A Wisdom Archive on Back To School

Charyaka (Sanskrit) There were two famous beings of this name. One a Rakshasa (demon) who disguised himself as a Brahman and entered Hastina-pura; whereupon the Brahmans discovered the imposture and reduced Charyaka to ashes with the fire of their eyes, - i.e., magnetically by means of what is called in Occultism the "black glance" or evil eye.
 
The second was a terrible materialist and denier of all but matter, who if he could come back to life, would put to shame all the "Free thinkers" and "Agnostics" of the day. He lived before the Ramayanic period, but his teachings and school have survived to this day, and he has even now followers, who are mostly to be found in Bengal.

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

Zagreus, Zagreus-Dionysos (Greek) Dionysos was an earlier name for Bacchus. The mythos concerning Zagreus belongs to the cycle of teachings of the Orphic Mysteries rather than to mythology, so no references occur in the writings for the people, such as Homer and Hesiod. The references that have come down to our day occur principally in the manuscripts of the ancient Greek dramatists, poets, and in other ancient fragments.
 
As cosmic evolution was taught in the Orphic Mysteries by allegory, so was the evolution of the individual soul or microcosm, centering in the mythos of Zagreus, later Zagreus-Dionysos, the Greek savior, which the Greek Dionysian Mysteries sought to unfold in dramatic and veiled or symbolic literary form. "Dionysos is one with Osiris, with Krishna, and with Buddha (the heavenly wise), and with the coming (tenth) Avatar, the glorified Spiritual Christos . . ." (SD 2:420).
 
Zagreus has three distinct meanings: 1) the mighty hunter (the pilgrim-soul, hunting for the truth, its aeonic pilgrimage back to divinity); 2) he that takes many captives (the Lord of the Dead); and 3) the restorer or regenerator (King of the Reborn or initiates). Zagreus (later Bacchus or Iacchos) is the divine Son, the third of the Orphic Trinity, the other two being Zeus the Demiurge or divine All-father, and Demeter-Kore, the earth goddess in her twofold aspect as the divine Mother and the mortal maid.
 
The mythos relates that Zagreus, a favored son of Zeus, aroused the wrath of Hera, who plotted his destruction. First she released the dethroned titans from Tartaros to slay the newborn babe. They induced the child to give up the scepter and apple for the false toys which they held before him: a thyrsos or Bacchic wand (symbol of matter and rebirth into material life), a giddy spinning top, and a mirror (maya or illusion). As the child was gazing at himself in the mirror, they seized him, tore his body into seven or fourteen pieces (as in the Egyptian Mystery tale of Osiris); boiled and roasted and then devoured them. Discovered in this enormity by Zeus, the titans were blasted with his thunderbolt and from their ashes sprang the human race.
 
The titans with their false gifts symbolize the pursuing energies of the personal, material life, which enchain and delude the soul. They are earth powers which lead the soul from the path by the lure of things of sense. The dismembered body is first boiled in water -- symbol of the astral world; then roasted, "as gold is tried by fire," symbol of suffering and purification and the reascent of the victorious soul to bliss.
 
Apollo or the Muses, at the command of Zeus, gathered the scattered fragments and interred them near the Omphalos (navel of the earth) at Delphi. The coffin was inscribed: "Here lies dead, the body of Dionysos, son of Semele," as the Zagreus myth was known only to those initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and the Semele myth was popularly known. The exoteric myth represents the divine Son as the son of Zeus by the mortal maid Semele, Demeter-Kore in the guise of a mortal woman, to whom the still beating heart of Zagreus was entrusted when he was slain, that she might become its mother-guardian.
 
Hera, however, poisoned the mind of Semele with suspicion when the new-forming body of Zagreus within her reached the seventh month of gestation, and Semele impelled Zeus to reveal himself to her in his true form, whereupon the mortal body of Semele was destroyed by the divine fire. The holy babe was saved from death by Zeus, who sewed the child up in his own thigh until "the life that formerly was Zagreus, was reborn as Dionysos," the risen Savior, at Easter (the spring equinox), while as Zagreus he had been born at Semele''s death at the winter solstice. Here we
 
See the myth''s solar significance.
 
The nymphs of Mount Nysa reared him safely in a cave, and when he reached manhood, Hera forced him to wander over the earth. He overcame all opposition and was successful in establishing Mystery schools wherever he went. After his triumph in the world of men, Dionysos descended into the underworld and led forth his mother, now rechristened as Semele-Thyone (Semele the Inspired), to take her place among the Olympian divinities as the divine mother and radiant queen, and later, with Dionysos, to ascend to heaven.
 
Zagreus as Dionysos is known as the god of many names, most of which refer to his twofold character as the suffering mortal Zagreus, and the immortal or reborn god-man. Many titles also refer to him as the mystic savior. He is the All-potent, the Permanent, the Life-blood of the World, the majesty in the forest, in fruit, in the hum of the bee, in the flowing of the stream, etc., the earth in its changes -- the list runs on indefinitely, and is strikingly similar to the passage in which Krishna, the Hindu avatara, instructs Arjuna how he shall know him completely: "I am the taste in water, the light in the sun and moon," etc. (BG ch 7).
 
