Akasa Dictionary

akasa:

akasa (aakaasha). Sky, space, ether.

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

Akasa:

The first of the five material elements that constitute the universe; often translated as "space" or "eter". The four other elements are vayu (air), agni (fire), ap (water), and prithivi (earth).

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

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

AKASA: ether

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

Akasa - Ether.

(See also: Akasa ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

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)

Maha-akasa - is the great, unlimited sky or space.

(See also: Maha-akasa , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Sanskrit dictionary. From Advaita to Yoga.

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

A Theosophical definition of Akasa :

Akasa

(Sanskrit) The word means "brilliant," "shining," "luminous." The fifth kosmic element, the fifth essence or "quintessence," called Aether by the ancient Stoics; but it is not the ether of science. The ether of science is merely one of its lower elements. In the Brahmanical scriptures akasa is used for what the northern Buddhists call svabhavat, more mystically Adi-buddhi  - "primeval buddhi''; it is also mulaprakriti, the kosmical spirit-substance, the reservoir of Being and of beings. The Hebrew Old Testament refers to it as the kosmic "waters." It is universal substantial space; also mystically Alaya. (See also Mulaprakriti, Alaya)

See also: Akasa , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Akasa-sakti (Sanskrit) (from akasa ether, space + sakti power, energy, from the verbal root sak to be strong, able)

Used by Blavatsky for the soul or energy of prakriti: "The Tibetan esoteric Buddhist doctrine teaches that Prakriti is cosmic matter, out of which all visible forms are produced; and Akasa that same cosmic matter -- but still more imponderable, its spirit, as it were, 'Prakriti' being the body or substance, and Akasa-Sakti its soul or energy" (BCW 3:405n). Each divinity is supposed to have his sakti (active energy), mythologically referred to as his consort or feminine counterpart. Thus akasa-sakti is used as the akasa-power in the all-various differentiations of prakriti.

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

Akasa or Akasha:

One of the “elements” in Indian and Tantric occultism, equivalent in most ways to the “ether” concept and/or that of “astral” matter.

(See also: Akasa, Akasha , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Akasa-bhuta (Sanskrit) (from akasa ether, space + bhuta element, existing, being from the verbal root bhu to be, become)

The aether element, the Father-Mother element, third in the descending scale of seven cosmic bhutas which in the Upanishads are reckoned as five, and in Buddhist writings as four. Akasa-bhuta has its analog in the Third Logos, which because it is formative or creative is called Father-Mother. Not the ether, which is merely one of its lowest principles and only slightly more ethereal than physical matter.

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

para-akasa:

para-akasa (para-aakaasha). Supreme space.

(See also: para-akasa , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Tattva (Sanskrit) [from tat that]

Also tattwa. Thatness, the reality behind phenomenal appearance. The tattvas represent the consciousness-, force-, or spirit-side of being, in contrast to the dhatus or bhutas which as elements represent the vehicular or matter-side of being. Hence the tattvas are called the principles of nature, and the dhatus or bhutas the elements of nature. These tattvas and dhatus or bhutas are inseparable and work together constantly, for spirit and matter are fundamentally one.

Exoterically the tattvas are usually reckoned as five, but esoterically they are reckoned as seven: adi-tattva (primordial); aupapaduka-tattva (parentless or unevolved); akasa-tattva (aether); taijasa-tattva (fire); vayu-tattva (air); apas-tattva (water); and prithivi-tattva (earth). Each of these tattvas is reflected and active in the human constitution, since man is a copy in miniature of the cosmos.

(See also: Tattva , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sound In physics, a name for a group of phenomena, and in common speech auditory sensations; but in theosophic philosophy, sound is an attribute of one of the fundamental cosmic elements, akasa.

Being such, sound becomes more than a mere name describing an attribute: it is an actual efflux or production of the universal working of the akasic fluid. Hence, in a sense, it may be said to be an entity, a real force in nature, and the said phenomena and sensations only some of its effects.

Like the terms light, heat, air -- all of which are entities in occultism -- sound will have different shades of meaning according to the particular manifestation or plane concerned. In its most fundamental meaning, sound is the characteristic effect or spiritual efflux of the Third Logos, the upper end of that septenary ladder of being which constitutes the one manifested Life. In this sense akasa, considered as one of the tattvas (elementary substances), may be said to be the third cosmic Logos; although in a more universal sense akasa is the universal substantial space from which emanates the first cosmic Logos of an individual cosmic hierarchy, such as our solar system. As such, this akasic Third Logos, whose characteristic production is sound, occupies the apex of a triangle, combining both the active and passive potencies of creative energy. Logos is Greek for Word, what the Latins called Verbum, including both forms and vibratory force. Sound is therefore a tremendous occult creative power: it called worlds into being out of chaos, as is said in every cosmogony. This power descends to man, through his divine ancestry, as well as from the higher parts of his constitution, and the power of sound is known to adepts and used by them, being called mantrika-sakti.

