Tripura Sundari: Goddess of Consciousness, Sri Vidya Chakra, and 3rd Dasa Mahavidya

Mythology is the most wonderful and creative aspect of every civilization, culture, faith, and history. Indian mythology and its conventional Vedic Story are escalating world mythology due to their mind-numbing transcendental knowledge. They are filled with wisdom, ancient wizardry, holy scriptures, astrology, cosmology, socio-political dramas, and whatnot. However, the Tripura Sundari, Dasa Mahavidya series is filled with wizardry—Tantric Vidya—yet cultivates a unique narrative with soul-sucking wisdom that may twill you from within.

Significance of Tripura Sundari

Tripura Sundari is the 3rd Tantric goddess of Dasa Mahavidya. She is praised as the chief of all in Shaktism and in Shakta texts. Tripura Sundari is the goddess of three realms: heaven, earth, and the transcendental world.

“Tri” means three citadels, and “Sundari” means a beauty beyond imagination. She is a 16-year-old girl with ethereal beauty and is thus known as Shodashi. Goddess Tripura Sundari is one of the ferocious manifestations of Kali, a terrifying form of Shakti.

Tripura Sundari is the ultimate consciousness of the universe. She is the creator, preserver, and destroyer, and she contains all the power within herself that Trinity holds individually. Goddess Shodashi is the realm of existence, actions, outcomes, and inaction (shunya).

Tripura Sundari: Consort of Lord Shiva

Goddess Tripura Sundari contains sixteen kinds of desires. All aspects of her denote meaning and wisdom. She is the divine consort of Lord Shiva and represents the light in his eyes. The Shodashi Tantra is the spiritual source of information about the goddess in Tripura.

Tripura Sundari: Adi Mahavidya of Para Shakti

Apart from Tripura Sundari, the goddesses are known as Shodashi, Lalita, Kamesvari, and Rajarajeshwari. She is the Adi Mahavidya and represents the consciousness of the ultimate, enlightened version of reality.

According to the Dhyana Mantra of Goddess Tripura Sundari, she gives Surya, Lord Sun, a divine sparkle of her light that lightens the world with the rising sun. She is the ultimate source of light that nourishes the world and sheds the blanket of darkness.

The goddess transcends the tri-gunas: Sattva (goodness and harmony), Rajas (action and passion), and Tamas (ignorance and slowness).

She encourages all the living mortals to act and find a way to transcendental bliss through sattva, rajas, and tamas gunas.

If a spiritual seeker desires to achieve the ultimate goal of liberation from the birth cycle, they can spend their life reading the meaning of Tripura Sundari in Lalitha Sahasranamam.

Lalita Sahastranamam: A Holy Book with One Thousand Names of Tripura Sundari

The Brahmanda Purana, the 18th Purana, has a holy text called Lalitha, or Lalita Sahasranama. It is regarded as one of the most sacred texts that contains the history of human spirituality and Shaktism. It even emphasizes the prominence of the worship of Shakti, Durga, Lakshmi, Parvati, Kali, Bhagavati, and Sahastra Devi.

Lalita Sahastranamam describes the goddess Tripura Sundari and has hymns that narrate that she is the queen adorned with jewels with sindoor, bindi, and other marital signs. She is elegant and feminine, and she wears a crescent moon on her forehead. Her smile fills Kameshwara, Lord of Desire, with a feeling of satisfaction. Five Brahmas sit under her throne.

She holds the noose, the goad, the arrow, and the bow in her four hands.

Vamakeshvara Tantra: The Sri Vidya Mandalam

As per the Vamakeshvara Tantra, the 65th tantra, the goddess Tripura Sundari lives on the peaks of the Himalayas. Tripura Sages and celestial nymphs worship the goddess Tripura Sundari. She has covered herself with tiger skin and carries a snake as her garland. Tripura Sundari has jata and mounts on a bull.

The Vamakeshvara Tantra also mentions the creation of the Sri Yantra in the Yogini Hridaya (Heart of the Yogini Tantra). Yogini Hridaya is the second part of the Vamakeshvara Tantra. The holy tantra book is in Sanskrit and has no English translation.

