Eternal Dictionary

Propator (Ancient Greek) Gnostic term. The "Depth" of Bythos, or En-Aior, the unfathomable light. The latter is alone the Self-Existent and the Eternal - Propator is only periodical.

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

Word In religious and philosophical usage, a translation of the Greek logos or Latin verbum. Its meaning here is that of reason manifested, employed mainly in a cosmogonic sense. "The esoteric meaning of the word Logos (speech or word, Verbum) is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting divine mind, and the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the esse of that Universe. As the Logos reflects all in the Universe of Pleroma, so man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in his Universe, the Earth" (SD 2:25). This word was chosen because human thought, or immanent conscious intelligence or mind, manifests itself through words. It is familiar to Christians through the opening verse of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (1:1, 14). In the former quotation the meaning is entirely cosmogonic; in the latter, it has been diminished to signify the innate Word or divinity in man, which when in full control of the human adept can, by a stretch of metaphor, mean that the innate Christ, Buddha, or god in man so controls the human personality as to have become the latter, and thus to manifest among men.

Cosmogonically, theosophy considers the universe and all in it, from its first divine appearance to its last material modification, as being in toto as well as in all manifested details an emanation from the universal mind. This emanation takes place at the beginning of a manvantara in three separate stages or degrees: the First or unmanifest Logos; the Second or manifest-unmanifest Logos; and finally the Third or manifest Logos. Logos is applicable to these three stages because each is the manifesting of the wisdom in its divine predecessor, each stage carrying within itself, on the principle of the emanational scheme, the attributes or qualities of its predecessors. The Second Logos has invariably been considered feminine, and the Third Logos is regarded as the creative power.

Corresponding to the three Logoi in the Hindu scheme are Brahman, Brahma, and Isvara emanating originally from parabrahman-mulaprakriti. In the highly philosophical visioning of Mahayana Buddhism is adi-buddha, mahabuddhi, and the celestial buddha, occasionally indirectly called dharmakaya. On a scale of less magnitude, Hindu thought has developed the triad Brahma, the emanator or original emanation; Vishnu, the supporter or sustainer, a feminine characteristic nevertheless; and Siva at once the regenerator and producer in the sense of destroying but to regenerate. Still a third Hindu scheme is found in the series of paramatman, mahabuddhi or alaya, and mahat or cosmic creative mind.

A somewhat similar usage in the Qabbalah is Meimra, or 'imrah (word, particularly from divinity) [both from Hebrew verbal root amar to say, speak, use words]. One of the Stanzas of Dzyan refers to the Army of the Voice, which is explained to be "the prototype of the 'Host of the Logos,' or the 'word' of the Sepher Jezirah, called in the Secret Doctrine 'the One Number issued from No-Number' -- the One Eternal Principle" (SD 1:94).

See also LOGOS

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

Porphyry, or Porphyrius. A Neo-Platonist and a most distinguished writer, only second to Plotinus as a teacher and philosopher.

He was born before the middle of the third century A.D., at Tyre, since he called himself a Tyrian and is supposed to have belonged to a Jewish family. Though himself thoroughly Hellenized and a Pagan, his name Melek (a king) does seem to indicate that he had Semitic blood in his veins. Modern critics very justly consider him the most practically philosophical, and the soberest, of all the Neo-Platonists. A distinguished writer, he was specially famous for his controversy with Iamblichus regarding the evils attendant upon the practice of Theurgy. He was, however, finally converted to the views of his opponent.

A natural-born mystic, he followed, as did his master Plotinus, the pure Indian Raj-Yoga training, which leads to the union of the Soul with the Over-Soul or Higher Self (Buddhi-Manas). He complains, however, that, all his efforts notwithstanding, he did not reach this state of ecstacy before he was sixty, while Plotinus was a proficient in it. This was so, probably because while his teacher held physical life and body in the greatest contempt, limiting philosophical research to those regions where life and thought become eternal and divine, Porphyry devoted his whole time to considerations of the hearing of philosophy on practical life. "The end of philosophy is with him morality", says a biographer, "we might almost say, holiness - the healing of man’s infirmities, the imparting to him a purer and more vigorous life. Mere knowledge, however true, is not of itself sufficient ; knowledge has for its object life in accordance with Nous" - "reason", translates the biographer.

