Some great links with more reading
Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Vasishtha Vasistha - 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.
Trisuparna - Trisuparna (Sanskrit) [from tri three + su beautiful + parna wing, leaf]
A Brahmin who is thoroughly familiar with certain parts, supposedly three in number, of the Vedas.
Sabda Brahmam - Sabda Brahmam (Sanskrit). "The Unmanifested Logos." The Vedas; "Ethereal Vibrations diffused throughout Space ".
Apamnapat - Apamnapat (Sanskrit) (from apam of waters from ap water + napat child, son, offspring)
Son of the waters; in the Vedas one name of Agni (cosmic and terrestrial fire), as having issued as lightning from the firmament or cosmic spaces, so frequently called waters in ancient scriptures. This connects Apamnapat with fohat: just as fohat is cosmic vitality manifest in one of its forms as fire (agni) or as electricity and magnetism in their manifold appearances, so is fohat or apamnapat the child or offspring of cosmic space or the cosmic waters. But these waters "are not the liquid we know, but Ether -- the fiery waters of space" (SD 2:400n). Fohat likewise is called the son of ether in the latter''s highest aspect, akasa.
Apamnapat is also an Avestan name which means "Son of the Waters" and, like his Vedic counterpart, is closely linked with the fire of lightning as well as the spring or source of the waters (Sirozah 1:8, T in Yasht 2:4; ZA II, 6, 94, SBE 23).
Dyaus - Dyaus (Sanskrit) (nominative of div, Dyu heaven, sky from div day, brightness from the verbal root div to shine)
Heaven, sky; in the Vedas the sky was regarded as descending in three divisions, named from below upwards avama, madhyama, and uttama or tritiya. The sky was designated the father (dyaush-pita); the earth, the mother (dyava-prithivi); and ushas (dawn) the daughter. The term stands for "the unrevealed Deity, or that which reveals Itself only as light and the bright day -- metaphorically" (TG 97).
Purity Impurity - Shaucha-ashaucha.
Purity and its opposite, pollution, are a fundamental part of Hindu culture. While they imply a strong sense of physical cleanliness, their more important meanings extend to social, ceremonial, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual contamination. Freedom from all forms of contamination is a key to Hindu spirituality, and is one of the yamas.
Physical purity requires a clean and wellordered environment, yogic purging of the internal organs and frequent cleansing with water.
Mental purity derives from meditation, right living and right thinking.
Emotional purity depends on control of the mind, clearing the subconscious and keeping good company.
Spiritual purity is achieved through following the yamas and niyamas, study of the Vedas and other scriptures, pilgrimage, meditation, japa, tapas and ahimsa.
Ritual purity requires the observance of certain prayashchittas, or penances, for defilement derived from foreign travel, contact with base people or places, conversion to other faiths, contact with bodily wastes, attending a funeral, etc.
Purity is of three forms - purity in mind, speech and body, or thought, word and deed. Purity is the pristine and natural state of the soul. Impurity, or pollution, is the obscuring of this state by adulterating experience and beclouding conceptions. In daily life, the Hindu strives to protect this innate purity by wise living, following the codes of dharma. This includes harnessing the sexual energies, associating with other virtuous Hindu devotees, never using harsh, angered or indecent language, and keeping a clean and healthy physical body.
See: dharma, papa, penance, punya, yamaniyama.
Saratman - Saratman (Sanskrit) [from sarva all + atman self]
The all-self; in the Vedas, the all-pervading spirit of the universe.
Vedanta - Vedanta (Sanskrit) The end or completion of the Veda; the final, most perfect exposition of the Vedic tenets. As Uttara-mimansa, one of the six Darsanas or Hindu schools of philosophy, it is said to have been founded by the compiler of the Vedas, Vyasa. Sankaracharya is the main popularizer of the Advaita or nondualistic Vedantic philosophy, which is virtually identical with Central Asian Buddhism.
"The Vedanta is the highest form that the Brahmanical teachings have taken . . .
"The Vedanta may briefly be described as a system of mystical philosophy derived from the efforts of Sages through many generations to interpret the sacred or esoteric meaning of the Upanishads. . . . The Hindus call the Vedanta Brahma-jnana" (OG 181).
Yama - Yama (Hebrew, Jewish). The personified third root-race in Occultism.
In the Indian Pantheon Yama is the subject of two distinct versions of the myth. In the Vedas he is the god of the dead, a Pluto or a Minos, with whom the shades of the departed dwell (the Kamarupas in Kamaloka).
