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Below are links to 4921 of different topics related to Spirituality organized alphabetically.

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Spiritual Sitemap - A, Spiritual Sitemap - B, Spiritual Sitemap - C,
Spiritual Sitemap - D, Spiritual Sitemap - E , Spiritual Sitemap - F,
Spiritual Sitemap - G, Spiritual Sitemap - H, Spiritual Sitemap - I,
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Spiritual Sitemap - S, Spiritual Sitemap - T, Spiritual Sitemap - U,

Spiritual Sitemap - V, Spiritual Sitemap - W, Spiritual Sitemap - X,

Spiritual Sitemap - Y, Spiritual Sitemap - Z

Also see these pages for material related to Spirituality:

Sanskrit Sitemap , Hinduism Sitemap , Buddhism Sitemap, Mysticism Sitemap , Spiritual Sitemap, Theosophy Sitemap , Alternative Health Sitemap , Popular Pages, Yoga Sitemap

Interesting links with good reading

Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.


Asdt - Asdt 'eshdath (Hebrew) (from 'ash, 'esh fire, lightning + dath law, mandate, legal decree)

Translated fiery law (Deut 23:2); in the Septuagint, translated as angels. It signifies the fiery spiritual beings or self-conscious spirits of cosmic character, emanating from the cosmic Logos.

Bhajans - Songs in praise of God. Bhajans in Shri Swamiji's presence are sung in very lively tempos that allow him to induce varying levels of spiritual trance and bhava.

Ego - Ego (Latin) The personal pronoun "I"; in philosophy and theosophy, the ego is the center of 'I-am-ship' or egoity in the human being. There are two such centers: the spiritual and impersonal, commonly called the individuality; and the personal, often called the soul or the personality. The former ego is unconditionally immortal, the latter ego is conditionally immortal, but in most cases mortal because of its lack of binding aspirations with its higher Over-self, the individuality.

The ego is that which says "I am I"; it is indirect or reflected consciousness, consciousness recognizing its own mayavi existence as a separate entity. It is not the permanent self or the atma-buddhi-manas considered as an indissoluble triad; for all egos in the human constitution are reflections of the permanent spiritual selfhood. This means that there are innumerable egos of the same kind -- "myself" and other similar myselves -- also that there are egos of different kinds.

If we consider the hierarchy of the human constitution to grow from the immanent or permanent self, regarding this as the very seed of essential egoity, then a mayavi ego will be formed on each of the planes of matter and therefore on all the planes or layers of the human constitution; the seed of egoity manifesting itself in each successive vehicle and thus producing there an ego, permanent or impermanent according to its distance from the permanent self.

Thus we have: atman, the divine monad, giving birth to the divine ego, which latter evolves forth the monadic envelope or divine soul. Jiva, the spiritual monad, has its child, which is the spiritual ego, and this in turn evolves forth the spiritual soul or individual; and the combination of these two, considered as a unit, generally speaking, is atma-buddhi; bhutatman, the human ego -- the higher human soul, including the lower buddhi and higher manas; pranatman, the personal ego -- the ordinary human soul or person -- including manas, kama, and prana; and finally the beast or animal ego -- the vital-astral soul: kama and prana.

Guru Bhakti - (Sanskrit) Devotion to the teacher.

The attitude of humility, love and loyality held by a student in any field of study. In the spiritual realm, the devotee strives to see the guru as his higher Self.

By attuning himself to the satguru's inner nature and wisdom, the disciple slowly transforms his own nature to ultimately attain the same peace and enlightenment his guru has achieved.

Guru bhakti is expressed through serving the guru, meditating on his form, working closely with his mind and obeying his instructions.
See: guru, satguru, guru-shishya system, Kularnava Tantra.

Inner God - Inner God Used for the higher self or divine monad, the focus of divine-spiritual individuality in the human constitution, especially in connection with the degree of initiation when the candidate comes into communion with his true spiritual self, the god within.

Law - The Law is God's instructions concerning the moral, social, and spiritual behavior of His people found in the first five books of the Bible. The Law is the very reflection of the nature of God because God speaks out of the abundance of what is in Him. Therefore,
since God is pure, the Law is pure. Since God is holy, the Law is holy. The Law consists of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20), rules for social life (Exodus 21 - 23), and rules for the worship of God (Exodus 25 - 31). It was a covenant of works between God and man and was (and is) unable to deliver us into eternal fellowship with the Lord because of Man's inability to keep it. The Law is a difficult taskmaster because it requires that we maintain a perfect standard of moral behavior. And then when we fail, the Law condemns us to death. We deserve death even if we fail to keep just one point of the law: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all" (James 2:10).
The law made nothing perfect (Heb. 7:19). That is why the Law has shown us our need for Jesus and the free gift we receive through Him (Gal. 3:24).

