Rajas Dictionary

A dictionary with common spiritual words from Hinduism and Sanskrit. Also see these links: Hinduism, Spirituality, Enlightenment, Spiritual Dictionary and Hinduism Dictionary.

A dictionary Of Siddha Yoga Terminology. From Abhanga to Yogini.

Please note that all words in grey, like "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

Kundalini Dictionary

Dictionary over terms related to kundalini and kundalini awakening. Please note that words in grey like " Kundalini " are links to archives with related articles.

dosha: (Sanskrit) "Bodily humor; individual constitution."

Three bodily humors, which according to ayurveda regulate the body, govern its proper functioning and determine its unique constitution. These are

• vata, the air humor;
• pitta, the fire humor; and
• kapha, the water humor.

Vata has its seat in the intestinal area, pitta in the stomach, and kapha in the lung area. They govern the creation, preservation and dissolution of bodily tissue. Vata humor is metabolic, nerve energy. Pitta is the catabolic, fire energy. Kapha is the anabolic, nutritive energy.

The three doshas (tridosha) also give rise to the various emotions and correspond to the three gunas, "qualities:" sattva (quiescence- vata), rajas (activity- pitta) and tamas (inertia- kapha).

See: ayurveda, kapha, pitta, vata.

(See also: Dosha , Hinduism, 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)

A dictionary Of Commonly Used Sanskrit terms. From Pada to Svastikasana.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

shad darshana: (Sanskrit) "Six views or insights; six philosophies."

Among the hundreds of Hindu darshanas known through history are six classical philosophical systems: Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta.

Each was tersely formulated in sutra form by its "founder," and elaborated in extensive commentaries by other writers. They are understood as varied attempts at describing Truth and the path to it. Elements of each form part of the Hindu fabric today.

-       Nyaya: "System, rule; logic." A system of logical realism, founded sometime around 300 bce by Gautama, known for its systems of logic and epistemology and concerned with the means of acquiring right knowledge. Its tools of enquiry and rules for argumentation were adopted by all schools of Hinduism.

-       Vaisheshika: "Distinctionism." From "vishesha," differences. Philosophy founded by Kanada (ca 300 bce) teaching that liberation is to be attained through understanding the nature of existence, which is classified in nine basic realities (dravyas): earth, water, light, air, ether, time, space, soul and mind. Nyaya and Vaisheshika are viewed as a complementary pair, with Nyaya emphasizing logic, and Vaisheshika analyzing the nature of the world.

-       Sankhya: "Enumeration, reckoning." A philosophy founded by the sage Kapila (ca 500 bce), author of the Sankhya Sutras. Sankhya is primarily concerned with "categories of existence," tattvas, which it understands as 25 in number. The first two are the unmanifest purusha and the manifest primal nature, prakriti - the male-female polarity, viewed as the foundation of all existence. Prakriti, out of which all things evolve, is the unity of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Sankhya and Yoga are considered an inseparable pair whose principles permeate all of Hinduism.

-       See: prakriti, purusha.

-       Yoga: "Yoking; joining." Ancient tradition of philosophy and practice codified by Patanjali (ca 200 bce) in the Yoga Sutras. It is also known as raja yoga, "king of yogas," or ashtanga yoga, "eight-limbed yoga." Its object is to achieve, at will, the cessation of all fluctuations of consciousness, and the attainment of Self Realization. Yoga is wholly dedicated to putting the high philosophy of Hinduism into practice, to achieve personal transformation through transcendental experience, samadhi.

-       See: yoga.

-       Mimamsa: "Inquiry" (or Purva, "early," Mimamsa). Founded by Jaimini (ca 200 bce), author of the Mimamsa Sutras, who taught the correct performance of Vedic rites as the means to salvation.