A hymn speaks of Yama as the first of men that died, and the first that departed to the world of bliss (Devachan). This, because Yama is the embodiment of the race which was the first to be endowed with consciousness (Manas), without which there is neither Heaven nor Hades. Yama is represented as the son of Vivaswat (the Sun). He had a twin-sister named Yami, who was ever urging him, according to another hymn, to take her for his wife, in order to perpetuate the species. The above has a very suggestive symbolical meaning, which is explained in Occultism. As Dr. Muir truly remarks, the Rig -Veda - the greatest authority on the primeval myths which strike the original key-note of the themes that underlie all the subsequent variations - nowhere shows Yama "as having anything to do with the punishment of the wicked ". As king and judge of the dead, a Pluto in short, Yama is a far later creation.
One has to study the true character of Yama-Yami throughout more than one hymn and epic poem, and collect the various accounts scattered in dozens of ancient works, and then he will obtain a consensus of allegorical statements which will be found to corroborate and justify the Esoteric teaching, that Yama-Yami is the symbol of the dual Manas, in one of its mystical meanings. For instance, Yama-Yami is always represented of a green colour and clothed with red, and as dwelling in a palace of copper and iron. Students of Occultism know to which of the human "principles" the green and the red colours, and by correspondence the iron and copper,’ are to be applied.
The "twofold-ruler " - the epithet of Yama Yami - is regarded in the exoteric teachings of the Chino-Buddhists as both judge and criminal, the restrainer of his own evil doings and the evil-doer himself. In the Hindu epic poems Yama-Yami is the twin- child of the Sun (the deity) by Sanjna (spiritual consciousness); but while Yama is the Aryan "lord of the day", appearing as the symbol of spirit in the East, Yami is the queen of the night (darkness, ignorance) "who opens to mortals the path to the West " - the emblem of evil and matter. In the Puranas Yama has many wives (many Yamis) who force him to dwell in the lower world (Patala, Myalba, etc., etc.); and an allegory represents him with his foot lifted, to kick Chhaya, the hand maiden of his father (the astral body of his mother, Sanjna, a metaphysical aspect of Buddhi or Alaya).
As stated in the Hindu Scriptures, a soul when it quits its mortal frame, repairs to its abode in the lower regions (Kamaloka or Hades). Once there, the Recorder, the Karmic messenger called Chitragupta (hidden or concealed brightness), reads out his account from the Great Register, wherein during the life of the human being, every deed and thought are indelibly impressed- - and, according to the sentence pronounced, the "soul" either ascends to the abode of the Pitris (Devachan), descends to a "hell " (Kamaloka), or is reborn on earth in another human form. The student of Esoteric philosophy will easily recognise the bearings of the allegories.
Sapta-sindhavas - Sapta-sindhavas (Sanskrit) [from sapta seven + sindhu river from the verbal root syand to flow, trickle, pour forth]
The seven sacred rivers spoken of in the Vedas, connected with the sapta-samudra (seven oceans). From the standpoint of the planetary chain, the oceans or seas of space which surround the different globes are intimately interconnected by similar lines of communication, which likewise can be called circulations. In Avestic works these sacred streams are called Hapta Heando.
See also CIRCULATIONS OF THE COSMOS
Hindu - Person who adheres to Hinduism, the religion based upon the Vedas. You cannot elect to become a Hindu. You must be born a Hindu.
Vedanta - (Sanskrit) "Ultimate wisdom" or "final conclusions of the Vedas." Vedanta is the system of thought embodied in the Upanishads (ca 1500-600 bce), which give forth the ultimate conclusions of the Vedas.
Through history there developed numerous Vedanta schools, ranging from pure dualism to absolute monism. The first and original school is Advaita Ishvaravada, "monistic theism" or panentheism, exemplified in the Vedanta-Siddhanta of Rishi Tirumular (ca 250 bce) of the Nandinatha Sampradaya in his Tirumantiram, which is a perfect summation of both the Vedas and the Agamas. This is a dipolar reconciliation of monism and dualism which, as philosopher-statesman Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (18881975) declared, best depicts the philosophy of the Upanishads.
After about 700 ce, many other schools developed, each establishing itself through written commentaries on the major Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. The latter text, by Badarayana (ca 400 bce), is the earliest known systematization of Vedanta, but its extremely terse aphorisms are philosophically illusive without commentary. During the "scholastic era" (700-1700), three main variations of the original Vedanta were developed:
Advaita Vedanta, or pure nondualism, exemplified by Shankara (788-820);
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, or qualified nondualism, most fully expressed by Ramanuja (1017-1137); and
Dvaita Vedanta, expounded by Madhva (1197-1278).
Panentheism is embodied in those qualified nondual Vedanta schools that accept the ultimate identity of the soul and God. Examples are the Vishishtadvaita of Bhaskara (ca 950), the Shuddha Advaita, "pure nondualism," of Vallabha (ca 14751530) and, to a lesser degree, the Vishishtadvaita of Ramanuja.
