later discovered, through meditations and circumstances, that a magnificent yagna had been performed at that very location more than 250 years earlier. This Maha Meru became my inspiration for building the Sri Meru temple, which – at 108 feet wide and 54 feet high – remains the largest Maha Meru in the world.
Is Maha Meru primarily a Hindu Yantra?
I would prefer to say that it’s a universal yantra, belonging to all religions – yantras resembling this one include the Sri Chakra of Hinduism, and the Mahayana Mandala of Buddhism. Chinese feng shui employs similar yantras. The Egyptian Pyramids are yet another form of this yantra; the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries involved still another.
So I have found this yantra to be a universal concept, existing in all religions. As a fairly recent example, there was a gentleman in the United States called Bill Witherspoon, who used to meditate for four or five hours a day. At some point he saw a huge Sri Yantra in his meditation, and he built that same yantra in the Arizona desert, measuring a mile on each side. For anyone who meditates, including the Himalayan masters, these yantras keep appearing again and again and again, in various religions and in various forms.
Q: What is the specifically Hindu interpretation of Maha Meru?
It is worshiped as the source of the Cosmos and of all power. It creates and sustains the entire Cosmos, and we should therefore strive to understand, worship and realize this power and intelligence that runs the world. The Khadgamala yoginis [i.e. the goddesses that inhabit Sri Chakra] emanate like rays from Sri Lalita, the Maha-Devi [Great Goddess] at Sri Meru’s center. All gods worship Her power in order to share it and to do good; all demons worship Her power in order to loot and exploit. The Meru is one form of the power and beauty found in the principles of geometry and symmetry that govern the world. Aspects of Her immense powers are variously called Yoga-Maya, Durga, Kali, Vaishnavi, Chandika, Lakshmi, Saraswati, and so on; like the fruits of a wish-fulfilling tree.
Various scriptures – such as the Shakti Upanishads, the Brahmanda Purana, the Sri Chakra Samhita, the Sri Chakra Yoga Sara, the Sri Chakrartha Sara and others all state in a single voice that merely seeing the Sri Chakra washes away all sins and grants auspiciousness. A mere touch burns away sin like a wad of cotton wool consumed by a fire. Even if one does no puja, just keeping it in the home attracts all good to the home. And if one worships the Supreme Power in the Meru with devotion, there remains no desire unfulfilled; one experiences infinite enjoyment, both here and in the hereafter. People of all castes and religions, especially women, may – without the slightest doubt – keep it in their homes and worship it in any way they can. There is no siddhi that cannot be attained by regular worship of a faultless Meru.
Should the Maha Meru be kept in places other than the home or temple?
It can be kept anywhere. If kept in the home, it will connect itself to all the other yantras in the world through its Bindu and attract organizing, peaceful and loving vibrations from wherever they are in the world. It is also a good thing to keep in hospitals, as it has healing properties. Or it can be kept in the office, because it attracts wealth, abundance and organization in the office. It is good to keep in public places too, because there will be an aura of grandeur and peace coming from this yantra. So it’s a universal symbol, which can be kept anywhere and everywhere.
Should we do puja to the Maha Meru?
You can do puja if you wish to, but that does not imply that it needs puja. When the Maha Meru is taken from the Guru’s hands, it is already energized with his vibrations and powers. Since it then connects itself with the all other yantras in the world, it continuously receives vibrations and powers from all over the world, including the cosmic centers of power. It receives abundance and grace, and redistributes them in its own vicinity. Thus, by itself, it does not need any puja as such. However, the nature of the vibrations it radiates can be enhanced very positively if you play soft music in the place where it is kept – similar to what we see in the entrance lobbies of hospitals and hotels, and so on, where soft music is played to bring about a peaceful attitude in the people who enter these places.
So if you can do pooja to the Meru, well and good. If you can’t, you just play some soft music to it. It will absorb the vibrations and emit divine music that protects and heals, that wards off evil and brings prosperity. And not merely currency, but all forms of divine blessings of peace – love, truth, non-violence; principles that empower everyone.
Many people are fond of keeping a Maha Meru in their homes as a kind of protection for their families. Why is that?
The Maha Meru represents the Cosmic Power as it manifests itself through human beings. Life itself is derived from this yantra, and when it is kept in the home it enhances the quality of life for all the people living there. Actually, the temples made by human beings are constructed of rocks, cement, steel, and things like that – whereas the temple that the Goddess has made, is simply the body of human beings, ourselves. In a sense, your body is itself a Sri Chakra, a yantra in which the Awareness, the Goddess, lives. If you can live in your body if your awareness can live in your body, then why can’t it live in your home?
But what do you say to people who are afraid to bring a Meru into their home (or other environments)? After all, there are those pundits who say a Meru should never be kept in the home.
