Heaven

1)    The place where God dwells

2)    the spirit world

3)    erroneously, the afterlife, another name for Paradise. Judeo-Christian scripture speaks of three heavens. The first is to the atmospheric heavens of the birds and clouds. The second heaven is the area of the stars and planets. The third heaven is the abode of God.

(See also: Heaven , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

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adhisthana:

adhisthana - seat, abode

(See also: adhisthana , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

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The Egyptians believed in a ‘double’ which was like a shadow of the body. This double remained as long as the body remained. The soul was only a double. It had no individuality of its own. It was never able to do away with its connection with the body. If the body was injured in any part the double or soul was also injured. Hence they preserved the bodies to keep the soul intact. They took recourse to mummification of the bodies of the dead. They wanted to preserve the dead bodies for a very long time in order to make the departed soul immortal.

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. This is an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Soul After Death: Belief Of The Ancient Egyptians

Lord Krishna's influence on our lives far exceeds that of any other God-incarnate. Krishna is depicted not only as an embodiment of wisdom and selfless action, but also as a humane liberal and practical philosopher with foresight.

Krishna's mysticism and activism have greatly inspired poets, painters, writers, dramatists and dancers. The advice he rendered to a disheartened Arjuna at Kurukshetra - immortalised in the Bhagavad Gita - greatly influenced philosophers and continues to inspire millions of people worldwide.

(See also: Krishna , Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Krishna: Krishna The Cowherd - The Perfect Avatar  

Naraka: (Sanskrit) Abode of darkness. Literally, "pertaining to man."

The lower worlds. Equivalent to the Western term hell, a gross region of the Antarloka. Naraka is a congested, distressful area where demonic beings and young souls may sojourn until they resolve the darksome karmas they have created. Here beings suffer the consequences of their own misdeeds in previous lives. Naraka is understood as having seven regions, called tala, corresponding to the states of consciousness of the seven lower chakras as follows:

1)    Put, "childless" - atala chakra, "wheel of the bottomless region." Fear and lust (located in the hips).

2)    Avichi, "joyless" - vitala chakra: "wheel of negative region." Center of anger (thighs).

3)    Samhata, "abandoned" - sutala chakra: "Great depth." Region of jealousy (knees).

4)    Tamisra, "darkness" - talatala chakra: "wheel of the lower region." Realm of confused thinking (calves).

5)    Rijisha, "expelled" - rasatala chakra: "wheel of subterranean region." Selfishness (ankles).

6)    Kudmala, "leprous" - mahatala chakra: "wheel of the great lower region." Region of consciencelessness (feet). The intensity of "hell" begins at this deep level.

7)    Kakola, "black poison" - patala chakra, "wheel of the fallen or sinful level." Region of malice (soles of the feet).

The seven-fold hellish region in its entirety is also called patala, "fallen region." Scriptures offer other lists of hells, numbering 7 or 21. They are described as places of torment, pain, darkness, confusion and disease, but none are places where souls reside forever. Hinduism has no eternal hell.

See: hell, loka, purgatory (also, individual tala entries).

(See also: Naraka , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

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Akasa (Sanskrit) (from akas to be visible, appear, shine, be brilliant)

The shining; ether, cosmic space, the fifth cosmic element. The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space. It is not the ether of science, but the aether of the ancients, such as the Stoics, which is to ether what spirit is to matter. In the Brahmanical scriptures, akasa is used for what the Northern Buddhists call svabhavat, more mystically adi-buddhi (primeval buddhi); it is also mulaprakriti, cosmic spirit-substance, the reservoir of being and of beings. Genesis refers to it as the waters of the deep. It is universal substantial space, and mystically in its highest elements is alaya.

As universal space, it is also known as Aditi, in which lies inherent the eternal and continuously active ideation of the universe producing its ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity; and from this ideation radiates the First Logos. This is why the Puranas state that akasa has but one attribute, namely sound, for sound is but the translated symbol of logos (speech) in its mystic sense. Akasa as primordial spatial substance is thus the upadhi (vehicle) of divine thought. Further, it is the playground of all the intelligent and semi-intelligent forces in nature, the fountainhead of all terrestrial life, and the abode of the gods.

