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Tau - Tau (Hebrew, Jewish). That which has now become the square Hebrew letter tau, but was ages before the invention of the Jewish alphabet, the Egyptian handled cross, the crux ansata of the Latins, and identical with the Egyptian ankh.
This mark belonged exclusively, and still belongs, to the Adepts of every country. As Kenneth R. F. Mackenzie shows, "It was a symbol of salvation and consecration, and as such has been adopted as a Masonic symbol in the Royal Arch Degree ". It is also called the astronomical cross, and was used by the ancient Mexicans - as its presence on one of the palaces at Palenque shows - as well as by the Hindus, who placed the tau as a mark on the brows of their Chelas.
Benares - A holy pilgrimage centre of Hindus, now called Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh,
Altar - Altar (from Latin altare from altus high)
Usually an elevation of earth, stone, or wood for the worshiper to kneel on, or for the offering of sacrifices, or as the pedestal of an invisible divinity or its statue. In the Old Testament it appears as part of the furniture of the Jewish tabernacle, that sacred shrine of the Deity. This altar has horns at each end, which is said to symbolize the fecund cow -- in common with the ideas of Hindus and ancients Egyptians -- which again represents Mother Nature; so the connection with the Holy of Holies, which stands for the great Mother, resurrection, and birth, is apparent.
In general the altar is the earthly throne or supposed seat of a deity; and its familiar metaphorical use suggests both this and also the idea of sacrifice. The altar has been taken over by Christendom, where it has become the communion table. It also has the idea of refuge and sanctuary, for it was commonly so used both with the Hebrews and the Classical ancients.
Persephone - Persephone (Greek) Proserpina (Latin) The daughter of Zeus and Demeter who became queen of the Underworld, after being carried off by Hades or Pluto, god of the Underworld. As Kore-Persephone, she becomes one of the great Eleusinian divinities, the Divine Maid.
The role played by Persephone, Demeter, or Kore ("maiden," a title applicable to both) is part of a profound allegory in which is found a great deal of occult truth. Persephone or Demeter has a cosmic significance, as well as one applicable to the human race, for in the cosmic meaning the legend involves what the Hindus refer to under the various manifestations of prakriti running throughout manifested nature as a veil or garment of the indwelling cosmic consciousness; and the various permutations under which Kore-Persephone or Demeter is presented, show the various allegorical stages or modifications which the cosmic prakritis undergo.
In the application of the legend to man, Kore-Persephone stands for both the spiritual soul and its child, the human soul, which in one manner of envisioning the facts are two; and in another manner, are one.
See also DEMETER; KORE-PERSEPHONE
Anjali - Anjali (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root anj to smear with, anoint, honor)
Salutation; a gesture of respect when the hands placed side by side and slightly hollowed are raised to the forehead. This salutation of reverence and benediction has been universally used by Hindus since ancient times, not only as a sign of reverence to gurus or those to whom it is desired to show special respect, but also frequently as a gesture of prayer directed to divinities.
The form anjala is used at the end of a compound. Blavatsky speaks of anjala as one of "the personified powers which spring from Brahma''s body -- the Prajapatis" (TG 23).
Vedas - The most ancient authentic scripture of the Hindus, a revealed scripture and therefore free from imperfections.
Purva-mimansa - Purva-mimansa (Sanskrit) [from purva prior + mimansa profound or striving thought or meditation from the verbal root man to think]
Inquiry into the first portion of the Veda -- the matra portion; the fifth of the six Darsanas or schools of Hindu philosophy. The school of philosophy in our days considered to be chiefly concerned with the correct interpretation of the Vedic texts; hence sometimes called the First Vedantic School.
Jaimini is reputed to be its founder, as well as the author of the Mimansa-darsana, the sutras or aphorisms which constitute its chief doctrinal authority. This school is also sometimes termed Karma-mimansa because of the doctrine advocated that by its teaching one can be more or less freed from the making of new karma.
The more advanced portion of the Mimansa is called the Vedanta, which is the present-day theosophy of Hindustan. The Vedanta, also called the Uttara-mimansa, is attributed to Vyasa, the arranger of the Vedas, as its founder.
Brahmanda - Brahmanda (Sanskrit) (from Brahma cosmic spirit + anda egg)
Egg of Brahma; the imbodiment of Brahma, particularly the solar system, physical, psychological, and spiritual. The ancient Hindus "called Brahma . . . the kosmic atom. The idea is that this kosmic atom is ''Brahma''s Egg,'' from which the universe shall spring into manifested being, as from the egg the chick comes forth, in its turn to lay another egg.
Each of these kosmic eggs or universes gives birth, after its rest period has ended, to its own offspring, each of the former derived in similar manner from its own former manvantaric egg" (Fund 494). This cosmic egg was sometimes said to be dropped by the mystic bird kalahamsa, the swan of eternity; or to be the result of Brahman''s ideation {FSO 97}.
See also HIRANYAGARBA
Chitrasikhandin - Chitrasikhandin citrasikhandin (Sanskrit) Bright-created; a title given to the seven rishis (saptarshayas) who are the ensouling powers of the seven stars of the constellation of the Great Bear (Riksha). The mystical number seven was seen to be figured in heaven by the seven large stars of the constellation Great Bear, assigned by ancient Egyptians and Hindus to the Mother of Time, and of the seven elemental powers.
