The word "Yantra" means an "instrument" or "machine" or "talisman" depending upon the context. Yantra is a mystical diagram used in the Indian religions and philosophy for worship. The Yantra is the graphic, mathematics and magic representation of the divine one. Yantra actually implies instrument, Yantra benefits include attraction of good luck, fortune, prosperity, success , protection and good health to the user. Likewise the images of gods in the temples, yantras are revered and worshiped as symbols of divine powers. The Devi Bhagavat(3.26.21) states - Archabhave Tatha Yantram; meaning - a yantra symbolizes a divine power. Similar meanings are indicated in Naradiya Purana, Gautamiya Tantra, Yogini Tantra, and several other Vedic scriptures.

According to Tantra, the creation of the world begins with an act of division of the opposites that are united in the deity. From their splitting arises, in an explosion of energy, the multiplicity of the world. Starting from pure unity (Shiva), the world is a continuous unfolding (energized by the power of Shakti), until a state is reached, when the process must reverse and involute back to the very beginning. Multiplicity must once again become unity. Yantras are symbolic representations of this process of evolution and involution. 

According to Tantra, the human being is a miniature universe. All that is found in the cosmos can be found within each individual, and the same principles that apply to the universe apply in the case of the individual being. For human beings the body is considered the most perfect and powerful of all yantras and is seen as a tool for inner awareness.

A yantra is thus a tool making the process of evolution conscious to the adept of Tantrism. It enables the adept to retrace his steps from the outward-directed world of multiplicity to the inward focus of unity. Yantras have been around almost as long as Hinduism itself, and have played an important role in the formation of spiritual practices. This is because practitioners embrace the concept of becoming one with the universe- the ultimate state of being, or enlightenment. Yantras, an intregral part of scientific art,  were found at the excavations of the Indus cities of Mohenjadaro and Harrappa, dated from 3300 BC. More recent excavations suggest that this culture developed even earlier, at roughly the same time period of Sumerian cultures.