In summary: Madhva, the dualist, conceives Brahman to be the Personal God. In his philosophy, the universe, souls and God are all separate from one another and real. Ramanuja, the qualified nondualist, also conceives Brahman to be the Personal God. In his philosophy, God must not be considered apart from the world and souls, for the three together form a one whole. The world and souls are real as the body of God, and the individual soul feels himself to be part of God.
Shankara, the strict advaitist, conceives Brahman to be the Impersonal God, the Absolute. Shankara does not deny the existence of the Personal God, known as Ishvara, but declares Ishvara to be equally as unreal as the universe and the individuality of the soul. In truth, the only Reality is the Absolute, and man is that Absolute.
To Rishi Tirumular, the panentheist, there is an eternal oneness of God and man at the level of their inner Being, but a difference is acknowledged during the evolution of the soul. Ultimately even this difference merges in identity. Thus, there is perfectly beginningless oneness and a temporary difference which resolves itself in perfect identity.
Vedanta is one of the six classical philosophies (shad darshanas) along with
Nyaya,
Vaisheshika,
Sankhya,
Yoga and
Mimamsa.
Vedanta is also called Uttara Mimamsa, "upper or later examination," as distinguished from Purva Mimamsa, which concerned itself solely with the earlier portions of the Veda. Other important schools of Vedanta include the Dvaitadvaita, "dual-nondualism,"of Nimbarka (ca 1150), and the Achintya Bhedabheda, "unthinkable difference-nondifference," of Chaitanya (1485-1534).
See: acosmic pantheism, pantheism, Advaita Isvaravada, dvaita-advaita, monistic theism, Madhva, panentheism, Ramanuja, Tirumantiram, Vallabha.
Amrita Amrita - Amrita amrita (Sanskrit) (from a not + mrita dead from the verbal root mri to die)
Immortality; the water of life or immortality, the ambrosial drink or spiritual food of the gods. According to the Puranas, Ramayana, and Mahabharata, amrita is the elixir of life produced during the contest between the devas and asuras when churning the "milky sea" (the waters of life). It has been stolen many times, but as often recovered, and it "is still preserved carefully in devaloka" (Pur E 32).
In the Vedas, amrita is applied to the mystical soma juice, which makes a new man of the initiate and enables his spiritual nature to overcome and govern the lower elements of his nature. It is beyond any guna (quality), for it is unconditioned per se (cf SD 1:348). Mystically speaking, therefore, amrita is the "drinking" of the water of supernal wisdom and the spiritual bathing in its life-giving power. It means the rising above all the unawakened or prakritic elements of the constitution, and becoming at one with and thus living in the kosmic life-intelligence-substance.
Smriti - Smriti smrti (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root smri to remember]
What is remembered; unwritten teachings handed down by word of mouth, distinguished from srutis or teachings handed down in traditional writings. The Hebrew word qabbalah has a literally identical meaning.
The smritis were a system of oral teaching, passing from one generation of recipients to the succeeding generation, as was the case with the Brahmanical books before they were imbodied in manuscript. The Smartava-Brahmanas are, for this reason, considered by many to be esoterically superior to the Srauta-Brahmanas. In its widest application, the smritis include the Vedangas, the Sutras, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the Dharma-sastras, especially the works of Manu, Yajnavalkya, and other inspired lawgivers, and the ethical writing or Niti-sastras; whereas the typical example of the sruti are the Vedas themselves considered as revelations.
Sruti means that which is "heard" or received as direct oral revelation from a superior being, considered by orthodox Hindus to be equally holy to smriti; yet in ancient times the most sacred and secret teachings were never committed to writing but were invariably passed on from teacher to pupil with "mouth at ear" and at "low breath," whether among the Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Druids, Chinese, or Hindus.
Purva-mimansa - Purva-mimansa (Sanskrit) [from purva prior + mimansa profound or striving thought or meditation from the verbal root man to think]
Inquiry into the first portion of the Veda -- the matra portion; the fifth of the six Darsanas or schools of Hindu philosophy. The school of philosophy in our days considered to be chiefly concerned with the correct interpretation of the Vedic texts; hence sometimes called the First Vedantic School.
Jaimini is reputed to be its founder, as well as the author of the Mimansa-darsana, the sutras or aphorisms which constitute its chief doctrinal authority. This school is also sometimes termed Karma-mimansa because of the doctrine advocated that by its teaching one can be more or less freed from the making of new karma.
The more advanced portion of the Mimansa is called the Vedanta, which is the present-day theosophy of Hindustan. The Vedanta, also called the Uttara-mimansa, is attributed to Vyasa, the arranger of the Vedas, as its founder.
Brahmacharya - Brahmacharya brahmacarya (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit, divine wisdom + charya conduct, practicing from the verbal root car to perform, undergo)
Following a life of philosophic and religious training; because usually applicable to the first stage in the life of a Brahmin of ancient times, the state of an unmarried religious student of the Vedas.
Rishabha - Rishabha rsabha (Sanskrit) Power, strength, excellence; the second zodiacal sign, Taurus the Bull; in the Vedas and Upanishads, often used to mean pranava or Aum.
Abbreviated as rii, it is the second of the seven notes of the Hindu musical scale. According to the Bhagavata-Purana, the first teacher of the Jain doctrines in India; the first Jain Tirthakara (tirthankara) or arhat.
Noot - Noot (Egypt, Egyptian). The heavenly abyss in the Ritual or the Book of the Dead. It is infinite space personified in the Vedas by Aditi, the goddess who, like Noon (q.v.) is the "mother of all the gods".
Indra - Indra (Sanskrit) Vedic god of the firmament, supporter or guardian of the eastern quarter of the visible kosmos, whose functions somewhat parallel those of the equivalent of the four Maharajas.
Indra, Varuna, and Agni were considered among the three highest gods of the Vedas, although the triad of Vayu, Surya, and Agni is frequently mentioned, Indra often taking the place of Vayu. Indra is often described as the champion of all the gods and overthrower of their enemies, especially the conqueror of Vritra, the great cosmic serpent. Indra thus has numerous parallels with the St. Michael of the Occident, and some of his functions are identic with Karttikeya, the god of war.
"In the Rig Veda Indra is the highest and greatest of the Gods, and his Soma-drinking is allegorical of his highly spiritual nature. In the Puranas Indra becomes a profligate, a regular drunkard on the Soma juice, in the terrestrial way" (SD 2:378). Indra corresponds with the cosmic principle mahat and in the human constitution with its reflection, manas, in its dual aspect. At times he is connected with buddhi; at others he is dragged down by kama, the desire principle.
Vedas - The most ancient authentic scripture of the Hindus, a revealed scripture and therefore free from imperfections.
Aditi - Aditi (Sanskrit). The Vedic name for the Mulaprakriti of the Vedantists; the abstract aspect of Parabrahman, though both unmanifested and unknowable. In the Vedas Aditi is the "Mother-Goddess", her terrestrial symbol being infinite and shoreless space.
Brahman - A person who belongs to the first class or caste of human beings. A person who studies the vedas diligently and imbibes all the good qualities recommended therein. A person who knows the science of spirit, religion, liberation, astrology, literature, medicine, etc. - a first class human being. This is not something that can be inherited by birth. It must be earned individually and it is subject to reversal at any time by fall down from the brahminical qualities. The word also refers to spirit in general - the all-pervading aspect of Supreme Divinity that pervades every atom in all time and all space. A brahmana is a knower of brahman or spirit, which is also absolute truth.
Kamadeva - Kamadeva (Sanskrit) (from kama desire + deva god, divinity)
The Hindu god of love, one of the Visve-devas in the Hindu pantheon. As the Eros of Hesiod was connected in early Greek mythology with the world''s creation, and only afterwards became degraded into the passional Cupid, so was Kama in his original meaning as used in the Vedas, which gives the metaphysical and philosophical significance of his functions in the cosmos. Kama is the first conscious, all-embracing desire for universal good, love, and the first feeling of infinite compassion and mercy for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, that arose in the consciousness of the creative One Force, as soon as it came into life and being as a ray from the Absolute. Kama "is in the Rig-Veda (x. 129) the personification of that feeling which leads and propels to creation. He was the first movement that stirred the One, after its manifestation from the purely abstract principle, to create. ''Desire first arose in It, which was the primal germ of mind; and which sages, searching with their intellect, have discovered to be the bond which connects Entity with Non-Entity'' " (SD 2:176) -- or manas with pure atma-buddhi. Only later did kama become the power that gratifies desire on the animal plane.
In the Puranas, Kama is the king and lord of the apsarases. He is pictured armed with a bow and arrows: the bow is often represented to be of sugar cane, the bowstring a line of bees, and each arrow is tipped with a distinct flower which is devoted to, and supposed to preside over, one of the senses. He is also often represented as a handsome youth riding on a parrot and attended by nymphs, one of whom bears his banner displaying the Makara, or a fish on a red background.
The attributes ascribed to Kamadeva in exoteric literature rarely depict the full sway of this cosmic force or entity in its multifarious ranges of activity. Kama is not only a cosmic principle or entity but also is inherent in every unit of the innumerable hosts of entities which compose the cosmos. Thus kama is the fourth principle in the human constitution; and, just as in its cosmic activities and relations, kama is both a superior and an inferior activity; indeed, it may be said to be divine in its higher aspects, just as it is physical in its lowest fields of action.
|
