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)

POLYTHEISM: The belief in the existence of many unrelated deities each with their own domination and interests who may have no spiritual or familial relationships to one another. Paganism is often erroneously characterized as polytheistic, but polytheism does not acknowledge a single source or force of creation, as most Pagans do.

(See also: POLYTHEISM , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Divorce, Being Divorced, Divorced

• To dream of being divorced, denotes that you are not satisfied with your companion, and should cultivate a more congenial atmosphere in the home life. It is a dream of warning.
• For women to dream of divorce, denotes that a single life may be theirs through the infidelity of lovers.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Divorce , Dreams - Meaning of Dream about Divorce , Dream Interpretation Divorce )

A Theosophical definition of Gods :

Gods

The old pantheons were builded upon an ancient and esoteric wisdom which taught, under the guise of a public mythology, profound secrets of the structure and operations of the universe which surrounds us. The entire human race has believed in gods, has believed in beings superior to men; the ancients all said that men are the "children" of these gods, and that from these superior beings, existent in the azure spaces, men draw all that in them is; and, furthermore, that men themselves, as children of the gods, are in their inmost essence divine beings linked forever with the boundless universe of which each human being, just as is the case with every other entity everywhere, is an inseparable part. This is a truly sublime conception.

One should not think of human forms when the theosophist speaks of the gods; we mean the arupa  - the "formless"  - entities, beings of pure intelligence and understanding, relatively pure essences, relatively pure spirits, formless as we physical humans conceive form. The gods are the higher inhabitants of nature. They are intrinsic portions of nature itself, for they are its informing principles. They are as much subject to the wills and energies of still higher beings  - call these wills and energies the "laws" of higher beings, if you will  - as we are, and as are the kingdoms of nature below us.

The ancients put realities, living beings, in the place of laws which, as Occidentals use the term, are only abstractions  - an expression for the action of entities in nature; the ancients did not cheat themselves so easily with words. They called them gods, spiritual entities. Not one single great thinker of the ancients, until the Christian era, ever talked about laws of nature, as if these laws were living entities, as if these abstractions were actual entities which did things. Did the laws of navigation ever navigate a ship? Does the law of gravity pull the planets together? Does it unite or pull the atoms together? This word laws is simply a mental abstraction signifying unerring action of conscious and semi-conscious energies in nature.

See also: Gods , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Door

1. A passage to a new phase in life, such as childhood to adolescence, or single to married.

2. A new opportunity on the way.

3. Revelation, either personal, spiritual, or universal.

Astrological parallels: Scorpio, Capricorn, Aries.

Source: Astrocenter, http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/DreamDictionary.aspx

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Door , Meaning of Dreams about Door , Dream Interpretation Door )

Enlightenment of plants

(Jpn.: somoku-jobutsu)

Also, enlightenment of insentient beings. The enlightenment of grass, trees, rocks, the land itself, or anything else that has neither emotion nor consciousness.

The doctrine that insentient beings can attain Buddhahood derives from T'ien-t'ai's doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life. One of the component principles of this doctrine is the realm of the environment, or the insentient objective world.

The doctrine teaches the mutually inclusive relationship of living beings and their environments, or that of sentient and insentient beings, thereby revealing that both manifest the same state of life. Therefore, when living beings manifest the state of Buddhahood, their environment simultaneously manifests the state of Buddhahood as well.

In The Diamond Scalpel, Miao-lo (711-782) refuted the arguments of Ch'eng-kuan, the fourth patriarch of the Chinese Flower Garland (Hua-yen) school, who asserted that insentient beings do not possess the Buddha nature. Miao-lo wrote, "A plant, a tree, a pebble, a speck of dust-each has the Buddha nature, and each is endowed with cause and effect and with the function to manifest and the wisdom to realize its Buddha nature."

(See also: Enlightenment of plants , Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Birth

• For a married woman to dream of giving birth to a child, great joy and a handsome legacy is foretold.
• For a single woman, loss of virtue and abandonment by her lover.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Birth , Dreams - Meaning of Dream about Birth , Dream Interpretation Birth )

Eka:  or Ek, meaning One, single.

(See also: Eka ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

CRYSTAL SKULL

A replica of an ancient human skull hewn out of a single rock crystal and found by Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1927 in the Mayan burial-ground, Labaantún, British Honduras. Light reflected from the zygomatic arch and funneled along the optic bridge causes the eye-sockets to shine brightly. The skull also emits concentrated pinpoints of light and serves as a magnifying glass and scrying ball. If suspended properly, the jaw will open and close, the eyes will flash and it will easily nod yes or no. Tests reveal that it was not carved by metal tools.