See also BHUTASARGA
Somapas - Somapas (Sanskrit) Those who drink or have drunk the soma juice. Soma itself was the mystical initiatory drink or potation of the ancient Hindus, which modern Orientalists suppose to have been the plant Asclepias acida. Originally soma had somewhat the same meaning that the mystics of other nations indicated by wine or mead. Hence the somapas are those people who, having become more or less infilled with the essence of their inner spirit, were mystically spoken of as having drunk of the soma juice, otherwise those in or under the ecstasy of intellectual illumination. In India the somapas are more or less restrictedly stated to be the especial spiritual progenitors of the Brahmins, but this idea is sectarian, for any human being, Brahmin or not, who had drunk of the inner wine of the spirit, or of the mystical soma of inner illumination, was a somapa.
Aum - 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
Bhagat - Bhagat (Hindustani) (cf Sanskrit bhakta)
A religious mendicant or devotee; "one who exorcises evil spirits" (TG 56).
Chandra-vansa - 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.
Principles - Principles A beginning, foundation, source, or essence from which things proceed; principles are thus the fundamental essences out of which and from which all things are and exist, usually enumerated as seven in theosophical writings. These kosmic principles, corresponding to the seven planes of the kosmos -- the seven basic types of consciousness-substance of which the universe is formed -- are manifested in the human being, so that we speak of the seven human principles, copies in the small of the seven principles of the universe.
The seven human principles are not a confederation of distinct entities, for man himself is essentially a unit, a monad, expressing his potentialities through a series of vehicles or vestures. The seven principles severally exist as aspects of human consciousness. Whether kosmic or human, they are usually divided into a higher triad and a lower quaternary, these being the numbers of the spiritual and material side of nature respectively.
The higher triad is atman, buddhi, and manas (or, more correctly expressed, atman, atma-buddhi, and atma-buddhi-manas); the quaternary was originally given as kama-rupa, prana, linga-sarira, and sthula-sarira. In a later enumeration sthula-sarira was omitted from the list as not being a principle in itself but the vehicle of the other principles, and the quaternary was made up by adding the lower aspect of manas.
The septenate may also be regarded as a higher and lower triad united by manas, which can attach itself to either and in our present stage of evolution is oscillating between the two. Since these seven rudimentary principles are omnipresent, they give rise to subordinate septenates within the larger septenates, so that each principle is itself subdivided into seven, repeating nature''s fundamental structure indefinitely. This becomes clearer when we bear in mind that the universe in all its parts is composed of monads, and that every monad in manifestation expresses itself as a septenate. Though principles and elements are essentially the same, it is convenient to make a distinction whereby the term principle is used for the force or spirit aspect, and element for the vehicular aspect; the principle being the inner, and the element the outer aspect, flowing forth from the principle as its vital vehicle or clothing.
Basically, these human principles are the original essences or elements in the constitution of any entity, macrocosmic or microcosmic, when these elements or essences are integrated into a unit by the power inherent in the essential self of such an entity. Thus there are principles of a cosmos or universe, of a sun, a globe, a man, beast, plant, mineral and of an elemental. All religions and philosophies in all times have taught, albeit after various manners, that man or world or any other being is much more than the physical body.
The physical bodies or vehicles are but the outer shells or carriers of inward invisible, ethereal, and spiritual potencies or essences. In attempting to define the various parts of which our being is composed, many methods of dividing the human constitution have been adopted by different schools following different ways. The theosophic system is a division into seven principles or ultimate elements or essences; and everything within the cosmos is built of the same fundamental spiritual essence or substance and after the same general pattern. Other systems of division are possible, for instance the Christian threefold division of spirit, soul, and body. But the septenary classification is the most ancient one, and it is the common inheritance of all the esoteric schools "left to the sages of the Fifth Root-Race by the great Siddhas [Nirmanakayas]
of the Fourth" (SD 2:636). The following table (cf SD 2:596, ET 952-4) shows the analogy between the seven human aspects and the cosmic aspects:
Human Aspects ------- Cosmic Aspects
1. Atman Spirit, Essential Self ----- Unmanifested Logos, Essential Self ----- Paramatman Cosmic Monad, Self
2. Buddhi Spiritual Soul ----- Universal Ideation, Second Logos ----- Alaya, Adi-Buddhi,
3. Manas (Mind) Human Soul ----- Universal Intelligence, Third Logos ----- Mahat Cosmic Mind
4. Kama (Desire) Animal Soul ----- Cosmic Energy (Chaotic) ----- Cosmic Kama Womb of Fohat
5. Prana Life-essence Vitality----- Cosmic Life-Essence or Energy ------ Cosmic Jiva
6. Linga-sarira Model-body ----- Astral Ideation, reflecting terrestrial things ----- Cosmic Ether Astral Light
7. Sthula-sarira Physical body ----- Cosmos Physical universe ----- Sthura- or Sthula-sarira
In this classification atman is enumerated first of the human principles in order to convey the idea that all the other six principles emanate or unroll forth from it. Thus buddhi is emanated first and two portions of the scroll are unrolled, to adopt a Christian metaphor; then from buddhi is emanated manas (the other four principles being still infolded) and three portions of the scroll are unrolled; then from manas is emanated kama -- and so forth until all seven principles are unfolded.
The ancient Persians also had a sevenfold division of man''s aspects (Theos 4:21):
English ----- Avestic ----- Sanskrit
1. Physical Body -----Tanwas (bones) ----- Sthula-sarira
2. Model-body ----- Keherpas (aerial form), Persian kaleb ----- Linga-sarira
3. Life-Essence ----- Ushtanas (vital heat) ----- Prana
4. Desire Principle ----- Tevishis (conscious will) ----- Kama-manas
5. Mind (Human Soul) ----- Baodhas (perception through senses) ----- Manas
6. Spiritual Soul ----- Urvanem (Soul), Persian rawan ----- Buddhi
7. Universal Spirit ----- Fravashem or Farohar (Spirit) ----- Atman
In the ancient Chinese I Ching a seven fold classification is also given; and Gerald Massey stated that the Egyptian text often mention "seven souls of the Pharaoh," which he enumerated as follows (with Blavatsky''s correction in SD 2:632):
English ----- Chinese ----- Egyptian
1. Physical Body ----- Kwei ----- Kha soul of blood
2. Model-body ----- Kwei shan vial soul ----- Khaba, the shade covering soul
3. Life Essence ----- Shan vital principle ----- Ba soul of breath
4. Desire Principle ----- Zhing or Zing Essence of Will ----- Akhu, intelligence soul of perception
5. Mind ----- Pho ------ Seb ancestral soul
6. Spiritual Soul ----- Khi ----- Putah, first intellectual father intellectual soul
7. Universal Spirit ----- Hwun pure spirit ----- Atmu divine or eternal soul
Lao-tzu in his Tao-Teh-Ching mentions five principles, pure spirit and the body being taken for granted therein (Key 117).
Adapting the classification of Egyptologist Franz Lambert who tabulated a Qabbalistic classification alongside a hieroglyphic division:
Sanskrit ----- Qabbalah ----- Hieroglyphics
1. Sthula-sarira ----- Guph ----- Chat elementary body
2. Linga-sarira ----- Nephesh ----- Ka astral body, Evestrum, Sidereal Man
3. Prana ----- Khoah hag-Guph ----- Anch vital force Archaeus, Mumia
4. Kama ----- Ruah ------ Hati animal soul // Ab heart, feeling
5. Manas ----- Neshamah ----- Bai intellectual soul, intelligence
6. Buddhi ----- Hayyah ------ Cheybi spiritual soul
7. Atman ----- Yehidah ----- Chu divine spirit
The classification usually met with in the Qabbalah is a fourfold division: 1) neshamah, the most spiritual principle, the breath of being; 2) ruah, the spiritual soul; 3) nephesh, the vital soul; and 4) guph, the physical vehicle.
A sevenfold classification is stated to have been taught by the Gnostics, presented in the Pistis Sophia. "The Inner Man is similarly made up of four constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious AEons of the Spheres, being the Power -- a particle of the Divine light (''Divinae particula aurae'') yet left in themselves; the Soul (the fifth) ''formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their torments; . . . The Counterfeit of the Spirit (seemingly answering to our Conscience), (the sixth); and lastly the [Greek moira], Fate (Karmic Ego), whose business it is to lead the man to the end appointed for him . . .'' -- the seventh!" (SD 2:604-5).
The Pymander of Hermes states that the self is clothed with
the blissful garment of conscious selfhood;
the garment of knowing or reason;
the garment of fancy, etc., spoken of as the soul;
the garment of life or breath; and
the gross body.
The Vedantic classification commonly uses a sixfold division, while other systems employed by the Brahmins, especially the Taraka-Raja-Yogins, is fourfold:
Theosophical ----- Vedantic ----- Taraka-Raja-Yoga
1. Sthula-sarira ----- Annamaya-kosa ----- Sthulopadhi
2. Linga-sarira ----- Pranamaya-kosa ------ "
3. Prana ----- " ------ "
4. Kama
5. Manas
. . . a) volitions, feelings ----- Manomaya-kosa ----- Sukshmopadhi
. . . b) vijnana ----- Vijnanamaya-kosa ----- "
6. Buddhi ----- Anandamaya-kosa ----- Karanopadhi
7. Atman ----- Atman ----- Atman
The ancient Greek writers had their own terms for the aspects of the universe or of man, besides the familiar nous and psyche:
Theosophical ----- Greek ----- Roman
1. Sthula-sarira ----- Soma ----- Corpus
2. Linga-sarira ----- Phantasma or Phasma ----- Simulacrum or Imago
3. Prana ----- Bios ----- Anima
4. Kama-manas ----- Thymos ----- Animus
5. Higher Manas ----- Phren ----- )
6. Buddhi-manas ----- Nous ----- Mens
7. Atman ----- Pneuma ----- Spiritus
In the human constitution the archaic Latins discovered almost as many different spiritual, psychic, and astral elements as the ancient Hindus did. Thus, for instance, there was in man the genius (called in women the juno), closely corresponding to the manasaputric element or higher manas; and when a man died the genius sought its own sphere.
The other parts of the human constitution consisted of a member of the manes and a member of the lares, which two were probably closely identic with the lower human ego and the higher human ego; furthermore after the death of the man there appeared the lemur corresponding to the kama-rupa, shade, or specter; and the larva, which seems to have been identical with the lemur but with even less of the nobler human element in it; so that the lemur may be considered the kama-rupa in its early stages, and the larva when more greatly disintegrated. The physical body of course was considered simply to fall to pieces and to render its elements to the earth which gave it.
In the Scandinavian Eddas, Ask and Embla were two ash trees, and by means of the gifts bestowed upon them human beings were produced.
Another system of classification used in theosophical thought is the considering of the human constitution as composed of monads. The following table gives the monads and their relation to the principles.
See also FOURFOLD CLASSIFICATION
Sound - Shabda. As the darshana, or "seeing," of the Divine is a central article of faith for Hindus, similarly, hearing the Divine is spiritually indispensable. The ears are a center of many nadis connected to inner organs of perception. Gurus may when imparting initiation whisper in the ear of disciples to stimulate these centers and give a greater effect to their instructions.
During temple puja, bells ring loudly, drums resound, conches and woodwinds blare to awaken worshipers from routine states of consciousness.
Meditation on inner sound, called nada-anusandhana, is an essential yoga practice. Listening to the Vedas or other scripture is a mystical process. Traditional music is revered as the nectar of the Divine.
See: Aum, nada, Siva consciousness.
Anaxagoras - Anaxagoras (Ancient Greek) A famous Ionian philosopher who lived 500 B.C., studied philosophy under Anaximenes of Miletus, and settled in the days of Pericles at Athens. Socrates, Euripides, Archelaus and other distinguished men and philosophers were among his disciples and pupils.
He was a most learned astronomer and was one of the first to explain openly that which was taught by Pythagoras secretly, namely, the movements of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, etc. It was he who taught the theory of Chaos, on the principle that "nothing comes from nothing"; and of atoms, as the underlying essence and substance of all bodies, "of the same nature as the bodies which they formed".
These atoms, he taught, were primarily put in motion by Nous (Universal Intelligence, the Mahat of the Hindus), which Nous is an immaterial, eternal, spiritual entity; by this combination the world was formed, the material gross bodies sinking down, and the ethereal atoms (or fiery ether) rising and spreading in the upper celestial regions.
Antedating modern science by over 2000 years, he taught that the stars were of the same material as our earth, and the sun a glowing mass; that the moon was a dark, uninhabitable body, receiving its light from the sun; the comets, wandering stars or bodies ; and over and above the said science, he confessed himself thoroughly convinced that the real existence of things, perceived by our senses, could not be demonstrably proved. He died in exile at Lampsacus at the age of seventy-two.
Karma - (Sanskrit) "Action, deed."
One of the most important principles in Hindu thought, karma refers to
any act or deed;
the principle of cause and effect;
a consequence or "fruit of action" (karmaphala) or "after effect" (uttaraphala), which sooner or later returns upon the doer. What we sow, we shall reap in this or future lives. Selfish, hateful acts (papakarma or kukarma) will bring suffering. Benevolent actions (punyakarma or sukarma) will bring loving reactions.
Karma is a neutral, self-perpetuating law of the inner cosmos, much as gravity is an impersonal law of the outer cosmos. In fact, it has been said that gravity is a small, external expression of the greater law of karma. The impelling, unseen power of one''s past actions is called adrishta.
The law of karma acts impersonally, yet we may meaningfully interpret its results as either positive (punya) or negative (papa)- terms describing actions leading the soul either toward or away from the spiritual goal. Karma is further graded as: white (shukla), black (krishna), mixed (shukla-krishna) or neither white nor black (ashukla-akrishna). The latter term describes the karma of the jnani, who, as Rishi Patanjali says, is established in kaivalya, freedom from prakriti through realization of the Self. Similarly, one''s karma must be in a condition of ashukla-akrishna, quiescent balance, in order for liberation to be attained. This equivalence of karma is called karmasamya, and is a factor that brings malaparipaka, or maturity of anava mala. It is this state of resolution in preparation for samadhi at death that all Hindus seek through making amends and settling differences.
Karma is threefold: sanchita, prarabdha and kriyamana.
sanchita karma: "Accumulated actions." The sum of all karmas of this life and past lives.
prarabdha karma: "Actions begun; set in motion." That portion of sanchita karma that is bearing fruit and shaping the events and conditions of the current life, including the nature of one''s bodies, personal tendencies and associations.
- kriyamana karma: "Being made." The karma being created and added to sanchita in this life by one''s thoughts, words and actions, or in the inner worlds between lives. Kriyamana karma is also called agami, "coming, arriving," and vartamana, "living, set in motion." While some kriyamana karmas bear fruit in the current life, others are stored for future births.
Each of these types can be divided into two categories: arabdha (literally, "begun, undertaken;" karma that is "sprouting"), and anarabdha ("not commenced; dormant"), or "seed karma."
In a famed analogy, karma is compared to rice in its various stages. Sanchita karma, the residue of one''s total accumulated actions, is likened to rice that has been harvested and stored in a granary. From the stored rice, a small portion has been removed, husked and readied for cooking and eating. This is prarabdha karma, past actions that are shaping the events of the present. Meanwhile, new rice, mainly from the most recent harvest of prarabdha karma, is being planted in the field that will yield a future crop and be added to the store of rice. This is kriyamana karma, the consequences of current actions. In Saivism, karma is one of three principal bonds of the soul, along with anava and maya. Karma is the driving force that brings the soul back again and again into human birth in the evolutionary cycle of transmigration called samsara. When all earthly karmas are resolved and the Self has been realized, the soul is liberated from rebirth. This is the goal of all Hindus.
For each of the three kinds of karma there is a different method of resolution. Nonattachment to the fruits of action, along with daily rites of worship and strict adherence to the codes of dharma, stops the accumulation of kriyamana. Prarabdha karma is resolved only through being experienced and lived through. Sanchita karma, normally inaccessible, is burned away only through the grace and diksha of the satguru, who prescribes sadhana and tapas for the benefit of the shishya. Through the sustained kundalini heat of this extreme penance, the seeds of unsprouted karmas are fried, and therefore will never sprout in this or future lives.
See: diksha, grace.
Like the four-fold edict of dharma, the three-fold edict of karma has both individual and impersonal dimensions. Personal karma is thus influenced by broader contexts, sometimes known as family karma, community karma, national karma, global karma and universal karma.
See: karma, anava, fate, maya, moksha, papa, pasha, punya, sin, soul, karma yoga.
karmasamya: (Sanskrit) "Balance or equipoise of karma."
See: karma.
karmashaya: (Sanskrit) "Holder of karma." Describes the body of the soul,
Astrology - Astrology is a science that examines the action of celestial bodies upon all living beings, non-living objects, and earthly conditions, as well as their reactions to such influences. The study of the stars is one of the oldest sciences known to humankind, tracing its origins back to ancient Sumer and even earlier. The astrological arts were well known to the Egyptians, Hindus, Chinese, Persians, and the great civilizations of the ancient Americas.
Astrology is the progenitor of astronomy, and for many years the two existed as one science. Nowadays, astronomy is considered an "objective" science of distances, masses, speeds, etc., while astrology is a "subjective" and intuitive science that not only deals which the astronomical delineation of horoscopes, but can also be called a philosophy which helps to explain the spiritual essence of life.
Baital Pachisi - Baital Pachisi (Hindustani) In popular lore, a vampire believed to hover around graves and to subsist on the putrefying remains of corpses.
Disk-worship - Disk-worship. This was very common in Egypt but not till later times, as it began with Amenoph III., a Dravidian, who brought it from Southern India and Ceylon. It was Sun-worship under another form, the Aten-Nephru, Aten-Ra being identical with the Adonai of the Jews, the " Lord of Heaven" or the Sun.
The winged disk was the emblem of the Soul. The Sun was at one time the symbol of Universal Deity shining on the whole world and all creatures; the Sabeans regarded the Sun as the Demiurge and a Universal Deity, as did also the Hindus, and as do the Zoroastrians to this day.
The Sun is undeniably the one creator of physical nature. Lenormant was obliged, notwithstanding his orthodox Christianity, to denounce the resemblance between disk and Jewish worship. "Aten represents the Adonai or Lord, the Assyrian Tammuz, and the Syrian Adonis"(The Gr. Dionys. Myth.)
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:
There exists a one, all-pervasive Supreme Being who is both immanent and transcendent, both creator and unmanifest Reality.
The universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.
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.
Karma is the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds.
The soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved.
Divine beings exist in unseen worlds, and temple worship, rituals, sacraments, as well as personal devotionals, create a communion with these devas and Gods.
A spiritually awakened master or satguru is essential to know the transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, self-inquiry and meditation.
All life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and therefore one should practice ahimsa, nonviolence.
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.
Arya - Arya (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ri to rise, tend upward)
Holy, hallowed, highly evolved or especially trained; a title of the Hindu rishis. Originally a term of ethical as well as intellectual and spiritual excellence, belonging to those who had completely mastered the aryasatyani (holy truths) and who had entered upon the aryamarga (path leading to moksha or nirvana).
It was originally applicable only to the initiates or adepts of the ancient Aryan peoples, but today Aryan has become the name of a race of the human family in its various branches. All ancient peoples had their own term for initiates or adepts, as for instance among the ancient Hebrews the generic name Israel, or Sons of Israel.
Also applied as a title by the ancient Hindus to themselves in distinction from the peoples whom they had conquered.
Magic - Magic. The great "Science". According to Deveria and other Orientalists, "magic was considered as a sacred science inseparable from religion" by the oldest and most civilized and learned nations.
The Egyptians, for instance, were one of the most sincerely religious nations, as were and still are the Hindus. "Magic consists of, and is acquired by the worship of the gods", said Plato. Could then a nation, which, owing to the irrefragable evidence of inscriptions and papyri, is proved to have firmly believed in magic for thousands of years, have been deceived for so long a time. And is it likely that generations upon generations of a learned and pious hierarchy, many among whom led lives of self-martyrdom, holiness and asceticism, would have gone on deceiving themselves and the people (or even only the latter) for the pleasure of perpetuating belief in " miracles" ?
Fanatics, we are told, will do anything to enforce belief in their god or idols. To this we reply: in such case, Brahmans and Egyptian Rekhget-amens (q.v.) or Hierophants would not have popularized belief in the power of man by magic practices to command the services of the gods: which gods, are in truth, but the occult powers or potencies of Nature, personified by the learned priests themselves, in which they reverenced only the attributes of the one unknown and nameless Principle. As Proclus the Platonist ably puts it : "Ancient priests, when they considered that there is a certain alliance and sympathy in natural things to each other, and of things manifest to occult powers, and discovered that all things subsist in all, fabricated a sacred science from this mutual sympathy and similarity......and applied for occult purposes, both celestial and terrene natures, by means of which, through a certain similitude, they deduced divine virtues into this inferior abode".
Magic is the science of communicating with and directing supernal, supramundane Potencies, as well as of commanding those of the lower spheres; a practical knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature known to only the few, because they are so difficult to acquire, without falling into sins against nature. Ancient and medieval mystics divided magic into three classes - Theurgia, Goëtia and natural Magic. "Theurgia has long since been appropriated as the peculiar sphere of the theosophists and metaphysicians", says Kenneth Mackenzie.
Goëtia is black magic, and "natural (or white) magic has risen with healing in its wings to the proud position of an exact and progressive study". The comments added by our late learned Brother are remarkable. "The realistic desires of modern times have contributed to bring magic into disrepute and ridicule. . . . Faith (in one’s own self) is an essential element in magic, and existed long before other ideas which presume its pre-existence. It is said that it takes a wise man to make a fool; and a man’s ideas must be exalted almost to madness, i.e., his brain susceptibilities must be increased far beyond the low, miserable status of modern civilization, before he can become a true magician; (for) a pursuit of this science implies a certain amount of isolation and an abnegation of Self ".
A very great isolation, certainly, the achievement of which constitutes a wonderful phenomenon, a miracle in itself. Withal magic is not something supernatural. As explained by Jamblichus, "they through the sacerdotal theurgy announce that they are able to ascend to more elevated and universal Essences, and to those that are established above fate, viz., to god and the demiurgus: neither employing matter, nor assuming any other things besides, except the observation of a sensible time".
Already some are beginning to recognise the existence of subtle powers and influences in nature of which they have hitherto known nought. But as Dr. Carter Blake truly remarks, "the nineteenth century is not that which has observed the genesis of new, nor the completion of old, methods of thought"; to which Mr. Bonwick adds that "if the ancients knew but little of our mode of investigations into the secrets of nature, we know still less of their mode of research".
Six - Six The number of manifestation; the ancients reasoned that since the basis of all manifested nature was sextal -- such as six fundamental forces, planes, and hierarchies of beings -- therefore nature throughout all its manifested structure and workings would be subordinate to this fundamental numerical key.
Hence not only the structure of nature itself would be sextal, but so would cycles of time in their operation. Here is the fundamental reason the Hindus, ancient Babylonians, and the Mystery schools and teachers of other lands, adopted the sextal or sexagesimal keys as the numerical series of events in which time cycles repeated themselves, therefore corresponding to events in human and cosmic matters. Multiplied by itself, and then by ten (the perfect number), gives 360 -- the number of the Hindu Divine Year, also of degrees in a circle and the basis of the Babylonian saros.
The combination with three (6+3) making nine, however, was looked at askance by the ancients, for "if number 6 was the symbol of our globe ready to be animated by a divine spirit, 9 symbolized our earth informed by a bad or evil spirit" (SD 2:581).
In Saint-Germain''s manuscript, six is regarded as the symbol of the animating or informing principle, and it was also the "symbol of the Earth during the autumn and winter ''sleeping'' months" (SD 2:583).
In occultism six is represented by the cube representing the six dimensions -- the four cardinal points, and the zenith and nadir; "while the senary was applied by the sages to physical man, the septenary was for them the symbol of that man plus his immortal soul" (SD 2:591).
Six is also present in the double triangles, which when interlaced form a six-pointed star; "this is the reason why Pythagoras and the ancients made the number six sacred to Venus, since ''the union of the two sexes, and the spagyrisation of matter by triads are necessary to develop the generative force, that prolific virtue and tendency to reproduction which is inherent in all bodies'' " (SD 2:592).
See also SENARY
Ark Of The Covenant - Ark of the Covenant The coffer or chest in the Holy of Holies of the Jewish synagogue. All ancient religions used the mystical ark, or something similar, in their respective ceremonial worships: "Every ark-shrine, whether with the Egyptians, Hindus, Chaldeans or Mexicans, was a phallic shrine, the symbol of the yoni or womb of nature. The seket (sektet-boat)
of the Egyptians, the ark, or sacred chest, stood on the ara -- its pedestal. The ark of Osiris, with the sacred relics of the god, was ''of the same size as the Jewish ark,'' says S. Sharpe, the Egyptologist, carried by priests with staves passed through its rings in sacred procession, as the ark round which danced David, the King of Israel. . . . The ark was a boat -- a vehicle in every case. ''Thebes had a sacred ark 300 cubits long,'' and ''the word Thebes is said to mean ark in Hebrew,'' which is but a natural recognition of the place to which the chosen people are indebted for their ark. Moreover, as Bauer writes, ''the Cherub was not first used by Moses.''
The winged Isis was the cherub or Arieh in Egypt, centuries before the arrival there of even Abram or Sarai. ''The external likeness of some of the Egyptian arks, surmounted by their two winged human figures, to the ark of the covenant, has often been noticed.'' (Bible Educator.) And not only the ''external'' but the internal ''likeness'' and sameness are now known to all " (TG 30).
Vedanta - Vedanta (Sanskrit). A mystic system of philosophy which has developed from the efforts of generations of sages to interpret the secret meaning of the Upanishads (q.v.). It is called in the Shad-Darshanas (six schools or systems of demonstration), Uttara Mimansa, attributed to Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas, who is thus referred to as the founder of the Vedanta.
The orthodox Hindus call Vedanta_a term meaning literally the "end of all (Vedic) knowledge " - Brahma-jnana, or pure and spiritual knowledge of Brahma. Even if we accept the late dates assigned to various Sanskrit schools and treatises by our Orientalists, the Vedanta must be 3,300 years old, as Vyasa is said to have lived I,400 years B.C.
If, as Elphinstone has it in his History of India, the Brahmanas are the Talmud of the Hindus, and the Vedas the Mosaic books, then the Vedanta may be correctly called the Kabalah of India. But how vastly more grand! Sankaracharya, who was the popularizer of the Vedantic system, and the founder of the Adwaita philosophy, is sometimes called the founder of the modern schools of the Vedanta.
Ash `ash - Ash `ash (Hebrew) (probably from na`ash to support, bear)
In Job (9:9) wrongly translated as the star Arcturus; from the Arabic it is evident that Ursa Major is referred to. Different peoples consider the Great Bear as the vital support or carrier not only of destiny but of the heavens. Thus the Hindus speak of the Saptarshayah (seven rishis), who preside over this constellation and have our universe in karmic supervision.
Mountain - Mountains, being the exaltation of earth and the home of the gnomes, mountains enjoy special occult prestige. Mt. Meru was to the Hindus the navel of the world, Mt. Olympus the home of the Greek Gods, and so on. The Chinese philosopher, Hiouen-Thsang found his deliverance to the Buddha in a mountain of light. Many magicians, Crowley in particular, were fond of alpinism because its sheer life-and-death physicality differs so markedly from the purely mental world of occult practice. In California, Mt. Shasta has recently been the site of much New Age work and the following verse is dedicated to it:
The Mountain of the Mountains
Oreads rise and climb with me,
As palmers did on pilgrimage,
A very Ararat and magic Alp:
Whose craving peak a snowy pyramid doth crown
A faerie kingdom high
Above all humdrum vales.
Come with me where kappas reach,
Where Elementals and Archangels teach,
Where Aliens craft down to visit Earth
And covered, creviced Shangrilas do hide
Their minarets and migdalors
From spies and eye of plane,
Where rainbow cliffs o''er green-decked trees
Through gold-lipp''t clouds connect
The several astral skies.
-- Anon.
Krishna - Krishna (Sanskrit).. The most celebrated avatar of Vishnu, the "Saviour" of the Hindus and their most popular god. He is the- eighth Avatar, the son of Devaki, and the nephew of Kansa, the Indian King Herod, who while seeking for him among the shepherds and cow-herds who concealed him, slew thousands of their newly-born babes.
The story of Krishna’s conception, birth, and childhood are the exact prototype of the New Testament story. The missionaries, of course, try to show that the Hindus stole the story of the Nativity from the early Christians who came to India.
Charachara - Charachara caracara (Sanskrit) (from chara moving + achara not moving)
The aggregate of all beings and things whether moving or fixed. It includes all the kingdoms of nature, for the ancient Hindus considered the vegetable and mineral kingdoms to be endowed with inherent life, with relative and fitting souls, as well as the animal and human kingdoms.
Sishta - Sishta sista (Sanskrit) Remainder, remains, residuals -- anything that is left or remains behind; in theosophy, those superior classes of each kingdom left behind on a globe during its obscuration, serving as seeds of life for the returning life-wave in the next round.
They are the most highly evolved monads of each of the life-waves, the forerunners who, because of the innate urge and karmic power behind them, have preceded in their development the great bulk of their life-wave. In the human life-wave, the sishtas will be the most evolved humans, the great sages, those who have outrun the evolutionary development of the human life-wave considered as a whole. They are called remainders merely because they remain behind on a globe in order to provide the seeds for inaugurating their own life-wave''s evolutionary progress, when that life-wave once again reaches the globe on which the sishtas remain.
While the sishtas are dormant, sleeping, or resting, they are not inactive or in a dream-world corresponding to devachan. They are relatively dormant merely because the life-wave has passed them by. Yet they still carry on all the functions, processes, and duties required of the most advanced egos of that life-wave until the life-wave returns to the globe on which these sishtas are awaiting it.
The sishtas are thus the manus (or collectively the manu) of any life-wave -- and hence the respective manus or manu for each life-wave. As there is a root-manu on every globe when a life-wave reaches it and begins to develop into the first root-race on that globe, and a seed-manu for that life-wave on that same globe when the life-wave has left it, the seed-manu and root-manu are thus virtually the same group of entities. The distinction lies in the two roles played by the sishtas when a life-wave leaves a globe and during the interim before the life-wave returns again, and what the sishtas do when the advanced egos of the life-wave begin to reach that same globe again: for with this incoming of new entities less progressed than the sishtas themselves, the seed-manu becomes what has been called the root-manu.
The sishtas are mentioned under various names in the world''s sacred literatures: the ''Adam of the Hebrew Genesis represents the seed-manu of the human life-wave when it reached this globe D during this round; the legends concerning Noah refer to the life-wave itself repopulating the earth after the so-called deluge of space -- the ark of the Hebrew story being the globes of the planetary chain; and is the equivalent of Vaivasvata-manu in Hindustan. The Desatir, in the "Book of Abad, the Prophet" gives the same essential teaching: "In the beginning of each Grand Period, a new order of things commenceth in the lower world. And, not indeed the very forms, and knowledge and events of the Grand Period that hath elapsed, but others precisely similar to them will again be produced. And every Grand Period that cometh resembleth from beginning to end the Grand Period that is past. . . . at the conclusion of a Grand Period, only two persons are left in the world, one man and one woman: all the rest of mankind perish: And hence mankind derive their origin from the woman and man who survive, and from whose loins numbers issue in the new Grand Period" (vv 144-16 and Commentary).
In this Persian story of the conclusion of a manvantara of a life-wave on a globe, only "two persons" remain as sishtas, "one man and one woman," a popularized and easily understood allegory -- although when the seventh root-race of mankind is ended, and our human life-wave passes onwards to the next globe, there will be no man and woman, but simply human beings.
Earthquakes - Earthquakes Physical phenomena such as earthquakes are generally the end-products of a chain of causation operating not only on the physical plane but also on other cosmic planes.
A study of the geology of the earth''s crust as regards the lie of the rocks, the position of faults, the presence of volcanic activities, etc., may indicate the places most likely to be affected, and the relation between earthquakes and the positions of the heavenly bodies is now receiving some consideration from scientists; but they still do not recognize any connection between the cause of earthquakes and events on the mental plane of the earth.
"But when they understand that there is no such thing as accident in the universe, that every event which appears to us as accident, is the effect of a force on the mental plane, then they will be able to understand why the superstitious Hindus look upon earthquakes as the effect of accumulated sins committed by men." (Damodar)
The more subtle forms of force-matter or astral light form the links between the physical earth and the mental state of the living beings upon it; and rapid and more or less violent physical cataclysms may be regarded as the final effects of a sudden release of tension in those higher realms. That unusual psychic conditions perceptible to animals and even to humans precede earthquakes many hours before a shock, and long before the seismographs show the smallest tremor, is well-authenticated.
"It is absolutely false, and but an additional demonstration of the great conceit of our age, to assert (as men of science do) that all the great geological changes and terrible convulsions have been produced by ordinary and known physical forces. For these forces were but the tools and final means for the accomplishment of certain purposes, acting periodically, and apparently mechanically, through an inward impulse mixed up with, but beyond their material nature. There is a purpose in every important act of Nature, whose acts are all cyclic and periodical. But spiritual Forces having been usually confused with the purely physical, the former are denied by, and therefore have to remain unknown to Science, because left unexamined" (SD 1:640).
Evil - That which is bad, morally wrong, causing harm, pain, misery. In Western religions, evil is often thought of as a moral antagonism to God. This force is the source of sin and is attached to the soul from its inception.
Whereas, for Hindus, evil is not a conscious, dark force, such as Satan. It is situational rather than ontological, meaning it has its basis in relative conditions, not in ultimate reality. Evil (badness, corruption) springs from ignorance (avidya) and immaturity. Nor is one fighting with God when he is evil, and God is not standing in judgment. Within each soul, and not external to it, resides the principle of judgment of instinctive-intellectual actions. God, who is ever compassionate, blesses even the worst sinner, the most depraved asura, knowing that individual will one day emerge from lower consciousness into the light of love and understanding.
Hindus hold that evil, known in Sanskrit as papa, papman or dushta, is the result of unvirtuous acts (papa or adharma) caused by the instinctive-intellectual mind dominating and obscuring deeper, spiritual intelligence. (Note: both papa and papman are used as nouns and adjectives.) The evil-doer is viewed as a young soul, ignorant of the value of right thought, speech and action, unable to live in the world without becoming entangled in maya. -
intrinsic evil: Inherent, inborn badness. Some philosophies hold that man and the world are by nature imperfect, corrupt or evil. Hinduism holds, on the contrary, that there is no intrinsic evil, and the real nature of man is his divine, soul nature, which is goodness.
See: hell, karma, papa, Satan, sin.
Smriti - Smriti (Sanskrit). Traditional accounts imparted orally, from the word Smriti, "Memory" a daughter of Daksha. They are now the legal and ceremonial writings of the Hindus; the opposite of, and therefore less sacred, than the Vedas, which are Sruti, or " revelation ".
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