Trimurti Dictionary

Trimurti: (Sanskrit) A classic representation of God as the three-fold Deity image - Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra.

See: Brahma.

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

trimurti:

literally 'three-form',the hindu trinity of three deities, brahma, vishnu and shiva, the creator, the Preserver and the destroyer, respectively

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

Sakti-trimurti (Sanskrit) The feminine aspect of the Hindu Trimurti or Triad; passive complement or vehicle of the active principle. While sakti is often termed passive by comparison, in India it has always been considered to be the very active feminine energy of the divinities, or the intense activity of the vehicles in and through which divinities manifest.

(See also: Sakti-trimurti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

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

(See also: Siva, Shiva , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Brahma: Creator God of the Trimurti in Bhakti Hinduism.

 (See also: Brahma , Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

Tridasa (Sanskrit) [from tri three + dasa ten]

Thirty; as used in ancient India, it refers in round numbers to the general cycles of the Vedic deities, of which there were 33 ordinary ones: the 12 adityas, the 8 vasus, the 11 rudras, and 2 asvins. When the Hindu trimurti or triad is added to these, the number becomes 36, one of the archaic numbers of esoteric computation, not only in chronology but likewise in theology and theogony. Thirty-six is half of 72, which is 1/5 of 360, and 1/6 of the highly mystical key number 432, with ciphers added or not, according to the computation undertaken.

 Following the law of chronological analogy, thirty, which is 1/12 of 360, is the foundation number of esoteric computation, to which ciphers may be added according to the scheme held in mind. The 33 crores (330 million) deities usually enumerated in the Hindu pantheon are to be understood similarly, 33 being a round number for 36; for here too the 33 crores must be taken in connection with the trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, themselves aggregates, giving the important figure 36.

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

Agni (Sanskrit). The God of Fire in the Veda; the oldest and the most revered of Gods in India. He is one of the three great deities: Agni, Vayu and Surya, and also all the three, as he is the triple aspect of fire; in heaven as the Sun; in the atmosphere or air (Vayu), as Lightning; on. earth, as ordinary Fire. Agni belonged to the earlier Vedic Trimurti before Vishnu was given a place of honour and before Brahma and Siva were invented.

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

Brahma (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root brih to expand, grow, fructify)

The first god of the Hindu Trimurti or triad, consisting of Brahma, the emanator, evolver, and creator; Vishnu, the sustainer or preserver; and Siva, the regenerator or destroyer. Brahma is the vivifying expansive force of nature in its eternally periodic manvantaras. He stands for the spiritual evolving or developing energy-consciousness of a solar system which is also called the Egg of Brahma (brahmanda). Brahma is called the creator or Logos, but in the theosophic philosophy creator is simply an abstract term or idea, like army. In Burnouf's words:

"Having evolved himself from the soul of the world, once separated from the first cause, he evaporates with, and emanates all nature out of himself. He does not stand above it, but is mixed up with it; Brahma and the universe form one Being, each particle of which is in its essence Brahma himself, who proceeded out of himself" (q SD 1:380n). The Vishnu-Purana explains that created beings "although they are destroyed (in their individual forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the good or evil acts of former existences, are never exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma produces the world anew, they are the progeny of his will . . ." (q SD 1:456n).

Brahman is both masculine and neuter, and therefore has two meanings. In the masculine (Brahma) it is the evolving energy of the cosmic egg, as distinguished from the neuter (Brahman). Brahma is the vehicle or sheath of Brahman. The Vishnu-Purana says that Brahma in its totality has essentially the aspect of prakriti, both evolved and unevolved (mulaprakriti), and also the aspects of spirit and of time. "Brahma, as 'the germ of unknown Darkness,' is the material from which all evolves and develops 'as the web from the spider, as foam from the water,' etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahma the 'Creator' is, as a term, derived from the root brih, to increase or expand. Brahma 'expands' and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance" (SD 1:83). Again,

"Here we find, as in all genuine philosophical systems, even the 'Egg' or the Circle (or Zero), boundless Infinity, referred to as It, and Brahma, the first unit only, referred to as the male god, i.e., the fructifying Principle. It is  or 10 (ten) the Decade. On the plane of the Septenary or our World only, it is called Brahma. On that of the Unified Decade in the realm of Reality, this male Brahma is an illusion" (SD 1:333).

