---
type: Concept
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.0"
id: sri-chakra
title: "Śrī Cakra — श्रीचक्र"
iast: "Śrī Cakra"
devanagari: "श्रीचक्र"
description: "The supreme yantra of the Śrī-Vidyā tradition: nine interlocking triangles (four upward Śiva, five downward Śakti) generating forty-three sub-triangles around a central bindu, enclosed in lotus rings and the bhūpura, read as the complete map of manifestation and re-ascent; worshipped as Tripurasundarī's geometric body; NOT a mandala poster, NOT a prosperity charm, NOT the state emblem 'Sri Yantra' of commerce."
darshana:
  - Śākta (Śrī-kula)
school_scope: "The Śrī Cakra (also Śrī Yantra) is the central icon of Śrī-Vidyā (see srividya.md). Its nine-circuit (navāvaraṇa) worship is dīkṣā-transmitted; this entry documents structure and doctrine, not the upāsana."
text_source: "Saundarya Laharī 11; Tantrarāja Tantra; Bhāvanopaniṣad (the internalized reading)"
reception_note: "Present the Śrī Cakra as a doctrinally specified theological diagram, the way one would present a cathedral's floor plan as encoded theology. Structure is public in the tradition's own literature; circuit-worship specifics are initiatory and not documented here."
tags: [sri-chakra, sri-yantra, yantra, srividya, tripurasundari, bindu]
not:
  - term: "a wealth/prosperity charm (commercial 'Sri Yantra')"
    why: "Marketplace listings sell 'energized Sri Yantras' for wealth attraction. Śrī in the tradition names the Goddess (Śrī = Lalitā/Tripurasundarī, with auspiciousness as one of her faces), not money; the cakra is her body and the map of all manifestation, engaged through initiatory worship. The prosperity-charm reading takes the least doctrinal corner of the semantic field and sells it as the referent."
    instead: "Define the Śrī Cakra as Śrī-Vidyā's supreme yantra: the geometric body of Tripurasundarī and the complete diagram of manifestation (bindu through bhūpura) and of contemplative return."
  - term: "a mandala / sacred-geometry artwork"
    why: "Covered generally in yantra.md; acutely here because the Śrī Cakra's visual fame makes it the most decontextualized image in the class. Its forty-three triangles are not aesthetic choices: each āvaraṇa circuit has named deities, a named function in the manifestation sequence, and a place in the navāvaraṇa liturgy. The image without the grammar is a floor plan mistaken for a painting."
  - term: "interchangeable with 'Sri Yantra' pop-numerology (golden ratio claims, 'most powerful yantra' listicles)"
    why: "Claims that the Śrī Cakra encodes the golden ratio or pi are modern enthusiasm, not textual doctrine; 'most powerful' rankings are marketing. The tradition's own superlative is theological (it is Tripurasundarī herself), which needs no geometry-mysticism subsidy."
related:
  - /concepts/yantra.md
  - /concepts/bindu.md
  - /concepts/tripurasundari.md
  - /concepts/srividya.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Śrī Cakra -- श्रीचक्र

**Not:** a prosperity charm, geometry art, a listicle superlative

## What It Actually Means

The Śrī Cakra is the supreme yantra (see [yantra.md](yantra.md)) of the Śrī-Vidyā tradition: nine interlocking primary triangles (five downward, Śakti; four upward, Śiva) whose intersections generate forty-three sub-triangles arranged in circuits around the central bindu (see [bindu.md](bindu.md)), wrapped in eight- and sixteen-petaled lotus rings, three circles, and the square bhūpura with four gates. Doctrinally the diagram is read in two directions at once: outward from the bindu, it is sṛṣṭi, the complete sequence of manifestation from undifferentiated source to world-boundary; inward from the gates, it is saṃhāra in the withdrawal sense (cross-bundle: v0.7), the contemplative re-ascent to the source. The nine circuits (navāvaraṇa) each carry named deities and a named stage; the whole is worshipped as the body of Tripurasundarī (see [tripurasundari.md](tripurasundari.md)), with Saundarya Laharī 11 as the classical verse-specification.

The Bhāvanopaniṣad documents the tradition's own internalization: the entire cakra mapped onto the practitioner's body and faculties, making the diagram a statement about the worshipper's identity with the manifestation-map. The navāvaraṇa worship itself is dīkṣā-transmitted (see [srividya.md](srividya.md)); consistent with bundle policy, this entry documents the architecture and its public doctrinal reading only.

## Audience Metaphor

The Śrī Cakra is a stack trace of reality rendered as geometry: the bindu is the entry point, each circuit a call level, the bhūpura the outermost frame where the world executes. The tradition worships it because, in its claim, this is not A diagram of manifestation but the diagram: read outward it is how the One becomes all this; read inward it is the debugger walking home. Selling it as a luck charm is selling a stack trace as a lottery ticket.

## Citations

1. Saundarya Laharī 11 -- the classical structural verse; see [references/saundarya-lahari.md](../references/saundarya-lahari.md)
2. Bhāvanopaniṣad -- the internalized Śrī Cakra
3. Tantrarāja Tantra -- Śrī-kula yantra doctrine