Sri Vidya Tantra

From the fivefolds of the tantra, Shakti comes creation. From the fourfolds of the tantra, fire split up.

The union of the five shaktis and four fires gives rise to and evolves into the chakra. The Ultimate Source of Power speaks in a thunderous voice:

O sinless one, I am telling you the secret of the origin of the chakra.

When the Para Shakti assumes the form of the universe in her own will, the secret of the creation of the Sri Vidya Tantra Chakra reveals itself in vibration. From its void-like vowels, along with visarga (:) colons, emerged the Bindu, shaking in consciousness.

A vibrating stream of supreme light gives birth to the ocean of the cosmos, and the three mothers take form.

The baindava (absolute purity) of the Sri Vidya Chakra has a triple form: dharma, adharma, atma or matri, Maya, and prana.

The ninefold of the chakra represents nine yonis or vaginas, the great source of consciousness bliss, and nine divisions of the mantras.

Yogini Hridaya Tantra

Thereafter, the baindava would place itself on a dense flowery mass called the Chitkala.

The Ambika form of the eight lines is known as the circle of the vowels.

After that, the nine triangles tremble and illuminate the 10 lines.

Shakti then makes the 10 trikonas with the nine blossoming lines. The second vibration form of 10 lines has Krodhisha like the first of the 10. These four chakras are the source of light that creates the 14-fold essence of perception.

Sri Yantra Chakra

The center of the Sri Yantra emerges as Kamakala.

Kamakala is the potential, consisting of three Bindus; red, white, and mixed.

The red Bindu is Ova. The white Bindu is semen. The mixed Bindu is the union of Shiva and Shakti, the potential Sri Chakra.

The two limbs of Lalita-Varahi and Kurukulla represent Father and Mother.

The semen of Varahi offers four alchemical dhatus, or rasas, to the child. The ova of Kurukulla offers five dhatus, or rasas, to the child.

Thereafter, consciousness enters through orgasm.

Kamakala, the digit of sexual desire, is the potential of the sun, moon, and fire. The sun and moon come together to give birth to a seed that grows into a human.

Varahi’s four rasas, or dhatus, are the Fires. Kurukulla’s five rasas, or dhatus, are Shaktis.

The combined form of the five Shaktis, downward-pointing triangles, and the four Fires, upward-pointing triangles, forms the figure in the Sri Chakra.

The Seed of Varahi and Kurukulla

Varahi’s four Fires are the 12 Kalas of the Sun, or the 12 celestial constellations.

Kurukulla’s Fire Shaktis are the 15 Kalas of the Moon, or 15 Lunar days.

The seed grows within nine months to form a Sri Yantra, plant, or human being.

Legends of Goddess Tripura Sundari

Tarakasura terrorized the gods; they decided to fight back until Kartikeya, the son of Lord Shiva, was born.

Lord Shiva was in samadhi after the horrific death of Sati in her father, Daksha Prajapati’s Yagna, due to the insult she faced. However, Goddess Parvati, the second incarnation of Sati, became the daughter of King Himavan and Mena Devi.

Parvati grew and penanced to get Shiva, her husband, back to life from samadhi. Indra, the King of Heaven, with the permission of Lord Vishnu and Brahma, sent Kamadev and Rati to induce love and desire in the minds of Shiva.

Shiva burned Kama into ashes with his third eye in anger. From the ashes, Bhandasura arose, created unbearable havoc in the universe, and harassed Devtas. He established his kingdom, Shonitapura.

Due to the destruction of peace in the universe, Indra and other gods requested Sage Narad to counsel with the Lords Brahma and Vishnu. They recommended to the gods that they request Nirguna Brahman, the ultimate source of energy.

Indra and the gods performed a great yagna, and the Tripura Sundari, goddess of consciousness, and 3rd Dasa Mahavidya (Saguna Brahman) emerged. She split herself into Kameshvara (Purush) and Kameshvari (Prakriti). Thereafter, she redesigned the entire universe as before.