Mamo-chohans - Mamo-chohans (Tibetan?) In theosophy, the lords of darkness and of the forces of pure matter -- the dark and sinister spirits and operations of nature which are the activities of hosts of cosmic monads climbing slowly upward but as yet still sunken in the deep spiritual sleep of material existence. Hence mamo-chohans are unprogressed or unevolved planetaries or monads. The dhyani-chohans correspond to light, knowledge, and evolution; the mamo-chohans to darkness, ignorance, destruction, etc.

"The Dhyan Chohans answer to Buddh, Divine Wisdom and Life in blissful knowledge, and the Ma-mos are the personification in nature of Shiva, Jehovah and other invented monsters with Ignorance at their tail" (ML 463).

The dhyani-chohans preside at the opening and throughout every manvantara, while the mamo-chohans preside at the opening and throughout the pralayas.

Occult - The occult today is in ruins because it has been prematurely made public. It is a body of knowledge that is too fragile for those without wisdom. Because of power being placed in the hands of the ignorant, the word "occult" has, largely through the bullying of the Christians, falsely become a synonym for "evil." It is for that very reason that the term was originally chosen. The occult has always been a secret study that should never be made public. It deals with sacred truth and the public, being composed mostly of fools, can only pervert it.

At this point, however, we have no choice but to move forward with it, to try to undo the harm by providing more light on the subject.

In general, occultism has three basic tenets: 1) man is in the process of evolving to higher spiritual states of being; 2) the cosmos is energy; 3) there are hierarchies of intelligence above and below human intelligence, which control or influence the cosmos for good and evil, as human intelligence, of course, in its own right also does.

Philosophers Stone - Philosopher's Stone [from Latin Lapis philosophorum]

The stone or material which can transmute base metals into gold. The universal agent or great solvent, the mystical culmination of whose work is the production of spiritual perfect man. The base metals, in this mystical interpretation, are the passions and lower elements in the human constitution, which by the philosopher's stone are transmuted into the pure inner gold of his spiritual nature. Spiritual processes have their analogs in chemical processes, the latter being the sole object of most if not all of the later alchemists.

Shaktism - (Sanskrit) "Doctrine of power."

The religion followed by those who worship the Supreme as the Divine Mother - Shakti or Devi - in Her many forms, both gentle and fierce. Shaktism is one of the four primary sects of Hinduism. Shaktism's first historical signs are thousands of female statuettes dated ca 5500 bce recovered at the Mehrgarh village in India.

In philosophy and practice, Shaktism greatly resembles Saivism, both faiths promulgating, for example, the same ultimate goals of advaitic union with Siva and moksha. But Shaktas worship Shakti as the Supreme Being exclusively, as the dynamic aspect of Divinity, while Siva is considered solely transcendent and is not worshiped. There are many forms of Shaktism, with endless varieties of practices which seek to capture divine energy or power for spiritual transformation.

Geographically, Shaktism has two main forms, the Srikula "family of the Goddess Sri (or Lakshmi)," which respects the brahminical tradition (a mainstream Hindu tradition which respects caste and purity rules) and is strongest in South India; and the Kalikula, "family of Kali," which rejects brahminical tradition and prevails in Northern and Eastern India.

Four major expressions of Shaktism are evident today: folkshamanism, yoga, devotionalism and universalism. Among the eminent mantras of Shaktism is: Aum Hrim Chandikayai Namah, "I bow to Her who tears apart all dualities." There are many varieties of folk Shaktism gravitating around various forms of the Goddess, such as Kali, Durga and a number of forms of Amman. Such worship often involves animal sacrifice and fire-walking, though the former is tending to disappear.
See: Amman, Goddess, Ishta Devata, Kali, Shakti, tantrism.

Siva - Siva, Shiva (Sanskrit) The third god of the Hindu Trimurti (trinity): Brahma the evolver; Vishnu the preserver; and Siva the regenerator or destroyer.

Siva is one of the three loftiest divinities of our solar system, and in his character of destroyer stands higher than Vishnu for he is "the destroying deity, evolution and PROGRESS personified, who is the regenerator at the same time; who destroys things under one form but to recall them to life under another more perfect type" (SD 2:182). As the destroyer of outward forms he is called Vamadeva. Endowed with so many powers and attributes, Siva possesses a great number of names, and is represented under a corresponding variety of forms. He corresponds to the Palestinian Ba`al or Moloch, Saturn, the Phoenician El, the Egyptian Seth, and the Biblical Chiun of Amos, and Greek Typhon.