Small crystal skulls have throughout the past couple of centuries been unearthed in Central America and a large one, similar to the Michell-Hedges skull, was already in the British Museum. The M-H skull is of far superior quality, however, and the British version is derived from the former.

 CSICOP

"Committee for the Scientific Investigation Of the Paranormal," founded in 1976 by New York professor of philosophy, Paul Kurz. Its membership originally included many well-known, rigid authority figures from the scientific establishment, such as B.F. Skinner, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. It is dedicated single-mindedly to the discrediting of any technically unsubstantiated, over-imaginative or simply "unscientific" point of view.

(See also: CRYSTAL SKULL , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Dew

• To feel the dew falling on you in your dreams, portends that you will be attacked by fever or some malignant disease; but to see the dew sparkling through the grass in the sunlight, great honors and wealth are about to be heaped upon you. If you are single, a wealthy marriage will soon be your portion.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Dew , Dreams - Meaning of Dream about Dew , Dream Interpretation Dew )

Monotheism Belief in a single or supreme god; opposed to polytheism and pantheism, although all polytheistic forms of thought recognize a supreme divinity, of which all others were children or offspring; and pantheism itself, when properly understood, likewise includes all forms or varieties of polytheistic belief.

The Hebrews are a notable example of a people following a very definite monotheism in their religious beliefs; subsequent to this were the systems of Christianity and Islam. If deity be regarded as periodic cosmic mind or intelligence incessantly evolving through its emanated hierarchies -- the structure inner and outer of the universe -- which is the abode of such divinity, governed in its operations by its own spirit-wisdom, far transcending the remotest shadow of the limitations we call personality, then in this sense theosophists might be called pantheists, polytheists, and even monotheists, all in one.

But where deity is by human imagination endowed with human attributes, however sublimated, and with human limitations of personality, an unphilosophical, impossible, and unnatural monotheism results. Such a god -- being the offspring of human imagination, a creature of human fancy -- cannot be universal, and must submit to rivalry with the humanly imagined gods of other religions.

(See also: Monotheism , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

spiritual midwifery: Childbearing philosophy expounded by Ina May Gaskin in her book of the same name. It posits God; indivision of humanity (We are all One); shakti (divine female energy); and spiritual energy that is Holy. Moreover, it euphemizes contractions as energy rushes and holds that pregnant and birthing mothers are elemental forces and that a husband and wife form a single energy unit.

(See also: Spiritual midwifery , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Karnak (Egypt, Egyptian). The ruins of the ancient temples, and palaces which now stand on the emplacement of ancient Thebes. The most magnificent representatives of the art and skill of the earliest Egyptians. A few lines quoted from Champollion, Denon and an English traveller, show most eloquently what these ruins are.

Of Karnak Champollion writes: -  "The ground covered by the mass of remaining buildings is square; and each side measures 1,800 feet. One is astounded and overcome by the grandeur of the sublime remnants, the prodigality and magnificence of workmanship to be seen everywhere. No people of ancient or modern times has conceived the art of architecture upon a scale so sublime, so grandiose as it existed among the ancient Egyptians; and the imagination, which in Europe soars far above our porticos, arrests itself and falls powerless at the foot of the hundred and forty columns of the hypostyle of Karnak! In one of its halls, the Cathedral of Notre Dame might stand and not touch the ceiling, but be considered as a small ornament in the centre of the hall."

Another writer exclaims: "Courts, halls, gateways, pillars, obelisks, monolithic figures, sculptures, long rows of sphinxes, are found in such profusion at Karnak, that the sight is too much for modern comprehension." Says Denon, the French traveller: "It is hardly possible to believe, after seeing it, in the reality of the existence of so many buildings collected together on a single point, in their dimensions, in the resolute perseverance which their construction required, and in the incalculable expenses of so much magnificence! It is necessary that the reader should fancy what is before him to be a dream, as he who views the objects themselves occasionally yields to the doubt whether he be perfectly awake. . . . There are lakes and mountains within the periphery of the sanctuary. These two edifices are selected as examples from a list next to inexhaustible. The whole valley and delta of the Nile, from the cataracts to the sea, was covered with temples, palaces, tombs, pyramids, obelisks, and pillars. The execution of the sculptures is beyond praise. The mechanical perfection with which artists wrought in granite, serpentine, breccia, and basalt, is wonderful, according to all the experts animals and plants look as good as natural, and artificial objects are beautifully sculptured; battles by sea and land, and scenes of domestic life are to be found in all their bas-reliefs."

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

Ahath (Hebrew) (feminine of 'achath one)

One, single, alone, sole; applied to the feminine aspect of the Logos or head of a hierarchy. In Hebrew occultism 'ahath or achath represents, together with the masculine form achod ('ehad) "the collective aggregate, or totality, of the principal Creators or Architects of this visible universe" (SD 1:129). Incorrectly applied to the Sephiroth-'elohim as Sephiroth, since these last are only vehicles or manifestations of the Logos.

Achath-Achod ('ahath-'ehad) corresponds to the Sanskrit adi (first, primeval) or eka (One), meaning crown or hyparxis, and therefore the originant or cosmic hierarch, which divides into the many when its spiritual and substantial energies stream downwards into the planes of illusion and matter -- which indeed these energies themselves compose.

See also 'AHATH-RUAH-'ELOHIM-HAYYIM; 'EHAD

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

Evolution (from Latin evolutio unrolling, opening)

The unfolding or bringing into manifestation of the inherent, already inwardly existing characteristics of a being; it is therefore growth from within, development. The process is universal, since the universe consists of living beings, all of which are growing because unfolding. Evolution presupposes two main factors: the entity which is evolving, and the form which is evolved. These two are related as spirit to matter, as the monad to its organism.

Every one of the countless beings which constitute the universe is essentially a spark of the universal divine fire, life, or spirit; and at any time is at one stage or another of a continuous career of unfolding growth. Every spark creates for itself a succession of forms by which it expresses more or less of its inherent qualities. The physical vehicles are merely the physical end-products; before these physical imbodiments are engendered, there are other imbodiments made of subtler grades of matter or consciousness-substance on intermediate planes, and astral stuff on the lower plane close to the physical. Evolution is a continual reaction between what is within and what is without: environment modifies growth; but without the urge of the indwelling monad, there could be no action upon environment, nor any reaction by environment.

Evolution is not a process of accretion from without; such accretion could not produce an organism unless the full plan of that organism existed already latently in ideation. Nor is evolution in the vegetable and animal kingdoms a process of mere transformism by which one physical organism changes into another. The changes take place because of the unfolding growth of the indwelling entity, each new evolutional enfoldment of the latter impacting on the body, and therefore more or less modifying it; and this indwelling entity in this manner builds for itself new forms suitable to its own changed or more largely unfolded states.

Theosophy does not hold to the idea of a single-track, end-on evolution from a protoplasmic speck to human being, without inner astral, mental, and spiritual urge from within. Rather, the plan of evolution as represented by the different classes and orders of beings on earth may be represented by a tree, whose main trunk is the human stem, from which (so far as this manvantara is concerned) the various animal types have issued like branches, each of them then entering upon a special unfolding development and differentiation of its own. Indeed, the same observation applies with equal force to the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, although their root-types issued from the human stem long aeons before the animal types appeared on earth.

Evolution is an ancient and cardinal tenet of the archaic wisdom and was formerly called emanation. In mankind, three distinct, principal lines of evolution take place and converge; the spiritual, the mental or manasic, and the astral-vital-physical. The manasic factor is derived from the perfected humanity of a previous manvantara, whose entrance into the human stock of the third root-race brought about the union of the heavenly and the terrestrial so as to make a complete self-conscious being who thereafter mirrors every plane in nature. In humankind, the divine monad, a spark of the universal spirit, emanates from itself its first vehicle, and thus is formed the spiritual monad, atma-buddhi. This monad, emanating from itself in its turn another vehicle, becomes the higher human soul or reimbodying ego; and the emanational process is continued throughout the human constitution by the formation of the astral-vital soul which in its turn emanates or oozes forth the physical body.

The process of evolution cannot be considered as ending. Just as below human beings there are less evolved kingdoms, so above are beings in whom fuller self-consciousness has been achieved than we have yet achieved, and still more of the divine potentialities realized. All evolution beneath humankind tends towards humanhood as its objective; but humanity itself has ever greater heights still before it to attain in the future.

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

A Theosophical definition of Linga-Sarira :

Linga-Sarira

(Sanskrit) Linga is a word which means "characteristic mark," hence "model," "pattern." Sarira, "form," from a verb-root sri, meaning "to molder" or "to waste away," the word thus signifying "impermanence."

The sixth substance-principle, counting downwards, of which man's constitution is composed. The model-body, popularly called astral body, because it is but slightly more ethereal than the physical body, and is in fact the model or framework around which the physical body is builded, and from which, in a sense, the physical body flows or develops as growth proceeds.

At death the linga-sarira or model-body remains in the astral realms and finally fades out, dissolving pari passu, atom by atom, with the atoms of the physical corpse. These astral realms are not one single plane, but a series of planes growing gradually more ethereal or spiritual as they approach the inward spheres of nature's constitution or structure. The linga-sarira is formed before the body is formed, and thus serves as a model or pattern around which the physical body is molded and grows to maturity; it is as mortal as is the physical body, and disappears with the physical body.

See also: Linga-Sarira , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Circle: The magic circle is drawn in the astral world about the Magus and the place where the ritual is worked. It forms a division between the magical place and the ordinary world, setting the interior space apart. This allows the region inside the circle to hold a heightened charge of magical potency, and because it is a pure space devoted to worship and magic, it permits the manifestation of spiritual Intelligences that could not be readily perceived in the ordinary environment. The circle also acts as a barrier that protects the Magus from the intrusion of discordant, chaotic forces that seek to disrupt communications with higher spiritual beings, or even to harm the Magus in emotional and physical ways.

The circle is always inscribed from the inside, ideally from the center, in a sunwise direction, and visualized as a glowing or flaming band of light that sustains itself in the air at the level of the heart. Often a corresponding physical circle of the same radius is marked on the floor of the chamber beforehand; but the magic circle does not actually exist until it is made in the astral by a deliberate act of will. For convenience, the circle is made of a size great enough to enclose the ritual place. A single ritualist, if working without an altar in a confined space, might project a circle of six feet in diameter. With an altar at the center, the circle might be nine feet in diameter to permit movement around the altar. Since the circle is drawn in the astral, it can be made larger than the actual physical chamber.

Whatever its size, the circle should always be large enough to comfortably hold all who work within it. Because the circle is magically real, even though immaterial, it must never be casually broken. It is extended from the heart center of the Magus clockwise from the point of the right index finger, or the point of the wand, sword, or knife. It should be reabsorbed at the end of the ritual in through the left index finger, or magical instrument held in the left hand, by retracing it widdershins—against the course of the Sun. It must never be stepped through, although this is a common mistake among occultists. To disregard the substantiality of the circle is to weaken it, and so render it a less useful tool.

(See also: Circle , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Dream Interpretation Fairy

Dreaming of a fairy is a good omen predicting good luck in personal life and wish-fulfilment. Sometimes it means a possible engagement for single people. If a fairy in your dream is sad, it denotes possible losses in love and money.

Source: Dream-Land, http://www.dream-land.info

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Fairy , Meaning of Dreams about Fairy , Dream Interpretation Fairy )

Abracadabra (possibly from Celtic abra or abar god + cad holy; Blavatsky from an elaboration of the Gnostic Abrasax or Abraxas, a corruption of a Coptic or Egyptian magic formula meaning "hurt me not")

Mystical word used as a charm by the Gnostic school of Basilides. The Gnostic physician Serenus Sammonicus (2nd-3rd century) prescribed it as a remedy for agues and fevers. On amulets the word is often inscribed as a triangle with the point down, beginning with all eleven letters, below which are the first ten, and so on down to the single letter at the point. The power of any charm lies, not in the word itself, but in the hidden science connecting sounds and symbols with the potencies in nature to which they correspond.

See also ABLANATHANALBA

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

Dream Interpretation Deer, antelope

If you dream of several deer’s or antelopes, you want some personal freedom. Very often a single deer in the dream represents the qualities of your character like gentleness, tenderness, understanding and need for protection and safety. A deer also may represent a person dear to you, someone who is vulnerable and needs your help and protection at present time.

Source: Dream-Land, http://www.dream-land.info

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Deer, antelope , Meaning of Dreams about Deer, antelope , Dream Interpretation Deer, antelope )

Splodging or Yelling:

An antipsi talent for the generation of specific psi broadcasts (usually of emotions) so strong that all other psi signals in range are drowned out or disrupted, with the information content of those signals collapsing first; may be a form of reversed empathy or of single-content telepathic sending.

(See also: Splodging, Yelling , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

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,)