Manifesting Dictionary

Sivalinga: (Sanskrit) "Mark, or sign, of Siva."

The most prevalent icon of Siva, found in virtually all Siva temples. A rounded, elliptical, aniconic image, usually set on a circular base, or pitha.

The Sivalinga is the simplest and most ancient symbol of Siva, especially of Parasiva, God beyond all forms and qualities. The pitha represents Parashakti, the manifesting power of God.

 Lingas are usually of stone (either carved or naturally existing, svayambhu, such as shaped by a swift-flowing river), but may also be of metal, precious gems, crystal, wood, earth or transitory materials such as ice.

According to the Karana Agama (6), a transitory Sivalinga may be made of 12 different materials: sand, rice, cooked food, river clay, cow dung, butter, rudraksha seeds, ashes, sandalwood, dharba grass, a flower garland or molasses.

See: murti, Saivism, svayambhu Linga.

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

Multi-dimentional healing (unseen healing): Field in which I.H. healers (Interdimentional Healers) are trained. These are empathic miracle healers who heal in and beyond the three-dimensional earth realm of reality.

Multi-dimentional healing is a form of vibrational medicine that includes distant healing (see absent healing), hands-on healing (see bodywork), manifestation (see manifesting), psychic healing, and a form or variation of angelic healing.

(See also: Multi-dimentional healing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Asvattha :

Asvattha

(Sanskrit) The mystical tree of knowledge, the mystical tree of kosmical life and being, represented as growing in a reversed position: the branches extending downwards and the roots upwards. The branches typify the visible kosmical universe, the roots the invisible world of spirit.

The universe among the ancients of many nations was portrayed or figurated under the symbol of a tree, of which the roots sprang from the divine heart of things, and the trunk and the branches and the branchlets and the leaves were the various planes and worlds and spheres of the kosmos. The fruit of this kosmic tree contained the seeds of future "trees," being the entities which had attained through evolution the end of their evolutionary journey, such as men and the gods  - themselves universes in the small, and destined in the future to become kosmic entities when the cycling wheel of time shall have turned through long aeons on its majestic round. In fact, every living thing, and so-called inanimate things also, are trees of life, with their roots above in the spiritual realms, with their trunks passing through the intermediate spheres, and their branches manifesting in the physical realms.

See also: Asvattha , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Trigunas (Sanskrit) The three qualities; all differentiated beings and matter are considered to possess three inherent qualities or characteristics: sattva (purity, goodness, truth); rajas (activity, passion, desire); and tamas (quiescence, indifference, darkness). Each of these three qualities has both a good and an imperfect or evil side, and possesses in itself the other two qualities; for instance, there is sattva-sattva, rajas-sattva, tamas-sattva, etc. Thus in the different hierarchies in the cosmos, the beings composing these hierarchies may be classified not only under one of the three gunas, as essentially manifesting that characteristic, but likewise during their evolution they pass through the phases of the other two qualities, although under the dominance of the main quality from which they as individuals derive.

In the Bhagavad-Gita (chs 14, 17) the three great qualities are spoken of as born from nature and binding the imperishable self to manifested life. Of these the sattva quality by reason of its characteristics entwines the soul to rebirth through its attachment to wisdom and knowledge; rajas produces aspiration as well as propensity and thirst, and imprisons the ego through the consequences produced from such action; tamas has its good side but likewise is the deluder of all creatures, and imprisons the ego in a body by characteristics such as indifference, idleness, and sleep. The fruit of righteous acts is called pure and holy and appertains to sattva; from rajas is gathered fruit both good and that which produces pain or sorrow; and tamas produces steadfastness and immovability in a good cause, as well as in a bad sense being the cause of senselessness, ignorance, and indifference. Those in whom the sattva quality is established are said to mount on high; those who are full of rajas remain in the middle sphere, the human world; while those who are overborne by the evil aspect or quality of tamas sink below.

The wisdom which perceives in all nature one single principle, indivisible and incorruptible, not separate essentially but only evolutionally in the separate objects seen, is of the sattva quality. The knowledge which perceives different and manifold principles as present in the world of created beings as being intense and aggressive in action is of the rajas quality. The knowledge which perceives enduring stability and disdain of useless change, or which on the other hand is mean, attached to one object alone as if it were the whole, which does not

See the true cause and meaning of existence, is of the tamas quality. Thus each of the three qualities has its positive and negative side, and the initiate or adept seeks to make all three qualities manifest in his life in their highest aspects.

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

shabda:

vibrational energy manifesting as sound. Includes physical or "struck" sound and internal, silent unstruck" sound.

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

Adityas (Sanskrit) (belonging to, issuing from aditi unbounded expanse)

Son of Aditi, space; in the Vedas a name for the sun; also referred to variously as five, seven, eight, and twelve in number. The eighth aditya (Marttanda) was rejected by Aditi, leaving seven son-suns, each manifesting a particular solar energy (cf RV 10, 72, 8-9). " 'The Seven allow the mortals to see their dwellings, but show themselves only to the Arhats,' says an old proverb, 'their dwellings' standing here for planets" (SD 1:100).

The Brahmanas and Puranas generally reckon twelve adityas. In a preceding manvantara they were called tushitas, but when the end of the cycle was near they entered the "womb of Aditi, that we may be born in the next Manwantara; for, thereby, we shall again enjoy the rank of gods." Hence in the present seventh manvantara, they are known as adityas (VP 1:15). When the pralaya (dissolution) of the world comes, twelve suns will appear (MB 3:3, 26; Dict Hind 3). The twelve adityas are the twelve great gods of the Hindu pantheon; also, the twelve signs of the zodiac or twelve months of the year.

The adityas are the sustainers of the solar divine life which exists in all things, and in our present Vaivasvata manvantara they are the divine solar pitris (fathers) -- not the lower or lunar pitris -- which incarnated in early humanity. "The wise call our fathers Vasus; our paternal grandfathers Rudras, our paternal great grandfathers, Adityas . . . " (Manu 3:284).

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

Senses In general, gateways of communication between the perceiving function of the ego and the corresponding elements of the plane where it is functioning. The physical senses appeared in serial evolution in the order of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. These senses were not developed out of nothing but are expressions or reflection on the physical plane of previous latent, inner causal functions residing in the structure of the inner person.

The five physiological senses are modifications or specializations of a general perceptiveness which has different modifications in different animal species where the organs are different, especially in the insects. Sensitives and clairvoyants may be able to receive visual, auditory, or other impressions without the use of the physical organ, or the usual functions of a sense organ may be transferred to another part of the body.

The human senses are actually seven including, besides the usual five already developed, the organ or function of manas (mind) and of buddhi (understanding). These latter two are not senses in the physical significance pertaining to the bodily senses, but the emphasis is laid on organic and functional activities, both being inner and spiritual-intellectual. At the present stage of evolution man has not developed the power of manifesting the sixth and seventh sense functions and organs, but in the fifth round the development of ether will bring forth into relatively full evolution the manasic sense organ with the beginnings of the buddhic.

In exoteric mythologies the bodily senses and functions are said to have their presiding deities, so that there are two septenary sets: the causal spiritual, and their material reflections as effects. The cycles of septenary evolution bring forth the spiritual or divine; intellectual and higher psychological; the lower psychological, including the passional, and the instinctual; and the semi-corporeal and purely physical natures. The senses belong to the last two groups. The astral-vital-physical nature furnishes sensory organs, through which the inner senses can act, thus causing the functioning of the physical senses. These physiological senses develop pari passu with the physicalization of humanity.

In the first human protoplasts, the senses were nonexistent in the sense of being non-functional although latent; as evolution unfolded innate capacity and attribute, the functions and organs followed suit, and appeared in the evolving physical vehicle.

The senses belong to the third of seven creations mentioned in the Puranas, the first three constituting a group known as the prakrita creations:

1)    mahat-tattva creation;

2)    bhuta or bhutasarga; and

3)    indriya or aindriyaka.

These three are not so much senses as the three first or elemental prakrita creations of the cosmos, representing the first three stages of the development of manifestation after a solar pralaya. Nevertheless, as analogy is nature's rule throughout, these creations are equally applicable to the human senses, applying to the generalized development of sense function and sense apparatus more than to the sense organs themselves. The last of the three is, in its human application, a modified form of ahankara, the conception of the egoistic and mayavi "I" in man, the reflection of the spiritual ego or monad; and this third creation is also termed the organic creation or creation of the senses.

(See also: Senses , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Motion The essential characteristic of abstract motion, whether in space, time, or consciousness, commonly manifesting as change. Absolute abstract motion is one of two aspects under which is symbolized Be-ness, the other being abstract space, yet these are and must be one in essence; it is also called the Great Breath.

On the planes of manifestation, motion prevails as the positive pole, equivalent to jivatman, spirit, etc., according to which plane is meant. Consciousness and thought are manifestations of motion in the guise of active intelligence, and are necessarily connected with their appropriate forms of prakriti or mulaprakriti.

The beginning of differentiation is spoken of as the beginning of change. Life manifests as motion, and its passing from plane to plane produces what is called birth and death. Absolute motion and what humans call absolute rest -- really but another form of incessant motion -- converge into one. The tendency of cosmic motion is ever toward the spiral; in kinematics, simple harmonic motion generates ellipses, of which the straight line and the circle are limiting cases.

Nineteenth-century science postulated matter and motion as two bases on which to build, but the attempt to define the nature or cause of motion within the limits of the science thus set up was futile. Motion was defined as an effect of force, force being itself expressed in terms of motion. To reach the cause of physical motion we must go outside of physics and refer it to spirit or some ultraphysical agency.

(See also: Motion , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Matter :

Matter

What men call matter or substance is the existent but illusory aggregate of veils surrounding the fundamental essence of the universe which is consciousness-life-substance. From another point of view, matter or substance is in one sense the most evolved form of expression of manifested spirit in any particular hierarchy.

This is but another way of saying that matter is but inherent energies or powers or faculties of kosmical beings, unfolded, rolled out, and self-expressed. It is the nether and lowest pole of what the original and originating spirit is; for spirit is the primal or original pole of the evolutionary activity which brought forth through its own inherent energies the appearance or manifestation in the kosmic spaces of the vast aggregate of hierarchies. Between the originant or spirit and the resultant or matter, there is all the vast range of hierarchical stages or steps, thus forming the ladder of life or the ladder of being of any one such hierarchy.

When theosophists speak of spirit and substance, of which latter, matter and energy or force are the physicalized expressions, we must remember that all these terms are abstractions  - generalized expressions for hosts of entities manifesting aggregatively. The whole process of evolution is the raising of units of essential matter, life-atoms, into becoming at one with their spiritual and inmost essence. As the kosmic aeons slowly drop one after the other into the ocean of the past, matter pari passu is resolved back into the brilliant realms of spirit from which it originally came forth. All the sheaths of consciousness, all the blinding veils around it, arise from the matter side or dark side or night side of nature, which is matter  - the nether pole of spirit.

See also: Matter , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Indrani (Sanskrit) (feminine of Indra)

Also Aindri. The consort of Indra, personifying the aindriyaka, the evolution of the elements of senses (SD 2:614). As Indra stands for mahat -- especially for the dual aspect of manas in man -- his marriage to Indrani "because of her voluptuous attractions" may represent the enchaining of the higher manas to the lower because of the karmic links of both with the lower ternary in the human constitution, this union, combination, or marriage manifesting itself as the kama-manasic portion of human consciousness.

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

Abhimana (Sanskrit) (from abhi towards + the verbal root man to think)

Thinking towards oneself; pride, arrogance, hence delusion. Covetousness manifesting in acquisitiveness, bringing about longing for what is thought about, in its turn inducing conceit. In Sankhya philosophy, a high or egotistic conception of oneself (usually therefore erroneous). It springs into action in the human constitution when awakened by the propulsive or impulsive energy of kama. Ahamkara, the human ego-function, is the prime motivator of abhimana.

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

Arian Heresy Originated by Arius (d. 336), a presbyter in Alexandria who did not confuse the cosmic Logos with its ray on earth, the Christ entity, whose human expression was called Jesus.

Arius could not accept a consubstantial trinity with the human Son as the first or second remove from its Father aspect -- he made a sharp distinction between the three Logoi and any human expression of such logoic triad manifesting on earth as an inspired man.

Arius in consequence taught that God was alone, unknowable, and separate from every created being; that the Son, or creative Logos was created by God, who through this Logos brought forth the world and all that is in it.

He held, therefore, that Christ was not God in the fullest sense and should be worshiped as a secondary deity, and that at the incarnation the Logos assumed a body but not a human soul. Arianism was condemned as heretical at the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

(See also: Arian Heresy , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Adhidaiva, Adhidaivata (Sanskrit) (from adhi over, above, superior + deva god)

The original or primordial deity; also the divine agent manifesting through beings and objects. A generalizing term applicable to the divine part of any being; hence to adhyatman or primordial atman (cf BG 7:29-30; 8:3).

(See also: Adhidaiva, Adhidaivata , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Adinidana-svabhavat (Sanskrit) (from adi first, primordial + nidana causation + svabhavat self-being, self-becoming from sva self + the verbal root bhu to be, become)

Primordial causation of self-becoming; as in Buddhist thought nidana also signifies primal essence or substance and svabhavat is equated with the Father-Mother of manifestation, the term could be translated "primordial causality-essence Father-Mother." It is the highest portion of the manifesting or Third Logos of our galaxy; and because the Third Logos of every solar system is a reflection of the galactic Third Logos, the adinidana-svabhavat of any solar system is in its reaches the adinidana-svabhavat of the galaxy.

The phrase occurs in the Stanzas of Dzyan: " 'Darkness' the Boundless, or the no-number, Adi-Nidana Svabhavat" (SD 1:98) -- which, as the summit of the Third Logos, can be rendered as darkness and no-number since it is darkness to human intellect and yet the beginning of numeration of all hierarchies that flow forth from it. Hence for all beneath it, adinidana-svabhavat may likewise be called the Boundless, signifying the cosmic essence or spiritual substance without restricting frontiers.

(See also: Adinidana-svabhavat , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sat (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root as to be]

Being; the real, the enduring fundamental essence of the world, "for Sat is in itself neither the 'existent,' nor 'being.' Sat is the immutable, the ever present, changeless and eternal root, from and through which all proceeds. But it is far more than the potential force in the seed, which propels onward the process of development, or what is now called evolution. It is the ever becoming, though the never manifesting. Sat is born from Asat and ASAT is begotten by sat: the perpetual motion in a circle, truly; yet a circle that can be squared only at the supreme Initiation, at the threshold of Paranirvana" (SD 2:449-50).

Sat is not Being, but Be-ness, since whatever is manifested is something phenomenal, not ever-lasting. Sat (pure being), chit (pure thought), and ananda (bliss) together signify the state of the Absolute.

In the Vedanta, used as the self-existent or universal spirit.

(See also: Sat , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Serpent One of the most fundamental and prolific symbols of the mystery-language. Its most basic meaning is of the eternal, alternating, cyclic motion during cosmic manifestation.

For motion, which to the physicist and the philosopher alike seems an abstraction, is for the ancient wisdom a primordial principle or axiom, of the same order as space and time, existing per se. Never does motion cease utterly even during kosmic pralaya. And motion is essentially circular: where physics would derive circular motion from a composition of rectilinear motions, the opposite procedure would be that of the ancient wisdom. This circular motion, compounding itself into spirals, helixes, and vortices, is the builder of worlds, bringing together the scattered elements of chaos; motion per se is essential cosmic intelligence. This circular motion, returning upon itself like a serpent swallowing its tail, represents the cycles of time.

This conscious energy in spirals whirls through all the planes of cosmos as fohat and his innumerable sons -- the cosmic energies and forces, fundamentally intelligent, operating in every scale or grade of matter. The caduceus of Hermes, twin serpents wound about a staff, represents cosmically the mighty drama of evolution, in its twin aspects, the staff or tree standing for the structural aspect, the serpent for the fohatic forces that animate the structure.

The serpent is characteristically a dual symbol. In the beginnings of creation two poles were emanated, spirit and matter; and forthwith began interaction between the downward forces of the one and the upward forces of the other. Hermes, Mercury, intelligence, may represent a sage or a thief; the serpentine wisdom may work in every plane of materiality. The perverse will of man may turn natural forces to evil purposes, and thus we speak of the good serpent and the bad, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon, of Ophis and Ophiomorphos. A serpent can be a sage or a sorcerer.

The dragon is the eternally vigilant one, guardian of the sacred treasures; but he is the ruthless destroyer of him who attempts to gain by force the riches to which he has not won a title. To gain knowledge, we must know how to tame the serpent which rules the nether worlds, as the Christ refuses to make obeisance to Satan.

The seven sacred planets, or again the seven human principles, form a serpent, often collocated with the sun and moon as making a triad. One form of this spiraling conscious energy, when manifesting in man, is kundalini-sakti, the serpentine power, which in the ordinary person today lies relatively sleeping and performing merely automatic vital functions; but when aroused can ether waft to sublime heights of vision and power or blast like a lightning-stroke.

The power which a serpent has of casting its old skin is analogous to what the earth does at the commencement of each round, and to the clothing of the human jiva with a new body when it enters the womb. Again, the astral light is called a serpent; its lowest strata are dangerous and deceptive, while it extends through all planes up to the highest akasa, the vehicle of divine wisdom.

In early Christianity there arose more than one Gnostic sect using the snake as a symbol, such as the Ophites, which in the vision of certain ecclesiastic Fathers was designated devil worship, or by other uncomplimentary names.

See also NAGA; WORLD-SERPENT

(See also: Serpent , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

CONSCIOUSNESS –

1. The created changing image and vibrational exchange moving between the poles of one infinity and the infinitesimal one; received in the form of waves given to all cells of the body like a TV station and interpreted into images including intention, well desire, thought; the capacity of all things, galaxies, people, animals and plants to interpret according to their quality, capacity and structure; changing according to yin and yang and governed by our environment and way of living, especially way of eating.(Michi Kushi)
2. awareness, wakefulness.
3. totality of one’s perceptions, thought and feelings.
4. state of illumination.
5. spectrum of mindfulness ranging from unconsciousness to dream consciousness to waking consciousness to enlightened consciousness.
6. one of the skandhas in Buddhism.
7. divine attribute manifesting with truth and bliss in Hinduism.
8. one of 89 mental states in Buddhism including the trances of the realm of the infinity of space, the infinity of consciousness, state of awareness, described in the Upanishads. (Sanskrit): jagrat - waking state svapna - sleep, dream, after-death shushupti - dreamless sleep turiya - at one moment with God... (NAD)

(See also: CONSCIOUSNESS , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Panchakarma Bloodletting

Toxins absorbed into the bloodstream through the gastro-intestinal tract get circulated throughout the body, manifesting under the skin or in the joint-spaces making rooms for disease. Their elimination and purification of the blood then becomes necessary. Thus his therapy is very good in case of all imbalance of blood and pitta disorders as stubborn skin diseases, tumours, gout, excessive drowsiness, alopecia, hallucinations and enlarged liver & spleen.

A sharp scalpel is usually used to make superficial, parallel or vertical incisions with extreme care after a soothing and antiseptic paste has been applied to the location. The amount of blood let out should not be more than 350ml. At such times a needle should be used to puncture a vein. It is however not to be used for people suffering from general swelling of limbs, debility, severe anemia, piles, fever, thirst, alcoholism.

The real objective of Panchakarma is to eliminate the cause of disease, since in itself the absence of symptoms does not always indicate a complete cure. Symptoms can often be quickly eliminated. But cure usually takes more time. Since it is based on the individual constitution, it is obvious that in very chronic diseases there may be more sittings required to eliminate the toxins from the body.

(See also: Bloodletting , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Blood The vital fluid circulating through the heart, arteries, and veins, supplying nutritive materials to all parts of the body, and receiving elements of waste for later discharge from the system. Occultism enlarges upon the truism that the blood is the life, by relating it to the spiritual and psychic life-forces circulating in the solar system. Blavatsky says

that (a) the Sun is the store-house of Vital Force, which is the Noumenon of Electricity; and (b) that it is from its mysterious, never-to-be-fathomed depths, that issue those life currents which thrill through Space, as through the organisms of every living thing on Earth. . . .

"Thus, there is a regular circulation of the vital fluid throughout our system, of which the Sun is the heart -- the same as the circulation of the blood in the human body -- during the manvantaric solar period, or life; . . . Could the human heart be made luminous, and the living and throbbing organ be made visible . . . then every one would see the Sun-spot phenomenon repeated every second -- due to its contraction and the rushing of the blood" (SD 1:531, 541-2).

The analogy is seen in these streams of solar living fire stepped down into vital electricity on earth, and also in the psychic and astral-physical currents of lunar life which influence generation and all terrestrial growth. In chemical composition, the plasma or fluid part of the blood is said to be identical with that of primordial sea water, ocean water having since become more concentrated.

The blood is actively protean in representing on this plane the streams of higher vitality manifesting in body, soul, and spirit. Thus, its pranic oxygen is the agent of the solar fire; its white and red corpuscles represent the psychic life-force and the red kamic energies, all acting together in their material forms. The leucocytes or white corpuscles are formed in the lymphatic glands, in the spleen, and in bone marrow. They correspond in a sense to the lunar chhayas or builders of the ethereal forms of the second and early third root-races which "needed no warm blood, no atmosphere, no feeding" (SD 1:609). These spherical ameboid cells have both the primordial, changeable pudding-bag form and the autogenerative type of propagation. Their relation to the formation of the red cells typifies that of the early astral forms which, gradually becoming physicalized, evolved into the red-blooded, bisexual, manas-endowed beings of the later third root-race. The red cells, without autogenerative nuclei, are born in special leucocyte cells of red bone marrow, where they are produced at the rate the effete red cells are destroyed.

In human beings the pranic life-currents become impregnated with the manasic quality conferred by the agnishvattas. The lower elements of kama-prana are used in the blood offerings and sacrifices of voodoo rites and other forms of black magic:

"Blood begets phantoms. . . . Paracelsus writes that with the fumes of blood one is enabled to call forth any spirit we desire to see; for with its emanations it will build itself an appearance, a visible body -- only this is sorcery" (IU 2:567).

The old Greeks said that a divine fluid or ichor ran in the veins of the gods. It is also our physical destiny in the far distant future to evolve into bodies without blood as we understand it, in which nobler currents of conscious life will circulate.

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

formless: Philosophically, atattva, beyond the realm of form or substance.

Used in attempting to describe the wondersome, indescribable Absolute, which is "timeless, formless and spaceless." God Siva has form and is formless. He is the immanent Pure Consciousness or pure form. He is the Personal Lord manifesting as innumerable forms; and He is the impersonal, transcendent Absolute beyond all form. Thus we know Siva in three perfections, two of form and one formless. This use of the term formless does not mean amorphous, which implies a form that is vague or changing. Rather, it is the absence of substance, sometimes thought of as a void, an emptiness beyond existence from which comes the fullness of everything. In describing the Self as formless, the words timeless and spaceless are given also to fully indicate this totally transcendent noncondition.

See: atattva, Parasiva, Satchidananda, void.

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

prakriti: (Sanskrit) "Primary matter; nature."

In the 25- tattva Sankhya system - which concerns itself only with the tangible spectrum of creation - prakriti, or pradhana, is one of two supreme beginningless realities: matter and spirit, prakriti and purusha, the female and male principles. Prakriti is the manifesting aspect, as contrasted with the quiescent unmanifest - purusha, which is pure consciousness.

In Shaktism, prakriti, the active principle, is personified as Devi, the Goddess, and is synonymous with Maya. Prakriti is thus often seen, and depicted so in the Puranas, as the Divine Mother, whose love and care embrace and comfort all beings. In Saivite cosmology, prakriti is the 24th of 36 tattvas, the potentiality of the physical cosmos, the gross energy from which all lower tattvas are formed. Its three qualities are sattva, rajas and tamas.

See: odic, purusha, tattva.

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

Aham (Sanskrit) Ego, I, conception of one's individuality; the basis and psychologically the magic agent which is the root of ahamkara, the organ or faculty which produces in human beings the sense of egoity or individuality on whatever plane. While this faculty is perhaps the most powerful agent in the forward drive of evolutionary unfoldment, it is, nevertheless, but an illusory manifestation within the individual of paramatman, the supreme self of the hierarchy.

The individuality, which is a characteristic of the monad, is not likewise merely maya, any more than human egoity manifesting is the full expression of the cosmic paramatman. The first cosmic Logos or paramatman is as creative of multitudes of children monads as is a human being, or indeed any other entity on its own plane. Every such child-monad is identic in substance, intelligence, and consciousness with parabrahman, and yet each is an eternal individual.

As the Buddhist metaphor suggests, the sea of cosmic life is divided into incomputable hosts of drops of spirit called monads, each of which is predestined to undertake through long eons its cosmic pilgrimage in evolutionary unfoldment, finally to return and merge into the cosmic sea which gave it birth -- "the dew-drop slips into the shining Sea" (Light of Asia).

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