A Wisdom Archive on Ananda

Introduction and links to related topics

Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.


Ananda - Ananda (Sanskrit) (from a-nand to rejoice, be delighted)

Bliss, joy, happiness; the favorite disciple of Gautama Buddha, who served his teacher with utmost devotion for twenty years and is credited with having recited, shortly after the Buddha''s parinibbana (great passing away), the entire buddhavachana (word of Buddha).

In Vedantic philosophy, the third word of the phrase sat-chit-ananda (sachchidananda): the three attributes given to atman or Brahman, or the cosmic Logos.

See also CHIT, SAT.

Ananda - (Sanskrit) "Bliss." The pure joy - ecstasy or enstasy - of God-consciousness or spiritual experience. In its highest sense, ananda is expressed in the famous Vedic description of God: sat-chit-ananda, "existenceconsciousness- bliss" - the divine or superconscious mind of all souls.
See: God Realization, Satchidananda.

Ananda - Ananda (Sanskrit). Bliss, joy, felicity, happiness. A name of the favourite disciple of Gautama, the Lord Buddha.

Ananda - Bliss or joy. In Indian philosophy of the Upanishads, Ananda was an important attribute of the supreme being, Brahman. "Bliss" was used to define Brahman and was also considered to be the highest state of the individual self.

Tandava - (Sanskrit) "Violent dance."

Any vigorous dance sequence performed by a male dancer. There are many forms of tandava. Its prototype is Siva''s dance of bliss, ananda tandava. The more sublime, female dance is called lasya, from lasa, "lively." Dance in general is nartana.
See: Nataraja.

Ullambana - Ullambana (Sanskrit). The festival of "all souls", the prototype of All Souls’ Day in Christian lands.

It is held in China on the seventh moon annually, when both " Buddhist and Tauist priests read masses, to release the souls of those who died on land or sea from purgatory, scatter rice to feed Pretas [ classes of demons ever hungry and thirsty] , consecrate domestic ancestral shrines, . . . . recite Tantras . . . accompanied by magic finger-play (mudra) to comfort the ancestral spirits of seven generations in Naraka" (a kind of purgatory or Kama Loka) The author of the Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary thinks that this is the old Tibetan (Bhon) " Gtorma ritual engrafted upon Confucian ancestral worship," owing to Dhamaraksha translating the Ullambana Sutra and introducing it into China.

The said Sutra is certainly a forgery, as it gives these rites on the authority of Sakyamuni Buddha, and " supports it by the alleged experiences of his principal disciples, Ananda being said to have appeased Pretas by food offerings ". But as correctly stated by Mr. Eitel, "the whole theory, with the ideas of intercessory prayers, priestly litanies and requiems, and ancestral worship, is entirely foreign to ancient and Southern Buddhism ".

And to the Northern too, if we except the sects of Bhootan and Sikkim, of the Bhon or Dugpa persuasion - the red caps, in short. As the ceremonies of All Saints’ Day, or days, are known to have been introduced into China in the third century (265-292), and as the same Roman Catholic ceremonial and ritual for the dead, held on November 2nd, did not exist in those early days of Christianity, it cannot be the Chinese who borrowed this religious custom from the Latins, but rather the latter who imitated the Mongolians and Chinese.

Dashanami - (Sanskrit) "Ten names."

Ten monastic orders organized by Adi Shankara (ca 800): Aranya, Vana, Giri, Parvata, Sagara, Tirtha, Ashrama, Bharati, Puri and Sarasvati.

Also refers to sannyasins of these orders, each of whom bears his order''s name, with ananda often attached to the religious name. For example, Ramananda Tirtha. Traditionally, each order is associated with one of the main Shankaracharya pithas.
See: Shankaracharya pitha, Smarta Sampradaya, Shankara.

Ananda-lahari - Ananda-lahari (Sanskrit) (from ananda joy, bliss + lahari a large wave)

A poem attributed to Sankaracharya, written in the guise of a hymn of praise to Parvati, consort of Siva, and containing highly mystical teaching (TG 21).

Ananda Yoga - Ananda Yoga focuses on gentle postures designed to move the body''s energy to different organs and muscles, but primarily to the brain to prepare for meditation.

Ananda - Name of one of Buddha''s disciples, joining early during Buddha''s second year of teaching; he was one of Buddha''s favored disciples, if not his most favored; his name means "joy." He was trusted to teach the doctrines, and to begin sermons. It was Ananda who got women admitted into the Buddhist order.

Anandamayakosa - Anandamayakosa (Sanskrit) (from ananda bliss, joy + maya built of, formed of from the verbal root ma to measure, form + kosa sheath)

Bliss-built sheath; in the Vedantic classification, the first of the panchakosa (five sheaths) of the human constitution which enclose the divine monad (atman); it corresponds to the spiritual soul (buddhi). Anandamayakosa is sometimes mystically referred to as the sheath of the sun.

See also KOSA

Sat - Sat (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root as to be]

Being; the real, the enduring fundamental essence of the world, "for Sat is in itself neither the ''existent,'' nor ''being.'' Sat is the immutable, the ever present, changeless and eternal root, from and through which all proceeds. But it is far more than the potential force in the seed, which propels onward the process of development, or what is now called evolution. It is the ever becoming, though the never manifesting. Sat is born from Asat and ASAT is begotten by sat: the perpetual motion in a circle, truly; yet a circle that can be squared only at the supreme Initiation, at the threshold of Paranirvana" (SD 2:449-50).

Sat is not Being, but Be-ness, since whatever is manifested is something phenomenal, not ever-lasting. Sat (pure being), chit (pure thought), and ananda (bliss) together signify the state of the Absolute.

In the Vedanta, used as the self-existent or universal spirit.

Sachchidananda - Sachchidananda saccidananda (Sanskrit) [from sat reality + chit pure consciousness + ananda bliss]

Abstract being, abstract consciousness, abstract bliss; the state of the cosmic spiritual hierarch, Brahman or the Second Logos, the Absolute of our cosmic hierarchy. Subba Row wrote that the Logos is described as sachchidananda because as sat it is the efflux of parabrahman, as chit it contains within itself the whole law of cosmic evolution, as ananda it is the abode of impersonal bliss and the highest happiness possible for a person who has become a jivanmukta -- a freed monad, when union with the cosmic Logos is attained.