--> Skip to main content


Bindu – Dot Or Point – Representing Mother Goddess Shakti

Bindu – dot or point – represents Mother Goddess Shakti in tantric painting, drawings etc. It symbolically represents creation – Devi.

In Mantra Shastra, the word Bindu (dot or point) has a technical meaning. It is an aspect of Mother Goddess Shakti or consciousness. Both nada and bindu are states of consciousness. The shakti is seized with the desire to create. Thus, from its subtle state, it becomes gross; nada, which is relatively grosser than Shakti and is ready to pass from the stage of potency into that of active manifestation. This stage of the bindu is called parabindu or mahabindu to distinguish it from other forms of bindus into which subsequently, it merges during the process of creation. This parabindu is the head of all creation.

In the human body, it is sustained in the thousand petalled lotus. It is compared to a grain of a gram, which contains in its outer sheath the two seeds (Shiva and Shakti) in undivided union. This supreme bindu, containing all the gods in itself, is the ultimate object of adoration by all classes of worshippers, under the name of Shiva, Vishnu, Devi and so on.

The Tantric texts say that the bindu transcends all the tattvas (ontological elements). Even the Sri Chakra has evolved out of the bindu and the triangle. The parabindu is the center of Sri Chakra.

Various lines, triangles and circles emanate from this center, culminating in the shape of Sri Chakra. The bindu represents a point. The three outer bindus come from it – the mishrabindu containing Shiva and Shakti, the Shiva Bindu which is static and the Shakti Bindu which is dynamic. These three bindus form the primary triangle, representing the creation in its triple aspects.

As the static principle predominates in the parabindu, it is known as linga, the symbol of male principle, while trikona (triangle) is the bliss of this union that permeates through the whole creation.