As we interpret Nous, however, not as Reason, but mind (Manas) or the divine eternal Ego in man, we would translate the idea esoterically, and make it read "the occult or secret knowledge has for its object terrestrial life in accordance with Nous, or our everlasting reincarnating Ego", which would be more consonant with Porphyry’s idea, as it is with esoteric philosophy. (See Porphyry’s De Abstinentia ., 29.) Of all the Neo-Platonists, Porphyry approached the nearest to real Theosophy as now taught by the Eastern secret school. This is shown by all our modern critics and writers on the Alexandrian school, for "he held that the Soul should be as far as possible freed from the bonds of matter, . . . be ready . . . to cut off the whole body". (Ad Marcellam, 34.) He recommends the practice of abstinence, saying that "we should be like the gods if we could abstain from vegetable as well as animal food". He accepts with reluctance theurgy and mystic incantation as those are "powerless to purify the noëtic (manasic) principle of the soul": theurgy can "but cleanse the lower or psychic portion, and make it capable of perceiving lower beings, such as spirits, angels and gods" (Aug. De Civ. Dei. X., 9), just as Theosophy teaches. "Do not defile the divinity", he adds, with the vain imaginings of men you will not injure that which is for ever blessed (Buddhi-Manas) but you will blind yourself to the perception of the greatest and most vital truths". (Ad Marcellam,18.)

"If we would he free from the assaults of evil spirits, we must keep ourselves clear of those things over which evil spirits have power, for they attack not the pure soul which has no affinity with them". (De Abstin. ii., 43.) This is again our teaching. The Church Fathers held Porphyry as the bitterest enemy, the most irreconcilable to Christianity. Finally, and once more as in modern Theosophy, Porphyry - as all the Neo-Platonists, according to St. Augustine - "praised Christ while they disparaged Christianity"; Jesus, they contended, as we contend, "said nothing himself against the pagan deities, but wrought wonders by their help". "They could not call him as his disciples did, God, but they honoured him as one of the best and wisest of men". (De Civ. Dei., X1X., 23.) Yet, "even in the storm of controversy, scarcely a word seems to have been uttered against the private life of Porphyry. His system prescribed purity and . . . he practised it".

(See A Dict. of Christian Biography, Vol. IV., "Porphyry".)

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

Bana (-asura)

A thousand-armed demon, son of Bali. He was a favored devotee of Lord Siva’s. When Bana’s daughter Usha hid Krishna’s grandson Aniruddha in Bana’s palace, the demon arrested Aniruddha, and a battle ensued between Krishna and Lord Siva. Defeated, Lord Siva begged Krishna to spare Bana’s life. Krishna then severed all but four of Bana’s arms and blessed him to become an eternal associate of Siva.

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

Egg One of the most comprehensive symbols, equally suggestive in a spiritual, physiological, and cosmological sense. Among other things, it stands for primordial chaos, the universal matrix, the great Deep, the Virgin Mother, and also for the kosmos or world egg produced from it. As chaos or space, it is the virgin egg, unproduced; this is fructified by the spiritual ray, and from it then issues the Third Logos.

"The Virgin-egg being in one sense abstract Egg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation, is eternal and for ever the same. And just as the fecundation of an egg takes place before it is dropped; so the non-eternal periodical germ which becomes later in symbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges from the said symbol, 'the promise and potency' of all the Universe . . . The simile of an egg also expresses the fact . . . that the primordial form of everything manifested, from atom to globe, from man to angel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations the emblem of eternity and infinity" (SD 1:64-5).

As the symbol of generation, birth, and rebirth, it is "the most familiar form of that in which is deposited and developed the germ of every living being" (IU 1:157), used not only on account of the mystery of apparent self-generation, but from its spheroidal shape, the sphere and circle both being symbols of encompassing space.

The egg symbol appears in many cultures. In the Laws of Manu, for instance, it is stated that the Self-existent Lord, becoming manifest, created water alone; in that he cast seed which became a golden egg (hiranyagarbha); having dwelt in that egg for a divine year, Brahma splits it, forming heaven and earth. Brahma thus both fructifies the egg and is produced from it. Again, the female evolver or emanator is first a germ, a drop of heavenly dew, a pearl, and then an egg; the egg gives birth to the four elements with the fifth (akasa); it splits, the shell being heaven, the meat earth, and the white the waters of both space and earth. Vishnu, too, emerges from the egg. In Egypt, Osiris is born from an egg, like Brahma; the egg was sacred to Isis and therefore the priests never ate eggs.

The egg is used in Easter celebrations as the symbol of the renewal of life. The Easter egg derives from the pagan custom of exchanging eggs at the birth-time of the year. Originally it had a deep esoteric hint completely lost sight of today where the custom is still held in the Occident, although commonly candies in the shape of eggs are exchanged. Giving a fellow disciple an egg in the old Mystery schools suggested the rebirth of nature, so apparent in the springtime, or again the initiation ceremonies that prevailed at the spring equinox, thereby expressing the hope that he too might at some time be "reborn," able to free his spiritual nature from the enveloping shell as a chick frees itself from the egg.