According to the Aitareya-Brahmana, Brahma as Prajapati (lord of beings) manifests himself first of all as twelve bodies or attributes, which are represented by the twelve gods, symbolizing 1) fire; 2) the sun; 3) soma, which gives omniscience; 4) all living beings; 5) vayu, or ether; 6) death, or breath of destruction -- Siva; 7) earth; 8) heaven; 9) Agni, the immaterial fire; 10) Aditya, the immaterial and invisible sun; 11) mind; and 12) the great infinite cycle, "which is not to be stopped." Brahma in one of his phases therefore is the visible universe, every atom of which is essentially himself.

Brahma "symbolizes personally the collective creators of the World and Men -- the universe with all its numberless productions of things movable and (seemingly) immovable. He is collectively the Prajapatis, the Lords of Being; and the four bodies typify the four classes of creative powers or Dhyan Chohans . . ." (SD 2:60), these four bodies being ratri (night) associated with the creation of the asuras; ahan (day) associated with the gods; sandhya (evening twilight) associated with the pitris; and jyotsna (dawn or light) associated with the creation of men.

In the beginning Brahma was Purusha (spirit) and also prakriti (matter). It is later that he separated himself into two halves -- Brahma-Vach (female) and Brahma-Viraj (male). The term Brahma is not found in the Vedas. Blavatsky correlates Adam-Qadmon, Brahma, and Mars as symbols for primitive or initial generative and creative powers typifying water and earth; also all three are associated with the color red (cf SD 2:43, 124-5).

See also BRAHMA'S DAY

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

Vishnu Visnu (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root vish to enter, pervade]

The sustainer or preserver; the second of the three gods of the Hindu Trimurti or Triad. Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu together are infinite space, of which the gods, rishis, manus, and all in the universe are simply the manifestations, qualities, and potencies. Vishnu is called the eternal deity, and in the Mahabharata and the Puranas he is declared to be the imbodiment of sattva-guna, the quality of mercy and goodness, which displays itself as the preserving power in the self-existent, all-pervading spirit. His symbol is the chakra (circle). He is identical with the Hindu Idaspati (master of the waters) and with the Greek Poseidon and Latin Neptune.

Blavatsky gives a passage about Vishnu from the Laws of Manu, with interpolated remarks (SD 1:333): " 'Removing the darkness, the Self-existent Lord' (Vishnu, Narayana, etc.) becoming manifest, and 'wishing to produce beings from his Essence, created, in the beginning, water alone. In that he cast seed . . . That became a Golden Egg.' (V.6, 7, 8, 9) Whence this Self-existent Lord? It is called this, and is spoken of as 'Darkness, imperceptible, without definite qualities, undiscoverable as if wholly in sleep.' (V.5) Having dwelt in that Egg for a whole divine year, he 'who is called in the world Brahma,' splits that Egg in two, and from the upper portion he forms the heaven, from the lower the earth, and from the middle the sky and 'the perpetual place of waters.' (12, 13.)"

In the Mahabharata (3:189:3) Vishnu says: " 'I called the name of water nara in ancient times, and am hence called Narayana, for that was always the abode I moved in' (Ayana). It is into the water (or chaos, the 'moist principle' of the Greeks and Hermes), that the first seed of the Universe is thrown. 'The "Spirit of God" moves on the dark waters of Space'; hence Thales makes of it the primordial element and prior to Fire, which was yet latent in that Spirit" (SD 2:591).