"In the Rig Veda the name Siva is unknown, but the god is called Rudra, which is a word used for Agni, the fire god . . ."; "In the Vedas he is the divine Ego aspiring to return to its pure, deific state, and at the same time that divine ego imprisoned in earthly form, whose fierce passions make of him the 'roarer,' the 'terrible' " (SD 2:613, 548).

Siva is often spoken of as the patron deity of esotericists, occultists, and ascetics; he is called the Mahayogin (the great ascetic), from whom the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired, and union with the great spirit of the universe is eventually gained. Here he is "the howling and terrific destroyer of human passions and physical senses, which are ever in the way of the development of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the inner eternal man -- mystically . . . Siva-Rudra is the Destroyer, as Vishnu is the preserver; and both are the regenerators of spiritual as well as of physical nature. To live as a plant, the seed must die. To live as a conscious entity in the Eternity, the passions and senses of man must first die before his body does. 'To live is to die and to die is to live,' has been too little understood in the West. Siva, the destroyer, is the creator and the Saviour of Spiritual man, as he is the good gardener of nature. He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills the passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions of the spiritual, man" (SD 1:459&n).

Though Siva is often called Maha-kala (great time) which, while being the great formative factor in manvantara is also the great dissolving power, to the Hindu mind destruction implies reproduction; so Siva is also called Sankara (the auspicious), for he is the reproductive power which is perpetually restoring that which has been dissolved, and hence is also called Mahadeva (the great god). Under this character of restorer he was often represented by the symbol of the linga or phallus: "the Lingham and Yoni of Siva-worship stand too high philosophically, its modern degeneration notwithstanding, to be called a simple phallic worship" (SD 2:588). It is under the form of the linga, either alone or combined with the yoni (female organ, the representative of his sakti or female energy), that Siva is so often worshiped today in India.

In the Linga-Purana, Siva is said to take repeated births, in one kalpa possessing a white complexion, in another that of a black color, in still another that of a red color, after which he becomes four youths of a yellow color. This allegory is an ethnological account of the different races of mankind and their varying types and colors (cf SD 1:324).

Siva is known under more than a thousand names or titles and is represented under many different forms in Hindu writings. As the god of generation and of justice, he is represented riding a white bull; his own color, as well as that of the bull, is generally white, referring probably to the unsullied purity of abstract justice. He is sometimes seen with two hands, sometimes with four, eight, or ten; and with five faces, representing among other things his power over the five elements.

He has three eyes, one placed in the centre of his forehead, and shaped as a vertical oval. These three eyes are said to denote his view of the three divisions of time: past, present, and future. He holds a trident in his hand to denote his three great attributes of emanator, destroyer, and regenerator, thus combining all the usual qualities or functions attributed to the Trimurti. In his character of time, he not only presides over its beginning and its extinction, but also over its present functioning as represented in astronomical and astrological calculations.

A crescent or half-moon on his forehead indicates time measured by the phases of the moon; a serpent forms one of his necklaces to denote the measure of time by cycles, and a second necklace of human skulls signifies the extinction and succession of the races of mankind. He is often pictures as entirely covered with serpents, which are at once emblems of spiritual immortality and his standing as the patron of the nagas or initiates. He is often mystically personated by Mount Meru, which esoterically is both the cosmic and terrestrial axis with their respective poles.

According to the belief of most Advaita-Vedantists, Sankaracharya, the great Indian philosopher and sage, is held to be an avatara of Siva.

See also Shiva, Siva

Sushumna - Sushumna susumna (Sanskrit) Astronomically, the highest of the seven principal rays or Logoi of the sun, the others being Harikesa, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavasu, and Svaraj. These rays "are all mystical, and each has its distinct application in a distinct state of consciousness, for occult purposes.

The Sushumna, which, as said in the Nirukta (II, 6), is only to light up the moon, is the ray nevertheless cherished by the initiated Yogis. The totality of the Seven Rays spread through the Solar system constitute, so to say, the physical Upadhi (basis) of the Ether of Science; in which Upadhi, light, heat, electricity, etc., etc., -- the forces of orthodox science -- correlate to produce their terrestrial effects. As psychic and spiritual effects, they emanate from, and have their origin in, the supra-soar Upadhi, in the ether of the Occultist -- or Akasa" (SD 1:515n).

Ward - The spiritual guardian of an area or a place or the act of using magic via the form of workings etc. to protect a place - to ward and wane.