Periyapuranam: (Tamil) (Sanskrit) Twelfth book of the Tirumurai. Story of the 63 Saiva Nayanar saints of Tamil Nadu, written by Sekkilar (ca 1140).

See: Tirumurai.

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

etymology: The science of the origin of words and their development. The history of a word.

See: Nirukta Vedanga, Sanskrit.

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

sexuality: Hinduism has a healthy, unrepressed outlook on human sexuality, and sexual pleasure is part of kama, one of the four goals of life.

On matters such as birth control, sterilization, masturbation, homosexuality, bisexuality, petting and polygamy, Hindu scripture is tolerantly silent, neither calling them sins nor encouraging their practice, neither condemning nor condoning.

The two important exceptions to this understanding view of sexual experience are adultery and abortion, both of which are considered to carry heavy karmic implications for this and future births.

See: abortion, bisexuality, homosexuality.

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

Matanga Parameshvara Agama: (Sanskrit) Among the 28 Saiva Siddhanta Agamas, containing 3,500 verses, deals at length with the categories of existence (tattvas). The Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia is thought to have been built using the temple section of this scripture.

See: Saiva Agamas.

(See also: Matanga Parameshvara Agama , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Bijjala: (Sanskrit) A king in Karnataka associated with the life of Basavanna.

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

Shakti: (Sanskrit) "Power, energy," from the root shak, "to be able."

The active power or manifest energy of Siva that pervades all of existence. Its most refined aspect is Parashakti, or Satchidananda, the pure consciousness and primal substratum of all form.

This pristine, divine energy unfolds as ic�ha shakti (the power of desire, will, love), kriya shakti (the power of action) and jnana shakti (the power of wisdom, knowing), represented as the three prongs of Siva's trishula, or trident. From these arise the five powers of revealment, concealment, dissolution, preservation and creation.

In Saiva Siddhanta, Siva is All, and His divine energy, Shakti, is inseparable from Him. This unity is symbolized in the image of Ardhanarishvara, "half-female God." In popular, village Hinduism, the unity of Siva and Shakti is replaced with the concept of Siva and Shakti as separate entities. Shakti is represented as female, and Siva as male. In Hindu temples, art and mythology, they are everywhere seen as the divine couple. This depiction has its source in the folk-narrative sections of the Puranas, where it is given elaborate expression. Shakti is personified in many forms as the consorts of the Gods. For example, the Goddesses Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarasvati are the respective mythological consorts of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. Philosophically, however, the caution is always made that God and God's energy are One, and the metaphor of the inseparable divine couple serves only to illustrate this Oneness.

Within the Shakta religion, the worship of the Goddess is paramount, in Her many fierce and benign forms. Shakti is the Divine Mother of manifest creation, visualized as a female form, and Siva is specifically the Unmanifest Absolute. The fierce or black (asita) forms of the Goddess include Kali, Durga, Chandi, Chamundi, Bhadrakali and Bhairavi. The benign or white (sita) forms include Uma, Gauri, Ambika, Parvati, Maheshvari, Lalita and Annapurna. As Rajarajeshvari ("divine queen of kings"). She is the presiding Deity of the Sri Chakra yantra. She is also worshiped as the ten Mahavidyas, manifestations of the highest knowledge - Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Bagata, Matangi and Kamala. While some Shaktas view these as individual beings, most revere them as manifestations of the singular Devi. There are also numerous minor Goddess forms, in the category of gramadevata ("village Deity"). These include Pitari, "snake-catcher" (usually represented by a simple stone), and Mariyamman, "smallpox Goddess."

In the yoga mysticism of all traditions, divine energy, shakti, is experienced within the human body in three aspects:

1)    the feminine force, ida shakti,

2)    the masculine force, pingala shakti, and

3)    the pure androgynous force, kundalini shakti, that flows through the sushumna nadi.

Shakti is most easily experienced by devotees as the sublime, bliss-inspiring energy that emanates from a holy person or sanctified Hindu temple.

See: Amman, Ardhanarishvara, Goddess, Parashakti, Shaktism.

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

Parakhya Agama: (Sanskrit) A subsidiary Saiva Agamic text (Upagama).

(See also: Parakhya Agama , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

parama: (Sanskrit) "Highest; supreme."

See: para.

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

pramukha: (Sanskrit) "Turning the face toward." Head; foremost." Leader, guide; such as the family head, kutumba pramukha.

See: joint family.

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

pralaya: (Sanskrit) "Dissolution, reabsorption; destruction; death."

A synonym for samhara, one of the five functions of Siva. Also names the partial destruction or reabsorption of the cosmos at the end of each eon or kalpa. There are three kinds of periods of dissolution:

1)    laya, at the end of a mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed;

2)    pralaya, at the end of a kalpa, when both the physical and subtle worlds are destroyed; and

3)    mahapralaya at the end of a mahakalpa, when all three worlds (physical, subtle and causal) are absorbed into Siva.

See: cosmic cycle, mahapralaya.

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

prana: (Sanskrit) Vital energy or life principle. Literally, "vital air," from the root pran, "to breathe."

Prana in the human body moves in the pranamaya kosha as five primary life currents known as vayus, "vital airs or winds." These are prana (outgoing breath), apana (incoming breath), vyana (retained breath), udana (ascending breath) and samana (equalizing breath). Each governs crucial bodily functions, and all bodily energies are modifications of these. Usually prana refers to the life principle, but sometimes denotes energy, power or the animating force of the cosmos.

See: kosha, tattva.

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

pranama: (Sanskrit) "Obeisance; bowing down." Reverent salutation in which the head or body is bowed.

-       ashtanga pranama: "Eight-limbed obeisance." The full prostration for men, in which the hands, chest, forehead, knees and feet touch the ground. (Same as shashtanga pranama.) -

-       panchanga pranama: "Five-limbed obeisance." The woman's form of prostration, in which the hands, head and legs touch the ground (with the ankles crossed, right over the left).

A more exacting term for prostration is pranipata, "falling down in obeisance."

See: bhakti, namaskara, prapatti.

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

Pranagnihotra Upanishad: (Sanskrit) A minor Upanishad which explains how to transform the external ritual of the fire sacrifice into pranagnihotra, "the sacrifice offered in the prana fire" of one's own being.

(See also: Pranagnihotra Upanishad , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

prakriti: (Sanskrit) "Primary matter; nature."

In the 25- tattva Sankhya system - which concerns itself only with the tangible spectrum of creation - prakriti, or pradhana, is one of two supreme beginningless realities: matter and spirit, prakriti and purusha, the female and male principles. Prakriti is the manifesting aspect, as contrasted with the quiescent unmanifest - purusha, which is pure consciousness.

In Shaktism, prakriti, the active principle, is personified as Devi, the Goddess, and is synonymous with Maya. Prakriti is thus often seen, and depicted so in the Puranas, as the Divine Mother, whose love and care embrace and comfort all beings. In Saivite cosmology, prakriti is the 24th of 36 tattvas, the potentiality of the physical cosmos, the gross energy from which all lower tattvas are formed. Its three qualities are sattva, rajas and tamas.

See: odic, purusha, tattva.

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

pranamaya kosha: (Sanskrit) "Life-energy sheath."

See: kosha, prana.

(See also: Pranamaya kosha , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Pranalinga: (Sanskrit) "Living mark." Personally experiencing God in the Sivalinga. A term used especially in Vira Saivism.

See: Sivalinga, Vira Saivism, linga.

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

paramahamsa: (Sanskrit) "Supreme swan."

From hamsa, meaning swan or, more precisely, the high-flying Indian goose, Anser Indicus. A class of liberated renunciates.

See: hamsa.

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

parampara: (Sanskrit) "Uninterrupted succession." A lineage.

See: guru parampara, gurus, guru.

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

parartha puja: (Sanskrit) "Public liturgy and worship."

See: puja.

(See also: Parartha puja , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Parashakti: (Sanskrit) "Supreme power; primal energy."

God Siva's second perfection, which is impersonal, immanent, and with form - the all-pervasive, Pure Consciousness and Primal Substance of all that exists. There are many other descriptive names for Parashakti - Satchidananda ("existence-consciousness-bliss"), light, silence, divine mind, superconsciousness and more. Parashakti can be experienced by the diligent yogi or meditator as a merging in, or identification with, the underlying oneness flowing through all form. The experience is called savikalpa samadhi.

See: raja yoga, Shakti, Satchidananda, tattva.

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

sadhana marga: (Sanskrit) "The way of sadhana."

A term used by Sage Yogaswami to name his prescription for seekers of Truth - a path of intense effort, spiritual discipline and consistent inner transformation, as opposed to theoretical and intellectual learning.

See: mysticism, pada, sadhana, spiritual unfoldment.

(See also: Sadhana marga , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

pradakshina: (Sanskrit) "Moving rightward."

Worshipful circumambulation, walking clockwise around the temple sanctum or other holy place, with the intention of shifting the mind from worldly concerns to awareness of the Divine. Clockwise has esoteric significance in that the chakras of muladhara and above spin clockwise, while those below spin counterclockwise, taking one down into the lower regions of selfishness, greed, conflict and turmoil.

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