Brahma Dictionary

Brahma:

Brahma ("he who has grown expansive"): the Creator of the universe, the first principle (tattva) to emerge out of the ultimate Reality (brahman)

(See also: Brahma ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Brahma:

Brahma. The Creator in the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu (the Preserver), and Siva (the Destroyer).

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

brahma:

form of the hindu trinity governing creation or the creator god

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

AHAM BRAHMA ASMI: I am Brahman

(See also: AHAM BRAHMA ASMI , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Brahma - the spiritual effulgence emanating from the transcendental body of the Lord; the all-pervading, indistinct feature of the Absolute. Depending on the context, this may sometimes refer to the Supreme Brahma, Sri Krsna, who is the source of brahma.

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

Brahma Sutras: A treatise by Vyasa on Vedanta philosophy in the form of aphorisms. Also called the Vedanta Sutras or Vedanta Darshana.

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

cosmic cycle: One of the infinitely recurring periods of the universe, comprising its creation, preservation and dissolution. These cycles are measured in periods of progressive ages, called yugas. Satya (or Krita), Treta, Dvapara and Kali are the names of these four divisions, and they repeat themselves in that order, with the Satya Yuga being the longest and the Kali Yuga the shortest. The comparison is often made of these ages with the cycles of the day: Satya Yuga being morning until noon, the period of greatest light or enlightenment, Treta Yuga afternoon, Dvapara evening, and Kali Yuga the darkest part of the night. Four yugas equal one mahayuga.

Theories vary, but by traditional astronomical calculation, a mahayuga equals 4,320,000 solar years (or 12,000 "divine years;" one divine year is 360 solar years) -  with the

• Satya Yuga lasting 1,728,000 years,
• Treta Yuga 1,296,000 years,
• Dvapara Yuga 864,000 years, and
• Kali Yuga 432,000 years.

Mankind is now experiencing the Kali Yuga, which began at midnight, February 18, 3102 bce (year one on the Hindu calendar [see Hindu Timeline]) and will end in approximately 427,000 years. (By another reckoning, one mahayuga equals approximately two million solar years.) A dissolution called laya occurs at the end of each mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed by flood and fire. Each destructive period is followed by the succession of creation (srishti), evolution or preservation (sthiti) and dissolution (laya).

A summary of the periods in the cosmic cycles:

• 1 mahayuga = 4,320,000 years (four yugas)
• 71 mahayugas = 1 manvantara or manu (we are in the 28th mahayuga)
• 14 manvantaras = 1 kalpa or day of Brahma (we are in the 7th manvantara)
• 2 kalpas = 1 ahoratra or day and night of Brahma 360 ahoratras = 1 year of Brahma
• 100 Brahma years = 309,173,760,000,000 years (one "lifetime" of Brahma, or the universe).

We are in Brahma Year 51 of the current cycle. At the end of every kalpa or day of Brahma a greater dissolution, called pralaya (or kalpanta, "end of an eon"), occurs when both the physical and subtle worlds are absorbed into the causal world, where souls rest until the next kalpa begins. This state of withdrawal or "night of Brahma," continues for the length of an entire kalpa until creation again issues forth.

After 36,000 of these dissolutions and creations there is a total, universal annihilation, mahapralaya, when all three worlds, all time, form and space, are withdrawn into God Siva. After a period of total withdrawal a new universe or lifespan of Brahma begins. This entire cycle repeats infinitely. This view of cosmic time is recorded in the Puranas and the Dharma Shastras.

See: mahapralaya.

(See also: Cosmic cycle , Hinduism, 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.

Buddhism: Basic Buddhist Dictionary

A basic dictionary of Buddhism terms. Please note that all words in grey like " Buddhism " are links to an archive with related articles.

A dictionary with common spiritual words from Hinduism and Sanskrit. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

A dictionary Of Siddha Yoga Terminology. From Abhanga to Yogini.

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 dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From A to Crore.

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.

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.

Brahma's Day, Night, Age, Year, Life A Day of Brahma, a cosmic manvantara or out-breathing of Brahma, represents a period where worlds are evolved and pass through their allotted ages of manvantaric existence.

Each Day of Brahma consists of 1,000 aggregates of four yugas or 1,000 mahayugas (great ages). In a smaller sense it is also a mahamanvantara or kalpa of a planetary chain, composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. A Night of Brahma, a cosmic pralaya, inbreathing of Brahma, or planetary paranirvana, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma or seven planetary cycles make one solar kalpa. One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days and Nights, each Day of which is the duration of the imbodiment of a planetary chain, with Nights of equal length.

