Types of śrīcakra

 

Srichakra Mahameru

 

A popular classification scheme counts 4032 permutations of the most popular śrīcakra, called the śuddha-chakra variation. This Chakra is composed of four Shiva-chakras and five Shakti-chakras, with the Shakti-chakra extending from Bindu to manvasra and the rest up to the bhūgr̥ha representing the Shiva-chakra. This is the same śrīcakra the uddhāra of which is done by Bhagavatpāda Shankara in Saundaryalaharī (caturbhiḥ śrīkaṇṭhaiḥ) and in Kādimata (bindutrikōṇsamyuktam vasukōṇasamanvitam, etc.)

Such a śrīcakra, known as śuddha-cakra, has three prastāra bhēdas:

1. Bhūprastāra
2. Kailāsa-prastāra
3. Mēru-prastāra

Bhūprastāra is again of two kinds:

1. Pātāla-prastāra
2. ūrdhva-prastāra

Kailāsa prastāra is of two kinds:

1. Ardha-kailāsa
2. Pūrṇa-kailāsa

Mēru prastāra is of two kinds:

1. Ardhamēru
2. Pūrṇamēru

Each of these six types, based on bījalēkhana krama, can be sr̥ṣṭi, sthiti or samhāra. Thus, there are eighteen main varieties of śrīcakra. There are other classifications, like the more physical ten-fold classification into Bhadra, Mōhana, Vaijayanta, Nandana, Mahācakra, etc., or the sixteen-fold one such as Amr̥tavajra, Padmagarbha, etc.

 

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