Vishnu has many names and is presented in many different forms in Hindu writings. Riding on Garuda, the allegorical monstrous half-man and half-bird, Vishnu is the symbol of Kala (duration), and Garuda the emblem of cyclic and periodical time. Vishnu as the sun represents the male principle, which vivifies and fructifies all things. The Puranas call Ananta- Sesha a form of Vishnu on which the universe sleeps during pralaya. In the allegorical Vaivasvata-Manu deluge, Vishnu in the shape of a fish towing the ark of salvation represents the divine spirit as a concrete cosmic principle and also as the preserver and generator, or giver of life. In the Rig-Veda Vishnu is a manifestation of the solar energy and strides through the seven regions of the universe in three steps. The Vedic Vishnu is not the prominent god of later times.

Vishnu as the giver of life is the source of one line of avataras. The ten mythical avataras of Vishnu are: Matsya, the Fish; Kurma, the Tortoise; Varaha, the Boar; Narasimha, the Man-lion (last animal stage); Vamana, the Dwarf (first step toward the human form); Parasu-rama, Rama with the axe (a hero); Rama-chandra, the hero of the Ramayana; Krishna, son of Devaki; Gautama Buddha; and finally, Kalki, the avatara who is to appear at the end of the Kali yuga "mounted on a white horse" and inaugurate a new reign of righteousness upon earth.

" 'In the Krita age, Vishnu, in the form of Kapila and other (inspired sages) . . . imparts to the world true wisdom as Enoch did. In the Treta age he restrains the wicked, in the form of a universal monarch (the Chakravartin or the 'Everlasting King' of Enoch) and protects the three worlds (or races). In the Dwapara age, in the person of Veda-Vyasa, he divides the one Veda into four, and distributes it into hundreds (Sata) of branches.' Truly so; the Veda of the earliest Aryans, before it was written, went forth into every nation of the Atlanto-Lemurians, and sowed the first seeds of all the now existing old religions. The off-shoots of the never dying tree of wisdom have scattered their dead leaves even on Judeo-Christianity. And at the end of the Kali, our present age, Vishnu, or the 'Everlasting King' will appear as Kalki, and re-establish righteousness upon earth. The minds of those who live at that time shall be awakened, and become as pellucid as crystal" (SD 2:483).

Again,

"If we only search for the true essence of the philosophy of both Manu and the Kabala, we will find that Vishnu is, as well as Adam Kadmon, the expression of the universe itself; and that his incarnations are but concrete and various embodiments of the manifestations of this 'Stupendous Whole.' 'I am the Soul, O, Arjuna. I am the Soul which exists in the heart of all beings; and I am the beginning and the middle, and also the end of existing things,' says Vishnu to his disciple, in the Bhagavad-Gita (ch. x)" (IU 2:277).

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

Murti(Sanskrit). A form, or a sign, or again a face, e.g., "Trimurti", the "three Faces" or Images.

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

SYMBOL

A symbol, whose meaning is unconscious or indirect, must not be confused with a sign, which is obviously a resemblance or conscious pointer. A symbol represents something that can't be defined or expressed. Otherwise it is an allegory or a sign. A phallic symbol, for instance, is not a symbol because we know what it stands for. Nor is a skull a "symbol" of death. Nor are the cross (standing for Christ), a heart (standing for love) or a bird (standing for freedom) anything more than signs, i.e., equivalents. Examples of true symbols might be the Holy Grail, the Philosopher's Stone, or even a personalized mandala, since we have no (conscious) idea what these things represent. Most certainly of all, Christ and Buddha are symbols of human perfection. A.B. says their purpose is pedagogical, preserving encapsulizations of truth and developing intuition. Moreover, every symbol can be read in many different ways. And there are four kinds of symbols (physical, astral, numerical, geometrical). There are also symbolic "books" of the "Masters," the words of which are interpreted by color, their position above or below the line, their connection to one another and by their "key," that is, right to left (greater cycles), left to right (lesser cycles), from above down (involution), from below up (evolution).

