Svabhava Dictionary

Pasu-svabhava:

Pasu-svabhava: animal nature; bestial nature.

(See also: Pasu-svabhava , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Svabhava :

Svabhava

(Sanskrit) A compound word derived from the verb-root bhu, meaning "to become"  - not so much "to be" in the passive sense, but rather "to become," to "grow into" something. The quasi-pronominal prefix sva, means "self"; hence the noun means "self-becoming," "self-generation," "self-growing" into something. Yet the essential or fundamental or integral Self, although following continuously its own lofty line of evolution, cannot be said to suffer the changes or phases that its vehicles undergo. Like the monads, like the One, thus the Self fundamental  - which, after all, is virtually the same as the one monadic essence  - sends down a ray from itself into every organic entity, much as the sun sends a ray from itself into the surrounding "darkness" of the solar universe.

Svabhava has two general philosophical meanings: first, self-begetting, self-generation, self-becoming, the general idea being that there is no merely mechanical or soulless activity of nature in bringing us into being, for we brought ourselves forth, in and through and by nature, of which we are a part of the conscious forces, and therefore are our own children. The second meaning is that each and every entity that exists is the result of what he actually is spiritually in his own higher nature: he brings forth that which he is in himself interiorly, nothing else. A particular race, for instance, remains and is that race as long as the particular race-svabhava remains in the racial seed and manifests thus. Likewise is the case the same with a man, a tree, a star, a god  - what not!

What makes a rose bring forth a rose always and not thistles or daisies or pansies? The answer is very simple; very profound, however. It is because of its svabhava, the essential nature in and of the seed. Its svabhava can bring forth only that which itself is, its essential characteristic, its own inner nature. Svabhava, in short, may be called the essential individuality of any monad, expressing its own characteristics, qualities, and type, by self-urged evolution.

The seed can produce nothing but what it itself is, what is in it; and this is the heart and essence of the doctrine of svabhava. The philosophical, scientific, and religious reach of this doctrine is simply immense; and it is of the first importance. Consequently, each individual svabhava brings forth and expresses as its own particular vehicles its various svarupas, signifying characteristic bodies or images or forms. The svabhava of a dog, for instance, brings forth the dog body. The svabhava of a rose brings forth the rose flower; the svabhava of a man brings forth man's shape or image; and the svabhava of a divinity or god brings forth its own svarupa or characteristic vehicle.

See also: Svabhava , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

SVABHAVA: innate nature

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

PASU-SVABHAVA: Animal nature; bestial nature.

(See also: PASU-SVABHAVA ,Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Svabhava - the true nature of a thing which forms an essential part of its composition.

(See also: Svabhava , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

svabhava

one’s individual nature.

(See also: svabhava , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Svabhava, Swabhava (Sanskrit) [from sva self + bhu to become, grow into]

Self-becoming, self-generation, self-growing into something; the unfolding of the self or monadic essence by inner impulse, rather than by merely mechanical activity in nature -- self-becoming or self-directed evolution. Each entity is the result of what it is in its own higher nature. "Its Swabhava can bring forth only that which itself is, its essential characteristic, its own inner nature. Swabhava, in short, may be called the essential Individuality of any monad, expressing its own characteristics, qualities, and type, by self-urged evolution. . . . Consequently, each individual Swabhava brings forth and expresses as its own particular vehicles its various swarupas, signifying characteristic bodies or images or forms" (OG 166-7). The essential self, like a sun, sends a ray from itself into manifestation, and the vehicles formed by this ray express its own unique individual essence and path of evolutionary growth and experience. Every entity, in all ranges of its being, reflects its own essential individuality which is stamped on its inmost essence.

A parallel thought is the Stoic spermatikoi logoi (seed-reasons or -causes), "which were the fruits or results, the karmas, of former periods of activity. Having attained a certain stage of evolution or development, or quality, or characteristic, or individuality in the preceding manvantara, when the next period of evolution came, they could produce nothing else but that which they were themselves, their own inner natures, as seeds do. The seed can produce nothing but what it itself is, what is in it; and this is the heart and essence of the doctrine of swabhava" (Fund 149).

