Chaar Dhaam & chaar yuga

There are 4 most important places in Sanaatan dharma (= religion of truth; The Hindu religion is rooted from Satya Sanaatana religion which is the root of all religions), to where each Hindu (who has Hindu religion) is supposed to make pilgrimage at least once in life. These 4 places are called chaar dhaam (chaar = 4, dhaam = abode or place).

These are:

1. Badrinaath (Tehri-Garhwal district of the mighty Himaalayas, North India)

2. Raameshwaram (South India)

3. Dwaarka (West India), and

4. Jagannaath Dhaam Puri (Orissa, East India)

The ancient Epics also relate the history of the chaar dhaam with the widely accepted Four Yugas (Yuga = era). The chaar yuga s are:

Satya yuga, Tretayaa yuga, Dwaapara yuga, and Kali yuga. According to the epics, the relation of yuga with dhaama are as follows:

Badrinaath » Satya yuga,

Rameshwaram » Tretayaa yuga,

Dwaarka » Dwaapara yuga, and

Jagannaath » Kali yuga.

The present age is approaching the end of Kali yuga. It is widely believed in the Hindu mythology that towards the end of Kali yuga, Lord Vishnu (Lord Jagannaath is a form of Lord Vishnu) will appear as Kalki Avataar to save the saints (good) and destroy the sinners (evil). This will happen at a time when the Sin will be at it's peak, i.e. at the worst time of this Kali yuga. As he will come to destroy the Kalanka (= blemishes of and on the humanity), he is called Kalki avataar.€€€

(See also: Chaar Dhaam,  chaar yuga , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Kanishka kanishka (Sanskrit) A celebrated ruler or king in Northern India who reigned around the first century. Next to Asoka, he was among the greatest patrons and supporters of Indian Buddhism, building some of the finest stupas or dagobas in Northern India and Kabulistan.

(See also: Kanishka, kanishka , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sumati (Sanskrit) Benevolent, kindness; devotion, prayer. As a proper noun, the name of many celebrated people, such as a son of Bharata who gave his name to Bharata-varsha (India).

(See also: Sumati , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Lunar Gods. Called in India the Fathers, "Pitris" or the lunar ancestors.

They are subdivided, like the rest, into seven classes or Hierarchies, In Egypt although the moon received less worship than in Chaldea or India, still Isis stands as the representative of Luna-Lunus, "the celestial Hermaphrodite". Strange enough while the modern connect the moon only with lunacy and generation, the ancient nations, who knew better, have, individually and collectively, connected their "wisdom gods" with it. Thus in Egypt the lunar gods are Thoth, Hermes and Chons; in India it is Budha, the Son of Soma, the moon; in Chaldea Nebo is the lunar god of Secret Wisdom, etc., etc.

The wife of Thoth, Sifix, the lunar goddess, holds a pole with five rays or the five-pointed star, symbol of man, the Microcosm, in distinction from the Septenary Macrocosm. As in all theogonies a goddess precedes a god, on the principle most likely that the chick can hardly precede its egg, in Chaldea the moon was held as older and more venerable than the Sun, because, as they said, darkness precedes light at every periodical rebirth (or "creation") of the universe. Osiris although connected with the Sun and a Solar god is, nevertheless, born on Mount Sinai, because Sin is the Chaldeo-Assyrian word for the moon; so was Dio-Nysos, god of Nyssi or Nisi, which latter appelation was that of Sinai in Egypt, where it was called Mount Nissa.

The crescent is not - as proven by many writers - an ensign of the Turks, but was adopted by Christians for their symbol before the Mahommedans. For ages the crescent was the emblem of the Chaldean Astarte, the Egyptian Isis, and the Greek Diana, all of them Queens of Heaven, and finally became the emblem of Mary the Virgin. "The Greek Christian Empire of Constantinople held it as their palladium. Upon the conquest by the Turks, the Sultan adopted it . . . and since that, the crescent has been made to oppose the idea of the cross". (Eg. Belief.)

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

Pisachas pisacas (Sanskrit) Shades, fading remnants or shells of human beings in kama-loka, which become elementaries, or malevolent astral beings, in the cases of people who live a consistently evil life while in incarnation. In southern Indian folklore the pisachas are ghosts, demons, larvae, and vampires -- generally female -- who haunt men. In the Puranas, they are goblins or demons created by Brahma.

In archaic Hindu literature, the pisachas are connected with the daityas, danavas, etc. Here they are no longer mere astral shells, but represent evolving beings of the earlier races of man: "The Demons, so called in the Puranas, are very extraordinary devils when judged from the standpoint of European and orthodox views about these creatures, since all of them -- Danavas, Daityas, Pisachas, and the Rakshasas -- are represented as extremely pious, following the precepts of the Vedas, some of them even being great Yogis.