Sometimes the word is used for the circle or zero, for the egg combines the senses of fertility and sphericity in one symbol. The egg with its central germ is the circle with the point. In company with the stroke for the masculine power in nature -- sometimes represented as a vertical line -- it makes the number 10, or the figure of relatively perfected or complete emanation. The egg was the symbol of life in immortality and eternity, and also the glyph of the generative matrix. The anatomy of a hen's egg shows a wonderful analogy with the stages in comic evolution and the human principles.

See also BRAHMANDA; WORLD EGG

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

Tridansa - a staff which is carried by the Vaisnava sannyasis. It consists of three rods symbolizing engagement of body, mind, and words in the service of the Lord. These three rods may also signify the eternal existence of the servitor (the bhakta) , the object of service (Bhagavan) , and service, thus distinguishing Vaisnava sannyasa from the mayavada ekadansa sannyasa.

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

Hell

The place of the dead not only the grave, but also the place the soul goes after death.

There are several words translated as Hell in the Bible:

• Hades - A Greek word. It is the place of the dead, the location of the person between death and reincarnation.
• Gehenna - A Greek word. It was the place where dead bodies were dumped and burned and has come to designate the place of eternal punishment
• Sheol - A Hebrew word in the Old Testament, Hell is usually divided in a place of delight and a place of torment.

In Christian doctrine Hell is a place of eternal fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels and will be the abode of the wicked and the fallen angels

(See also: Hell , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Bhagavan - the Supreme Lord; the Personality of Godhead. In the Visnu Purana (6.5.72-74) Bhagavan is defined as follows: "suddhe mahavibhuty akhye pare brahmani varttate maitreya bhagavac-chabda sarva-karana-karane; sambharteti tatha bhartta bha-karo ‘rthadvayanvita neta gamayita srasta ga-kararthas tatha mune; aisvaryasya samagrasya dharmasya yasasah sriyah jnana-vairagyayos caiva sannam bhaga itingana - "

The word bhagavat is used to describe the Supreme brahma who possesses all opulences, who is completely pure, and who is the cause of all causes. In the word bhagavat, the syllable bha has two meanings: one who maintains all living entities and one who is the support of all living entities.

Similarly, the syllable ga has two meanings: the creator, and one who causes all living entities to obtain the results of karma and jnana. Complete opulence, religiosity, fame, beauty, knowledge, and renunciation are known as bhaga, or fortune.” (The suffix vat means possessing. Thus one who possesses these six fortunes is known as Bhagavan.)

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

Diksa - receiving initiation from a spiritual master.

In the Bhaktisandarbha (Anuccheda 283) Jiva Gosvami has defined diksa as follows: divyam jnanam yato dadyat kuryat papasya sanksayam tasmad dikseti sa prokta desikais tattva-kovikaih - "Learned exponents of the Absolute Truth declare that the process by which the spiritual master imparts divya-jnana to the disciple and eradicates all sins is known as diksa.” He then explains divya-jnana, or divine knowledge: divyam jnanam hy atra srimati mantre bhagavat svarupajnanam tena bhagavata-sambandha-visesa-jnanam ca - "

Divya-jnana is transcendental knowledge of the Lord’s form and one’s specific relationship with the Lord contained within a mantra.” This means at the time of intiation, the guru gives the disciple a mantra which, in course of time, reveals the particular form of the Lord who is the object of one’s worship and the bhakta’s specific relationship with the Lord in one of the relationships of dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, or madhurya.

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

A Theosophical definition of Monad :

Monad

A spiritual entity which to us humans is indivisible; it is a divine-spiritual life-atom, but indivisible because its essential characteristic, as we humans conceive it, is homogeneity; while that of the physical atom, above which our consciousness soars, is divisible, is a composite heterogeneous particle.

Monads are eternal, unitary, individual life-centers, conscious-ness-centers, deathless during any solar manvantara, therefore ageless, unborn, undying. Consequently, each one such  - and their number is infinite  - is the center of the All, for the divine or the All is THAT which has its center everywhere, and its circumference or limiting boundary nowhere.

Monads are spiritual-substantial entities, self-motivated, self-impelled, self-conscious, in infinitely varying degrees, the ultimate elements of the universe. These monads engender other monads as one seed will produce multitudes of other seeds; so up from each such monad springs a host of living entities in the course of illimitable time, each such monad being the fountainhead or parent, in which all others are involved, and from which they spring.