The Life of Brahma or of the solar system consists of 100 Divine Years (311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years). The current Life of Brahma is about half completed -- a period of about 155,520,000,000,000 of our years having passed away since our solar system first began its mahamanvantara. There remain, therefore, fifty more Years of Brahma before the system sinks into cosmic pralaya. As only half the grand evolutionary period is accomplished, we are at the bottom of the cosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also FOUR

(See also: Brahmas Day, Night, Age, Year, Life , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Solar System Commonly, the Sun with the nine principal planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto -- their satellites, and the minor planets, comets, and meteors; in theosophy, however, the solar system is a far more complex entity, for many of its worlds manifest on planes of being invisible to our senses.

The planets are individual manifestations of conscious intelligences, their distances from the sun being generally in rhythmical progression and their motions directed by mind and volition, as Kepler declared in his doctrine of Rectors, following the ancient teachings. The nebular hypothesis, once so popular in European scientific thought and now more or less rejected, was first suggested by Swedish seer Swedenborg and German philosopher Kant, and around the beginning of the 19th century was worked out in mathematical detail by the Frenchman Laplace. Though the nebular hypothesis as scientifically presented was unacceptable to theosophical thinkers, it nevertheless was based upon facts of cosmic evolution accepted by the ancient wisdom-religion and approximated somewhat more closely to what theosophy teaches as the facts of cosmogony than do the later tidal or planetesimal theories.

In theosophy the universe is the product of cosmic mind or intelligence, whose all-permeant activities manifest on our material plane as the laws of nature. The universe and all in it, proceeding from cosmic consciousness, is imbued throughout with the qualities and attributes of its divine originators; and as there is but one primordial fundamental life -- and therefore one fundamental law -- energizing and guiding all, the ancient teaching of analogy is the master key to understanding universal nature.

Calling the primordial origins of every being and thing by the term monads, as Leibniz did following Pythagoras, these monads may be looked upon as the seeds of cosmic life, life-centers or energy points, and in such case naught in the universe is the product of chance, but is the offspring of mind. Thus the solar system itself sprang from such a cosmic seed or monad; and the same holds true for the planets, nebulae, comets, and all other individually enduring cosmic bodies.

Comets are coordinated with earlier and later stages of nebular evolution, playing an activating part in the formation of individual celestial bodies. The planets did not emerge from the sun, but the sun is their "co-uterine brother" with the same nebular origin. The sun is the great distributor of light and other radiations, including vital energy, throughout the solar system, and is itself a member of a hierarchy of solar beings.

The ancient wisdom speaks of seven sacred planets which are especially connected with the earth, as indeed our own earth is likewise especially connected with various planetary chains, which mutually assisted in the formation of the seven or twelve globes of the planetary chains. These sacred planets are: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the Sun and Moon being substitutes for esoteric and invisible planets. The complete number of the planets of a solar system is twelve, which is the number of globes composing a planetary chain. These twelve sacred planets are closely linked with the twelve houses of the zodiac, these links of unity being the energic coordinates tying our solar system in with the life and structure of the galaxy.

Theosophy makes a distinction between the solar system and the universal solar system -- the former has especial reference to the twelve sacred planets, while the universal solar system refers to all bodies belonging to and revolving around a master- or king-sun (raja-sun) and within the latter's far-flung realm on seven or more planes of being. It therefore contains planets and suns invisible to our present range of sense perception. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are said not to belong to the solar system (nor are they included among the twelve sacred planets), but are members of the universal solar system.

In the Brahmanical system the solar system was regarded as an Egg of Brahma (brahmanda), the prakritic or prithivi-form of Brahma, so that its life span is equivalent to the length of Brahma's manifested life. A Day of Brahma for a planetary chain consists of a planetary manvantara -- seven rounds of the various life-waves around that chain -- a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. The ensuing pralaya or Night of Brahma is of an equivalent length, together equaling 8,640,000,000 terrestrial years. Forty-nine such planetary Days and Nights equal one solar manvantara, equivalent to a Year of Brahma; and each such year of Brahma is figured as being 360 of his Days; and 100 such Years of Brahma equal Brahma's Life, a period of 311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years -- including in this vast time period the various twilights and dawns. Theosophic philosophy states that one-half of Brahma's Life has been spent, or 50 Years of Brahma. At the end of Brahma's Life, the final consummation of the solar system, so far as the planetary chain is concerned, will occur, and everything within the bounds of this system will vanish, and the succeeding solar pralaya will commence.

(See also: Solar System , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Ahan (Sanskrit) Day (ahan, ahas are base forms of some of the grammatical cases of ahan). In the Vishnu-Purana (1:5), one of the four bodies of Brahma: "Jyotsna (dawn), Ratri (night), Ahan (day), and Sandhya (evening)" which are "invested by the three qualities" (triguna). Esoterically this has "a direct bearing upon the seven principles of the manifested Brahma, or universe, in the same order as man. Exoterically, it is only four principles" (SD 2:58n). Hence only four bodies of Brahma are mentioned in the Puranas.