-       Vedanta (or Uttara "later" Mimamsa): "End (or culmination) of the Vedas." For Vedanta, the main basis is the Upanishads and Aranyakas (the "end," anta, of the Vedas), rather than the hymns and ritual portions of the Vedas. The teaching of Vedanta is that there is one Absolute Reality, Brahman. Man is one with Brahman, and the object of life is to realize that truth through right knowledge, intuition and personal experience. The Vedanta Sutras (or Brahma Sutras) were composed by Rishi Badarayana (ca 400 bce).

See: Brahma Sutra, padartha, tattva, Vedanta, yoga.

(See also: Shad darshana , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Rajas:

Female sexual fluids.

(See also: Rajas , Kundalini, Kundalini Yoga, Kundalini Dictionary)

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Divo-rajas (Sanskrit) (from divas celestial realm + rajas firmament)

The upper stratum of the heaven-worlds.

(See also: Divo-rajas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

rajas:

rajas. Passion, activity, restlessness, aggressiveness. Associated with colour red. See guna.

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

A Theosophical definition of Rajas :

Rajas

(Sanskrit) One of the three gunas or "qualities" in the correlations of force and matter, the other two being respectively sattva and tamas. Rajas is the guna or the "quality" of longing, passion, activity, one of the three divisions of nature. In a sense it is the result or consequence of the elementary urge in nature producing change and the longing therefor.

See also: Rajas , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Rajas Ajas: One of the three Gunas which generates passion and restlessness.

(See also: Rajas Ajas ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Gunas:

The three basic qualities of nature that determine the inherent characteristics of all created things. They are sattva (purity, light, harmony, intelligence); rajas (activity, passion); and tamas (dullness, inertia, ignorance).

(See also: Gunas , Yoga, Yoga Dictionary, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Yoga Dictionary)

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The Trigunas

Just as the doshas are the essential components of the body, the three gunas - Satwa, Rajas and Tamas - are the three essential components or energies of the mind. Ayurveda provides a distinct description of people on the basis of their Manasa (psychological) Prakriti (constitution). Genetically determined, these psychological characteristics are dependent on the relative dominance of the three gunas.

While all individuals have mixed amounts of the three, the predominant guna determines an individual's mansa prakriti. In equilibrium, the three gunas preserve the mind (and indirectly the body), maintaining it in a healthy state. Any disturbance in this equilibrium results in various types of mental disorders.

Satwa, characterised by lightness, consciousness, pleasure and clarity, is pure, free from disease and cannot be disturbed in any way. It activates the senses and is responsible for the perception of knowledge. Rajas, the most active of the gunas, has motion and stimulation as its characteristics. All desires, wishes, ambitions and fickle-mindedness are a result of the same. While Tamas is characterised by heaviness and resistance. It produces disturbances in the process of perception and activities of the mind. Delusion, false knowledge, laziness, apathy, sleep and drowsiness are due to it.

Rajas and Tamas, as with the doshas, can be unbalanced by stress and negative desires as kama (lust), irshya (malice), moha (delusion and halucination), lobha (greed), chinta (anxiety), bhaya (fear) and krodha (anger). Each of these three properties is also comprised of sub-types and the particular sub-type to which one belongs to determine the qualities of that individual.

Satwika individuals are usually noble and spiritual in character, their nature determined as much by body type as their star constellation, having an element of kapha in their constitution.

Pitta dominated Rajasikas, intellectually oriented but vulnerable to temptations, are very human in their character and approach to life.

A dominant Vata ensures that Tamasika individuals are the most down to earth, concerned about fundamental questions of practical existence, specially when confronted by more spiritual and less physical issues.

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

Ayurveda is the oldest surviving complete medical system in the world. Derived from its ancient Sanskrit roots - ‘ayus' (life) and ‘ved' (knowledge) – and offering a rich, comprehensive outlook to a healthy life, its origins go back nearly 5000 years. To when it was expounded and practiced by the same spiritual rishis, who laid the foundations of the Vedic civilisation in India, by organising the fundamentals of life into proper systems.

The main source of knowledge in this field therefore remain the Vedas, the divine books of knowledge they propounded, and more specifically the fourth of the series, namely Atharvaveda that dates back to around 1000 BC. Of the few other treatises on Ayurveda that have survived from around the same time, the most famous are Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita which concentrate on internal medicine and surgery respectively. The Astanga Hridayam is a more concise compilation of earlier texts that was created about a thousand years ago. These between them forming a greater part of the knowledge base on Ayurveda as it is practiced today.

The art of Ayurveda had spread around in the 6th century BC to Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea and Sri Lanka, carried over by the Buddhist monks travelling to those lands. Although not much of it survives in original form, its effects can be seen in the various new age concepts that have originated from there.

No philosophy has had greater influence on Ayurveda than Sankhaya’s philosophy of creation and manifestation. Which professes that behind all creation there is a state of pure existence or awareness, which is beyond time and space, has no beginning or end, and no qualities. Within pure existence, there arises a desire to experience itself, which results in disequilibrium and causes the manifestation of the primordial physical energy. And the two unite to make the "dance of creation" come alive.

Imponderable, indescribable and extremely subtle, this primordial energy – which and all that flows from it existing only in pure existence – is the creative force of all action, a source of form that has qualities. Matter and energy are so closely related that when energy takes form, we tend to think of it in terms of matter only. And much modified, it ultimately leads to the manifestation of our familiar mental and physical worlds.

It also gives rise to cosmic consciousness, which is the universal order that prevades all life. Individual intelligence, as distinct from the everyday intellectual mind, is derived from and is part of this consciousness. It is the inner wisdom, the part of individuality that remains unswayed by the demands of daily life, or by Ahamkara, the sense of `I-ness’.

A Sanskrit word with no exact translation, Ahamkara, is a concept not quite understood by everyone as it is often misleadingly equated to `ego’. Embracing much more than just that, it is in essence that part of ‘me’ which knows which parts of the universal creation are ‘me’. Since ‘I’ am not separate from the universal consciousness, but ‘I’ has an identity that differentiates and defines the boundaries of `me’. All creations therefore have Ahamkara, not just human beings.

There arises from Ahamkara a two-fold creation. The first is Satwa, the subjective world, which is able to perceive and manipulate matter. It comprises the subtle body (the mind), the capacity of the five sense organs to hear, feel, see, taste and smell, and for the five organs of action to speak, grasp, move, procreate and excrete. The mind and the subtle organs providing the bridge between the body, the Ahamkara and the inner wisdom, which three together is considered the essential nature of humans.

The second is Tamas, the objective world of the five elements of sound, touch, vision, taste and smell – the five subtle elements that give rise to the dense elements of ether or space, air, fire, water and the earth – from which all matter of the physical world is derived. And it is Rajas, the force or the energy of movement, which brings together parts of these two worlds.

It is worth noting that even at the stage of the dense elements the philosophy of creation –which according to Sankaya is now and in the present, without any past and any future – is still dealing with aspects of existence beyond our simple physical realms. The point of contention being that we are the first and foremost spirit experiencing existence. To use Ayurveda in daily life, one has neither to accept nor even understand this philosophy. But it does provide a deeper insight into how Ayurveda works towards betterment of your health.

Ayurveda therefore is not simply a health care system but a form of lifestyle adopted to maintain perfect balance and harmony within the human existence, from the most abstract transcendental values to the most concrete physiological expressions. Based on the premise that life represents an intelligent co-ordination of the Atma (Soul), Mana (Mind), Indriya (Senses) and Sharira (Body). That revolves around the five dense elements that go into the making of the constitution of each individual, called Prakriti. Which in turn is determined by the vital balance of the three physical energies - Vata, Pitta, Kapha and the three mental energies - Satwa, Rajas,

Ayurveda thus offers a unique blend of science and philosophy that balances the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual components necessary for holistic health.

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

Guna:

According to Samkhya philosophy, Prakriti (Nature or matter), consist of three gunas -usually translated as 'qualities' -known as sattva, rajas, and tamas. Tamas stands for inertia or dullness; rajas, for activity or restlessness; sattva, for balance or righteousness.

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

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guna:

Quality or trait. There are 3: rajas--active; tamas--passive; and sattvas--the balance of rajas and tamas.

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

According to ayurvedic philosophy an individual bundle of `spirit’, desirious of expressing itself, uses subjective consciousness or Satwa to manifest sense organs and a mind. Spirit and mind then project themselves into a physical body, created from the five (Pancha) great (maha) eternal elements (bhutas) – together called the Panchamahabhutas – which arise from Tamas. The sense organs then using Rajas to project from the body into the external world to experience their objects. The body becoming the mind’s vehicle, its physical instrument for sense gratification.

The Bhutas combine into "tridoshas" or bioenergetic forces that govern and determine our health or physical condition. While the three gunas (Rajas or activity, Tamas or inertia and Satwa, which balances the first two) or psychic forces determine our mental and spiritual health. Ayurveda is thus a holistic system of health care that teaches us to balance these energies in order to achieve optimum health and well being.

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

A Yoga Dictionary from Abhyasa to Yukti.

From "Kundalini Yoga" by Sri Swami Sivananda

Purana (Sanskrit) Ancient, old, an ancient tale or legend. The 18 Hindu scriptures known today as the Puranas are ancient legends of olden times, written in verse, partly in symbolical and allegorical and partly in quasi-historical language.

They are supposed originally to have been composed by Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata. A Purana is a work which has five distinguishing topics (pancha-lakshanas): 1) the creation of the universe; 2) its destruction and renovation; 3) the genealogy of gods and patriarchs; 4) the reigns of the manus, forming the periods called manvantaras; and 5) the history of the solar and lunar races of kings.

The invariable form of the Puranas is of a dialogue between an exponent or teacher and an inquirer or disciple, interspersed with the dialogues and observations of other individuals. In addition to the Puranas there are 18 subordinate Upa-puranas. The Puranas are popularly classified in India under three categories corresponding to the gunas sattva, rajas, and tamas. Those in which the quality of sattva (purity) prevails are: the Vishnu, Naradiya, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma, and Varaha Puranas, also called the Vaishnava-Puranas. Those in which rajas (passion) are said to prevail, relating chiefly to the god Brahma, are the Brahma, Brahmanda, Brahma-vaivarta, Markandeya, Bhavishya, and Vamana Puranas. Those in which tamas (inertia) is said to prevail, relating chiefly to the god Siva, are the Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Siva, Skanda, and Agni Puranas.

The Puranas ingeniously interweave allegory with cosmic facts and far later human events. "Puranic astronomy, with all its deliberate concealment and confusion for the purpose of leading the profane off the real track, was shown even by Bentley to be a real science; and those who are versed in the mysteries of Hindu astronomical treatises, will prove that the modern theories of the progressive condensation of nebulae, nebulous stars and sun, with the most minute details about the cyclic progress of asterisms -- far more correct than Europeans have even now -- for chronological and other purposes, were known in India to perfection.

"If we turn to geology and zoology we find the same. What are all the myths and endless genealogies of the seven Prajapati and their sons, the seven Rishis or Manus, and of their wives, sons and progeny, but a vast detailed account of the progressive development and evolution of animal creation, one species after the other? . . ."

". . . the Puranic histories of all those men are those of our Monads, in their various and numberless incarnations on this and other spheres, events perceived by the 'Siva eye' of the ancient Seers, (the 'third eye' of our Stanzas and described allegorically. Later on, they were disfigured for Sectarian purposes; mutilated, but still left with a considerable ground-work of truth in them. Nor is the philosophy less profound in such allegories for being so thickly veiled by the overgrowth of fancy" (SD 2:253, 284).

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

Rajasic:

Pertaining to, or endowed with rajas

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

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