Always and everywhere the power of mantras and incantations has been recognized. Orators use mantras -- they call them slogans -- with instinctive knowledge of their efficacy, and set afloat phrases that stir the public mind and strongly influence events. Often in daily conversation we instinctively forbear to speak a name or a word, though we would make no objection to writing it.

Sound is a property of akasa, the primary of aether, sometimes called space. In the list of the five commonly accepted tattvas, senses, and organs, akasa-tattva is at the top, corresponding to sound and hearing. The aether of space has seven principles and is the vibratory soundboard of nature in all its seven differentiations. Sound is directed in its operations by fohat, being one of seven radicals.

The power of sound is connected with rhythmic vibration and sympathetic vibration; a powerful voice, sounding the right tone, may shatter a wineglass; and the imagination suggests dangerous applications of this principle. To dabble experimentally in it, or to follow the teachings of pseudo-occultists, would be like an ignorant person meddling with the switches in a powerhouse.

(See also: Sound , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Aether, Ether (Greek) (from aitho shining, fire)

The upper or purer air as opposed to aer, the lower air; the clear sky; the abode of the gods. In Classical antiquity it denoted primordial substance, Proteus or protyle, the unitary source both of all substances and energies, the mask of all kosmic phenomena. Often used loosely to embrace a domain which extends from the All-Father himself down to the atmosphere of our earth. Vergil speaks of "Jupiter omnipotens aether," and Cicero describes aether as the ultimate zone of heaven encircling, embracing, and permeating all things. At one time a member of the pantheon and object of veneration, at another the quest of the alchemist in search of the "absolute element" which would give him power over nature, and finally a hypothetical medium of science for conveying light waves.

Sometimes aether is used in translating the Sanskrit akasa, which has the same etymological and philosophical meaning. Here it is an element or principle coming after manas and kama and before the astral light and ether. Again, it is a high aspect of akasa, having itself also seven subordinate aspects. There are in kosmic space at least seven aethers or prakritis, which exist one within the other in a rising scale of spirituality. Collectively they may be called spirit-aether or akasa.

Generally in The Secret Doctrine it is the fifth kosmic element from below, a link between kosmic mind or mahat and the lower manifested world, the vehicle of the former and the parent of the latter. Looking at aether in a more general kosmic way, it is the field of activity of the kosmic Third Logos, Brahma-prakriti, and therefore the great womb of manifested being, the treasure house of all kosmic types, forth from which they flow at the opening of manifestation and back into which they will again be ingathered at the beginning of kosmic pralaya. It is in consequence the great mother-substance out of which all the hierarchies are built.

It interpenetrates everything, lasting from the beginning of the universal manvantara to its end, and indeed, may be said to continue, in its most spiritualized form throughout kosmic pralaya as the seed-house or storehouse from which everything will flow into manifestation again when the new period of kosmic activity arrives. Considered as the cosmic mother of all things, aether in its highest feminine aspect is the same as the Vedic Aditi or the Hera or Juno of Greece and Rome. Thus in one sense it is also mulaprakriti, the generator or producer of the seeds of beginnings and things. The Old Testament refers to aether as the kosmic waters. In its highest parts it is mystically alaya (the kosmic spirit-soul) or what in Northern Buddhism is called svabhavat, more mystically adi-buddhi.

See also ACTIO IN DISTANS; AKASA

(See also: Aether, Ether , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bhutasarga (Sanskrit) (from bhuta has beens + sarga creation, production)

Elemental creation; the second of the seven creations or emanations, popularly given in the Hindu Puranas as mahat-tattva, bhutasarga, indriya or aindriyaka, mukhya, tairyagyonya or tiryaksrota, urdhvasrotas, and arvakstrotas. Bhutasarga cosmically is the first differentiation of universal indiscrete substance, or primordial akasa, the first stage of the differentiation of the pre-cosmic elements; the word bhutasarga itself suggests that this differentiation is according to seeds or germs (bhutas) reappearing anew from the preceding cosmic manvantara. "In astronomical and Cosmogonical language this Creation relates to the first stage of cosmic-life, the Fire-Mist Period after its Chaotic stage, when atoms issue from Laya" (SD 1:453).

The second hierarchy of the manus, the dhyani-chohans or fully self-conscious devas, who are the original producers of form (rupas), appear at this stage of cosmic emanational evolution. In the Vishnu-Purana these beings are called chitrasikandinas (bright-crested), the seven rishis who are the informing souls of the seven principal stars of the Great Bear. These seven rishis represent hierarchies of spiritual beings who preside over and guide the septenary stages of the evolution of the cosmos.

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

Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akasa and with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it is something quite on another plane. The seventh principle of the earth’s atmosphere, as said, the Astral Light, is only the second on the Cosmic scale. The scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and Planes, of Emanations - on the metaphysical - and Evolutions - on the physical plane - is the Cosmic Serpent biting its own tail, the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and reflected in its turn by the lower Serpent. The Caduceus explains the mystery, and the four-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the universe is said by Plato to have been built by the manifested Logos - synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born - yields geometrically the key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic reflection - our Earth.

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

Buddhi (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root budh to awaken, enlighten, know)

The spiritual soul, the faculty of discriminating, the channel through which streams divine inspiration from the atman to the ego, and therefore that faculty which enables us to discern between good and evil -- spiritual conscience. The qualities of the buddhic principle when awakened are higher judgment, instant understanding, discrimination, intuition, love that has no bounds, and consequent universal forgiveness.

In the theosophical scheme, it is the sixth principle counting upwards in the human constitution: the vehicle of pure, universal spirit, hence an inseparable garment or vehicle of atman. In its essence of the highest plane of akasa or alaya, buddhi stands in the same relation to atman as, on the cosmic scale, mulaprakriti does to parabrahman.

Buddhi uses manas as its garment, and in the former are likewise stored the fruitages of the many incarnations on earth; hence buddhi is often called both the seed and flower of manas. Buddhi is truly the center of spiritual consciousness and therefore its qualities are enduring. The purer and higher part of manas must awaken, by rising to it, this essential energy that inherently resides in buddhi so that the latter may become active in a person's life. Buddha and Christ are examples of sages who had become human imbodiments of the usually latent qualities of buddhi. Buddhi becomes more or less conscious on this plane by the flowerings it draws from manas after every incarnation of the ego. "Buddhi would remain only an impersonal spirit without this element which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions and makes of it, in this illusive Universe, as it were something separate from the universal soul for the whole period of the cycle of incarnation" (Key 159-60).

"No purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle, -- or the over-soul, -- has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha)" (SD 1:17).

In the human constitution buddhi is a ray from the cosmic principle mahabuddhi or adi-buddhi, a synonym for alaya, pradhana, or the Second Logos, while akasa in its higher reaches is identic with alaya.

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

Chaos (Greek) (from chaino to gape, yawn open)

"The earth was without form and void," says Genesis in describing the first stages of cosmogony. In Greek mythology contains the same idea of the primordial emptiness and formlessness which precedes the rebirth of a universe after pralaya. It was the vacant and spiritual space which existed before the creation of the universe or of the world; from it proceeded Darkness and Night.

Chaos is "chaotic" only in the sense that its constituents are unformed and unorganized; it is the kosmic storehouse of all the latent or resting seeds from former manvantaras. It means space -- not the Boundless, parabrahman-mulaprakriti, but the space of any particular hierarchy descending into manifestation. In one sense it is the condition of a solar system or planetary chain during its pralaya, containing all the elements in an undifferentiated state. Aether and chaos are the two principles immediately posterior to the first principle.

Various terms more or less synonymous are akasa, the universal egg (from which Brahma issued as light), the virgin egg, the virgin mother, the immaculate root (fructified by the ray), the primeval deep, the abyss, the great mother. The divine ray and chaos are father-mother or cosmic fire and water. Chaos-Theos-Cosmos are the triple deity or all-in-all. Chaos was personified in Egypt by the goddess Neith, who is the Father-Mother of the Stanzas of Dzyan, the akasa of the Hindus, the svabhavat of the northern Buddhists, and the Icelandic ginnungagap.

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

A Theosophical definition of Svabhavat :

Svabhavat

(Sanskrit) The neuter present participle of a compound word derived from the verb-root bhu, meaning "to become," from which is derived a secondary meaning "to be," in the sense of growth.

Svabhavat is a state or condition of cosmic consciousnesssubstance, where spirit and matter, which are fundamentally one, no longer are dual as in manifestation, but one: that which is neither manifested matter nor manifested spirit alone, but both are the primeval unity  - spiritual akasa  - where matter merges into spirit, and both now being really one, are called "Father-Mother," spirit-substance. Svabhavat never descends from its own state or condition, or from its own plane, but is the cosmic reservoir of being, as well as of beings, therefore of consciousness, of intellectual light, of life; and it is the ultimate source of what science, in our day, so quaintly calls the energies of nature universal.

The northern Buddhists call svabhavat by a more mystical term, Adi-buddhi, "primeval buddhi"; the Brahmanical scriptures call it akasa; and the Hebrew Old Testament refers to it as the cosmic "waters."

The difference in meaning between svabhavat and svabhava is very great and is not generally understood; the two words often have been confused. Svabhava is the characteristic nature, the type-essence, the individuality, of svabhavat  - of any svabhavat, each such svabhavat having its own svabhava. Svabhavat, therefore, is really the world-substance or stuff, or still more accurately that which is causal of the world-substance, and this causal principle or element is the spirit and essence of cosmic substance. It is the plastic essence of matter, both manifest and unmanifest. (See also Akasa)

See also: Svabhavat , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul