Hinduism In India Dictionary

Sanskrit [from Sanskrit sanskrita or samskrita]

The ancient sacred language of the Aryans, originally the sacred or secret language of the initiates of the fifth root-race. The Sanskrit language possesses voluminous and valuable works in prose and in verse, some of which, like the Vedas, date back, in the opinion of certain scholars, to the years 30,000 BC or even far beyond. Almost every phase of philosophic thought, expressed and studied in the West, is represented in one form or another in ancient Hindu literature. Besides this, these old Sanskrit writings are replete with recondite subjects dealing with the wondrous potentialities of the human spirit and mind, the building and destruction of worlds and universes, etc.

The Sanskrit language, derives from one of the earliest of the Aryan tongues, a lineal descendant of an Atlantean progenitor.

"In ancient times in India, and in the homeland of the Aryans before they reached India by way of Central Asia, this very early Aryan speech was used not only by the Aryan populace, but in the sanctuaries of the Temples was taken in hand and developed or composed or builded to be a far finer vehicle for expressing abstract religious and philosophic conceptions and thoughts. This tongue thus composed or developed by initiates of the Aryan stock, because of this formative work upon it was finally given the name Sanskrita, signifying an original natural language which had become perfected by initiates for the purpose of expressing far more subtle and profound distinctions than ordinary people would ever find needful. So great was the admiration in which the Sanskrit language thus perfected was held, that it was commonly said of it that it was the work of the Gods, because it had thus become capable of expressing godlike thoughts: profound spiritual subtleties and philosophical distinctions. Thus it was that Sanskrit is really the mystery-language of the initiates of the Aryan race; as the Senzar of very similar history was the mystery-language of the later Atlanteans; and is still used as the noblest mystery-language by the Mahatmas.

"Sanskrit was not known as a spoken tongue to the Atlanteans in their prime, but in the degenerate or later times of Atlantis, when the earliest Aryans already had appeared on the scene of history, this early Aryan speech above alluded to, was already in existence; and the Aryan initiates were then in the course of perfecting it as their temple-language or mystery-tongue . . . Thus Sanskrit was not spoken among the Atlanteans, nor can it therefore be called an Atlantean language; although its verbal roots of course go back to earliest Atlantean times, but only its verbal roots" -- G. de Purucker

"The Vedas, Brahmanism, and along with these, Sanskrit, were importations into what we now regard as India. They were never indigenous to its soil. There was a time when the ancient nations of the West included under the generic name of India many of the countries of Asia now classified under other names. There was an Upper, a Lower, and a Western India, even during the comparatively late period of Alexander; and Persia (Iran) is called Western India in some ancient classics. The countries now named Tibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary were considered by them as forming part of India. When we say, therefore, that India has civilized the world, and was the Alma Mater of the civilizations, arts, and sciences of all other nations (Babylonia, and perhaps even Egypt, included) we mean archaic, pre-historic India, India of the time when the great Gobi was a sea, and the lost 'Atlantis' formed part of an unbroken continent which began at the Himalayas and ran down over Southern India, Ceylon, and Java, to far-away Tasmania" (Five Years of Theosophy 179).

Blavatsky states that Sanskrit has never been known nor spoken in its true systematized form except by the initiated Brahmins. This form of Sanskrit was called -- as well as by other names -- Vach, the mystic speech, which resides in the sounds of the mantra. "The chanting of a Mantra is not a prayer, but rather a magical sentence in which the law of Occult causation connects itself with, and depends on, the will and acts of its singer. It is a succession of Sanskrit sounds, and when its strings of words and sentences is pronounced according to the magical formulae in the Atharva Veda, but understood by the few, some Mantras produce an instantaneous and very wonderful effect" (BCW 14:428n). This Vach, or the mystic self of Sanskrit, was the sacerdotal speech of the initiated Brahmins and was studied by initiates from all over the world.

"It is admitted that, however inferior to the classical Sanskrit of Panini, the language of the oldest portions of Rig Veda, notwithstanding the antiquity of its grammatical forms, is the same as that of the latest texts. Every one sees -- cannot fail to

See and to know -- that for a language so old and so perfect as the Sanskrit to have survived alone, among all languages, it must have had its cycles of perfection and its cycles of degeneration. And, if one had any intuition, he might have seen that what they call a 'dead language' being an anomaly, a useless thing in Nature, it would not have survived, even as a 'dead' tongue, had it not its special purpose in the reign of immutable cyclic laws; and that Sanskrit, which came to be nearly lost to the world, is now slowly spreading in Europe, and will one day have the extension it had thousands upon thousands of years back -- that of a universal language. The same as to the Greek and the Latin: there will be a time when the Greek of Aeschylus (and more perfect still in its future form) will be spoken by all in Southern Europe, while Sanskrit will be resting in its periodical pralaya; and the Attic will be followed later by the Latin of Virgil. Something ought to have whispered to us that there was also a time -- before the original Aryan settlers among the Dravidian and other aborigines, admitted within the fold of Brahmanical initiation, marred the purity of the sacred Sanskrita Bhasha -- when Sanskrit was spoken in all its unalloyed subsequent purity, and therefore must have had more than once its rise and fall. The reason for it is simply this: classical Sanskrit was only restored, if in some things perfected, by Panin. Panini, Katyayana, or Patanjali did not create it; it has existed throughout cycles, and will pass through other cycles still" (Five Years of Theosophy 419-20).

See also DEVANAGARI

(See also: Sanskrit , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

New Year: The majority of Hindus in India celebrate the New Year according to traditional, pre-colonial calendars, several of which are still in use. There are, therefore, various New Year's days in different states of India, the two major ones being Dipavali in October-November, observed in North India, and the day when the sun enters Mesha (Aries) in April, celebrated in Tamil Nadu, Bengal and Nepal.

(See also: New Year , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Subramuniyaswami: Current and 162nd satguru (1927-) of the Nandinatha Sampradaya's Kailasa Parampara. He was ordained Sivaya Subramuniyaswami by Sage Yogaswami on the full-moon day of May 12, 1949, in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, at 6:21 pm. This was just days after he had attained nirvikalpa samadhi in the caves of Jalani. Yogaswami, then 77, ordained the 22-year old yogi with a tremendous slap on the back, saying, "This will be heard in America," and conferring upon him the mission to bring the fullness of Saivism to the West. Local devotees called the initiation a coronation.

That same year, while still in Sri Lanka, Subramuniyaswami founded the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order and Saiva Siddhanta Church at the Sri Subramuniya Ashrama in Alaveddy. Returning to America, he spent the next six years preparing for his teaching mission through intense sadhana and tapas. He began actively teaching in 1957 when he founded the Himalayan Academy. In 1970, he established his international headquarters and monastery complex, Kauai Aadheenam, on Hawaii's Garden Island of Kauai. Five years later, he designated a portion of the 51-acre holy site as the San Marga Sanctuary, future site of Iraivan Temple, carved of white granite stone in Bangalore, India. To spearhead a growing Hindu renaissance, he founded Hinduism Today in 1979, an international monthly, full-color magazine acclaimed the world over as the the greatest advent in Hindu publishing this century. In August of 1986, the World Religious Parliament in New Delhi honored Subramuniyaswami as one of five Hindu spiritual leaders outside of India who had most dynamically promoted Sanatana Dharma in the past 25 years. He was given the title Jagadacharya, "World Teacher." In 1995 the Parliament bestowed on him the title of Dharmachakra for his remarkable publications. In April of 1988, he was selected to represent Hinduism at the five-day Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders for Human Survival, held in England at Oxford University, and again in Moscow from January 11 to 15, 1990; and in Brazil, June 5­7, 1992. At Chicago's historic centenary Parliament of the World's Religions in September, 1993, he was elected to the Presidents' Assembly, a core group of 25 men and women representing the world's faiths. In late 1996 Gurudeva transformed "Hinduism Today" to a magazine, a quantum leap that extended its global reach and impact in Hindu communities. In 1997 he responded to President Bill Clinton's call for religious opinions on the ethics of human cloning and spearheded the 125th anniversary and diaspora pilgrimage of Sri Lanka's Sage Yogaswami. In Kerala, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad honored him as "The Hindu Voice of the Century." Throughout that same year he was a key member of Vision Kauai, a small group of indigenous and political leaders meeting to fashion the island's future based on ethical values.

Over the years Subramuniyaswami has written hundreds of tracts and books, which have been distributed in the tens of thousands in many languages. Especially in the 1980s, he lectured worldwide and established the worship in numerous Hindu temples. Gurudeva teaches the traditional Saivite Hindu path to enlightenment, a path that leads the soul from simple service to worshipful devotion to God, from the disciplines of meditation and yoga to the direct knowing of Divinity within. His insights into the nature of consciousness provide a key for quieting the external mind and revealing to aspirants their deeper states of being, which are eternally perfect, full of light, love, serenity and wisdom. He urges all seekers to live a life of ahimsa, harmlessness towards nature, people and creatures, an ethic which includes vegetarianism. From his ashrama in Hawaii, Gurudeva continues to follow his satguru's instruction to bring Saivism to the Western world by teaching others to "know thy Self by thyself" and thus "see God Siva everywhere." Through the ordained swamis of the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order, he trains young men in the ancient path of brahmacharya, enlightenment and service to humanity. Over 30 full-time monks, along with extended family groups in eight countries, have joined to fulfill this parampara's mission to further monistic Saiva Siddhanta and Hindu solidarity.

The name Subramuniya is a Tamil spelling of the Sanskrit Shubhramunya (not to be confused with Subramanya). It is formed from shubhra meaning "light; intuition," and muni, "silent sage." Ya means "restraint; religious meditation." Thus, Subramuniya means a self-restrained soul who remains silent or, when he speaks, speaks out from intuition.

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

Bal Gangadar Tilak (1856-1920): One of India's first prominent nationalist leaders. His efforts towards India's total independence earned him the title of Lokamanya, “Respected of the people.”His efforts were rewarded by a term of six years (1897-1902) in British prisons in India. He developed the ideas of passive resistance, boycotting of British goods, organization of mass opinion, and other political tactics that were later adopted by Mahatma Gandhi. Because of his words, “Swaraj [self-rule] is my birthright,”he has been called the Patrick Henry of India.

(See also: Bal Gangadar Tilak , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Ganges (Ganga): (Sanskrit)

India's most sacred river, 1,557 miles long, arising in the Himalayas above Hardwar under the name Bhagiratha, and named Ganga after joining the Alakanada (where the Sarasvati is said to join them underground). It flows southeast across the densely populated Gangetic plain, joining its sister Yamuna (or Jumna) at Prayaga (Allahabad) and ending at the Bay of Bengal.

See: Gangetic Plain.

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

Ramayana

"The most ancient Sanskrit epic poem, written by the sage Valmiki. It is estimated to have been composed about 500 B.C., and contains approximately 50,000 lines. The Ramayana describes the life of Sri Rama: his banishment from Ayodhya; life in the forest with his faithful wife Sita; Sita's abduction by Ravana; the war of Rama and his allies against Ravana; defeat of Ravana and rescue of Sita; Rama's return to Ayodhya as ruler; slander of Sita by the people of Ayodhya and her banishment from the kingdom; her subsequent exoneration and final ascent to heaven, where she is joined by Rama."

-- Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook

"The Ramayana is a work of the same essential kind as the Mahabharata; it differs only by a greater simplicity of plan, a more delicate ideal temperament and a finer glow of poetic warmth and colour. The main bulk of the poem in spite of much accretion is evidently by a single hand and has a less complex and more obvious unity of structure. There is less of the philosophic, more of the purely poetic mind, more of the artist, less of the builder. The whole story is from beginning to end of one piece and there is no deviation from the stream of the narrative. At the same time there is a like vastness of vision, an even more wide-winged flight of epic sublimity in the conception and sustained richness of minute execution in the detail.

...The eopic poet has taken here also as his subject an Itihasa, an ancient tale or legend associated with an old Indian dynasty and filled it in with detail from myth and folklore, but has exalted all into a scale of grandiose epic figure that it may bear more worthily the high intention and significance. The subject is the same as in the Mahabharata,, the strife of the divine with the titanic forces in the life of the earth, but in more purely ideal forms, in frankly supernatural dimensions and an imaginative heightening of both the good and the evil in human character. On one side is portrayed an ideal manhood, a divine beauty of virtue and ethical order, a civilization founded on the Dharma and realising an exaltation of the moral ideal which is presented with a singularly strong appeal of aesthetic grace and harmony and sweetness; on the other are wild and anarchic and almost amorphous forces of superhuman egoism and self-will and exultant violence, and the two ideas and powers of mental nature living and embodied are brought into conflict and led to a decisive issue of the victory of the divine man over the Rakshasa. All shade and complexity are omitted which would diminish the single urity of the idea, the representative force in the outline of the figures, the significance of the temperamental colour and only so much admitte as is sufficient to humanise the appeal and the significance.

The poet makes us conscious of the immense forces that are behind our life and sets his action in a magnificent epic scenery, the great imperial city, the mountains and ocean, the forest and wilderness, described with such a largeness as to make us feel as if the whole world were the scene of his poem and its subject the whole divine and titanic possibility of man imaged in a few great or monstrous figures. The ethical and the aesthetic mind of India have here fused themselves into a harmonious unity and reached an unexampled pure wideness and beauty of self-expression. The Ramayana embodied for the Indian imagination its highest and tenderest human ideals of character, made strength and courage and gentleness and purity and fidelity and self-sacrifice familiar to it in the suavest and most harmonious forms..."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture,

SABCL Vol 14 pp. 289-90

(See also: Ramayana , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

mudras:

mudras - muscular contractions that include the bandhas

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

akasa:

akasa (aakaasha). Sky, space, ether.

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

Arunachala Mountain: mountain in southern India where Ramana Maharshi resided throughout his adulthood. In the Puranas, Arunachala is said to be the center of the universe.

(See also: Arunachala Mountain , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Arya (n): One of noble birth or character (Sanskrit). Also, the family of Indo-European languages, therefore, the nomadic invaders who brought a language of this group into India (and Europe) between 2,000 and 1,500 BC from the northern steppes.

(See also: Arya , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

mythology: Body of tales and legends. All the myths of a specific people, culture or religion. India's mythology is among the world's most bountiful.

See: folk narratives, katha.

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

Mahabharata

"[The Mahabharata] is...probably the longest single poem in the world's literature. Traditionally the author of the poem was the sage Vyasa, who is said to have taught it to his pupil Vaisampayana. The latter, according to tradition, recited it in public for the first time at a great sacrifice held by King Janamejaya, the great grandson of Arjuna, one of the heroes of the story. ...the poem tells of the great civil war in the kingdom of the Kurus, in the region about the modern Delhi, then known as Kuruksetra."

-- A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, p. 407

"The Mahabharata is the creation and expression not of a single individual mind, but of a whole people. ...The whole poem has been built like a vast national temple unrolling slowly its immense and complex idea from chanber to chamber, crowded with significant groups and sculptures and inscriptions, the grouped figures carved in divine or semi-divine proportions, a humanity aggrandised and half-uplifted to super-humanity and yet always true to the human motive and idea and feeling, the strain of the real constantly raised by the tones of the ideal, the life of this world amply portrayed but subjected to the conscious influence and presence of the powers of the worlds behind it, and the whole unified by the long embodied procession of a consistent idea worked out in the wide steps of the poetic story."

"The leading motive is the Indian idea of the Dharma. Here the Vedic notion of the struggle between the godheads of truth and light and unity and the powers of darkness and division and falsehood is brought out from the spiritual and religious and internal into the outer intellectual, ethical and vital plane. It takes there in the figure of the story a double form of a personal and a political struggle, the personal a conflict between typical and representative personalities embodying the greater ethical ideals of the Indian Dharma and others who are embodiments of Asuric egoism and self-will and misuse of the Dharma, the political a battle in which the personal struggle culminates, an international clash ending in the establishment of a new rule of righteiousness and justice, a kingdom or rather an empire of the Dharma uniting warring races and substituting for the ambitious arrogance of kings and aristocratic clans the supremacy, the calm and peace of a just and humane empire. It is the old struggle of Deva and Asura, God and Titan, but represented in the terms of human life."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture, SABCL Vol.14 pp. 287-88

(See also: Mahabharata , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Jaya Prakash Narayana, (1902-1979): the founder of the Congress Socialists in the early 1930's and leader of the Socialist Party. He was one of the few Indian nationalists educated in America and this experience influenced his emphasis on industrialization in India. In 1956 he withdrew from formal politics to serve his countrymen in what he felt was a more practical manner by establishing the Sarvodaya (Upliftment of All) Foundation. His devotion to the cause of India's independence and resulting respect from the people was equal to that of Nehru.

(See also: Narayana , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

HINDUISM: The main religious and social system in India. Hinduism has various sects with the commonality of the belief in reincarnation, polytheism and an ordained caste system as its social base.

(See also: HINDUISM , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Hinduism Lexicon on B

From backbiting to buddhi chitta.