Akasa is the noumenon and spiritual substratum of differentiated prakriti, otherwise the seven or ten prakritis, the root or roots of all in the universe. These prakritis are not merely in akasa, but are the manifestations of akasa in its various grades or degrees of evolutionary development. All the ancient nations mythologically deified akasa in one or another of its aspects and powers (cf IU 1:125 for a descriptive listing of the many names anciently used for akasa). It is the indispensable agent in all religious or profane magic: occult electricity, the universal solvent, in another aspect kundalini. "Akasa is the mysterious fluid termed by scholastic science, 'the all-pervading ether'; it enters into all the magical operations of nature, and produces mesmeric, magnetic, and spiritual phenomena. As, in Syria, Palestine, and India, meant the sky, life, and the sun at the same time; the sun being considered by the ancient sages as the great magnetic well of our universe" (IU 1:140n).

Sometimes the astral light is used as a convenient but inaccurate phrase for akasa. In clarifying the difference between these Blavatsky says: "The Astral Light is that which mirrors the three higher planes of consciousness, and is above the lower, or terrestrial plane; therefore it does not extend beyond the fourth plane, where, one may say, the Akasa begins.

"There is one great difference between the Astral Light and the Akasa which must be remembered. The latter is eternal, the former is periodic. The Astral Light changes not only with the Mahamanvantaras but also with every sub-period and planetary cycle or Round. . . .

"The Akasa is the eternal divine consciousness which cannot differentiate, have qualities, or act; action belongs to that which is reflected or mirrored from it. The unconditioned and infinite can have no relation with the finite and conditioned. . . . We may compare the Akasa and the Astral Light . . . to the germ in the acorn. The latter, besides containing in itself the astral form of the future oak, conceals the germ from which grows a tree containing millions of forms. These forms are contained in the acorn potentially, yet the development of each particular acorn depends upon extraneous circumstances, physical forces, etc." (TBL 75-6; also IU 1:197).

The astral light is the tablet of memory of earth and of its child the animal-man; while akasa is the tablet of memory of the hierarchy of the planetary spirits controlling our chain of globes, and likewise of their child, each spiritual ego. The astral light is simply the dregs or lowers vehicles of akasa. Gautama Buddha held only two things as eternal: akasa and nirvana. In the Chandogya Upanishad (7:12:1-2) akasa (ether, space) is equated with Brahman.

(See also: Akasa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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Paradise [from Greek paradeisos from Old Persian pairidaeza from Sanskrit paradesa region beyond]

Applied in Persian and Greek to a pleasure park or royal domain. A Hebrew version (pardes) is found in the Bible, translated "orchard" (Eccl 2:5, Cant 4:3) and "forest" (Neh 2:8). An equivalent is the Hebrew eden (delight). Stories of a Paradise or Eden are universal; and while the general idea is simple, its applications are complex. It is the state of innocence and bliss from which there is departure, and to which there is eventual return. This may apply to the human race as a whole, to particular races, to the lands they inhabit, or to the pilgrimage of the individual human soul.

Persian tradition places a Garden of Delight far to the north of Caucasus in the Arctic regions, where was the Imperishable Sacred Land whence issued a stream from the earth's fount of life. Adi-varsha was the Eden of the first races and specifically of the primeval third root-race; the Eden of the fifth root-race is but its faint reminiscence. The Garden of Eden or of God (Ezek 31:3-9) was a home of initiates of Atlantis, now submerged.

The Eden in Genesis is a marvelous fusion of many meanings into one narrative, where the Adams of the various root-races are made into one. Eden was an ancient name for Mesopotamia and adjacent regions; and under that one name are comprised the meanings of an abode of initiates, a sacred land from which races emerged, and a goal of bliss in the future. The Eden of the Hebrew books, which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike have located in Mesopotamia and in the now sandy lands of Persia and Afghanistan, refers also to what was in prehistoric times a great and highly developed center of culture and the civilization which there had its seat, including a number of Mystery schools. When the changing cycles brought about a degeneration and final breakup of this seat of archaic wisdom, it was represented as the loss by the then human Adam -- the then race -- of the Paradise in which he had dwelt. Edens and Paradises always contain trees; and these, by one interpretation, signify the initiates in the sacred land, and by another they are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Wisdom for man himself. In the Qabbalah, Eden is a place of initiation.

In later times, the symbol of Paradise has come to mean a bliss of sensual pleasure, like the Moslem Paradise of the Houris, the Olympus of the Greeks, or Indra's Heaven (svarga).

