The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s6.16

v1.c8.s6.16

Similarly also within the Garbhagṛha is the image or symbol of wood or stone or crystal or it may itself consist of ether, as the Ākāśa-liṅga in Cidambaram. For in the inner ether, (ākāśa), circumscribed by the city of Brahman (Brahmapura) is contained all that is. "In this city of Brahman is a small lotus, a dwelling in which is a small cavity occupied by ether (ākāśa). That which lies in this place should be thought after and one will know it."⁸⁴ "As large as is this Ākāśa so large is that Ākāśa in the heart. Both heaven and earth are contained within it; both fire and air, both the sun and the moon, the lightning and the stars, and whatever there is in this world, and also what is not,—all that is contained within it."⁸⁵ This city of Brahman, is the body;⁸⁶ the small cavity of the heart, the centre of being in man, is the place of the small ether. This place of Brahman, in the heart of man, has its analogy in the Brahmasthāna, in the centre of the temple maṇḍala or plan, where also lies the heart of the Vāstupuruṣa.⁸⁷ This centre of the temple plan, has its equivalent in the Garbhagṛha where it does not coincide with it.