Read more here: » Hinduism: Hinduism Lexicon on B

Peepal tree

Botanical name or the Latin name: Ficus religious

Name in "Sanskrit" language: Ashvattha

The "Peepal tree" or the "holy fig tree" is the most accepted botanical entity in the Hindu tradition. It is considered sacred by both Hindus and Buddhists and its name has been referred in the Vedas and hindu epics. The saints used to meditate sitting under this holy tree. It was only under the Peepal tree that Gautam Buddha (9th Avataar of Lord Vishnu) attained enlightenment and that particular tree was named as "Bodhi-brikhsa", the wisdom-tree. The Peepal is considered as a feminine to the masculine Banyan tree.

The tree grows in most parts of India, especially on the banks of rivers and large water bodies and are abundantly found in the forests on the lower slopes of the Himalayas, Orissa as well as in central India. The Peepal-bark has light gray color and is smooth and the leaves have a distinctive shape of heart and have long and tapering tips. The tree is also used in Ayurveda (the Indian branch of medical science dealing with natural plants and products). €€€

(See also: Peepal tree , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Sanskrit (Sanskrita): (Sanskrit) "Well-made; refined, perfected."

The classical sacerdotal language of ancient India, considered a pure vehicle for communication with the celestial worlds. It is the primary language in which Hindu scriptures are written, including the Vedas and Agamas. Employed today as a liturgical, literary and scholarly language, but no longer used as a spoken vernacular.

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

Kalinga

Kalinga is another name for the state of Orissa, but was larger in size than the modern day Orissa.

Kalinga is an ancient territory of east-central India that included most of modern Orissa, part of northern Andhra Pradesh, and a portion of Madhya Pradesh. Strictly, it stretched not farther south than the Godavari River, thus excluded Vengi (the Andhra territory between Godavari river and the Krishna river). The hinterland of Kalinga led through mountainous and thickly forested country, inhabited by semi-Hinduized tribes, to central India and the Gangetic plain. With the ports of Coringa (modern day Kakinada), Vishakhapatnam, Chicacole, and Ganjam and the important towns of Rajahmundry and Vizayanagaram, Kalingans made excellent seaborne trade with Burma (now Myanmar) and areas still farther south and east. It was mentioned by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder.

Kalinga was conquered by Mahapadma, the founder of the Nanda dynasty (c. 343-c. 321 BC) of Magadha. It seceded from the Magadhan empire sometime after the fall of the Nanda dynasty, but it was reconquered by the Maurya king Ashoka in the 3rd century BC in a terrible war that was said to have helped to convert him to Buddhism. Subsequently, the Soma-vanshis (who belong to Soma dynasty) of southern Kosala, who controlled the strategic town of Chakrakotta (in the former Bastar state), ruled parts of the coastal strip for a period of time, as did the Yayatis, Vishnukundins, Bhanjas, and Bhauma Karas.

The eastern Gangas (pronounced as Gungu s) were the most famous rulers of all Kalinga. Their dynasty, which began its rule in the mid-11th century AD, sometimes competed with and sometimes allied itself with the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi. In the next century Anantavarma Chodagangadeva was particularly renowned; he built the Temple of Jagannaatha at Puri. The famous temple of the sun-god at Konarak (Konaarka) was built in the 13th century by Narasimhadeva I. Between 1238 and 1305 the Gangas (pronounced as Gungus) successfully withstood Muslim infiltration from the north, but the dynasty collapsed when the sultan of Delhi penetrated Kalinga from the south in 1324.€€€

(See also: Kalinga , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

tirthayatra: (Sanskrit) "Journeying to a holy place." Pilgrimage.

One of the five sacred duties (pancha nitya karmas) of the Hindu is to journey periodically to one of the innumerable holy spots in India or other countries. Preceded by fasting and continence, it is a time of austerity and purification, when all worldly concerns are set aside and God becomes one's singular focus. Streams of devout pilgrims are received daily at the many ancient holy sites (tirthas) in India, and tens of thousands at festival times.

See: pancha nitya karma, pancha shraddha.

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

Andal: (Tamil) Famed Vaishnava saint of Tamil Nadu. One of the Alvars, she lived in the early 9th century and today is venerated as one of South India's greatest bhakta poetesses. See: Alvar, Vaishnavism.

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

Andhra Pradesh (Pradesha): (Sanskrit) Modern Indian state located on the southeast coast of India north of Tamil Nadu. The capital is Hyderabad. Language: Telegu. Dominant faith: Vaishnavism. Area: 106,000 square miles. Population 54 million. Famous for its opulent Tirupati Vaishnava temple.

(See also: Andhra Pradesh (Pradesha): , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)