A Wisdom Archive on Hindu

Hindu & Hinduism Archives

Below are links to 2021 dictionary entries related to hinduism. The great advantage with this dictionary is that each word is linking to an archive with

1. explanations of the word from several sources
2. articles related to the word, where the word is used in its natural context.

Interesting links with good reading

Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.


Baital Pachisi- Baital Pachisi (Hindustani) In popular lore, a vampire believed to hover around graves and to subsist on the putrefying remains of corpses.

Animism- The belief that everything (including inanimate objects) is alive with soul or spirit, a conviction pervasive among most indigenous (tribal/pagan/shamanistic) faiths, including Hinduism, Shintoism and spiritualism.

Atash-bahram- Atash-Bahram, Atash Behram (Persian) Verethraghna (Avestan), Varhran, Varhram (Pahlavi) The sacred fire of the Parsis, kept perpetually burning on the altars; the third fire in the septenary system represents the first created fire, the fire of consciousness. Philosophically it alludes to the idea of becoming.

It corresponds to the Hindu akasa (SD 1:338). Bahram (victorious) is one of the seven planets which rules over the first month of the Iranian year, Farvardin (Aries). In Vedic literature he is known as the slayer of the demon Vritra. In Islamic mystical writings Bahram is referred to as the fifth sphere or intellect. "As the earthly representative of the heavenly fire, it is the sacred center to which every earthly fire longs to return, in order to be united again, as much as possible, with its native abode.

The more it has been defiled by worldly uses, the greater is the merit acquired by freeing it from defilement" (Vendidad 113). The Vestals in ancient Rome also kept a fire burning perpetually on their altars, as did the Greeks in the temple on the Acropolis, thus keeping the remembrance of the "living fire" by means of a visible manifestation.

The fundamental idea in these various manners of adoring fire was that, because of the warming and life-giving functions of this universal element, it symbolized the vital and all-penetrating activity of cosmic life. Furthermore, because the sun was the focus or heart through which pours the life of any solar system, therefore the ideas connected with ancient fire worship are likewise intimately connected with the teachings concerning the solar orb and its indwelling divinity.

See also FIRE WORSHIP

Atlas- Atlas (Greek) (from tlenai to bear)

In Greek mythology a titan, a sea god who supports on his shoulders the vault of heaven. Son of Iapetus and Clymene or Asia; brother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius; father of the Pleiades, Hyades, Calypso, and sometimes the Hesperides.

Also a mountain or range in West Africa. Mount Atlas, considered both geographically and mythologically, parallels Mount Meru of the Hindus. Both are intimately connected with the fourth root-race. Atlas is a symbol of the fourth root-race, and his seven daughters, the Atlantides, are the seven subraces (SD 2:493).

But Atlas is also the old continents of Lemuria and Atlantis, combined and personified in one symbol, and Mount Atlas is spoken of as a relic of Lemuria. "The poets attributed to Atlas, as to Proteus, a superior wisdom and an universal knowledge, and especially a thorough acquaintance with the depths of the ocean: because both continents bore races instructed by divine masters, and because both were transferred to the bottom of the seas . . ." (SD 2:762). Atlas was compelled to leave the surface of the earth and join his brother Iapetus in the depths of Tartarus, where he supports the new continents on his "shoulders."

Bhagvad Gita- a part of the famous Hindu epic 'Mahabharata'. Teachings of Lord Krishna to his disciple Arjuna at the commencement of the battle of Kurukshetra, with explanations on sannyasa yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnana yoga.

Daitya Guru- Daitya Guru (Sanskrit) Preceptor of the daityas; a name of Sukra, regent of the planet Venus.

' "The Guru of the Daityas is the Guardian Spirit of the Earth and Men. Every change on Sukra is felt on, and reflected by, the Earth.'

"Sukra, or Venus, is thus represented as the preceptor of the Daityas, the giants of the Fourth Race, who, in the Hindu allegory, obtained at one time the sovereignty of all the Earth, and defeated the minor gods" (SD 2:31).