(See also: Paradise , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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A Dictionary of Spiritual Terms. From Acupuncture to Zoroaster.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

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Amenti, Amentet (Egyptian) The underworld (Tuat), the hidden place or secret region. The 15th or last house (Aat) of the Tuat, called Amentet-nefert (beautiful Amenti) and described as the dwelling place of the gods, where they live upon cakes and ale -- in this respect similar to the Scandinavian Valhalla, the heaven world or devachan. The afterworlds were also referred to as Sekhet-hetep or -hetepet (the fields of peace), called in Greece the Elysian Fields, under the dominion of Osiris, lord of Amenti. Some of the texts speak of Amenti as situated far to the north of Egypt, although it is more commonly referred to as the Silent Land of the West. Other texts place it either below or above the earth, and the deceased is pictured as needing a ladder to ascend to the region.

The deceased, entering the domain as a khu, performs the same activities that he did on earth: plowing, reaping, sailing his boat, and making love. On entering Amenti, Anubis conducts the soul to the hall of Osiris where it is judged by the 42 judges and its heart is weighed against the feather of truth. If the soul passes the test, it goes to the fields of Aalu.

If the names of the 15 Aats, the 7 Arrets (circles), the 21 Pylons, as well as the gods and guardians of these domains are all known, the deceased is enabled to pass from one mansion to the other, and finally to enter the Night Boat of the Sun, which passes through the Tuat on its way to arise in the heavens. The shades who miss this boat, the unprogressed egos, must remain in the afterworld or kama-loka, while those who enter the boat are carried to the heaven world or devachan where they wander about until they return to earth for rebirth.

This refers to the passing from world to world by the ego proficient in knowledge of the "names," and thereafter entering the secret or invisible pathways to the sun. The knowledge of the names indicates spiritual, intellectual, and psychic development, by which the ego of the defunct is no longer attracted to the lower spheres, but having knowledge of them correctly answers the challenges and thereafter follows the attraction upwards and onwards.

Writing on the symbol of the egg which is often depicted as floating above a mummy, Blavatsky says: "This is the symbol of hope and the promise of a second birth for the Osirified dead; his Soul, after due purification in the Amenti, will gestate in this egg of immortality, to be reborn from it into a new life on earth. For this Egg, in the esoteric Doctrine, is the Devachan, the abode of Bliss; the winged scarabeus being alike a symbol of it" (SD 1:365).

The mystical and mythologic teachings concerning Amenti were all more or less symbolic descriptions of the series of afterdeath states and adventures experienced by the excarnate entity. Thus kama-loka, devachan, and the postmortem peregrinations of the excarnate monad are all combined under the one term Amenti.

(See also: Amenti, Amentet , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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Magic. The great "Science". According to Deveria and other Orientalists, "magic was considered as a sacred science inseparable from religion" by the oldest and most civilized and learned nations.

The Egyptians, for instance, were one of the most sincerely religious nations, as were and still are the Hindus. "Magic consists of, and is acquired by the worship of the gods", said Plato. Could then a nation, which, owing to the irrefragable evidence of inscriptions and papyri, is proved to have firmly believed in magic for thousands of years, have been deceived for so long a time. And is it likely that generations upon generations of a learned and pious hierarchy, many among whom led lives of self-martyrdom, holiness and asceticism, would have gone on deceiving themselves and the people (or even only the latter) for the pleasure of perpetuating belief in " miracles" ?

Fanatics, we are told, will do anything to enforce belief in their god or idols. To this we reply: in such case, Brahmans and Egyptian Rekhget-amens (q.v.) or Hierophants would not have popularized belief in the power of man by magic practices to command the services of the gods: which gods, are in truth, but the occult powers or potencies of Nature, personified by the learned priests themselves, in which they reverenced only the attributes of the one unknown and nameless Principle. As Proclus the Platonist ably puts it: "Ancient priests, when they considered that there is a certain alliance and sympathy in natural things to each other, and of things manifest to occult powers, and discovered that all things subsist in all, fabricated a sacred science from this mutual sympathy and similarity......and applied for occult purposes, both celestial and terrene natures, by means of which, through a certain similitude, they deduced divine virtues into this inferior abode".

Magic is the science of communicating with and directing supernal, supramundane Potencies, as well as of commanding those of the lower spheres; a practical knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature known to only the few, because they are so difficult to acquire, without falling into sins against nature. Ancient and medieval mystics divided magic into three classes - Theurgia, Goëtia and natural Magic. "Theurgia has long since been appropriated as the peculiar sphere of the theosophists and metaphysicians", says Kenneth Mackenzie.

Goëtia is black magic, and "natural (or white) magic has risen with healing in its wings to the proud position of an exact and progressive study". The comments added by our late learned Brother are remarkable. "The realistic desires of modern times have contributed to bring magic into disrepute and ridicule. . . . Faith (in one’s own self) is an essential element in magic, and existed long before other ideas which presume its pre-existence. It is said that it takes a wise man to make a fool; and a man’s ideas must be exalted almost to madness, i.e., his brain susceptibilities must be increased far beyond the low, miserable status of modern civilization, before he can become a true magician; (for) a pursuit of this science implies a certain amount of isolation and an abnegation of Self ".

A very great isolation, certainly, the achievement of which constitutes a wonderful phenomenon, a miracle in itself. Withal magic is not something supernatural. As explained by Jamblichus, "they through the sacerdotal theurgy announce that they are able to ascend to more elevated and universal Essences, and to those that are established above fate, viz., to god and the demiurgus: neither employing matter, nor assuming any other things besides, except the observation of a sensible time".

Already some are beginning to recognise the existence of subtle powers and influences in nature of which they have hitherto known nought. But as Dr. Carter Blake truly remarks, "the nineteenth century is not that which has observed the genesis of new, nor the completion of old, methods of thought"; to which Mr. Bonwick adds that "if the ancients knew but little of our mode of investigations into the secrets of nature, we know still less of their mode of research".

(See also: Magic , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

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The Subtle Bodies: The Yogic Anatomy of Human Potentialities

Through exceedingly detailed meditations over thousands of hours, the yogis determined that the human body is far more than a configuration of fleshy organs, bones, and fluids. Composed of five gradients or koshas, literally, "sheaths," with each one more interior and more subtle than the previous one, we are the actual "bridge" from the physical to the spiritual. Each sheath exerts a guiding intelligence over the next more dense sheath in the following order: the individual soul and causal body (jiva and anandamaya kosha), the reflective-intellectual body (vijnanamaya kosha), mental-emotional body (manomaya kosha), vital energy body (pranamaya kosha),and the physical body (annamaya kosha). Through this anatomy of increasingly interior bodies, yoga maps the emotionality and sentient capacities of the intimus itself and thus the way toward deepening our intimacy with one another and the world.

Read more here: » The Subtle Bodies: The Yogic Anatomy of Human Potentialities

Atma-buddhi-manas (Sanskrit) (from atman self + buddhi spiritual soul + manas mind)

The reincarnating ego in conjunction with the monad. This trinity includes only the highest essence of manas -- the higher manas. The combination of atma-buddhi-manas is sometimes mystically called the divine swallow or the uraeus of flame, when the speaker intends to convey the idea that spirit, the spiritual soul, and the intellect or higher manas are all united and therefore immortal and enduring for the cosmic manvantara. "The 'Three-tongued flame' that never dies is the immortal spiritual triad -- the Atma-Buddhi and Manas -- the fruition of the latter assimilated by the first two after every terrestrial life. The 'four wicks' that go out and are extinguished, are the four lower principles, including the body.

" 'I am the three-wicked Flame and my wicks are immortal,' says the defunct. 'I enter into the domain of Sekhem (the God whose arm sows the seed of action produced by the disembodied soul) and I enter the region of the Flames who have destroyed their adversaries,' i.e., got rid of the sin-creating 'four wicks' " (SD 1:237).

The reincarnating ego is at times loosely used to signify either atma-buddhi-manas as a monadic unity or, on the other hand, the higher manas. Strictly speaking, the reincarnating ego is the combined spiritual, intellectual, and psychological fruit gathered in by the monad or atma-buddhi at the end of each individual life of the imbodied entity; hence, the reincarnating ego is the higher manas. However, as these various manasic fruitages are ingathered by the monad in which they have their abode and from which it is impossible to separate them, the reincarnating ego is often spoken of as being the atma-buddhi plus the higher manas.

(See also: Atma-buddhi-manas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

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God as Mother: Celebration of the Mother Principle

Durga Puja is to Bengal what Ganesh Chaturthi is to Maharashtra - an occasion to celebrate, worship, bond together, to get festive, to exhibit one's artistic abilities, and all in the name of the Divine Mother.

Relating to God as Mother forges a personalised relationship, strengthening the bond between bhakta and bhagvan, as between a child and mother. Celebrated as Navratri in other parts of India, these nine nights are devoted to the worship of the Divine Mother - some do it through dancing the Garba or Dandiya Raas as in Gujarat, and some do it through austerities and fasting.