These fears are mainly induced by certain members of the orthodox Brahmin community, who insist that the power should be kept with them only. We’ve got to get over this barrier of fear. We want to give, to share the power with everyone. So I would tell these people to please not succumb to the misinformed, thoughtless statements being made by these so-called pundits, and thus miss the chance to obtain the power that can alter your destiny in every way.
The Vedas say Matru Devo bhava: “There is no duty higher than the worship of the Mother” – and the Mother is available to everyone as the Meru, Her highest form; other forms being icons or women empowered as the Goddess. So keep a Meru in your home; give it as a gift; think of it as a long-term investment – like having a good spouse! Don’t compromise on quality. Pay any price, because it is priceless. The Meru is a symbol of our power to overcome evil, and to create unlimited wealth, health and happiness. The Meru is Gayatri, who protects those who utter Her name; it is Savitri, who conceives all good karmas for Her worshipers.
Just to clarify, does this statement apply to everyone? Can the uninitiated also keep Sri Chakra Merus in their homes without incurring the wrath of the Goddess?
Yes, absolutely. How can nectar become poison? It is not in its nature to harm. It is in its nature to bless. The hand that blesses does not strike.
Whether we know it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, Adi Para Shakti is already in our homes, in our bodies, in our minds, in our notions of I and mine, in our families, in all that we see – because She is the All-Pervading Awareness. We cannot lose Her without losing our life, because She is verily the life within us.
Does the fact that we breathe require initiation? She has already initiated us into life as the Mother who gave us SRI, which means everything. She extracted the seed from our father, giving ecstasy to him; She assembled us from life-giving substances of Her own body, gave us our hormones and endocrine system, our bones, flesh, skin, blood and all; She made us atom by atom, molecule by molecule; and most importantly, She put Her awareness into us.
Again, the Sri Chakra Meru is but one of Her forms, the others being (2) our own physical bodies; (3) the psychic chakras in our subtle bodies, from Muladhara to Sahasrara, seven in number; (4) the world we live in; (5) Hamsa Gayatri, the breath of life which goes in and out as long as we live; and (6) Siva Linga, symbol of union of Shakti (the Yoni base) and Siva (the Linga characteristic of the Godhead). These forms are not different; they are all one and the same, they all represent Sivayor Vapuh. The moment any one of them is present, all others are present in them as well.
So forget what people say. I asked Divine Mother Herself, in my meditation, this question: “Will you harm someone if they take a Meru home without initiation?” She said, “I will not harm.”
The gifting of this Meru involves a gifting of Power. There is no need to fear, provided that it is received from a well-intentioned Guru, because his life force goes into it then, and provided that it is accurate.
Accurate in which way?
Well, to get the sorts of benefits we’ve discussed, three conditions must be satisfied: (1) The Meru must be perfect, having 28 marmas as points, not as triangles (a marma is a joint of three straight lines); (2) it must come from a Guru who has the best of intentions towards you; and (3) it must be placed in the puja room, or else in a prominent, well-lighted place in the home with Vedic or mantric chants being played to it; or simply soft music. Light and sound are two higher forms of worship. Then the Meru will act as an antenna, first attracting the Supreme Power, and then retransmitting it all around your home, bringing good to all.
Why is the Maha Meru hollow?
That’s a legitimate question. It was intentionally made hollow because when the Guru gives the Meru to a disciple, he traditionally fills it with various life-giving substances, such as roots and herbs, energizes them, and then seals them off inside and gives that to the disciple. That is why it is kept hollow.
But so many questions have been raised about the hollowness of the Sri Chakra! Even when I was building the Sri Chakra temple here at Devipuram, people complained that it was hollow. But it has to be hollow! There is no other way! Why? It is hollow because it is supposed to represent a viyat chakra – a wheel in space.
And by the way, even if you are determined to make it totally solid, even if you think you’ve made it totally solid, still it is ultimately composed of atoms and molecules. And atoms and molecules have nuclei at their centers, which are like the Sun in the solar system – the electrons and neutrons orbit through relatively vast spaces around the nucleus. Even if you go to the nucleus itself, it is still not solid; it consists of stage particles. In fact, the whole nucleus is very hollow and inside it there are only probability waves traveling through. Thus even the supposedly “solid” atoms and molecules that make up the manifest world consist mostly of empty space. So it is not true to say that the Meru has to be solid – because there is nothing that is solid. Somehow this concept requiring solidity does not really stand up in light of scientific views.
You said earlier that the Devipuram Meru design is significantly different from that of a typical Meru. How so?
