Introduction and links to related topics Dakhma - Dakhma (Avestan) (from dag to burn, cremate, brand)
A funeral or cremation building of the Parsis; the Tower of Silence.
Tat - Tat or Tet (Egyptian) [from the verbal root tet to establish]
The emblem of stability; the pillar found in connection with Osiris in hieroglyphic texts and inscriptions, especially in the scenes depicting what is called the funeral of Osiris, scenes which are one aspect of the initiation cycle held in the Mysteries of ancient Egypt. The hieroglyphic representation of the tat is that of a tapered pillar surmounted by four crossbars, said to represent the branches of a tree, and to be connected with the four cardinal points. It was a favorite form for amulets fashioned out of lapis lazuli and carnelian. "The top part is a regular equilateral cross. This, on its phallic basis, represented the two principles of creation, the male and the female, and related to nature and cosmos; but when the tat stood by itself, crowned with the atf (or atef), the triple crown of Horus -- two feathers with the uraeus in front -- it represented the septenary man; the cross, or the two cross-pieces, standing for the lower quaternary, and the atf for the higher triad" (TG 322).
Also the name of Osiris in ancient Busiris; in all the chief sanctuaries in Egypt which were dedicated to Osiris, festivals were celebrated during the month Khoiak; and on the last day of that month the tat was set up with elaborate ceremonies.
Benoo - Benoo (Egypt, Egyptian). A word applied to two symbols, both taken to mean "Phœnix". One was the Shen-shen (the heron), and the other a nondescript bird, called the Rech (the red one), and both were sacred to Osiris. It was the latter that was the regular Phœnix of the great Mysteries, the typical symbol of self-creation and resurrection through death - a type of the Solar Osiris and of the divine Ego in man.
Yet both the Heron and the Rech were symbols of cycles; the former, of the Solar year of 365 days; the latter of the tropical year or a period covering almost 26,000 years. In both cases the cycles were the types of the return of light from darkness, the yearly and great cyclic return of the sun-god to his birth-place, or - his Resurrection.
The Rech-Benoo is described by Macrobius as living 660 years and then dying; while others stretched its life as long as 1,460 years. Pliny, the Naturalist, describes the Rech as a large bird with gold and purple wings, and a long blue tail.
As every reader is aware, the Phœnix on feeling its end approaching, according to tradition, builds for itself a funeral pile on the top of the sacrificial altar, and then proceeds to consume himself thereon as a burnt-offering. Then a worm appears in the ashes, which grows and developes rapidly into a new Phœnix, resurrected from the ashes of its predecessor.
Aurva - Aurva (Sanskrit) A rishi, son of Urva and grandson of Bhrigu, mentioned in the Rig-Veda (8:102:4). The Mahabharata relates that Aurva was the preceptor of Sagara (whose mother he saved from the funeral pyre), on whom he bestowed the agneyastra (fiery weapon).
Sraddha - Sraddha (Sanskrit) A ceremony in honor and for the welfare of dead relatives, observed with great strictness at various fixed periods and on occasions of rejoicing as well as mourning by the surviving relatives.
It is not a funeral ceremony, but an act of reverential homage to a deceased person performed by relatives, and is supposed to supply the dead with strengthening nutriment after the performance of the previous funeral ceremonies has endowed them with ethereal bodies. In Hinduism, the deceased relative is considered a preta (wandering ghost) until the first sraddha ceremony, when he attains a position among the spiritual pitris in their blissful abode.
Samskaras Of Later Life - Vanaprastha ashrama: Age 48 marks the entrance into the elder advisor stage, celebrated in some communities by special ceremony.
sannyasa ashrama vrata: The advent of withdrawal from social duties and responsibilities at age 72 is sometimes ritually acknowledged (different from sannyasa diksha).
See: sannyasa dharma.
antyeshti: (Sanskrit) The various funeral rites performed to guide the soul in its transition to inner worlds, including preparation of the body, cremation, bone-gathering, dispersal of ashes, home purification.
See: cremation, death, pinda, shraddha, bonegathering, samskara, samskaras, shashtyabda purti, transition.
Aryaman - (Sanskrit) "Close friend; matchmaker; Sun God." A Vedic Deity who personifies hospitality, the household and grihastha life. He presides over matrimonial alliances, and protects tradition, custom and religion. He is also invoked during shraddha (funeral-memorial) ceremonies.
