Tradition
Yoni
Overview
Yoni (Sanskrit: योनि, IAST: yoni), sometimes called pindika, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu goddess Shakti. It is usually shown with linga – its masculine counterpart. Together, they symbolize the merging of microcosmos and macrocosmos, the divine eternal process of creation and regeneration, and the union of the feminine and the masculine that recreates all of existence. The yoni is conceptualized as nature's gateway of all births, particularly in the esoteric Kaula and Tantra practices, as well as the Shaktism and Shaivism traditions of Hinduism.
Yoni is a Sanskrit word that has been interpreted to literally mean the "womb", the "source", and the female organs of generation. It also connotes the female sexual organs such as "vagina", "vulva", and "uterus", or alternatively to "origin, abode, or source" of anything in other contexts. For example, the Vedanta text Brahma Sutras metaphorically refers to the metaphysical concept Brahman as the "yoni of the universe". The yoni with linga iconography is found in Shiva temples and archaeological sites of the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, as well in sculptures such as the Lajja Gauri.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Among the Indians of the Brazilian forests, for example, the sun and moon are called leaves or feather-balls; by several of the Soudan tribes they are conceived as balls that have been thrown to the sky by human beings and have stuck there. Such ideas alternate with others in which the sun and moon are regarded as brothers or as brother and sister, or the sun is said to be chasing the moon--images influenced…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
States what Yoni is.
The whole universe is One. There is only One Self in the universe, only One Existence, and that One Existence, when it is passing through the forms of time, space and causation, is called _buddhi_, fine matter, gross matter, etc. All physical and mental forms, everything in the universe is that One, appearing in various ways. When a little bit of it gets into this network of time, space and causation, it apparently…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Yoni is.
Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Yoni is.
Related ideas
- Brahma Sutras
- Goddess
- Hinduism
- Harappa
- Adi Shankara
- Indian subcontinent
- Brahman
- Shakti
- Shaivism
- Sanskrit
- Shiva
- Tantra
- Rigveda
- Lingam
- Kama Sutra
- Swami Vivekananda
- Gujarat
- Charaka Samhita
- New York City
- Shaktism
- Prakriti
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- Edinburgh
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy of love.