The Hindu Temple v1.c7.s1.87

v1.c7.s1.87

This means a transfer of spiritual levels; no golden disc—the sun’s orb—is placed below the vase; it rests on the Ādhāraśilā which is not round but square, and not of gold but of stone. Above the Śakti-vase is placed the lotus made of stone, an unfolding of all the possibilities such as are in the Ādhāraśilā, and on it rests the stone tortoise, who is Viṣṇu⁵¹, the stability⁵² of this world. Śakti and Viṣṇu are part of the ‘support’ of the temple; and stability is exemplified in the three superimposed regions of the earth-world, the air-world and heaven by the stone lotus and tortoise, the silver lotus and tortoise and finally their golden replicas. This picture of stability in the hierarchy of the worlds, is led into the visible temple, built above ground, by the Yoganāla, the funnel shaped tube with its wider opening at the bottom.⁵³