Ghat - Ghat (Sanskrit) In India, the funeral pyre (Caves and Jungles 33, 136-8).
Purity Impurity - Shaucha-ashaucha.
Purity and its opposite, pollution, are a fundamental part of Hindu culture. While they imply a strong sense of physical cleanliness, their more important meanings extend to social, ceremonial, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual contamination. Freedom from all forms of contamination is a key to Hindu spirituality, and is one of the yamas.
Physical purity requires a clean and wellordered environment, yogic purging of the internal organs and frequent cleansing with water.
Mental purity derives from meditation, right living and right thinking.
Emotional purity depends on control of the mind, clearing the subconscious and keeping good company.
Spiritual purity is achieved through following the yamas and niyamas, study of the Vedas and other scriptures, pilgrimage, meditation, japa, tapas and ahimsa.
Ritual purity requires the observance of certain prayashchittas, or penances, for defilement derived from foreign travel, contact with base people or places, conversion to other faiths, contact with bodily wastes, attending a funeral, etc.
Purity is of three forms - purity in mind, speech and body, or thought, word and deed. Purity is the pristine and natural state of the soul. Impurity, or pollution, is the obscuring of this state by adulterating experience and beclouding conceptions. In daily life, the Hindu strives to protect this innate purity by wise living, following the codes of dharma. This includes harnessing the sexual energies, associating with other virtuous Hindu devotees, never using harsh, angered or indecent language, and keeping a clean and healthy physical body.
See: dharma, papa, penance, punya, yamaniyama.
Pre-existence - Pre-existence. The term used to denote that we have lived before. The same as reincarnation in the past. The idea is derided by some, rejected by others, called absurd and inconsistent by the third yet it is the oldest and the most universally accepted belief from an immemorial antiquity.
And if this belief was universally accepted by the most subtle philosophical minds of the pre-Christian world, surely it is not amiss that some of our modern intellectual men should also believe in it, or at least give the doctrine the benefit of the doubt. Even the Bible hints at it more than once, St. John the Baptist being regarded as the reincarnation of Elijah, and the Disciples asking whether the blind man was born blind because of his sins, which is equal to saying that he had lived and sinned before being born blind. As Mr. Bonwick well says: it was "the work of spiritual progression and soul discipline.
The pampered sensualist returned a beggar; the proud oppressor, a slave ; the selfish woman of fashion, a seamstress. A turn of the wheel gave a chance for the development of neglected or abused intelligence and feeling, hence the popularity of reincarnation in all climes and times. . . . thus the expurgation of evil was . . . gradually but certainly accomplished." Verily "an evil act follows a man, passing through one hundred thousand transmigrations" (Panchatantra).
"All souls have a subtle vehicle, image of the body, which carries the passive soul from one material dwelling to another" says Kapila; while Basnage explains of the Jews: "By this second death is not considered hell, but that which happens when a soul has a second time animated a body". Herodotus tells his readers, that the Egyptians "are the earliest who have spoken of this doctrine, according to which the soul of man is immortal, and after the destruction of the body, enters into a newly born being. When, say they, it has passed through all the animals of the earth and sea, and all the birds, it will re-enter the body of a new born man." This is Pre-existence. Deveria showed that the funeral books of the Egyptians say plainly "that resurrection was, in reality, but a renovation, leading to a new infancy, and a new youth. (See "Reincarnation".)
Chaitya - Chaitya caitya (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root chit to think, perceive)
The individual soul; also a funeral monument or memorial, often containing the ashes of the deceased. Sometimes with Buddhists, a sacred building containing a revered image.
Draupnir - Draupnir (Icelandic) Dropner (Scandinavian) (from Icelandic drjupa, Swedish drypa to drip)
In Norse myths, the magic ring wrought for Odin by the dwarfs Brock (minerals) and Sindre (vegetation), sons of Ivalde (the moon), at the fashioning of the earth. From Draupnir drop eight rings like itself every ninth night, symbolizing the succession of cycles within larger cycles.
On the death of Balder, the sun god, at the hands of his blind brother Hoder, Odin laid Draupnir on his son''s funeral pyre; Hermod, sent as messenger of Odin to the realm of Hel, queen of the dead, received it back and returned it to Odin.
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