Brahma (Devanagari ब्रह्मा, pronounced as "brəhmα:") is the Hindu creator god, and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. He must not be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit of Hindu philosophy Brahman (the word stems of both are the same). Brahmā is identied with the Vedic deity Prajapati. Brahmacharya The word Brahmacharya symbolises a person who is leading a life in quest of Brahma, or in other words a student. The root "Bra ...

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Chandra-vansa (Sanskrit) The "Lunar Race", in contradistinction to Suryavansa, the "Solar Race". Some Orientalists think it an inconsistency that Krishna, a Chandravansa (of the Yadu branch) should have been declared an Avatar of Vishnu, who is a manifestation of the solar energy in Rig -Veda, a work of unsurpassed authority with the Brahmans.

This shows, however, the deep occult meaning of the Avatar ; a meaning which only esoteric philosophy can explain. A glossary is no fit place for such explanations; but it may be useful to remind those who know, and teach those who do not, that in Occultism, man is called a solar-lunar being, solar in his higher triad, and lunar in his quaternary. Moreover, it is the Sun who imparts his light to the Moon, in the same way as the human triad sheds its divine light on the mortal shell of sinful man.

Life celestial quickens life terrestrial. Krishna stands metaphysically for the Ego made one with Atma-Buddhi, and performs mystically the same function as the Christos of the Gnostics, both being "the inner god in the temple" - man. Lucifer is "the bright morning star", a well known symbol in Revelations, and, as a planet, corresponds to the EGO. Now Lucifer (or the planet Venus) is the Sukra-Usanas of the Hindus ; and Usanas is the Daitya-guru, i.e., the spiritual guide and instructor of the Danavas and the Daityas. The latter are the giant-demons in the Puranas, and in the esoteric interpretations, the antetypal symbol of the man of flesh, physical mankind. The Daityas can raise themselves, it is said, through knowledge "austerities and devotion" to "the rank of the gods and of the ABSOLUTE".

All this is very suggestive in the legend of Krishna ; and what is more suggestive still is that just as Krishna, the Avatar of a great God in India, is of time race of Yadu, so is another incarnation, "God incarnate himself" - or the "God-man Christ", also of the race Iadoo - the name for the Jews all over Asia. Moreover, as his mother, who is represented as Queen of Heaven standing on the crescent, is identified in Gnostic philosophy, and also in the esoteric system, with the Moon herself, like all the other lunar goddesses such as Isis, Diana, Astarte and others - mothers of the Logoi, so Christ is called repeatedly in the Roman Catholic Church, the Sun-Christ, the Christ-Soleil and so on. If the later is a metaphor so also is the earlier.

(See also: Chandra-vansa, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

shabda kosha: (Sanskrit) "Sheath of sounds, or words." Vocabulary; a dictionary or glossary of terms.

(See also: Shabda kosha, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Hindu: (Sanskrit) A follower of, or relating to, Hinduism.

Generally, one is understood to be a Hindu by being born into a Hindu family and practicing the faith, or by declaring oneself a Hindu. Acceptance into the fold is recognized through the name-giving sacrament, a temple ceremony called namakarana samskara, given to born Hindus shortly after birth, and to self-declared Hindus who have proven their sincerity and been accepted by a Hindu community. Full conversion is completed through disavowal of previous religious affiliations and legal change of name.

While traditions vary greatly, all Hindus rely on the Vedas as scriptural authority and generally attest to the following nine principles:

1)    There exists a one, all-pervasive Supreme Being who is both immanent and transcendent, both creator and unmanifest Reality.

2)    The universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.

3)    All souls are evolving toward God and will ultimately find moksha: spiritual knowledge and liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Not a single soul will be eternally deprived of this destiny.

4)    Karma is the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds.

5)    The soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved.

6)    Divine beings exist in unseen worlds, and temple worship, rituals, sacraments, as well as personal devotionals, create a communion with these devas and Gods.

7)    A spiritually awakened master or satguru is essential to know the transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, self-inquiry and meditation.

8)    All life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and therefore one should practice ahimsa, nonviolence.

9)    No particular religion teaches the only way to salvation above all others. Rather, all genuine religious paths are facets of God's pure love and light, deserving tolerance and understanding.

See: Hinduism.

(See also: Hindu, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Hindu Trinity. See TRIMURTI

(See also: Hindu Trinity, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hindu Schools, Six. See DARSANA

(See also: Hindu Schools, Six, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hindu Schools, Six. See DARSANA

(See also: Hindu Trinity, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Castes, Hindu. See CHATUR-VARNA

(See also: Castes, Hindu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hiouen Thsang. See HIUEN-TSANG

(See also: Hindu Schools, Six, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Aum (Sanskrit) The ancient Indians held that Om, when considered as a single letter ((Sanskrit character)) was the symbol of the Supreme; when written with three letters -- Aum -- it stood among other things for the three Vedas, the three gunas or qualities of nature, the three divisions of the universe, and the deities of the Hindu Trimurti -- Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva -- concerned in the creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe or the beings composing it. "The mystic formula, résumé of every science, contained in the three mysterious letters, AUM which signify creation, conservation, and transformation" (IU 2:31).

These three letters are supposed by some Hindus to have correspondences as follows: "The letter A is the Sattva Guna, U is the Rajas, and M is the Tamas; these three qualities are termed Nature (Prakriti). . . . A is Bhurloka, U is Bhuvarloka, and M is Svarloka; by these three letters the spirit exhibits itself" (Laheri in Lucifer 10:147). This word is said to have a morally spiritualizing effect if pronounced during meditation and when the mind is at peace and cleansed of all impurities.

See also OM

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

Cow-worship. The idea of any such "worship" is as erroneous as it is unjust.

No Egyptian worshipped the cow, nor does any Hindu worship this animal now, though it is true that the cow and bull were sacred then as they are to-day, but only as the natural physical symbol of a metaphysical ideal; even as a church made of bricks and mortar is sacred to the civilized Christian because of its associations and not by reason of its walls.

The cow was sacred to Isis, the Universal Mother, Nature, and to the Hathor, the female principle in Nature, the two goddesses being allied to both sun and moon, as the disk and the cow’s horns (crescent) prove. (See "Hathor ‘ and "isis".) In the Vedas, the Dawn of Creation is represented by a cow. This dawn is Hathor, and the day which follows, or Nature already formed, is Isis, for both are one except in the matter of time.

Hathor the elder is "the mistress of the seven mystical cows " and Isis, "the Divine Mother is the "cow-horned" the cow of plenty (or Nature, Earth), and, as the mother of Horus (the physical world) - the "mother of all that lives The outa was the symbolic eye of Horus, the right being the sun, and the left the moon.

The right "eye" of Horus was called "the cow of Hathor", and served as a powerful amulet, as the dove in a nest of rays or glory, with or without the cross, is a talisman with Christians, Latins and Greeks.

The Bull and the Lion which we often find in company with Luke and Mark in the frontispiece of their respective Gospels in the Greek and Latin texts, are explained as symbols - -which is indeed the fact. Why not admit the same in the case of the Egyptian sacred Bulls, Cows, Rams, and Birds?

(See also: Cow-worship, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Amanasa (Sanskrit). The " Mindless", the early races of this planet; also certain Hindu gods.

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

Anaitia (Chald.). A derivation from Ana (q.v.), a goddess identical with the Hindu Annapurna, one of the names of Kali - the female aspect of Siva - at her best.

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

Atala (Sanskrit). One of the regions in the Hindu lokas, and one of the seven mountains; but esoterically Atala is on an astral plane, and was, once on a time, a real island upon this earth.

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

Arasa Maram (Sanskrit). The Hindu sacred tree of knowledge. In occult philosophy a mystic word.

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

Ashtar Vidya (Sanskrit). The most ancient of the Hindu works on Magic. Though there is a claim that the entire work is in the hands of some Occultists, yet the Orientalists deem it lost. A very few fragments of it are now extant, and even these are very much disfigured.

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

Arya-Bhata (Sanskrit) The earliest Hindu algerbraist and astronomer, with the exception of Asura Maya (q.v.); the author of a work called Arya Siddhanta, a system of Astronomy.

(See also: Arya-Bhata, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Arkites. The ancient priests who were attached to the Ark, whether of Isis, or the Hindu Argua, and who were seven in number, like the priests of the Egyptian Tat or any other cruciform symbol of the three and the four, the combination of which gives a male-female number. The Avgha (or ark) was the four-fold female principle, and the flame burning over it the triple lingham.

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

Adi-Sakti (Sanskrit). Primeval, divine Force; the female creative power, and aspect in and of every male god. The Sakti in the Hindu Pantheon is always the spouse of some god.

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

Ahura Mazda (Zend). The personified deity, the Principle of Universal Divine Light of the Parsis. From Ahura or Asura, breath, "spiritual, divine" in the oldest Rig Veda, degraded by the orthodox Brahmans into A -sura, "no gods", just as the Mazdeans have degraded the Hindu Devas (Gods) into Deva (Devils).

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