atman: (Sanskrit) "The soul; the breath; the principle of life and sensation." The soul in its entirety - as the soul body (anandamaya kosha) and its essence (Parashakti and Parasiva). One of Hinduism's most fundamental tenets is that we are the atman, not the physical body, emotions, external mind or personality. In Hindu scriptures, atman sometimes refers to the ego-personality, and its meaning must be determined according to context. The Atma Upanishad (13) describes atman, or purusha, as threefold: bahyatman, the outer or physical person; antaratman, the inner person, excluding the physical form, who perceives, thinks and cognizes; and Paramatman, the transcendent Self God within. See: Paramatman, kosha, soul.

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

shruti: (Sanskrit) "That which is heard."

Hinduism's revealed scriptures, of supreme theological authority and spiritual value. They are timeless teachings transmitted to rishis, or seers, directly by God thousands of years ago. Shruti is thus said to be apaurusheya, "impersonal," or rather "suprahuman."

Shruti consists essentially of the Vedas and the Agamas, preserved initially through oral tradition and eventually written down in Sanskrit. Among the many sacred books of the Hindus, these two bodies of knowledge are held in the highest esteem. For countless centuries shruti has been the basis of philosophical discussion, study and commentary, and this attention has given rise to countless schools of thought. It is also the subject of deep study and meditation, to realize the wisdom of the ancients within oneself.

Most mantras are drawn from shruti, used for rites of worship, both public and domestic, as well as personal prayer and japa. It is a remarkable tribute to Hindu culture that so much of shruti was preserved for thousands of years without alteration by means of oral instruction from guru to shishya, generation after generation. In the Veda tradition this was accomplished by requiring the student to learn each verse in eleven different ways, including backwards. Traditionally shruti is not read, but chanted according to extremely precise rules of grammar, pitch, intonation and rhythm. This brings forth its greatest power. In the sacred language of shruti, word and meaning are so closely aligned that hearing these holy scriptures properly chanted is magical in its effect upon the soul of the listener.

See: Agamas, smriti, Vedas.

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

agamas:

tantrik scriptures dealing with rites, dharma, cosomology.

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

agamas:

mystical scriptures pertaining to specific hindu sects such as Vaisnavaites or saivites

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

Agamas:

Agamas. Tantric scriptures dealing with rites, dharma, cosmology.

(See also: Agamas , Tantra, Tantra Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

 Veda:

the sacred scriptures of the Hindus

(See also:  Veda , Body Mind and Soul)

 Vedas:

the sacred scriptures of the Hindus

(See also:  Vedas , Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Akasa :

Akasa

(Sanskrit) The word means "brilliant," "shining," "luminous." The fifth kosmic element, the fifth essence or "quintessence," called Aether by the ancient Stoics; but it is not the ether of science. The ether of science is merely one of its lower elements. In the Brahmanical scriptures akasa is used for what the northern Buddhists call svabhavat, more mystically Adi-buddhi  - "primeval buddhi''; it is also mulaprakriti, the kosmical spirit-substance, the reservoir of Being and of beings. The Hebrew Old Testament refers to it as the kosmic "waters." It is universal substantial space; also mystically Alaya. (See also Mulaprakriti, Alaya)

See also: Akasa , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Agon Buddhism

A sect of Buddhism that uses the Agon Sutras as scriptures.

(See also: Agon Buddhism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

dharma: (Sanskrit) "Righteousness." From dhri, "to sustain; carry, hold."

Hence dharma is "that which contains or upholds the cosmos." Dharma, religion, is a complex and all-inclusive term with many meanings, including: divine law, law of being, way of righteousness, religion, ethics, duty, responsibility, virtue, justice, goodness and truth. Essentially, dharma is the orderly fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny. Relating to the soul, it is the mode of conduct most conducive to spiritual advancement, the right and righteous path.

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

Vedas (Sanskrit). The "revelation". the scriptures of the Hindus, from the root vid, "to know ", or "divine knowledge". They are the most ancient as well as the most sacred of the Sanskrit works.

The Vedas on the date and antiquity of which no two Orientalists can agree, are claimed by the Hindus themselves, whose Brahmans and Pundits ought to know best about their own religious works, to have been first taught orally for thousands of years and then compiled on the shores of Lake Manasa-Sarovara (phonetically, Mansarovara) beyond the Himalayas, in Tibet. When was this done? While their religious teachers, such as Swami Dayanand Saraswati, claim for them an antiquity of many decades of ages, our modern Orientalists will grant them no greater antiquity in their present form than about between 1,000 and 2,000 B.C.