Postmodern man tends to believe that symbols generate meanings in infinite concentric waves from their centers. Indeed, symbols come to have different meanings in different times and places. For example, the triskelion, tripes, or "three-legs of man," originally meant the 3 ages riddled by the Sphinx or three faces of the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). But in Europe, according to Goblet d'Aviella (The Migration of Symbols) it eventually came to acquire purely political meanings, standing, amongst other things, for the "Land of the Three Capes," i.e., Sicily, for Norwegian royalty and for The Isle of Man. In our time many once very fertile and numinous symbols are all but dead.

Says Carlyle: "In a symbol lies concealment or revelation." And further, "It is in and through symbols that man consciously or unconsciously lives, works, and has his being."

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

Siva (Sanskrit). The third person of the Hindu Trinity (the Trimurti). He is a god of the first order, and in his character of Destroyer higher than Vishnu, the Preserver, as he destroys only to regenerate on a higher plane. He is born as Rudra, the Kumara, and is the patron of all the Yogis, being called, as such, Mahadeva the great ascetic, His titles are significant Trilochana, "the three-eyed", Mahadeva, "the great god ", Sankara, etc., etc., etc.

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

Bhuvana (Sanskrit). A name of Rudra or Siva, one of the Indian Trimurti (Trinity).

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

Three Faces. The Trimurti of the Indian Pantheon; the three persons of the one godhead. Says the Book of Precepts: "There are two Faces, one in Tushita (Devachan) and one in Myalba (earth); and the Highest Holy unites them and finally absorbs both."

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

Aum (Sanskrit) The ancient Indians held that Om, when considered as a single letter ((Sanskrit character)) was the symbol of the Supreme; when written with three letters -- Aum -- it stood among other things for the three Vedas, the three gunas or qualities of nature, the three divisions of the universe, and the deities of the Hindu Trimurti -- Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva -- concerned in the creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe or the beings composing it. "The mystic formula, rŽsumŽ of every science, contained in the three mysterious letters, AUM which signify creation, conservation, and transformation" (IU 2:31).

These three letters are supposed by some Hindus to have correspondences as follows: "The letter A is the Sattva Guna, U is the Rajas, and M is the Tamas; these three qualities are termed Nature (Prakriti). . . . A is Bhurloka, U is Bhuvarloka, and M is Svarloka; by these three letters the spirit exhibits itself" (Laheri in Lucifer 10:147). This word is said to have a morally spiritualizing effect if pronounced during meditation and when the mind is at peace and cleansed of all impurities.

See also OM

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

Trigunas (Sanskrit). The three divisions of the inherent qualities of differentiated matter - i.e., of pure quiescence (satva), of activity and desire (rajas), of stagnation and decay (tamas) They correspond with Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva. (See " Trimurti ".)

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

Hindu Trinity. See TRIMURTI

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

Murti (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root murch to become solid, take shape]

A shape, a manifestation, imbodiment, or personification. The Trimurti, the "three manifestations" of divinity, is the Triad of the Hindu pantheon.

(See also: Murti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Three Faces Generally refers to the Hindu Trimurti -- the three-faced deity known as Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; but also refers to the Qabbalistic Faces or Heads: the Long Face (Macroprosopus), the first Sephirah; the Short Face (Microprosopus), the lower nine Sephiroth; and the White Face (or White Head), from which the other two faces originate. The three Faces have a close analog in the three persons of the Christian Trinity in the original form of the procession -- Father, Holy Ghost, and Son -- and whether Faces or Persons, they are the three veils, masks, or personae of the one godhead: one in three, and three in one. There are similar triads in other mystically religious systems. "There are two Faces, one in Tushita (Devachan) and one in Myalba (earth); and the Highest Holy unites them and finally absorbs both" (TG 333).

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

Chatur-mukha catur-mukha (Sanskrit) (from chatur four + mukha face)

Four faces, four-faced; applied to each member of the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva), each being represented as four-faced. Also applicable to the side or face of a square.

(See also: Chatur-mukha, catur-mukha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)