Dream Dictionary Grammar

Dvandva (Sanskrit) (from dva two)

A pair, couple; a pair of opposites; a contest or conflict between two people. In grammar, a couple of names used together, or any compound in which the two parts or words if unjoined would remain in the same case and be connected by the conjunction and (e.g., deva-gandharvas).

Applied also to the third sign of the zodiac, Gemini.

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

Vedanga:

Vedanga: Veda-limb. Six branches of post-Vedic studies revered as auxiliary to the Vedas. Four Vedangas govern correct chanting of the Vedas: 1. Shiksha (phonetics), 2. Çhandas (meter), 3. Nirukta (etymology), 4. Vyakarana (grammar). The two other Vedangas are 5. Jyotisha Vedanga (astronomy-astrology) and 6. Kalpa Vedanga (procedural canon) which includes the Shrauta and Shulba Shastras (ritual codes), Dharma Shastras (social law) and Grihya Shastras (domestic codes).

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

Vedangas:

Vedangas (Vedhaangaa). Subsidiary treatises of the Vedas: six sciences of proper pronunciation, grammar, metre, etymology, astronomy, ritual.

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

A Theosophical definition of Upanishad :

Upanishad

(Sanskrit) A compound, composed of upa "according to," "together with," ni "down," and the verbal root sad, "to sit," which becomes shad by Sanskrit grammar when preceded by the particle ni: the entire compound thus signifying "following upon or according to the teachings which were received when we were sitting down." The figure here is that of pupils sitting in the Oriental style at the feet of the teacher, who taught them the secret wisdom or rahasya, in private and in forms and manners of expression that later were written and promulgated according to those teachings and after that style.

The Upanishads are examples of literary works in which the rahasya  - a Sanskrit word meaning "esoteric doctrine" or "mystery"  - is imbodied. The Upanishads belong to the Vedic cycle and are regarded by orthodox Brahmans as a portion of the sruti or "revelation." It was from these wonderful quasi-esoteric and very mystical works that was later developed the highly philosophical and profound system called the Vedanta. The Upanishads are usually reckoned today as one hundred and fifty in number, though probably only a score are now complete without evident marks of literary change or adulteration in the way of excision or interpolation.

The topics treated of in the Upanishads are highly transcendental, recondite, and abstruse, and in order properly to understand the Upanishadic teaching one should have constantly in mind the master-keys that theosophy puts into the hand of the student. The origin of the universe, the nature of the divinities, the relations between soul and ego, the connections of spiritual and material beings, the liberation of the evolving entity from the chains of maya, and kosmological questions, are all dealt with, mostly in a succinct and cryptic form. The Upanishads, finally, may be called the exoteric theosophical works of Hindustan, but contain a vast amount of genuine esoteric information.

See also: Upanishad , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Hinduism dictionary with the most common spiritual words from P-Z. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

A spiritual dictionary of the 280 most common words in Hinduism. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.