As compiled in their final form by Veda-Vyasa, however, the Brahmans themselves unanimously assign 3,100 years before the Christian era, the date when Vyasa flourished. Therefore the Vedas must be as old as this date. But their antiquity is sufficiently proven by the fact that they are written in such an ancient form, of Sanskrit, so different from the Sanskrit now used, that there is no other, work like them in the literature of this eldest sister of all the known languages, as Prof. Max Muller calls it. Only the most learned of the Brahman Pundits can read the Vedas in their original. It is urged that Colebrooke found the date 1400 B.c. corroborated absolutely by a passage which he discovered, and which is based on astronomical data.

But if, as shown unanimously by all the Orientalists and the Hindu Pundits also, that

(a) the Vedas are not a single work, nor yet any one of the separate Vedas; but that each Veda, and almost every hymn and division of the latter, is the production of various authors; and that

(b) these have been written (whether as sruti, "revelation ", or not) at various periods of the ethnological evolution of the Indo-Aryan race, then - what does Mr. Colebrooke’s discovery prove? Simply that the Vedas were finally arranged and compiled fourteen centuries before our era; but this interferes in no way with their antiquity.

Quite the reverse; for, as an offset to Mr. Colebrooke’s passage, there is a learned article, written on purely astronomical data by Krishna Shastri Godbole (of Bombay), which proves as absolutely and on the same evidence that the Vedas must have been taught at least 25,000 years ago. (See Theosophist, Vol. II., p. 238 et seq., Aug., 1881.) This statement is, if not supported, at any rate not contradicted by what Prof. Cowell says in Appendix VII., of Elphinstone’ History of India: "

There is a difference in age between the various hymns, which are now united in their present form as the Sanhita of the Rig Veda; but we have no data to determine their relative antiquity, and purely subjective criticism, apart from solid data, has so often failed in other instances, that we can trust but little to any of its inferences in such a recently opened field of research as Sanskrit literature. [ a fourth part of the Vaidik literature is as yet in print, and very little of it has been translated into English (1866).] The still unsettled controversies about the Homeric poems may well warn us of being too confident in our judgments regarding the yet earlier hymns of the Rig -Veda. . . . When we examine these hymns . . . they are deeply interesting for the history of the human mind, belonging as they do to a much older phase than the poems of Homer or Hesiod." The Vedic writings are all classified in two great divisions, exoteric and esoteric, the former being called Karma-Kanda, "division of actions or works ", and the Jnana Kanda, "division of (divine) knowledge", the Upanishads (q.v.) coming under this last classification. Both departments are regarded as Sruti or revelation.

To each hymn of the Rig -Veda, the name of the Seer or Rishi to whom it was revealed is prefixed. It, thus, becomes evident on the authority of these very names (such as Vasishta, Viswamitra, Narada, etc.), all of which belong to men born in various manvantaras and even ages, that centuries, and perhaps millenniums, must have elapsed between the dates of their composition.

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

Airyanmen Vaeja, Airyena-Vaegah, Airyana-Vaeja (Avestan) Airyam-Veg (Pahlavi) "The Aryans (the noble ones) are said in the Avesta to have had their original home in the far land of Airyana Vaeja (the cradle land of the Aryans), the first among the lands created by Mazda. It was at the center of the earth and in its very center stood the mountain Harabareza. This corresponds with the Hindu descriptions of the Land of the Gods with Mount Meru at its center" (Taraporewala, The Religion of Zarathushtra).

The Aryans divided the universe into seven regions or keshvars: 1) Arzah or Arzahe; 2) Shabah, Sava-Cavahe; 3) Fradadafsh, Fradadhfsha; 4) Vidadafsh, Vidadahfshu; 5) Vorubarst, Vourubaresti; 6) Vorugarst, Vourujaresti, Vouruzaresti; and 7) Khvanuras, Ganiratha, Hvaniratha. The seventh land is situated in the middle of the other six. According to the introduction of Abu-Mansouri's Shah-Nameh (the older Shah-Nameh), the seventh land, which the kings named Iran-Shahr (Airya-Vaeja) is also in the middle of the other six.

Airyanem Vaejo is the primeval land of innocence and bliss of the Vendidad, similar to the Sveta-dvipa (white island) of Puranic literature or to Mount Meru. In this "beautiful land," by the river Daitya, "the stars, the moon, and the sun are only once (a year) seen to rise and set" (Vendidad). Blavatsky equates it with the cradleland of physical humanity, and locates it in Central Asia. It is identical to Sambhala and to Arghya Varsha from which the Kalki avatara is expected (SD 2:416; BCW 4:526-7).

In Persian legend, the serpent appeared in Airyanem Vaejo and by his venom transformed the beautiful, eternal spring into winter, generating disease and death. Interpreting this geologically and astronomically, "every occultist knows that the Serpent alluded to is the north pole, as also the pole of the heavens. The latter produces the seasons according to the angle at which it penetrates the centre of this earth.

The two axes were no more parallel; hence the eternal spring of Airyana-Vaego by the good river Daitya had disappeared, and 'the Aryan magi had to emigrate to Sagdiani' -- say exoteric accounts. But the esoteric teaching states that the pole had passed through the equator, and that the 'land of bliss' of the Fourth Race, its inheritance from the Third, had now become the region of desolation and woe. This alone ought to be an incontrovertible proof of the great antiquity of the Zoroastrian Scriptures" (SD 2:356).

(See also: Airyanmen Vaeja, Airyena-Vaegah, Airyana-Vaeja , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vedas:

'Veda' means knowledge. 'Vedic' refers to things that come from the original knowledge of the Vedic scriptures of ancient India, revealed by God through sages.

(See also: Vedas , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

papa: (Sanskrit) "Wickedness; sin, crime."

1)    Bad or evil.

2)    Wrongful action.

3)    Demerit earned through wrongdoing.

Papa includes all forms of wrongdoing, from the simplest infraction to the most heinous crime, such as premeditated murder. Each act of papa carries its karmic consequence, karmaphala, "fruit of action," for which scriptures delineate specific penance for expiation.

Those who have awakened psychic sight can clearly see papa in the inner subconscious aura as a colorful, sticky, astral substance. Papa is seen as dark unrelated colors, whereas its counterpart, punya, is seen as pastels. The color arrangements are not unlike modern art murals. Papa colors can produce disease, depression, loneliness and such, but can be dissolved through penance (prayashchitta), austerity (tapas) and good deeds (sukritya).

There are specific consequences, karmaphala, "fruit of action," that result from each type of transgression of dharma. For example, a man who steals from his neighbors creates a cosmic debt which may be repaid later by having his own possessions taken away.

There are also specific penances, prayashchitta, that can be performed for atonement and the accrual of punya (merit) to balance out the papa, the negative karma of the wrongful act. Such disciplines are provided in the various Dharma Shastras and prescribed by knowing preceptors, panditas, shastris, swamis, yogis and village elders according to the varna and education of the individual. For example, the Laws of Manu give several types of penance for the crime of murder, including

1)    making a forest hut and subsisting there on alms for twelve years and using a human skull as one's emblem; or

2)    walking 100 yojanas (900 miles), while reciting the Vedas, eating little and remaining continent.

A contemporary example: if a man fells a large healthy tree, he may atone by planting ten trees and ensuring that at least one grows to replace it. The degree of papa accrued from an action depends on various factors, including the karma, dharma and spiritual advancement of the individual, the intent or motivation, as well as the time and place of the action (for example, unvirtuous deeds carry great demerit when performed in holy places). Papa is the opposite of punya (merit, virtue).

See: evil, karma, penance, punya, sin.

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

tapas: (Sanskrit) "Warmth, heat," hence psychic energy, spiritual fervor or ardor.

1)    Purificatory spiritual disciplines, severe austerity, penance and sacrifice. The endurance of pain, suffering, through the performance of extreme penance, religious austerity and mortification. By comparison, sadhana is austerity of a simple, sustained kind, while tapas is austerity of a severe, psychetransforming nature. Tapas is extreme bodily mortification, long term sadhanas, such as meditating under a tree in one place for 12 years, taking a lifetime vow of silence and never speaking or writing, or standing on one leg for a prescribed number of years. Scriptures warn against extreme asceticism that harm the body.

2)    On a deeper level, tapas is the intense inner state of kundalini "fire" which stimulates mental anguish and separates the individual from society. Life does not go on as usual when this condition occurs. The association with a satguru, Sadasiva, brings the devotee into tapas; and it brings him out of it. The fire of tapas burns on the dross of sanchita karmas. This is the source of heat, dismay, depression and striving until final and total surrender, prapatti. The individual can mollify this heated condition by continuing his regular sadhana as outlined by the guru. The fires of self-transformation may be stimulated by the practice of tapas, or come unbidden. One can "do" tapas, but the true tapas is a condition of being and consciousness which is a state of grace, bringing positive change, transformation and purification of one's nature. Guru bhakti is the only force that can cool the fires of tapas.

See: kundalini, penance, sadhana.

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

Rig Veda: (Sanskrit) "Veda of verse (rik)."

The first and oldest of the four Veda compendia of revealed scriptures (shruti), including a hymn collection (Samhita), priestly explanatory manuals (Brahmanas), forest treatises (Aranyakas) elaborating on the Vedic rites, and philosophical dialogs (Upanishads). Like the other Vedas, the Rig Veda was brought to earth consciousness not all at once, but gradually, over a period of perhaps several thousand years.

The oldest and core portion is the Samhita, believed to date back, in its oral form, as far as 8,000 years, and to have been written down in archaic Sanskrit some 3,000 years ago. It consists of more than 10,000 verses, averaging three or four lines (riks), forming 1,028 hymns (suktas), organized in ten books called mandalas. It embodies prayerful hymns of praise and invocation to the Divinities of nature and to the One Divine. They are the spiritual reflections of a pastoral people with a profound awe for the powers of nature, each of which they revered as sacred and alive. The rishis who unfolded these outpourings of adoration perceived a wellordered cosmos in which dharma is the way of attunement with celestial worlds, from which all righteousness and prosperity descends.

The main concern is man's relationship with God and the world, and the invocation of the subtle worlds into mundane existence. Prayers beseech the Gods for happy family life, wealth, pleasure, cattle, health, protection from enemies, strength in battle, matrimony, progeny, long life and happiness, wisdom and realization and final liberation from rebirth.

The Rig Veda Samhita, which in length equals Homer's Iliad and Odyssey combined, is the most important hymn collection, for it lends a large number of its hymns to the other three Veda Samhitas (the Sama, Yajur and Atharva). Chronologically, after the Samhitas came the Brahmanas, followed by the Aranyakas, and finally the Upanishads, also called the Vedanta, meaning "Veda's end."

See: Rig Veda, shruti, Vedas.

(See also: Rig Veda , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

yama-niyama: (Sanskrit) "Restraints-observances."

The first two of the eight limbs of raja yoga, constituting Hinduism's fundamental ethical codes, the yamas and niyamas are the essential foundation for all spiritual progress. They are codified in numerous scriptures including the Shandilya and Varuha Upanishads, Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Gorakshanatha, the Tirumantiram of Tirumular and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. All the above texts list ten yamas and ten niyamas, with the exception of Patanjali's classic work, which lists only five of each.

The yamas are the ethical restraints; the niyamas are the religious practices. Because it is brief, the entire code can be easily memorized and reviewed daily by the spiritual aspirant. Here are the ten traditional yamas and ten niyamas.

yamas:

1)    ahimsa: "Noninjury." Not harming others by thought, word, or deed.

2)    satya: "Truthfulness." Refraining from lying and betraying promises.

3)    asteya: "Nonstealing." Neither stealing, nor coveting nor entering into debt.

4)    brahmacharya: (Sanskrit) "Divine conduct." Controlling lust by remaining celibate when single, leading to faithfulness in marriage.

5)    kshama: (Sanskrit) "Patience." Restraining intolerance with people and impatience with circumstances.

6)    dhriti: "Steadfastness." Overcoming nonperseverance, fear, indecision and changeableness.

7)    daya: "Compassion." Conquering callous, cruel and insensitive feelings toward all beings.

8)    arjava: "Honesty, straightforwardness." Renouncing deception and wrongdoing.

9)    mitahara: "Moderate appetite." Neither eating too much nor consuming meat, fish, fowl or eggs.

10) shaucha: "Purity." Avoiding impurity in body, mind and speech. -

niyamas:

1)    hri: "Remorse." Being modest and showing shame for misdeeds.

2)    santosha: "Contentment." Seeking joy and serenity in life.

3)    dana: "Giving." Tithing and giving generously without thought of reward.

4)    astikya: (Sanskrit) "Faith." Believing firmly in God, Gods, guru and the path to enlightenment.

5)    Ishvarapujana: "Worship of the Lord." The cultivation of devotion through daily worship and meditation.

6)    siddhanta shravana: "Scriptural listening." Studying the teachings and listening to the wise of one's lineage.

7)    mati: "Cognition." Developing a spiritual will and intellect with the guru's guidance.

8)    vrata: "Sacred vows." Fulfilling religious vows, rules and observances faithfully.

9)    japa: "Recitation." Chanting mantras daily.

10) tapas: (Sanskrit) "Austerity." Performing sadhana, penance, tapas and sacrifice.

Patanjali lists the yamas as: ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha (noncovetousness); and the niyamas as: shaucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya (self-reflection, scriptural study) and Ishvarapranidhana (worship).

See: raja yoga.

(See also: Yama-niyama , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Naraka: (Sanskrit) Abode of darkness. Literally, "pertaining to man."

The lower worlds. Equivalent to the Western term hell, a gross region of the Antarloka. Naraka is a congested, distressful area where demonic beings and young souls may sojourn until they resolve the darksome karmas they have created. Here beings suffer the consequences of their own misdeeds in previous lives. Naraka is understood as having seven regions, called tala, corresponding to the states of consciousness of the seven lower chakras as follows:

1)    Put, "childless" - atala chakra, "wheel of the bottomless region." Fear and lust (located in the hips).

2)    Avichi, "joyless" - vitala chakra: "wheel of negative region." Center of anger (thighs).

3)    Samhata, "abandoned" - sutala chakra: "Great depth." Region of jealousy (knees).

4)    Tamisra, "darkness" - talatala chakra: "wheel of the lower region." Realm of confused thinking (calves).

5)    Rijisha, "expelled" - rasatala chakra: "wheel of subterranean region." Selfishness (ankles).

6)    Kudmala, "leprous" - mahatala chakra: "wheel of the great lower region." Region of consciencelessness (feet). The intensity of "hell" begins at this deep level.

7)    Kakola, "black poison" - patala chakra, "wheel of the fallen or sinful level." Region of malice (soles of the feet).

The seven-fold hellish region in its entirety is also called patala, "fallen region." Scriptures offer other lists of hells, numbering 7 or 21. They are described as places of torment, pain, darkness, confusion and disease, but none are places where souls reside forever. Hinduism has no eternal hell.

See: hell, loka, purgatory (also, individual tala entries).

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

Amshaspands (Pahlavi) Also Amshaspends. The seven bright and glorious ones, Pahlavi version of the Avestic Amesha-Spenta. They refer to the six attributes of Ahura Mazda, both in the spiritual and mental worlds.

The first three -- Vohu-Man (Bahman), Asha-Vahishta (Ordibehesht), and Khshathra-Vayria (Shahrivar) -- are the three aspects of truth. Spenta-Armaiti (Spandar-Maz or Esphand), Haurvata (Khordad), and Ameretat (Amordad) are reflections of the first male trinity in the mental world. The total sum of the six is kherad (intellect), man's liberating force, which is not to be mistaken as Ahura Mazda, the supreme creator.

The Amshaspands in ancient Persian theology bore the same general relation to the universe that the seven or ten prajapatis have in the Hindu scriptures, or that the seven or ten Sephiroth have in the Hebrew Qabbalah.

See also Amesha-Spenta.

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

Aniyamsam Aniyasam (Sanskrit) (from anu atom, minuteness; aniyamsam, accusative of aniyas, comparative of adjective anu + aniyasam genitive plural of anu)

Philosophically, atomic of the atomic; otherwise the smallest of the small. A phrase lifted from one of the Hindu scriptures (cf VP 1:15n), without changing the first word to its nominative case. It is applied to the universal divinity whose vital intelligent essence is everywhere, to the absolutely spiritual atom which is the divine monad of every entity, great and small, in the cosmos.

In Vedantic philosophy, often used as a name of Brahman, conceived as being smaller than the smallest atom and equivalently as greater than the greatest sphere or universe. The conception applies equally well to paramatman. This universality whether in infinitesimals or in cosmic reaches is expressed in the almost equivalent phrase anor aniyamsam (smaller than an atom) (BG 8:9); likewise, anor aniyan (smaller than the small) in combination with mahato mahiyan (greater than the great) in the Upanishads (Katha 1:2, 20; Svetasvatara 3:21).

(See also: Aniyamsam Aniyasam , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sanskrit (Sanskrita): (Sanskrit) "Well-made; refined, perfected."

The classical sacerdotal language of ancient India, considered a pure vehicle for communication with the celestial worlds. It is the primary language in which Hindu scriptures are written, including the Vedas and Agamas. Employed today as a liturgical, literary and scholarly language, but no longer used as a spoken vernacular.

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