Every monad is a seed, wherein the sum total of powers appertaining to its divine origin are latent, that is to say unmanifested; and evolution consists in the growth and development of all these seeds or children monads, whereby the universal life expresses itself in innumerable beings.

As the monad descends into matter, or rather as its ray  - one of other innumerable rays proceeding from it  - is propelled into matter, it secretes from itself and then excretes on each one of the seven planes through which it passes, its various vehicles, all overshadowed by the self, the same self in you and in me, in plants and in animals, in fact in all that is and belongs to that hierarchy. This is the one self, the supreme self or paramatman of the hierarchy. It illumines and follows each individual monad and all the latter's hosts of rays  - or children monads. Each such monad is a spiritual seed from the previous manvantara, which manifests as a monad in this manvantara; and this monad through its rays throws out from itself by secretion and then excretion all its vehicles. These vehicles are, first, the spiritual ego, the reflection or copy in miniature of the monad itself, but individualized through the manvantaric evolution, "bearing" or "carrying" as a vehicle the monadic ray. The latter cannot directly contact the lower planes, because it is of the monadic essence itself, the latter a still higher ray of the infinite Boundless composed of infinite multiplicity in unity. (See also Individuality)

See also: Monad , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

 Prakriti:

eternal nature

(See also:  Prakriti , Body Mind and Soul)

Akincana - one who considers he has nothing but Krsna. Having nothing at all, utterly destitute materially. When referring to a Vaisnava, this usually denotes an ascetic who is devoid of the spirit of material enjoyment and accepts only the bare necessities for his maintenance.

Vaisnavas like the Pandavas who live in the midst of family and material opulence only for the service of Bhagavan and who are devoid of any desire for material enjoyment consider that nothing belongs to them. Everything belongs to Sri Bhagavan. They are akincana Vaisnavas.

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

CHIRANJIVI: one who has gained eternal life

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

Adi-Buddha (Sanskrit). The First and Supreme Buddha - not recognised in the Southern Church. The Eternal Light.

(See also: Adi-Buddha , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Anubhava - one of the five essential ingredients of rasa. The actions which display or reveal the spiritual emotions situated within the heart are called anubhavas.

The anubhavas are thirteen in number:

1)   nrtya (dancing) ,

2)   vilunthita (rolling on the ground) ,

3)   gita (singing) ,

4)   krosana (loud crying) ,

5)   tanu-motana (writhing of the body) ,

6)   hunkara (roaring) ,

7)   jrmbhana (yawning) ,

8)   svasa-bhua (breathing heavily) ,

9)   loka-anapeksita (giving up concern for public image) ,

10)    lalasrava (salivating) ,

11)    atta-hasa (loud laughter) ,

12)    ghurna (staggering about) , and

13)    hikka (a fit of hiccups).

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

Anartha - unwanted desires in the heart which impede one’s advancement in bhakti. These anarthas are of four types:

(1) duskrtottha, those arising from past sins;

(2) sukrtottha, those arising from previous pious activities;

(3) aparadhottha, those arising from offenses; and

(4) bhakty-uttha, those arising in relationship to bhakti.

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

Atman

The eternal or real self, sometimes referring to the principle of life in all things. The pure consciousness of the spirit which is a spark of God. The real "I".

(See also: Atman , New Age Spirituality, 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)

Adharma - irreligion; failure to carry out one’s socio-religious duties prescribed in the sastra.

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

Svarupata-jasa-mukti - liberated from matter in terms of the revelation of one’s svarupa. This refers to svarupa-siddhi, the stage in which bhava manifests in the bhakta’s heart from the heart of one of the Lord’s eternal associates. At this stage one’s internal spiritual identity becomes manifest and the intelligence is freed from the influence of matter, yet one’s relationship with the material world remains intact due to the presence of the material body.

(See also: Svarupata-jasa-mukti , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

The holy book Guru Granth Sahib or the Adi Granth is considered the living Guru and the supreme spiritual authority of the Sikh religion. Basically a collection of devotional hymns and poetry, the Granth Sahib lays down moral and ethical rules for development of the soul, spiritual salvation and unity with God. Since Sikhism shuns idol worship, Sikhs don't worship the Guru Granth Sahib as an idol but it is held in utmost respect for the writings of the Gurus it contains. The Guru Granth Sahib is perhaps the only Holy Scripture, which not only contains the works of its own religious founders but also writings of people from other faiths.

Read more here: » Sikhism: The Eternal Guru - Sri Guru Granth Sahib

The Blessed Lord said: “Many births have been left behind by Me and by thee, O Arjuna, I know them all, but thou knowest not thine, O Parantapa.

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. This is an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Soul After Death: What Does The Gita Say On Life After Death