Ganges- A holy river of India. The principal river given this name originates in the Himalayas, flows past Hardvar, Prayag (Allahabad), Varanasi (Banaras), and Gaya, and empties into the Bay of Bengal at Gangasagar.

This Ganga is said to have come from the feet of the Hindu god Vishnu and to have landed first on the matted hair of the god Shiva, where it aroused the jealousy of Shiva's wife. It is also called Bhagirathi and Jahnavi. Other Gangas include a Ganga in the sky (Akashaganga, the Milky Way), a Ganga in the underworld (Patalaganga), and numerous replicas of the Ganga on earth.

Gayatri Mantra- A 24-syllable mantra (hymn) in the Hindu tradition, addressed to the sun for mental illumination and spiritual growth. Also a mantra for protection. Conventionally, contains three stanzas with a fourth (esoteric) stanza normally not made public.

Incubus- Incubus (Latin). Something more real and dangerous than the ordinary meaning given to the word, viz., that of "nightmare ". An Incubus is the male Elemental, and Succuba the female, and these are undeniably the spooks of medieval demonology, called forth from the invisible regions by human passion and lust. They are now called "Spirit brides" and "Spirit husbands" among some benighted Spiritists and spiritual mediums. But these poetical names do not prevent them in the least being that which they are - Ghools, Vampires and soulless Elementals; formless centres of Life, devoid of sense; in short, subjective protoplasms when left alone, but called into a definite being and form by the creative and diseased imagination of certain mortals. They were known under every clime as in every age, and the Hindus can tell more than one terrible tale of the dramas enacted in the life of young students and mystics by the Pisachas, their name in India.

Law Of Manu- Most famous of the Hindu codes of law (Dharmasastras), written about 200 BCE.

Rosary- (Latin: a rose garden)
a certain form of Roman Catholic prayer in which the believer says 15 sets of ten Hail Marys with an Our Father between each ten.
the set of beads used to keep count of the prayers. Related the Arab worry beads and the Hindu mala. (see Rosary)

Seyn- Seyn, Sein (German) Being; the German philosopher Fichte distinguished between Sein and Dasein: and, according to him, in thought we know Sein (Being or the One) through Dasein (Existence) or the manifested. Fichte's philosophical speculations on this point are echoes of tremendously old philosophical propositions in Hindu writings, where the Sein of Fichte is called the sat, and his Dasein the asat. It is equally permissible to invert these Sanskrit terms to propose an even more spiritual conception, making Sein equivalent to asat and Dasein the parallel of sat.

Shad-darsana- Shad-darsana shad-darsana (Sanskrit) [from shad six + darsana vision, school]

The six schools of ancient Hindu philosophy.

See also DARSANA

Smriti- (Sanskrit) "That which is remembered; the tradition."

Hinduism's nonrevealed, secondary but deeply revered scriptures, derived from man's insight and experience. Smriti speaks of secular matters - science, law, history, agriculture, etc. - as well as spiritual lore, ranging from day-to-day rules and regulations to superconscious outpourings.
The term smriti refers to a specific collection of ancient Sanskritic texts as follows: the six or more Vedangas, the four Upavedas, the two Itihasas, and the 18 main Puranas. Among the Vedangas, the Kalpa Vedanga defines codes of ritual in the Shrauta and Shulba Shastras, and domestic-civil laws in the Grihya and Dharma Shastras. Also included as classical smriti are the founding sutras of six ancient philosophies called shad darshana (Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta).
In a general sense, smriti may refer to any text other than shruti (revealed scripture) that is revered as scripture within a particular sect. From the vast body of sacred literature, shastra, each sect and school claims its own preferred texts as secondary scripture, e.g., the Ramayana of Vaishnavism and Smartism, or the Tirumurai of Saiva Siddhanta. Thus, the selection of smriti varies widely from one sect and lineage to another.
See: Mahabharata, Ramayana, Tirumurai.

Tsimtsum- Tsimtsum (Chaldean) [from the verbal root tsaman to contract, press together]

Contraction; a Qabbalistic term containing the philosophical idea of a previous expansion -- otherwise there could have been no subsequent contraction. Hence, tsimtsum is used to designate centrifugal and centripetal motion, expansion and contraction, which under the direction of the supreme of the Sephiroth brought forth and maintains the universe.

