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The word 'yoni' (Sanskrit ''yoni'') is the Sanskrit word for "Divine Passage" ,"Place of birth","Womb"(more as nature as a womb and cradle of all creations) or "sacred Temple" (cf. lila). The word also has a wider meaning in both profane and spiritual contexts, covering a range of meanings of "place of birth, source, origin, spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable" (Monier-Williams). A poem dealing with the sacred and profane aspects is called The Yoni The yoni is also considered to be symbolic of Shakti or other goddesses of a similar nature.
In classical texts such as Kama Sutra, yoni refers to vagina. Even more interesting linguistic example is the Sinhalese language, which developed from old colloquial Sanskrit of North India and which to this day has kept their ancient meanings for penis and vagina - lingam and yoni.
Because of its polysemy, Yoni is perhaps the most misused and misunderstood Sanskrit word.
The Lotus Goddess. An inportant hindu symbol of the divine, the lotus flower is the head of the goddess Yoni figures, or murti, in which she is allways nude and displaying her vulva or yoni. These are not birthing figures but divine bliss images of veneration. In most Hindu temples in the west a lingam or phallus of Shiva is situated in the vulva enclosure which is a yoni and points to the universal female or Yin in a sexual context. It also ponts to the goddess of the lotus.

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Historical perspective

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Historical perspective

Lingam-Yonis have been recovered from the archeological sites at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro which were centers of the Indus Valley Civilization.
The ancient Aryans were a community that, through centuries of development, realized advances in a wide range of fields ranging from astrology to agriculture. The accumulated wisdom of this people, as well as their guidelines for living, was set down in an ancient set of records known as the Vedas. These four Vedas bore the names Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda.
These ancient Vedas contain the word ''yoni'' in various contexts. The original meaning of yoni was "Divine Passage". A child was considered to be born from a yoni of stars - constellations that prevailed during the child birth. The Aryans had identified some 50,000 astrological yonis that favour a child's birth.
The term ''yoni'' was also used in agricultural references by the Aryans. A fertile yoni meant a good harvest of crops.
Yonic is to vaginal as phallic is to penile.
According to Hindu-belief, a man has three destinations in after-life depending upon his Gunas(qualities)in the previous life. These three Gunas are Sato-guna (highest virtue), Rajo-guna (medium virtue) and Tamo-guna (Lowest Virtue). The man with Sato-guna enters the heavens(mokhsha) whereas the man with Tamo-guna enters the hell. The man with Rajo-guna is sent back to the earth to again complete a cycle of birth and death.
Further, depending upon his Rajo-guna, a person may again be born as a Human or can take birth in a lower species than Human. For this, his soul passes through 8.4 Million Yonis before it takes birth as a man. Each of these 8.4 Million specifies a specie like fish, bird, insect etc. If the Rajo-gunas are higher, chances of re-birth as human are higher. If the Rajo-gunas are of lower nature, the soul will enter the body of a species corresponding to that Rajo-guna.

See also

★ Lingam

★ Shakti

★ Shaktism

★ Sheela na Gig

★ Virgin Mary

External links

★ Yoni and Lingam

★ Shakti Tantra