Introduction and links to related topics Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Maya - (Sanskrit) "Consisting of; made of," as in manomaya, "made of mind."
From the verb root ma, "to measure, to limit, give form." The principle of appearance or manifestation of God''s power or "mirific energy," "that which measures." The substance emanated from Siva through which the world of form is manifested. Hence all creation is also termed maya. It is the cosmic creative force, the principle of manifestation, ever in the process of creation, preservation and dissolution.
See: loka, mind (universal), mirific.
The Upanishads underscore maya''s captivating nature, which blinds souls to the transcendent Truth. In Shankara''s Vedantic interpretation, maya is taken as pure illusion or unreality. In Saivism it is one of the three bonds (pasha) that limit the soul and thereby facilitate its evolution. For Saivites and most other nondualists, it is understood not as illusion but as relative reality, in contrast to the unchanging Absolute Reality.
In the Saiva Siddhanta system, there are three main divisions of maya, the pure, the pure-impure and the impure realms. Pure or shuddha maya consists of the first five tattvas - Siva tattva, Shakti tattva, Sadasiva tattva, Ishvara tattva and Shuddhavidya tattva. The pure-impure realm consists of the next seven tattvas. The impure realm consists of the maya tattva and all of its evolutes - from the kala tattva to prithivi, the element earth. Thus, in relation to the physical universe, maya is the principle of ever-changing matter. In Vaishnavism, maya is one of the nine Shaktis of Vishnu.
See: loka, mind (universal), mirific, tattva, world.
Maya - Maya (Sanskrit). Illusion ; the cosmic power which renders phenomenal existence and the perceptions thereof possible. In Hindu philosophy that alone which is changeless and eternal is called reality ; all that which is subject to change through decay and differentiation and which has therefore a begining and an end is regarded as maya - illusion.
Skandhas - Skandhas (Sanskrit) Bundles, groups of various attributes forming the compound constitution of the human being. They are the manifested qualities and attributes forming the human being on all six planes of Being, beneath the spiritual monad or atma-buddhi, making up the totality of the subjective and objective person.
They have to do with everything that is finite in the human being, and are therefore inapplicable to the relatively eternal and absolute. Every vibration of whatever kind, mental, emotional, or physical, that an individual has undergone or made, is derivative of and from one of the skandhas composing his constitution. Skandhas are the elements of limited existence.
The five skandhas of every human being are:
rupa (form), the material properties or attributes;
vedana (sensations, perceptions);
sanjna (consciousness, abstract ideas);
sanskara (action), tendencies both physical and mental;
vijnana (knowledge), mental and moral predispositions.
Two further, unnamed skandhas "are connected with, and productive of Sakkayaditthi, the ''heresy or delusion of individuality'' and of Attavada ''the doctrine of Self,'' both of which (in the case of the fifth principle the soul) lead to the maya of heresy and belief in the efficacy of vain rites and ceremonies; in prayers and intercession"; "The ''old being'' is the sole parent -- father and mother at once -- of the ''new being.'' It is the former who is the creator and fashioner, of the latter, in reality; and far more so in plain truth, than any father in flesh. And once that you have well mastered the meaning of Skandhas you will
See what I mean" (ML 111). The human skandhas are the causal activities which by their action and interaction attract the reincarnating ego back to earth-life. The exoteric skandhas have to do with objective man; the esoteric with inner and subjective man.
At death the seeds of causes sown which have not yet been realized remain latent in our inner principles as "psychological impulse-seeds" awaiting expression in future lives. The skandhas "unite at the birth of man and constitute his personality. After the death of the body the Skandhas are separated and so remain until the Reincarnating Ego on its downward path into physical incarnation gathers them together again around itself, and thus reforms the human constitution considered as a unity" (OG 158).
Similarly with suns and planets: at pralaya, the lower principles of such a cosmic body exist latent in space in a laya-condition while its spiritual principles are active in higher realms. "When a laya-center is fired into action by the touch of wills and consciousnesses on their downward way, becoming the imbodying life of a solar system, or of a planet of a solar system, the center manifests first on its highest plane, and later on its lower plane. The Skandhas are awakened into life one after another: first the highest ones, next the intermediate ones, and lastly the inferior ones, cosmically and qualitatively speaking" (ibid.).
The skandhas are likewise closely connected with the karmic pictures in the astral light, which also is the medium as well as the register of impressions.
Manomaya-kosa - Manomaya-kosa (Sanskrit) [from manas mind + maya built of, formed of from the verbal root ma to measure, form, with the idea of illusory manifestation + kosa sheath]
The sheath formed of mind, the human soul; according to the Vedantic classification of the human principles, the third of the pancha-kosa (five sheaths) which enclose the divine monad or atman. Manomaya-kosa corresponds with the lower manas combined with kama, and therefore has a closer affinity with the fourth principle, kama, than with the sixth or buddhi.
Maya Moha - Maya Moha (Sanskrit). An illusive form assumed by Vishnu in order to deceive ascetic Daityas who were becoming too holy through austerities and hence too dangerous in power, as says the Vishnu Purana.
Annamayakosa - Annamayakosa (Sanskrit) (from anna food + maya from the verbal root ma to measure, delimit + kosa sheath, treasury)
Food-built sheath; according to the Vedantic classification of the human constitution, the fifth and grossest of the panchakosa (five sheaths) which enclose the atman (divine monad), corresponding to the sthula-sarira (physical body) in the sevenfold theosophical division.
Mayasabha - Mayasabha (Sanskrit) [from maya illusion + sabha assembly]
An assemblage of illusions; one of the wonderful gifts given to the Pandavas in the Mahabharata by Mayasura.
Virabhadra - Virabhadra (Sanskrit) Heroically beneficent or benevolent; an avatara of Siva, the patron of occult study and achievement. Ancient Indian myth represents him as a monster to human vision, being a thousand-headed and thousand-armed entity born of the breath of Siva-Rudra -- Siva under his form of Rudra, and therefore the great destroyer because regenerator. In the Mahabharata, Siva commissions this entity "to destroy the sacrifice prepared by Daksha. Then Virabhadra, ''abiding in the region of the ghosts (ethereal men). . . . created from the pores of the skin (Romakupas), powerful Raumas, (or Raumyas): (SD 2:182-3). This allegory refers in human history to the evolution of the "sweat-born" or second root-race and the destruction of the remnants of the first root-race.
Cosmically Siva-Rudra is the active force of mahat (cosmic mind), both regenerative and destructive; and following the same line of thought Virabhadra in his human application has reference to the incessant effort of the manasaputras to break forth through the veils of maya to bring mind to the mentally somnolent or imperfectly awakened earliest human races. Hence, the reference to Virabhadra as thousand-headed, -eyed, or -armed may likewise be applied to mind -- for mind is not only all seeing but all performing and all wise.
Shuddha Tattvas - Actinic or spiritual energy. This is the superconscious realm, also known as shuddha (pure) maya or mahamaya. Bindu, transcendent light, is the "material" cause of this pure sphere. This is the Sivaloka, the region of the 330 million Gods, the myriad rishis and other beings who have attained freedom from the triple bondage.
Siva tattva: "auspiciousness," of two parts: the higher is Parashakti, "Supreme Energy," from which emerges primal sound, nada (more precisely Paranada, soundless sound). Though most often referred to as sound, nada is more mystically known as movement, the first impulse arising from perfect quiescence, the first "thing" out of the motionless Self. This is Siva''s second perfection, Parashakti, superconsciousness, the mind of God. The Siva tattva pervades all other 35 categories and possesses the powers of will, knowledge and action (icçha, jnana, kriya).
Shakti tattva: energy, corresponds to bindu, light, the cause of form (more precisely Parabindu, primal nucleus). This is the tattva of Parameshvara, the Primal Soul, father-mother God, Siva''s third perfection, who after mahapralaya remains transfixed in deep samadhi, until He again emanates the universe through His Cosmic Dance.
Sadasiva tattva: the power of revealing grace. In this realm the energies of knowledge and action are in perfect equilibrium. This is the realm of the anandamaya kosha.
Ishvara tattva: the energy of concealment, concealing grace. The energy of action prevails over that of knowledge in order to arouse cosmic activity in its subtle form.
shuddhavidya tattva: pure knowledge, dharma. This is a level of manifestation in which the energy of action is in abeyance and the energy of knowledge prevails. Shuddhavidya tattva includes Siva''s other three powers or aspects: Rudra (destruction), Vishnu (preservation) and Brahma (creation).
See: tattvas, tattva, atattva, antahkarana, guna, kosha, Siva
Reality - Reality Words such as reality, truth, and good are understood in reference to their opposites; and the opposite of reality is appearance or illusion. There can be but one fundamental or all-pervading reality, and the word in this sense becomes an equivalent to the one All, parabrahman, by contrast with which all else is maya or appearance.
Reality when implying various conceptions is therefore a relative term, and we can but say that one thing is real by comparison with another thing which is relatively unreal. A dream seems real enough until we awake, and then our waking mind seems real; yet this also will seem unreal when we awake to a still higher consciousness.
Reality, like truth and unity, cannot be an object of knowledge except by intuition, which then functions on its own plane; for any mental faculty beneath intuition is itself relatively unreal, and its findings or deductions partake of the nature of their source; and all such deductions are understandable only by reference to their opposites. It is precisely this existence in nature of opposites which brings about the various mayas under which human understanding necessarily labors.
Three Worlds - The three worlds of existence, triloka, are the primary hierarchical divisions of the cosmos.
Bhuloka: "Earth world," the physical plane.
Antarloka: "Inner or in-between world," the subtle or astral plane.
Sivaloka: "World of Siva," and of the Gods and highly evolved souls; the causal plane, also called Karanaloka.
The three-world cosmology is readily found in Hindu scriptures. In the major Upanishads of the Vedas we find numerous citations, with interesting variations. Verse 1.5.17 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states, "Now, there are, verily, three worlds, the world of men (Manushyaloka), the world of the fathers (Pitriloka) and the world of the Gods (Devaloka)..." Later, verse 6.2.15 refers to the two higher worlds as the Devaloka and the Brahmaloka. The Katha Upanishad, verse 2.3.8, omitting the world of men, lists the Pitriloka, the Gandharvaloka (world of genies or elementals) and the Brahmaloka (world of God). Another perspective of three worlds is offered in the Prashna Upanishad 3.8, which lists the world of good (Punyaloka), the world of evil (Papaloka) and the world of men (Manushyaloka).
Scriptures offer several other cosmological perspectives, most importantly seven upper worlds (sapta urdhvaloka) and seven lower worlds (sapta adholoka), which correspond to the 14 chakras and make up the "world-egg of God," the universe, called Brahmanda. The seven upper worlds are Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka and Satyaloka. The second, third and fourth comprise the subtle plane. The highest three comprise the causal plane. The seven lower worlds, collectively known as Naraka or Patala, are (from highest to lowest) Put, Avichi, Samhata, Tamisra, Rijisha, Kudmala and Kakola. From the Saiva Agamic perspective of the 36 tattvas, the pure sphere, shuddha maya - the first five tattvas - is subdivided into 33 planes of existence. The "pureimpure" realm, shuddhashuddha maya - the seven tattvas from maya tattva to purusha - contains 27 planes of existence. The ashuddha ("impure") realm - of 24 tattvas - has 56 planes of existence.
See: chakra, loka, Naraka, tattva (also: individual loka entries).
Pranamaya-kosa - Pranamaya-kosa (Sanskrit) [from prana life, breath + maya built of, formed of from the verbal root ma to measure, form, with a consequent idea of illusion + kosa sheath]
The sheath formed of life or breath, the vital-astral soul. According to the Vedantic classification of the human constitution, the fourth of the panchakosa (five sheaths) which enclose the atman or divine monad. It corresponds to prana and linga-sarira in the sevenfold human division.
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