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

Angiras (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ang to go, move tortuously (cf agni))

One of the Saptarshis (seven rishis) or manasaputras (mind-born sons of Brahma) of the first manvantara; a secondary projection of Brahma's mind and will because his first "mind-engendered progeny . . . did not multiply themselves (VP 1:7; SD 2:78). Hence Angiras is one of the prajapatis or progenitors whose sons and daughters people the earth in succeeding manvantaras, mankind included in their progeny.

These progenitors are divided into two main classes: those which are incorporeal, such as the agnishvattas, and those which are corporeal, such as the angirasas, the descendants of Angiras (VP 3:14). Theosophically, angirasas are a class of manasaputras, the emanated offspring of the incorporeal agnishvattas or kumaras. In the seventh manvantara (our present one) Angiras is given as the son of Agni, though originally Agni was born from Angiras. In astronomy Angiras is both the father or regent of Brihaspati (the planet Jupiter) and the planet itself; also a star in Ursa Major, inasmuch as Angiras is one of the seven great rishis. As such the name of Angiras is linked with the bringing of light and associated with luminous bodies.

A number of hymns in the Rig-Veda are attributed to Angiras, and in one of his births he is famed for his supreme virtue and as an expounder of brahma-vidya (divine or transcendental wisdom). In the Vayu-Purana and elsewhere in Puranic literature some of the descendants of Angiras were said to be Kshattriya by birth and Brahmins by calling (VP 4:8n p.39).

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

Akasa (Sanskrit). The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades all space; the primordial substance erroneously identified with Ether. But it is to Ether what Spirit is to Matter, or Atma to Kama-rupa.

It is, in fact, the Universal Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe in its ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity, and from which radiates the First Logos, or expressed thought. This is why it is stated in the Puranas that Akasa has but one attribute, namely sound, for sound is but the translated symbol of Logos - "Speech" in its mystic sense. In the same sacrifice (the Jyotishtoma Agnishtoma) it is called the "God Akasa". In these sacrificial mysteries Akasa is the all-directing ‘and omnipotent Deva who plays the part of Sadasya, the superintendent over the magical effects of the religious performance, and it had its own appointed Hotri (priest) in days of old, who took its name.

The Akasa is the indispensable agent of every Kritya (magical performance) religious or profane. The expression "to stir up the Brahma", means to stir up the power which lies latent at the bottom of every magical operation, Vedic sacrifices being in fact nothing if not ceremonial magic.

This power is the Akasa - in another aspect, Kundalini - occult electricity, the alkahest of the alchemists in one sense, or the universal solvent, the same anima mundi on the higher plane as the astral light is on the lower. "At the moment of the sacrifice the priest becomes imbued with the spirit of Brahma, is, for the time being, Brahma himself". (Isis Unveiled).

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

Anjali (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root anj to smear with, anoint, honor)

Salutation; a gesture of respect when the hands placed side by side and slightly hollowed are raised to the forehead. This salutation of reverence and benediction has been universally used by Hindus since ancient times, not only as a sign of reverence to gurus or those to whom it is desired to show special respect, but also frequently as a gesture of prayer directed to divinities.

The form anjala is used at the end of a compound. Blavatsky speaks of anjala as one of "the personified powers which spring from Brahma's body -- the Prajapatis" (TG 23).

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

Satwika individuals are usually noble and spiritual in character, their nature determined as much by body type as their star constellation, having an element of kapha in their constitution.

Brahma

Free from passion, anger, greed, ignorance or jealousy, possessing knowledge and the power of discrimination.

Arsa

Excellent memory, purity, love and self -control, excellent intellectual frame of mind, free from pride, ego, ignorance, greed or anger. Possessing the power of understanding and retention.

Aindra

Devotion to sacred books, study rituals and oblations. Devotion to virtuous acts, far- sightedness and courage. Authoritative behaviour and speech. Able to perform sacred rituals.

Yamya

Free from mean and conflicting desires and acts. Having initiative, excellent memory and leadership. Free from emotional binds, hatred, ignorance and envy. The capacity for timely action.

Varuna

Free from mean acts. Exhibition of emotion in proper place. Observance of religious rights.

Kabera

Courage, patience, and hatred of impure thoughts. Liking for virtuous acts and purity. Pleasure in recreation.

Gandharva

Possession of wealth, attendants and luxuries. Expertise in poetry, stories and epics. Fondness for dancing singing and music. Takes pleasure in perfumes, garlands and flowers. Full of passion.

(See also: Sattva , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Shiva:

The Destroyer God; the Third Person of the Hindu Trinity, the other two being Brahma and Vishnu.

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

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