This particular style of Meru was inspired by the design of the original that we unearthed here in 1984. It is embellished with the symbols of the Chatura Ayatana (“Four Seats”) deities – Ganapathy at Nairuti (southwest), Vishnu at Vayu (northwest), Surya at Ishanya (northeast) and Shiva at Agni (southeast). These four symbols, taken together with the Bindu (Devi), represent the Shakti Pancha Ayatanam (“Five Seats of Shakti”). The Shakti Pancha Ayatanam are present right in the Meru itself, thus making it very unique. People doing Shakti Pancha Ayatana puja need not obtain each of the idols individually, as the Meru itself contains them all.
Another unique feature is that the Meru I found had extra diamond-shaped plates above the star shapes having fourteen, ten, ten and eight corners. They served to demarcate the triangles from the undefined areas, which seemed so much more logical. This was unusual. In fact, it differs from most Sri Chakra Merus to the extent that I don’t know whether it can be called a conventional Sri Chakra Meru at all. But since I found it at the same place where I had darshan, I attach great significance to it.
And on the other hand there was the accuracy – three lines joined without forming triangles – which was very good. This characteristic does qualify to make it a good Sri Chakra. Finally, the Devipuram Meru is unique in the sense that a lot of care has been taken to ensure that the yantra is accurate. That accuracy comes from the very definition of the yantra found in the texts that define Sri Chakra in Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism. We spent a lot of time – about nine months – in checking out the precision of this yantra, which is manufactured in Bangalore with the help of the former director (he has asked to remain anonymous) of a company known for its accuracy and testing. This Meru has been made under his personal supervision, and with my guidance.
So it can be said that a lot of technical time and effort has been invested into making this a fault-free yantra, and moreover that it comes from the hands of a Guru who received it directly from Kamakhya Devi at Devipuram.
Have you personally found the Devipuram Maha Meru to be very auspicious?
Yes indeed. When the first perfect sample came into my hands, the very next day I did a Chandi Yagna at Kalayarkovil near Madurai in a power factory, in the presence of a thousand people, and presided over by the Meru – demonstrating its intention to supply power to the people. The next day it received puja at Madurai Meenakshi Amman Kovil, demonstrating Her powers of attraction to all beneficent divinities. On the third day, it was taken to Kanya Kumari – showing Her potential to create oceans of beauty. And then it went ’round all the shakti kshetras made by Parashurama in God’s own land of Kerala, proof of the lineage it belongs to. Then in Bangalore it witnessed a marriage of a computer professional. And finally, it came to Devipuram for a Guru Puja Utsavams on Guru Poornami Day. Then Sringeri Peetha’s Vedic University received a second Meru for the Sharada Peetham at Sweta Srigachalam, on the banks of the Uttara Vahini Krishna River. What a sequence of coincidences! I can only conclude that it was all planned by Her, not me. All of these yagnas, and everywhere it went the highest good happened. I am totally convinced about its nature and capacity to do good. I can, without the slightest doubt, recommend this Meru to everyone.
How are these Devipuram Maha Merus going to be produced and distributed?
A limited number of copies of the Meru are being made by the Srividya Trust at Devipuram. It is like a collectible. It has a price tag on it. We’re making it in different sizes – 10” x 10” x 5” and 5” x 5” x 2.5”; and other smaller sizes will also be available. We’re also making ceramic Merus, made out of earth and fired at high temperatures, which will be available at lower cost and in larger quantities.
The “designer” type of Meru can be made in bronze, silver, gold, panchaloha [a traditionally holy five-metal alloy] – all sorts of possibilities exist. The material of which it is made can have a say in what it promotes. Gold makes it a Meru, because gold is supposed to be like Sun’s seed. It brings untold prosperity. Hiranya garbha garbhastham hema bijam vibhavasoh. Silver is the seed of Siva. It promotes progeny and peace of mind, with fine arts and education. Copper destroys poverty and gives enough to survive above mere wants. Tin wards off and prevents evil from happening. Thus we recommend bronze, an alloy of copper and tin as a good choice for most. It can be plated with gold for better results. And in fact, Devipuram Merus are mostly available in this form.
We prefer bronze instead of panchaloha – where they say they put in some gold, but it usually doesn’t happen. It’s usually a brass thing coated with gold, and merely called panchaloha – we are avoiding that.
When you use a zinc and tin mixture, which is brass, it oxidizes and reduces to the color of zinc, which is black. When a bronze Meru is left unattended and gets oxidized, it looks silvery. What happens with the inauthentic so-called panchaloha is that the outer gold layer eventually wears or washes off and becomes flat – that’s how you come to know that it is made out of brass. We avoid this problem by keeping it permanently as either gold or copper. For big temples and other places, we can go in for pure gold or gold and silver. The molds we’ve made allow us to manufacture to any specifications.
Source: Devipuram Mahāmeru Booklet (2007)