"The Unknown Absolute, above all number, manifested Itself through an emanation in which it was immanent yet as to which it was transcendental. It first withdrew Itself into Itself, to form an infinite Space, the Abyss; which It then filled with a modified and gradually diminishing Light or Vitalization, first appearing in the Abyss, as the centre of a mathematical point which gradually spread Its Life-giving energy or force throughout all Space. This concentration or contraction and its expansion, being the centripetal and centrifugal energies of creation and existence, the Qabbalists called Tzimtzum. The Will of Ain Soph then manifests Itself through the Ideal Perfect Model or Vitalizing Form, first principle and perfect prototype in idea, of all the to be created, whether spiritual or material. This is the Mikrokosm to the Ain Soph, the Makrokosm as to all the created. It is called the Son of Elohim, i.e., God, and the Adam Illa-ah or Adam Qadmon, the Man of the East or Heavenly Adam" (Myer, Qabbalah p. 231).

This idea is analogous to the Hindu inbreathing and outbreathing of Brahma.

Tsimtsum is stated to be particularly active in the third `olam or lowest triad of the Sephirothal Cosmic Tree -- each Sephirothal Tree is divided into a set of three triads, called respectively 1) intelligible or intellectual world; 2) formative or paradigmatic world; and 3) the natural world. It is in this last triad of Sephiroth, called `olam ham-Muteba`, where tsimtsum is specifically active.

Varna- The Hindu term for caste, a social division into which a person is born. There are four major castes in Hindu society

Veda- Veda (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root vid to know]

Knowledge; the most ancient and sacred Sanskrit works of the Hindus. Almost every hymn or division of a Veda is ascribed to various authors. It is generally believed that these subdivisions were revealed orally to the rishis or sages whose respective names they bear; hence the body of the Veda is known as sruti (what was heard) or divine revelation. The very names of these Vedic sages, such as Vasishtha, Visvamitra, and Narada, all of which belong to men born in far distant ages, shows that millennia must have elapsed between the different dates of their composition.

Krishna Sastri Godbole proves by astronomical data and mathematics that the Vedas must have been taught at least 25,000 years ago (cf Theosophist 2:238). Hindus claim that the Veda was taught orally for thousands of years, and then finally compiled by Veda-Vyasa 3,200 years ago, on the shores of the sacred lake Manasa-sarovara beyond the Himalayas in what is now Tibet (TG 362). Though compiled at that date their previous antiquity is sufficiently proved by the fact that they are written in an ancient form of Sanskrit, different from the Sanskrit of known later writings.

There are four Vedas: the Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, and Atharva-Veda, this last commonly supposed to be of later date than the former three. The Laws of Manu always speaks of the three Vedas. The Rig-Veda is the original work, the Yajur-Veda and Sama-Veda in their mantric portions are different arrangements of its hymns for special purposes. The Vedas are divided into two parts, the Mantra and Brahmana.

The Mantra part is composed of suktas (hymns in verse); the Brahmana part consists of liturgical, ritualistic, exegetical, and mystic treatises in prose. The Mantra or verse portion is considered more ancient than the prose works; and the books in which the hymns are collected are called sanhitas (collections). More or less closely connected with the Brahmanans (and in a few exceptional cases with the Mantra part) are two classes of treatises in prose and verse called Aranyaka and Upanishad. The Vedic writings are again divided into two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric, the former called the karma-kanda (the section of works) and the latter the jnana-kanda (section of wisdom).

Subba Row in "Brahmanism on the Sevenfold Principles in Man" (Theosophist 3:93) says: "The Vedas were perhaps compiled mainly for the use of the priests assisting at public ceremonies, but the grandest conclusions of our real secret doctrine are therein mentioned. I am informed by persons competent to judge of the matter, that the Vedas have a distinct dual meaning -- one expressed by the literal sense of the words, the other indicated by the metre and the swara (intonation), which are, as it were, the life of the Vedas . . . the mysterious connection between swara and light is one of its most profound secrets."