But they oppose the clergy and Ritualism, sacrifices and forms -- just what the full-blown Yogins do to this day in India -- and are no less respected for it, though they are allowed to follow neither caste nor ritual; hence all those Puranic giants and Titans are called Devils" (SD 1:415).

(See also: Pisachas, pisacas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Kama Sutra: An epic tale of love and desire infused with all the pageantry, passion and vibrant color of 16th century India. An ancient Sanskrit text giving instruction on the art of lovemaking.

(See also: Kama Sutra ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Dravidians: The oldest known inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. Archeological remains of their civilization have been found in the Indus River Valley dating back to 2700 BCE. In some areas, the Dravidians were conquered by the Aryans when they migrated from the West around 1500 BC.

(See also: Dravidians ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Calvary Cross. This form of cross does not date from Christianity. It was known and used for mystical purposes, thousands of years before our era.

It formed part and parcel of the various Rituals, in Egypt and Greece, in Babylon and India, as well as in China, Mexico, and Peru. It is a cosmic, as well as a physiological (or phallic) symbol. That it existed among all the "heathen" nations is testified to by Tertullian. "How doth the Athenian Minerva differ from the body of a cross?" he queries. "The origin of your gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross.

All those rows of images on your standards are the appendages of crosses; those hangings on your banners are the robes of crosses." And the fiery champion was right. The tau or T is the most ancient of all forms, and the cross or the tat (q.v.) as ancient. The crux ansata, the cross with a handle, is in the hands of almost every god, including Baal and the Phœnician Astarte.

The croix cramponnée is the Indian Swastica. It has been exhumed from the lowest foundations of the ancient site of Troy, and it appears on Etruscan and Chaldean relics of antiquity. As Mrs. Jamieson shows: "The ankh of Egypt was the crutch of St. Anthony and the cross of St. Philip. The Labarum of Constantine . . . was an emblem long before, in Etruria. Osiris had the Labarum for his sign; Horus appears sometimes with the long Latin cross. T

he Greek pectoral cross is Egyptian. It was called by the Fathers the devil’s invention before Christ . The crux ansata is upon the old coins of Tarsus, as the Maltese upon the breast of an Assyrian king ...The cross of Calvary, so common in Europe, occurs on the breasts of mummies. . . it was suspended round the necks of sacred Serpents in Egypt. . . . Strange Asiatic tribes bringing tribute in Egypt are noticed with garments studded with crosses, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson dates this picture B.C. 1500." Finally, "Typhon, the Evil One, is chained by a cross".

(Eg. Belief and Mod. Thought).

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

Naga (Sanskrit). Literally "Serpent". The name in the Indian Pantheon of the Serpent or Dragon Spirits, and of the inhabitants of Patala, hell. But as Patala means the antipodes, and was the name given to America by the ancients, who knew and visited that continent before Europe had ever heard of it, the term is probably akin to the Mexican Nagals the (now) sorcerers and medicine men.

The Nagas are the Burmese Nats, serpent-gods, or "dragon demons". In Esotericism, however, and as already stated, this is a nick-name for the "wise men" or adepts in China and Tibet, the "Dragons." are regarded as the titulary deities of the world, and of various spots on the earth, and the word is explained as meaning adepts, yogis, and narjols. The term has simply reference to their great knowledge and wisdom. This is also proven in the ancient Sutras and Buddha’s biographies.

The Naga is ever a wise man, endowed with extraordinary magic powers, in South and Central America as in India, in Chaldea as also in ancient Egypt. In China the "worship" of the Nagas was widespread, and it has become still more pronounced since Nagarjuna (the "great Naga", the "great adept" literally), the fourteenth Buddhist patriarch, visited China.

The "Nagas" are regarded by the Celestials as "the tutelary Spirits or gods of the five regions or the four points of the compass and the centre, as the guardians of the five lakes and four oceans" (Eitel). This, traced to its origin and translated esoterically, means that the five continents and their five root-races had always been under the guardianship of "terrestrial deities", i.e., Wise Adepts. The tradition that Nagas washed Gautama Buddha at his birth, protected him and guarded the relics of his body when dead, points again to the Nagas being only wise men, Arhats, and no monsters or Dragons. This is also corroborated by the innumerable stories of the conversion of Nagas to Buddhism.

The Naga of a lake in a forest near Rajagriha and many other "Dragons" were thus converted by Buddha to the good Law.

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

Lebanon (Hebrew) A mountain range in Syria and Palestine of two principal chains, Lebanon or Libanus on the west and Antilibanus on the east. In this region dwell the brotherhood of the Druzes and likewise the Nabatheans.

Lebanon is most often associated with its cedars; however, the phrase cedars of Lebanon also meant initiants who "were called the 'trees of Righteousness,' and the cedars of Lebanon, as also were come kings of Israel" (SD 2:494). In India too adepts of the right- and left-hand path were often called trees. It depended upon the tree which was selected as being beneficent or maleficent as, for instance, the upas tree of the left-hand, or the bodhi tree of the right-hand.

While the range of mountains in Syria and Palestine is called Lebanon (white), nevertheless there is a direct ancient mystical reference here to the moon or lunar influence; as a meaning of this range as envisaged by the ancient inhabitants would be the lunar range of mountains, points directly to esoteric observances connected with the moon and its malignant and unwholesome influences.

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

Lotus Position: Padmasana, or Lotus Pose, named so because the position puts the souls of the feet up, reminiscent of a lotus flower. The prime position for meditation, it is the most renowned of all Hatha Yoga postures.

(See also: Lotus Position ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Prana Vata: The chief subdivision of vata, it governs the mind, the heart, respiration, and life itself.

(See also: Prana Vata ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Asthi Soshirya: Porous or brittle bones; osteoporosis.

(See also: Asthi Soshirya ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Tanjur Bstan-hgyur, bstan 'gyur (ten-gyur, ten-jur) (Tibetan) Translation of the sastras; the second part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, the first part being the Kanjur (both words came into Western languages via Mongolian).

The Tanjur is divided into three parts: a one-volume collection of hymns or praises to the Buddha, and two voluminous collections of sastras: tantra commentaries and sutra commentaries. Although called commentaries, these also include independent treatises, and the sutra-commentaries section also includes miscellaneous works such as letters, dictionaries, grammars, medical works, etc.

The Tanjur is even larger than the Kanjur, containing up to 225 volumes. Four editions are known in the West: Narthang, Peking, Derge, and Cone (cho-ne) -- all 18th century blockprints, although the Tanjur is much older as a manuscript collection. The Tanjur contains works assumed to be Tibetan translations of the works of Indian Buddhist masters, other than the Buddha himself. Compositions by Tibetan masters, however authoritative, are not included in the Tanjur.

(See also: Tanjur , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Tala (Sanskrit) Lower or inferior portions of a series, inferior world; also a chasm, abyss, floor. All these ideas suggest lower or inferior planes. Often used in conjunction with loka (place, world). The talas stand for the material aspects or substance-principles of the different worlds which are the cosmic universe, in contrast with the lokas which suggest the spiritual aspect of the universe.

The number of loka-talas is generally given as seven, though the number varies, all the seven lokas and seven talas interblending and interworking to form the universe and all its various hierarchies. The seven talas are generally given in theosophical writings as atala, vitala, sutala, rasatala, talatala, mahatala, and patala.

Because the lokas are more particularly the spheres of spiritual and intellectual character, and the talas the spheres of vehicular or more substantial character, it has been customary in Indian literature to speak of the lokas as heavens and the talas as hells -- neither heavens nor hells bearing the shades of meaning attached to them in Christian theology. Every substantial globe is considered a hell; our own earth, for instance, bhurloka-patala, is so considered. All these talas are in the last analysis rising or descending realms forming the astral light which is not one sole restricted realm or sphere.

(See also: Tala , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Thraetaona (Avestan) Freton (Pahlavi) Feraydun (Persian) [from Avestan thrae trice + taona potent]

The Avestan fire god possibly connected in meaning with Traitana or (Trita in the Hindu Vedas), or the son of the waters, in India generally called Apam Napat and stated to be born from the cloud through the lightning. He slew the dreadful serpent Azhi Dahaka in the four-cornered Varena (the heavens) -- Feraydun (Thraetaona) with his three sons versus Azhi Dahaka with three heads. In the Vendidad (20) he is described as the first healer. Blavatsky calls Thraetaona the Persian Michael, and equates Apam Napat with fohat.

Another meaning of Feraydun is the sphere of the fixed stars (the light spheres).

See also AZHI DAHAKA; ZOHAK

(See also: Thraetaona , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Mage, or Magian. From Mag or Maha. The word is the root of the word magician. The Maha-atma (the great Soul or Spirit) in India had its priests in the pre-Vedic times.

The Magians were priests of the fire-god; we find them among the Assyrians and Babylonians, as well as among the Persian fire-worshippers. The three Magi, also denominated kings, that are said to have made gifts of gold, incense and myrrh to the infant Jesus, were fire-worshippers like the rest, and astrologers ; for they saw his star.