Read more here: » God as Mother: Celebration of the Mother Principle

This physical body is composed of five great elements or the Mahabhutas, namely, earth, water, fire, air and ether. The Devas or gods are endowed with a divine or luminous body. The fire Tattva is predominant in them. In man the earth Tattva is preponderating. In the case of aquatic animals the element of water predominates. In the case of birds the element of air predominates.

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. This is an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » What Is Death?: Dissolution Of Elements At Death

Studying the myths of various cultures leads to a better understanding of their social and religious underpinnings. By turning the myths inwards, inviting them into our lives and learning their language of imagery and symbolism, we learn more about ourselves.

In almost every culture, the metaphor of descent serves as a powerful, sacred and mythic image for women. One of the earliest such accounts is the story of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess and Queen of the Upper World. She was worshipped in Sumer from the third millennium BCE (before the common era) to the first millennium BCE.

(See also: Spiritual Mythology , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Spiritual Mythology: Mythology Reveals Power of Descent  

Trees of Life. From the highest antiquity trees were connected with the gods and mystical forces in nature.

Every nation had its sacred tree, with its peculiar characteristics and attributes based on natural, and also occasionally on occult properties, as expounded in the esoteric teachings. Thus the peepul or Ashvattha of India, the abode of Pitris (elementals in fact) of a lower order, became the Bo-tree or ficus religiosa of the Buddhists the world over, since Gautama Buddha reached the highest knowledge and Nirvana under such a tree. The ash tree, Yggdrasil, is the world-tree of the Norsemen or Scandinavians.

The banyan tree is the symbol of spirit and matter, descending to the earth, striking root, and then re-ascending heavenward again. The triple-leaved palasa is a symbol of the triple essence in the Universe - Spirit, Soul, Matter.

The dark cypress was the world-tree of Mexico, and is now with the Christians and Mahomedans the emblem of death, of peace and rest. The fir was held sacred in Egypt, and its cone was carried in religious processions, though now it has almost disappeared from the land of the mummies; so also was the sycamore, the tamarisk, the palm and the vine.

The sycamore was the Tree of Life in Egypt, and also in Assyria. It was sacred to Hathor at Heliopolis; and is now sacred in the same place to the Virgin Mary. Its juice was precious by virtue of its occult powers, as the Soma is with Brahmans, and Haoma with the Parsis. " The fruit and sap of the Tree of Life bestow immortality." A large volume might be written upon these sacred trees of antiquity, the reverence for some of which has survived to this day, without exhausting the subject.

(See also: Trees of Life , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

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The chanting of the Divine Name or nama japa has an important place in bhakti tradition. Nama japa can be in the form of japa or stotra. Japa is silent repetition of a mantra while stotra is uttered out loud.

The sahasranama stotra is perhaps the most popular of all stotras. There are sahasranamas of most of the deities of the Hindu pantheon of which two have attained great popularity. These are the Lalita Sahasranama in praise of the Divine Mother and Vishnu Sahasranama in praise of the Lord conceived as Vishnu.

(See also: Sahasranama , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Sahasranama: Power of Chanting The Sahasranama  

Patala:

Patala (Paathaala). Deepest hell; one of the seven regions under the earth; the abode of serpents and demons.

(See also: Patala , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

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Blue pearl:

A brilliant blue light, the size of a tiny seed, that appears in meditation; it is the subtle abode of the inner Self.

(See also: Blue pearl , Yoga, Yoga Dictionary, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Yoga Dictionary)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z

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Faith is a rare gift of God granted only to humans, and it forms the basis of human relationships. We need to repose faith in our parents that they will always think of our welfare; in our children that they will not let us down; in our colleagues and friends that they will remain loyal. Similarly, for a seeker of salvation, a prime requirement is faith or shraddha in God.

Faith in people is based on our practical experience of them. We have no such experience of God. Does our faith in Him, therefore, have to be blind? As the following story illustrates, faith in God must be reasoned.

(See also: Faith , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Faith: Shraddha In God Works Wonders  

Goloka

The eternal abode of the Supreme Lord in His original form of Krishna. It is located above all the other Vaikuntha planets. It has three parts—Vrindavana, Mathura, and Dvaraka.

(See also: Goloka , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

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The mind as a separate live entity does not exist, for it is an instrument in the hand of God. The only thing that remains is 'Being', which covers both existence and non-existence, which is beyond words or ideas. Pure awareness dawns through an understanding of one's own nature. The sage's instruction demands no strenuous effort either through physical rigour or austere practices such as chanting.

(See also: The Mind , God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » The Mind: Discover the 'I', Be One With God