(See also: Svabhava, Swabhava , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sapta-ratnani (Sanskrit) [from sapta seven + ratnani jewels]

Seven jewels; applied by the ancient esoteric schools of the Orient to seven key teachings or master keys, a knowledge of which gives one a relatively complete understanding of nature and its operations, being a synopsis of all possible human knowledge on this earth during this present fourth round. These seven key teachings when properly understood in all their ramifications and recognized to be absolutely interconnected in meanings, supply the student with a relatively complete picture of the sevenfold nature in both its spiritual and material aspects.

In modern theosophy, the seven jewels are given as reimbodiment, karma, hierarchies, svabhava, evolution, the two paths, and atma-vidya (self-knowledge, the One and the many).

(See also: Sapta-ratnani , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Svabhavat :

Svabhavat

(Sanskrit) The neuter present participle of a compound word derived from the verb-root bhu, meaning "to become," from which is derived a secondary meaning "to be," in the sense of growth.

Svabhavat is a state or condition of cosmic consciousnesssubstance, where spirit and matter, which are fundamentally one, no longer are dual as in manifestation, but one: that which is neither manifested matter nor manifested spirit alone, but both are the primeval unity  - spiritual akasa  - where matter merges into spirit, and both now being really one, are called "Father-Mother," spirit-substance. Svabhavat never descends from its own state or condition, or from its own plane, but is the cosmic reservoir of being, as well as of beings, therefore of consciousness, of intellectual light, of life; and it is the ultimate source of what science, in our day, so quaintly calls the energies of nature universal.

The northern Buddhists call svabhavat by a more mystical term, Adi-buddhi, "primeval buddhi"; the Brahmanical scriptures call it akasa; and the Hebrew Old Testament refers to it as the cosmic "waters."

The difference in meaning between svabhavat and svabhava is very great and is not generally understood; the two words often have been confused. Svabhava is the characteristic nature, the type-essence, the individuality, of svabhavat  - of any svabhavat, each such svabhavat having its own svabhava. Svabhavat, therefore, is really the world-substance or stuff, or still more accurately that which is causal of the world-substance, and this causal principle or element is the spirit and essence of cosmic substance. It is the plastic essence of matter, both manifest and unmanifest. (See also Akasa)

See also: Svabhavat , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Lotus (from Greek lotos)

A lily belonging to the genus Nymphaea, an ancient and universal symbol; in India spoken of innumerable times under its Sanskrit name padma.

"It is the flower sacred to nature and her Gods, and represents the abstract and the Concrete Universes, standing as the emblem of the productive powers of both spiritual and physical nature. It was held sacred from the remotest antiquity by the Aryan Hindus, the Egyptians, and the Buddhists after them; revered in China and Japan, and adopted as a Christian emblem by the Greek and Latin Churches, who made of it a messenger as the Christians do now, who replace it with the water lily. It had, and still has, its mystic meaning which is identical with every nation on the earth" (SD 1:379).

In relation to men, the lotus is the symbol of the self-producing soul which, during manifestation immersed in material life as the lotus seed is embedded in the mud of lake or pond, is wakened by the warm rays of the spiritual sun, and grows upward through the world of illusion (symbolized by water) to blossom in the free air and sunlight of truth.

Cosmically the lotus symbolizes the emanation of the objective from the subjective, the manifested effect or production of the eternal plan on which the invisible worlds are built by the formative logoi. This lies buried, until the time for its svabhava or production comes, in the bosom of eternal ideation -- as the lotus plant of visible nature exists in miniature in the seed.

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

Baddha-jiva - the conditioned soul who is bound by matter. With regard to the origin of the baddha-jiva this passage states that Bhagavan’s eternal associates in the spiritual world do not have any contact with and are completely unaffected by the material energy. Only some of the jivas that emanate from Maha-Visnu come into the material world. The original Bengali is as follows:

goloka-vrndavanastha evam paravyoma-stha baladeva o sankarsanaprakatita nitya-parsada jiva-sakala ananta; tanhara upasya-sevaya rasika; sarvada svarupartha-visista; upasya-sukhanvesi upasyera prati sarvada unmukha jiva saktite cit-saktite bala labha kariya tanhara sarvada balavan; mayara sahita tahandera kona sambandha nai; mayasakti baliya kona sakti achena, tahao tanhara avagata nana; ye hetu tanhara cit-mansala-madhyavarti evam maya tanhadera nikata haite aneka dure; tanhara sarvadai upasya-seva-sukhe magna; dukha, jasa-sukha o nija-sukha ity adi kakhani janena na. tanhara nitya-mukta premai tanhadera jivana; soka, marana au bhaya ye ki vastu, taha tanhara janena na.

karanabdha-sayi-maha-visnura mayara prati iksana-rupa kiranagata anu-caitanya-gana o ananta; tanhara maya-parsva-sthita baliya mayara vicitrata tanhadera darsana-patharusa-purve ye jivasadharanera laksana baliyachi, se samasta laksana tanhadera ache, tathapi atyanta anu-svabhava-prayukta sarvada tatastha-bhave citjagatera dike evam maya-jagatera dike drstipata karite thakena. e avasthaya jiva atyanta durbala, kenana, - justa va sevye-vastura krpalabha karatah cid-bala labha karena nai. inhadera madhye ye saba jiva maya-bhoga vasana karena, tanhara mayika-visaye abhinivista haiya mayate nitya-baddha. yanhara sevya-vastur cidanusilana karena, tanhara sevya-tattvena krpara sahita cid-bala labha karatah cid-dhame nita hana; baba! amara durbhaga, krsnera nityadasya bhuliya mayabhinivesa dvara mayabadha achi; ataeva svarupartha-hina haiyai amadera e durdasa.

(See also: Baddha-jiva , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Seed The essence or germ of an entity, imbodying its svabhava (essential nature) and determining the forms produced from it, partly by the accretion of various elements but mainly by the emanating stream working from within outwards or above downwards.

The seed of a plant is a globule of physical matter, but the actual seed is ultra-physical. All seeds strictly speaking are the vital life-forces working in and through the physical germs, and hence these true seeds are ethereal organisms, structures composed of a higher order of matter (SD 1:201). Thus there is a succession of vital seeds pertaining to one individual entity, each such seed being the ultimate unit of that organism on a particular plane.

There is the physical seed of a plant, containing the astral seed -- a unit on its own plane containing a still subtler seed belonging to a higher plane, and so forth. Ultimately a seed is a life-atom, in itself the expression on a particular plane of a monad which is a thought in divine ideation.

(See also: Seed , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Evolution :

Evolution

As the word is used in theosophy it means the "unwrapping," "unfolding," "rolling out" of latent powers and faculties native to and inherent in the entity itself, its own essential characteristics, or more generally speaking, the powers and faculties of its own character: the Sanskrit word for this last conception is svabhava. Evolution, therefore, does not mean merely that brick is added to brick, or experience merely topped by another experience, or that variation is superadded on other variations  - not at all; for this would make of man and of other entities mere aggregates of incoherent and unwelded parts, without an essential unity or indeed any unifying principle.

In theosophy evolution means that man has in him (as indeed have all other evolving entities) everything that the cosmos has because he is an inseparable part of it. He is its child; one cannot separate man from the universe. Everything that is in the universe is in him, latent or active, and evolution is the bringing forth of what is within; and, furthermore, what we call the surrounding milieu, circumstances  - nature, to use the popular word  - is merely the field of action on and in which these inherent qualities function, upon which they act and from which they receive the corresponding reaction, which action and reaction invariably become a stimulus or spur to further manifestations of energy on the part of the evolving entity.

There are no limits in any direction where evolution can be said to begin, or where we can conceive of it as ending; for evolution in the theosophical conception is but the process followed by the centers of consciousness or monads as they pass from eternity to eternity, so to say, in a beginningless and endless course of unceasing growth.

Growth is the key to the real meaning of the theosophical teaching of evolution, for growth is but the expression in detail of the general process of the unfolding of faculty and organ, which the usual word evolution includes. The only difference between evolution and growth is that the former is a general term, and the latter is a specific and particular phase of this procedure of nature.

Evolution is one of the oldest concepts and teachings of the archaic wisdom, although in ancient days the concept was usually expressed by the word emanation. There is indeed a distinction, and an important one, to be drawn between these two words, but it is a distinction arising rather in viewpoint than in any actual fundamental difference. Emanation is a distinctly more accurate and descriptive word for theosophists to use than evolution is, but unfortunately emanation is so ill-understood in the Occident, that perforce the accepted term is used to describe the process of interior growth expanding into and manifesting itself in the varying phases of the developing entity.

Theosophists, therefore, are, strictly speaking, rather emanationists than evolutionists; and from this remark it becomes immediately obvious that the theosophist is not a Darwinist, although admitting that in certain secondary or tertiary senses and details there is a modicum of truth in Charles Darwin's theory adopted and adapted from the Frenchman Lamarck. The key to the meaning of evolution, therefore, in theosophy is the following: the core of every organic entity is a divine monad or spirit, expressing its faculties and powers through the ages in various vehicles which change by improving as the ages pass. These vehicles are not physical bodies alone, but also the interior sheaths of consciousness which together form man's entire constitution extending from the divine monad through the intermediate ranges of consciousness to the physical body. The evolving entity can become or show itself to be only what it already essentially is in itself  - therefore evolution is a bringing out or unfolding of what already preexists, active or latent, within. (See also Involution)

See also: Evolution , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Karma-Nemesis (from Sanskrit karma action, cause and effect + Greek Nemesis goddess of harmony or retribution)

The appointed karmic lot or destiny of any entity, latent in the entity's germinal existence and unfolded progressively in the course of its growth or evolution. The universe as a whole fulfills, in the course of its cyclic evolution, all that is contained in the germ at the dawn of its manifestation; and the individual, who in essence is a spark of the divine life, follows the same inscrutable law of destiny, as do also the worlds and all the beings in and on them.

The destiny which lies in the germ is the destiny which belongs to the spiritual entity in its various attributes behind that germ, and these attributes as a whole -- in other words the svabhava of the entity -- are born of that entity's portion of free will leading it off into strange bypaths during the ages-long course of its evolutionary growth. The incarnate person, having the power of choice, can wander temporarily far astray from the path of his divine destiny, lured by the attractions of the lower planes of manifestation. This stirring up of karmic results which actually becomes Karma-Nemesis, that which cannot be avoided and must be worked out, the beneficent but inexorable adjuster and restorer of harmony.

Thus destiny is not fatalism, but emphatically supports the idea of intrinsically spiritual free will. The stirring up of these seeds of Karma-Nemesis are the consequences or results of the entity's own will in act, feeling, and consequent result. Thus destiny is of two kinds: that which the evolving entity has stored up as character, propensities, biases, and svabhava in other lives; and that which the entity, using its modicum of free will, is now storing up for its future, but in accordance with its own exercise of will or choice.

See also FREE WILL; KARMA; NEMESIS

(See also: Karma-Nemesis , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Planet Usually refers to the visible satellites of our sun, though in its general sense including the planets belonging to other solar systems, and planets belonging to the universal solar system, whether visible or not on our plane.

One particular meaning is that of the seven sacred planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and two secret planets for which the Sun and Moon are substituted exoterically. Uranus and Neptune do not belong to this group, although circulating around our Sun; Neptune while belonging to our universal solar system does not cosmogonically belong to our own minor solar system, and hence is what from our standpoint may be called a capture.

Each planet, like all other celestial orbs, is composed of seven or twelve globes, in coadunation but not in consubstantiality, forming a planetary chain on the various cosmic planes, only those on our particular physical plane being visible to us. Planets are the outer shell of living beings and have evolved from cosmic seeds, passing through various stages including that of comets. They are inhabited by denizens adapted to their conditions.

 Each planet of the solar system is in its own particular stage of planetary evolution, one planet being in one round of its own evolutionary course, another in a different round of its evolutionary development; and the substances or matters composing them are in respectively different states of materiality, ethereality, or spirituality.

The periods of the planetary movements and of their nodes and apses are regulated by mathematical law originally impressed not only in the structure of the solar system, but in the svabhava or characteristic nature of each individual planet in the system, and these periods mark innumerable cycles of time, great and small. They shed influence on the earth and its inhabitants both as time indicators and by virtue of their quality as living beings. Each celestial body is the mansion, vehicle, or house of what is in its essence a divine entity; and these regents or governors, each one of its own sun or planet, are themselves undergoing courses of evolutionary unfolding in time periods so vast that mathematics of cosmic extent are required to compass them.

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

Alaparus (Chaldean) The second divine king of Babylonia who reigned "three Saroi," a saros being 3600 years. According to Berosus, the first king of the divine dynasty was Alorus, who reigned ten saroi. These figures refer not to human individuals but to subraces: since each definitely distinctive subrace has its own svabhava or individuality, the ancients spoke of each as an individual.

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

Svarupa (Sanskrit) [from sva own, characteristic + rupa form]

Characteristic form or body; every hierarchy, considered as an individual, whether it is sun, star, god, man, plant, or atom, under the stress of inherent evolutional urge brings forth its own characteristic individual vehicle or form, its svarupa, in which it encloses or imbodies itself. The svabhava of a sun brings forth is svarupa, a sun-body; the svabhava of a human being brings forth his characteristic svarupa, a human body, and so forth.

Therefore, any jiva or monad of necessity imbodies itself in vehicles or sheaths flowing forth from its own essence or vitality -- for it can do nothing else. Such a sheath, vehicle, or body is the svarupa of the indwelling svabhava -- character or individuality -- of the jiva or monad.

(See also: Svarupa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Visesa-guna - special characteristic quality. The special characteristic quality of a truly abiding entity, or vastava-vastu, is its svabhava.

(See also: Visesa-guna , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Electricity Theosophy regards electricity not as a mere effect but as an entity or cosmic force named fohat, also spoken of distributively as the sons of fohat. In correlating electricity with these cosmic forces, we find the term given either to the one great energy from which the others differentiate, or to a particular one of such differentiations: e.g., kundalini-sakti, which is characterized by spiral or serpentine motion and is thus related to electromagnetic phenomena, although kundalini might better be called vital electricity or magnetism, for electricity and magnetism are alter egos.

Electricity as we know it is the end product of a chain of appearances on various cosmic planes. It is said in old occult works that Father-Mother is the primordial aether or akasa, sometimes called svabhavat, which was homogeneous before the evolution of the Son -- fohat or cosmic electricity. Electricity is also mentioned as a form of cosmic vitality, emanating chiefly from the various suns in the universe, but also in a less degree from all other cosmic entities; and behind all such vital activities is the all-permanent cosmic intelligence unfolding itself into the vital web of the minor cosmic intelligences. Electricity on our earth-plane is one of the lowest forms of spirit-light or daiviprakriti.

The Secret Doctrine states that electricity is atomic, as signifying infinitesimal particles, which obtains confirmation from modern research and theory. Again, the statement that electricity is intimately involved in the manifestations of all forms of life is being elucidated by investigations relative to the currents which accompany vital actions in living organisms.

The standpoint of occultism is that no cosmic force, or manifestations of any cosmic force, is different from cosmic life itself -- except in its svabhava or characteristic attributes; and furthermore, that no smallest particle or point of infinite space is lifeless, so that the grossest matter is to be looked upon as a dense composite of vital action. From these two postulates it follows that electricity is not only vitality, but vitality controlled by intelligence, and our own inability to sense the intelligence in electric action lies solely in our ignorance of how cosmic intelligence acts, for it is all-permeant and virtually infinite in its manifestations, whereas our own ideas of vital action are limited to the very small compass of our acquaintance with particular units which we call living.

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

Svabhavika (Sanskrit) [from svabhava self-becoming]

The Svabhavika school, perhaps the oldest existing school of Buddhism, is one of the principal Buddhist philosophical system and is still prevalent in Nepal. Its teachings are highly mystical, and when properly understood may be said to have remained faithful in large degree to the esoteric teachings of Gautama Buddha. The Svabhavika philosophers teach the becoming or unfolding of the self by inner impulse or evolution of the inherent seeds of individuality lying latent in every monad or jiva.

Like all other profound philosophic systems, the Svabhavika has been subjected to misinterpretation, in this case taking the form of a somewhat materialistic framework of thought. The inner essential teaching, however, is identic with the more spiritual outlook of Mahayana systems of Northern Asia.

(See also: Svabhavika , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)