The high priest of the Parsis, at Surat, is called Mobed. Others derived the name from Megh; Meh-ab signifying some thing grand and noble. Zoroaster’s disciples were called Meghestom, according to Kleuker.

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

Kiyun (Hebrew, Jewish). Or the god Kivan which was worshipped by the Israelites in the wilderness and was probably identical with Saturn and even with the god Siva. Indeed, as the Zendic H is S in India (their "hapta" is "sapta", etc.), and as the letters K, H, and S, are interchangeable, Siva may have easily become Kiva and Kivan.

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

Reuel-Jethro re`u'el yithro (Hebrew) In the Bible a priest of Midian having seven daughters and giving one of them (Zipporah) in marriage to Moses (Ex 2:16).

"Jethro is called the 'father-in-law' of Moses; not because Moses was really married to one of his seven daughters. Moses was an Initiate, if he ever existed, and as such an ascetic, a nazar, and could never be married. It is an allegory like everything else. Zipporah (the shining) is one of the personified Occult Sciences given by Revel-Jethro, the Midian priest Initiator, to Moses, his Egyptian pupil. The 'well' by which Moses sat down in his flight from the Pharaoh symbolizes the 'well of Knowledge' " (SD 2:465n).

That an initiate could never be married is true of the highest class of adepts, but history shows that both men and women initiates, although very rarely of the highest rank, have been married. It is likewise to be remembered that one of the grandest initiates known to human history, Gautama Buddha, married and had a child.

Indeed, in ancient India, according to the laws of life then prevailing, all students, whether higher or lower, had to pass through the four stages of imbodied life on earth, and one of these was called grihastha -- a man who had his home, wife, and children, as it was then a religious duty for everyone to carry on his own family line.

(See also: Reuel-Jethro, re`u'el yithro , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Yana (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ya to go]

Path, road, vehicle; there are two recognized paths of action in nature, the pratyeka-yana (the path of each one for himself) and the amrita-yana (the immortal vehicle or path of immortality). There are also two schools of philosophy in India using this term: the Hinayana (the lesser, inferior, or defective vehicle) and the Mahayana (the greater or superior vehicle).

This contrast is an exoteric rather than an esoteric one. It is a recognition of the fact that the religion of Gautama Buddha has separated into two general paths of action; but both the Hinayana and the Mahayana are recognized because known to possess each one its own particular value in training. The combination of the two is what one might call the esoteric path.

The Hinayana is that portion of the esoteric path in which the mystic traveler takes the lower passional and elemental sides of himself into strict discipline and self-control, the while following certain simple rules of day-to-day procedure; whereas the Mahayana aspect includes rather the training of the spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic parts of the human constitution, such as is brought about by a profound study of philosophy, of the truths of nature, the mystical side of religion, and the higher parts of kosmic philosophy -- all these collected together around the heart of the Mahayana which is mystical study and aspiration.

(See also: Yana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Pranayama: Breath control, consisting of conscious inhalation, retention and exhalation. Breathing is the essential element of all yoga.

(See also: Pranayama ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Capricorn (from Latin capr goat + cornus horn)

The goat, often mystically connected with the sea; the tenth sign of the zodiac. In astrology, an earthy, cardinal sign, one of the two houses of Saturn, and the exaltation of Mars; its bodily correspondence is the knees. The symbol is a hybrid monster, often with the fore part of a goat or antelope and the hind part of a fish or dolphin. In some systems it is a crocodile. This sign marks the extreme southern limit of the sun.

In the Hindu zodiac it is Makara. Subba Row (The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac) says that ma is equivalent to the number 5, and kara means hand; thus the word signifies a pentagram. It may be taken to represent objectively both the microcosm and the macrocosm. Makara is the most mysterious of the signs, connected with the fifth group of the hierarchy of creative powers, and with the microcosmic pentagram -- the five-pointed star representing man (SD 1:219). In Egypt this sign was called the crocodile; with the Peratae Gnostics, it was represented as a dolphin and identified with Chozzar, god of the waters; it is associated with the Leviathan of Job, and with a group of five kumaras in India (SD 2:577).

"Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual 'microcosm,' and the death or dissolution of the physical Universe (its passage into the realm of the Spiritual) . . . 'When the Sun passes away behind the 30th degree of Makara and will reach no more the sign of the Meenam (pisces) then the night of Brahma has come' " (SD 2:579 & n).

Equating the 12 sons of Jacob in the Hebrew system to the signs of the zodiac, Naphthali is assigned to Capricornus: he is called a "hind let loose."

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