The philosophers, dramatists, and historians who held the Dionysian mythos to be purely allegorical and symbolic take in the great names of antiquity, including Plato, Pythagoras, all the Neoplatonists, the greatest historians, and a few of the early Christian Fathers, notably Clement of Alexandria; Eusebius, Tertullian, Justin, and Augustine, also write of it.
 
The exoteric literature of Orphism is scanty, while the esoteric teachings were never committed to writing. Outside of the Orphic Tablets and Orphic Hymns, no original material has been discovered to date. Scholars judging from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, have held that the Eleusinian Mystery-drama was based solely on the story of Persephone; but later researches indicate that, under the influence of Epimenides and Onomakritos, both deep students of Orphism, the Orphic Mystery tale of Zagreus-Dionysos was incorporated in the Eleusian ritual, the divine son Iacchos becoming thus identified with the Orphic god-man, Zagreus-Dionysos.
 
Cosmically this highly esoteric story refers to the cosmic Logos building the universe and becoming thereby not only its inspiriting and invigorating soul, but likewise the divinity guiding manifestation from Chaos to complete fullness of evolutionary grandeur; and in the case of mankind, the legend refers to the origin, peregrinations, and destiny of the human monad, itself a spiritual consciousness-center, from unself-consciousness as a god-spark, through the wanderings of destiny until becoming a fully self-conscious god. The key to the symbolism of Zagreus-Dionysos is given by Plato in the Cratylus: "The Spirit within us is the true image of Dionysos. He therefore who acts erroneously in regard to It . . . sins against Dionysos Himself," i.e., the inner god, the divinity in man. The legend thus contains not only past cosmic as well as human history, but contains as a prophecy what will come to pass in the distant future.

 
(See also: Zagreus, Zagreus-Dionysos, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul )

There are some conversations that have a way of popping back to haunt you time and again. The one that I had with my older daughter when she was barely five, falls in this category.
 
 

 
(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Life and Death: An Unimpressive Report Card

In vedanta, the second capsule of the Brahma Sutras is the most fundamental, cardinal, sacrosanct, and is also the most famous. Janmadyasya yatah - Brahman is that from which the birth and the evolution of the universe follow.
 
It says Brahman is that ultimate 'world’ which we gain access to by distilling the world down to its inmost content, or the furthest stop from where we get off by travelling backwards in time-space. Astronomical observations have confirmed more or less beyond doubt that stars, galaxies and clusters of super galaxies are receding from the earth and from one another.
 
The clinching evidence comes from the Doppler Effect or the Red Shift. The shift in the spectral lines towards the longer wavelengths identified by the red colour in the spectrum confirms that the source of light is moving and is not at rest.

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

Read more here: » Big Bang Theory: Vedanta's Version Of the Big Bang  

There are four T's that need periodic revival. They are: Truth, Tradition, Trade and Technology. Time has a seeming effect on truth. Though truth is beyond time, it gets covered by maya or illusion. This is called avarana. Down the ages different schools of thought have tried to uncover the truth. Though the goal is common to all, the journey itself has to be undertaken individually. If you do not re-examine what you have learnt and believe to be the truth, you become fanatical and your intellectual growth stagnates.

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Revival and Revolution Ucover the Truth

Simply put, happiness is satisfaction of mind. However, different individuals have different perceptions of how to achieve happiness. For some, happiness lies in wealth; for others, it is in rank and position; yet others find happiness in fame and name. Commonly, happiness is measured by achievement in terms of money, property, other material possessions, power, name, fame, education, lifestyle, position and social status.

 
(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Mantra for Happiness - Loving Detachment

Our lives are a series of experiences. Although these experiences appear to be linear, actually, they are not so. We discover this when we pause to carefully reflect on them. Life is a form of language with its own punctuation marks, much like the written language, where each punctuation mark has an unspoken meaning.
 
I experienced the visible language of life recently when I was down with a viral fever with a severe chest congestion. I was completely dependent upon others to even get up on my feet. Without the care and support of my family, I would have had to be hospitalised. Because of the intensive care I received at home, I bounced back to good health within a reasonable period of time.

 
(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: Your Good Health Can Spread Cheer

The recent killings in the land of the Mahatma, the apostle of peace and non- violence, raises a very serious question. Is human consciousness being governed by the tenets of a few religious texts or is it capable of transcending all barriers for the sake of universal brotherhood?
 
Christians have killed Jews. Jews and Muslims are fighting all the time. Hindus have a long history of wars going back to the time of the Mahabharata. Despite the advancement of science, people continue to fight on national, religious or racial criteria.
 

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

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Channel Destructive

Traditional - A name used by British witches and covens who claim that their practices pre-dated Gardnerian ones. In America, it tends to mean adhering consistently to a particular cultural tradition, often from family racial roots. See also Hereditary.

 
(See also: Traditional, Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary )

Tradition, Wicca - An organized, structured, specific Wiccan subgroup. Much like Christianity has denominations each with their own style, Wicca has many traditions (and some Wicca follow no specific tradition see eclectic Wicca). Common examples include Garnerian, Seax (not sex), Dianic, Faery, Pecti, Teutonic, Caledoni, Alexandrian, and there are many others...

 
(See also: Tradition, Wicca, Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary )

Tree Calendar - The celtic system of reckoning the 13 lunar months of the year by assigning each a sacred tree.

 
(See also: Tree Calendar, Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary )