Svayambhuva Dictionary

Saiva Agamas: (Sanskrit) The sectarian revealed scriptures of the Saivas. Strongly theistic, they identify Siva as the Supreme Lord, immanent and transcendent. They are in two main divisions: the 64 Kashmir Saiva Agamas and the 28 Saiva Siddhanta Agamas. The latter group are the fundamental sectarian scriptures of Saiva Siddhanta. Of these, ten are of the Sivabheda division and are considered dualistic: 1) Kamika, 2) Yogaja, 3) Chintya, 4) Karana, 5) Ajita, 6) Dipta, 7) Sukshma, 8) Sahasraka, 9) Amshumat and 10) Suprabheda.

There are 18 in the Rudrabheda group, classed as dual-nondual: 11) Vijaya, 12) Nihshvasa, 13) Svayambhuva, 14) Anala, 15) Vira (Bhadra), 16) Raurava, 17) Makuta, 18) Vimala, 19) Chandrajnana (or Chandrahasa), 20) Mukhabimba (or Bimba), 21) Prodgita (or Udgita), 22) Lalita, 23) Siddha, 24) Santana, 25) Sarvokta (Narasimha), 26) Parameshvara, 27) Kirana and 28) Vatula (or Parahita).

Rishi Tirumular, in his Tirumantiram, refers to 28 Agamas and mentions nine by name. Eight of these - Karana, Kamika, Vira, Chintya, Vatula, Vimala, Suprabheda and Makuta - are in the above list of 28 furnished by the French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry. The ninth, Kalottara, is presently regarded as an Upagama, or secondary text, of Vatula. The Kamika is the Agama most widely followed in Tamil Saiva temples, because of the availability of Aghorasiva's manual-commentary (paddhati) on it. Vira Saivites especially refer to the Vatula and Vira Agamas.

The Saiva Agama scriptures, above all else, are the connecting strand through all the schools of Saivism. The Agamas themselves express that they are entirely consistent with the teachings of the Veda, that they contain the essence of the Veda, and must be studied with the same high degree of devotion.

See: Agamas, Vedas.

(See also: Saiva Agamas , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Manu-Svayambhuva (Sanskrit) The self-producing manu, manu the self-become; a name of Brahma as son of Svayambhuva, the self-producer or Brahman. Identical with 'Adam Qadmon and the cosmic androgyne man of other philosophical systems, the Third Logos, and on a much lower scale the androgyne human referred to in Genesis. As 'Adam Qadmon is the synthesis of the Sephiroth, so is Manu-Svayambhuva the synthesis of the prajapatis (lords of progeny), ancestors or parents of all beings.

(See also: Manu-Svayambhuva , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Svayambhuva Agama: (Sanskrit) One of the 28 Saiva Siddhanta Agamas.

See: Saiva Agama.

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

Svayambhuva Sutra (Svayambhuva Sutras): (Sanskrit) A subsidiary text of the Saiva Agamas.

(See also: Svayambhuva Sutra , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Agnibahu (Sanskrit) (from agni fire + bahu arm from bahu much, abundant)

Arm of fire, smoke; as a proper noun, a son of Svayambhuva, the first manu, called law-giver because he laid down the sacred laws that should govern the soul as well as rules for harmonious and orderly living. Agnibahu, who adopted the religious life, is also named as one of the ten sons of Svayambhuva's son Priyavarta by Kamya (cf VP 2:1).

Agnibahu or Agnivahu is given as the first of seven rishis who will live in the fourteenth manvantara yet to come (our present world period being the seventh or Vaivasvata).

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

Agnishtoma agnistoma (Sanskrit) (from agni fire + stoma praise, a hymn from the verbal root stu to praise, eulogize)

Praise of Agni, fire; an ancient Vedic ceremony or sacrifice performed by a Brahmin desirous of obtaining svarga (heaven), who himself maintained the sacred fire. The offering to Indra and other deities was the soma. The ceremonies continued for five days, with 16 priests officiating. Although in later times it may have become merely a matter of form, originally the agnishtoma was connected with the initiation rites of the soma Mysteries.

In the Puranas, Agnishtoma is given as the seventh son of Manu Chakshusa, the sixth manu descended from the first manu, Svayambhuva (cf VP 1:177).

(See also: Agnishtoma, agnistoma , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Self-existent (Atmabhu, Svayambhuva) Existing in and by itself alone; applied to any self-contained entity when considered apart from others. Applied by Western theologians to Deity as contrasted with his creatures, whose being sprang from him and is dependent on him. In addition to its use in defining the cosmic monad or unity, it is also used for subordinate monads considered in relation to the entities which spring from them; for example, the logos or head of a hierarchy is self-existent by contrast with its emanations. In the Qabbalah the Heavenly Man ('Adam Qadmon) is called the self-existent, and the same may be said of Brahman, or even of Brahma, in Hindu systems.

See SVAYAMBHUVA

(See also: Self-existent , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Vach-sata-rupa vac-sata-rupa (Sanskrit) The goddess in a hundred forms, or Vach as the immanent feminine aspect of divinity in the innumerable phases and forms of nature. Vach as Sata-rupa is the divine creative activity unfolded into the ten planes and their many subplanes of the universe. Each of these has its own keynotes and subordinate keynote. The union of Svayambhuva-Manu with Vach-sata-rupa, his own daughter (here representing the first manifestation of prakriti), is explained cosmically as the symbol of the root-life, the germ from which spring all the solar systems, worlds, and gods, because here Svaymbhuva-Manu is the cosmic manu; on the smaller scale, he with his consort plays the same role in the planetary chains of the solar system, and on a still smaller scale on any globe thereof.

In another early Hindu myth, Sata-rupa was at once the other half and the daughter of Brahma, and from their association, bipolar in character, sprang the first manu called Svayambhuva.

(See also: Vach-sata-rupa, vac-sata-rupa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Apava (Sanskrit) (from Ap water)

Water-mover; associated with Narayana, "he who moves in or on the waters of space," and hence with Vishnu and Brahma. In the Harivamsa, Apava performed the office of Brahma: dividing himself into male and female he produced Vishnu, who produced Viraj, who in turn brought the first manu, Manu Svayambhuva, into being. This manu then brought forth the ten prajapatis, the progenitors of the manifested world (cf VP 1:7). In the Mahabharata, a name of the prajapati Vasishtha.

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

Akuti:

Akuti: one of Svayambhuva Manu's three daughters and the wife of Ruci.

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

Manu (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root man to think]

In Hindu mythology, the son of Svayambhuva, father and husband of Ila, parents of humanity as well as the prajapatis and other manus, who are the entities collectively which appear first at the beginning of manifestation, and from which everything is derived. They are identical with the sishtas, and function as prajapatis in a smaller but strictly analogical manner. Manu is collective humanity: "Manu is the synthesis perhaps of the Manasa, and he is a single consciousness in the same sense that while all the different cells of which the human body is composed are different and varying consciousnesses there is still a unit of consciousness which is the man. But this unit, so to say, is not a single consciousness: it is a reflection of thousands and millions of consciousnesses which a man has absorbed.

"But Manu is not really an individuality, it is the whole of mankind. You may say that Manu is a generic name for the Pitris, the progenitors of mankind. They come . . . from the Lunar Chain. They give birth to humanity, for, having become the first men, they give birth to others by evolving their shadows, their astral selves. They not only give birth to humanity but to animals and all other creatures. . . . But, as the moon receives its light from the Sun, so the descendants of the Lunar Pitris receive their higher mental light from the Sun or the 'Son of the Sun.' For all you know Vaivasvata Manu may be an Avatar or a personification of Mahat, commissioned by the Universal Mind to lead and guide thinking Humanity onwards" (TBL 78).

The manus are said to have emanated the ten prajapatis or progenitors of mankind, called also maharshis (great rishis). It is said of Brahma that he emanated himself as Manu, and that he was born of, and was identical with, his original self, while he constituted his female portion Sata-rupa (hundred forms). There are 14 manus in any manvantara ("between manus") arranged in pairs, a root-manu and a seed-manu for each portion of a cycle.

These pairs of manus in a planetary round, a root-manu on globe A and a seed-manu on globe G, are given as:

1)    Svayambhuva, Svarochisha;

2)    Auttami, Tamasa;

3)    Raivata, Chakshusha;

4)    Vaivasvata (our progenitor), Savarna;

5)    Daksha-savarna, Brahma-savarna;

6)    Dharma-savarna, Rudra-savarna;

7)    Rauchya, Bhautya.

"Vaivasvata, thus, though seventh in the order given, is the primitive Root-Manu of our fourth Human Wave (the reader must always remember that Manu is not a man but collective humanity), while our Vaivasvata was but one of the seven Minor Manus, who are made to preside over the seven races of this our planet. Each of these has to become the witness of one of the periodical and ever-recurring cataclysms (by fire and water) that close the cycle of every Root-race. And it is this Vaivasvata -- the Hindu ideal embodiment, called respectively Xisuthrus, Deukalion, Noah and by other names -- who is the allegorical man who rescued our race, when nearly the whole population of one hemisphere perished by water, while the other hemisphere was awakening from its temporary obscuration" (SD 2:309).

Manu is in one sense the Third Logos; in another the spiritual man, the monad, the real and deathless spiritual ego in us, which is the direct emanation of the one Life or the absolute deity of our universe. The manus collectively, in this sense, are the four higher classes of dhyani-chohans who were the fathers of the concealed man -- the subtle inner man.

Thus root-manus and seed-manus are sishtas, for the seed-manu at the end of a life-wave's evolution on a globe is virtually identic with the root-manu on that same globe when the life-wave reaches it again to begin on that globe a new course of racial development or evolution. The difference between root- and seed-manus being that the root-manus are really the seed-manus plus the most evolved monads of the life-waves reaching the globe first, conjoining with the seed-manus and thus slightly modifying things.

Manu is likewise the name of a great ancient Indian legislator, the alleged author of the Manava-dharma-sastra or Laws of Manu.

(See also: Manu , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Swayambhuva.

See SVAYAMBHUVA

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

Sata-rupa (Sanskrit) [from sata hundred + rupa form, body]

The hundred-formed one; applied to Vach who, as the feminine Brahma or universal nature, assumes myriad forms. Hundred here does not denote a specific numerical limit, but is used as the Greek word myriad (10,000) often is, to signify an immense quantity; albeit the number has a distinct occult significance likewise.

According to archaic Hindu legend, Sata-rupa, as nature, was the daughter of Brahma, and likewise the mother of the first manu, called Svayambhuva.

(See also: Sata-rupa , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Devahuti

The daughter of Svayambhuva Manu, wife of the sage Kardama, and mother of the Supreme Lord’s incarnation Kapiladeva. Lord Kapila taught Devahuti the science of pure devotional service through a study of the elements of creation.

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

Svayambhu (Sanskrit). A metaphysical and philosophical term, meaning "the spontaneously self-produced" or the "self-existent being ". An epithet of Brahma. Svayambhuva is also the name of the first Manu.

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

Svayambhu (Sanskrit) Also Swayambhuva. Self-generating, self-evolving; in Hindu metaphysics the cosmic primordial beginnings of the solar system from the womb on Aditi, or the spatial Deeps. Less accurately, the Self-existent, or Self-manifesting. A name applied to Brahma, issuing from the still more abstract essence of Brahman, equivalent to universal spirit, not the Boundless or infinitude, but the self-manifesting spiritual essence in the beginnings of its cosmic appearance, which lies at the root of any solar system.

"Each Cosmic Monad is 'Swayambhuva,' the self-born, which becomes the Centre of Force, from within which emerges a planetary chain (of which chains there are seven in our system), and whose radiations become again so many Manus Swayambhuva (a generic name, mysterious and meaning far more than appears), each of these becoming, as a Host, the Creator of his own Humanity" (SD 2:311). Thus svayambhu means the primordial or self-evolving monad of a celestial entity, whether solar system or an individual body such as a planetary chain.

Not to be confused with Svayambhuva, a name of the first manu.

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

Priyavrata

The eldest son of the first Manu, Svayambhuva. He refused his father’s order that he marry and rule the earth, but Lord Brahma convinced him to change his mind. Priyavrata later gave charge of the dvipas of Bhu-mandala to seven of his sons, resumed his solitary practice of meditation, and at the end achieved liberation.

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

Vasishtha Vasistha (Sanskrit) The most wealthy; a celebrated Vedic rishi, representing the typical Brahmin sage. Many legends have clustered about him, especially in regard to his conflict with the sage Visvamitra -- the king who raised himself from the Kshatriya to the Brahmanical class.

Many hymns of the Rig-Veda are attributed to these two sages: one hymn represents Vasishtha as the family priest of King Sudas, and in the Rig-Veda (7:33:11) he is called the son of the apsaras Urvasi by Mitra and Varuna, hence his name Maitravaruni. He is also supposed to have owned Nandini, the cow of plenty (offspring of Surabhi). As this cow was able to grant the sage all his wishes, he became the master of every vasu (desirable object).

In Manu (1:35) Vasishtha is enumerated as one of the ten prajapatis, the patriarchs produced by Manu-Svayambhuva for the peopling of the earth. In the Mahabharata he is regarded as the family priest of the Suryavansa (solar race), and also as one of the seven great rishis associated with the seven stars of the Great Bear. In the Puranas, Vasishtha is represented as one of the arrangers of the Vedas in a dvapara yuga of a certain chatur yuga, and as the father of seven celebrated sons.

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

Priyavrata (Sanskrit) A son of Manu-Svayambhuva; the Bhagavata-Purana states: "Priya-vrata being dissatisfied that only half the earth was illuminated at one time by the solar rays, followed the sun seven times round the earth in his own flaming car of equal velocity, like another celestial orb, resolved to turn night into day." Brahma stopped him and the ruts which were formed by the motion of his chariot wheels were the seven oceans. Thus the seven continents were made, which may also refer to the seven globes of our planetary chain.

As Priyavrata is one of the sons of Manu the self-generated -- the first in serial order of the manus -- it is evident that Priyavrata corresponds to one of the first or primordial human races referred to in theosophical literature.

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

Svayambhuva (Sanskrit) [from svayambhu, svayambhuva self-becoming]

The self-becoming one; a name of the first manu.

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