Yoga Move Dictionary

Fences

Fences may be symbols of personal separation in a negative sense or protection in a positive one. These meanings are often derived specifically from whom the fence is separating us from. If you can discern a feeling about what may happen if the fence were traversed (would it be better or worse), that may tell the role the fence is playing in the dream.

 Fences can also be a source of boundary. This is true if there is a sense that the fence cannot be traversed. What are the boundaries of your life in relation to other characters in your dream? Perhaps you want to change those boundaries and move a relationship in a new direction. If you are alone at your fence, perhaps you need to protect yourself from others more, or are already doing so excessively.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Fences , Meaning of Dreams about Fences , Dream Interpretation Fences )

Dream Interpretation House

Houses in your dream can have different meanings. If you dream of a house from your childhood, your parents' house, or the house you knew in the past, you may have nostalgia about childhood and people you grew up with. It embodies a nostalgic reminder of your innocent childhood. If you have this dream, ask yourself, if you still run the same patterns from your family of origin in a current relationship. A house in general can symbolize your inner self and the house structure is also symbolic. Consciousness about a particular house part can provide you with some clue to the meaning of the dream. Your reaction to the house and feelings about it are crucial. If you are leaving the house in your dream, you are ready to move on in your waking life. Pay attention to the furniture, room decoration, windows, hallways, doors and windows, all of these house attributes play essential role for interpretation of a house dream.

Source: Dream-Land, http://www.dream-land.info

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - House , Meaning of Dreams about House , Dream Interpretation House )

upaya: (Sanskrit) "Means."

A term used in Kashmir Saivism to describe the means to move from individual into universal consciousness.

�      anavopaya: "Individual, or limited means." Also called kriyopaya, the way of ritual worship, hatha yoga, concentration and yogic breathing.

�      shaktopaya: "Way of power." Active inquiry through mental effort, emphasizing control of awareness, japa and meditation.

�      shambhavopaya: "Way of Shambhu (Siva)." Also called ic�hopaya, "Way of will." Seeing Siva everywhere; surrender in God.

�      anupaya: "Nomeans." Not really a means, but the goal of the first three upayas - the transcendent condition of Siva Consciousness. The spontaneous realization of the Self without effort. Also called pratyabhijna upaya, "way of recognition."

See: Kashmir Saivism.

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

Feet

For some people, dreaming about feet can be a very sexy dream. Besides sexual connotations, the dreams can represent your ability to move forward in life. Dreams with feet in them point to how well you are balanced and grounded.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Feet , Meaning of Dreams about Feet , Dream Interpretation Feet )

Aston-Patterning: Form of movement reeducation developed by Judith Aston. Its design is to teach people how to live optimally in their bodies. One of its principles is that the body wants to move in an asymmetrical spiral. With one hand, practitioners, called Aston-Patterners, thus move connective tissue.

(See also: Aston-Patterning , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Ramayana

"The most ancient Sanskrit epic poem, written by the sage Valmiki. It is estimated to have been composed about 500 B.C., and contains approximately 50,000 lines. The Ramayana describes the life of Sri Rama: his banishment from Ayodhya; life in the forest with his faithful wife Sita; Sita's abduction by Ravana; the war of Rama and his allies against Ravana; defeat of Ravana and rescue of Sita; Rama's return to Ayodhya as ruler; slander of Sita by the people of Ayodhya and her banishment from the kingdom; her subsequent exoneration and final ascent to heaven, where she is joined by Rama."

-- Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook

"The Ramayana is a work of the same essential kind as the Mahabharata; it differs only by a greater simplicity of plan, a more delicate ideal temperament and a finer glow of poetic warmth and colour. The main bulk of the poem in spite of much accretion is evidently by a single hand and has a less complex and more obvious unity of structure. There is less of the philosophic, more of the purely poetic mind, more of the artist, less of the builder. The whole story is from beginning to end of one piece and there is no deviation from the stream of the narrative. At the same time there is a like vastness of vision, an even more wide-winged flight of epic sublimity in the conception and sustained richness of minute execution in the detail.

...The eopic poet has taken here also as his subject an Itihasa, an ancient tale or legend associated with an old Indian dynasty and filled it in with detail from myth and folklore, but has exalted all into a scale of grandiose epic figure that it may bear more worthily the high intention and significance. The subject is the same as in the Mahabharata,, the strife of the divine with the titanic forces in the life of the earth, but in more purely ideal forms, in frankly supernatural dimensions and an imaginative heightening of both the good and the evil in human character. On one side is portrayed an ideal manhood, a divine beauty of virtue and ethical order, a civilization founded on the Dharma and realising an exaltation of the moral ideal which is presented with a singularly strong appeal of aesthetic grace and harmony and sweetness; on the other are wild and anarchic and almost amorphous forces of superhuman egoism and self-will and exultant violence, and the two ideas and powers of mental nature living and embodied are brought into conflict and led to a decisive issue of the victory of the divine man over the Rakshasa. All shade and complexity are omitted which would diminish the single urity of the idea, the representative force in the outline of the figures, the significance of the temperamental colour and only so much admitte as is sufficient to humanise the appeal and the significance.

The poet makes us conscious of the immense forces that are behind our life and sets his action in a magnificent epic scenery, the great imperial city, the mountains and ocean, the forest and wilderness, described with such a largeness as to make us feel as if the whole world were the scene of his poem and its subject the whole divine and titanic possibility of man imaged in a few great or monstrous figures. The ethical and the aesthetic mind of India have here fused themselves into a harmonious unity and reached an unexampled pure wideness and beauty of self-expression. The Ramayana embodied for the Indian imagination its highest and tenderest human ideals of character, made strength and courage and gentleness and purity and fidelity and self-sacrifice familiar to it in the suavest and most harmonious forms..."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture,

SABCL Vol 14 pp. 289-90

(See also: Ramayana , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

COVEN - an organized group of Witches, led by a High priestess and/nor a High Priest who meet regularly for worship and fellowship. The traditional membership is considered to be 13, but many covens number considerably less. In Middle English, the word Covin means a group of confederates; In Old French Covine is defined as a band or group with a single purpose; Latin Com - together, Venire-to come or move.

(See also: COVEN , Wiccan, Wicca, Witchery, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Bhagavad Gita

Dated between the 5th and the 2nd centuries B.C., the Gita, which comprises 18 chapters, is a part of the Mahabharata. In the form of a dialogue between Sri Krishna, the divine incarnation, and his friend and disciple Arjuna, it teaches how to achieve union with the supreme Reality through the paths of knowledge, devotion, selfless work, and meditation.

(See also: Bhagavad Gita , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Mercury: Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and the planet is the fastest in motion. It moves back and forth through the sky, changing its apparent direction six times each year. This apparent back and forth movement is a reflection of how we learn. We listen, then we try. We go back to correct a pattern and we try again. Once we grasp a concept we can move forward quickly to the next challenge.

Our mental processes have two basic patterns. Inductive reasoning is something we are born with. It is the capacity to remember an experience and apply it to future situations. “Once burned, twice shy” is one way of looking at inductive reasoning. The other is deductive reasoning. This is the ability to take a number of observations and draw conclusions from the information. This is the ability of abstract thought. Statistical research has inductive qualities. If we ask ten people if they like a certain candy and six say yes, we tend to assume that 60 out of a hundred will like it too. Sherlock Holmes used deductive reasoning, putting several seemingly unrelated facts together to learn about his quarry.

Mercury provides us with a specific path for both kinds of reasoning, based on its sign and house placement. And Mercury, more than any other planet, takes on the attributes of its sign, house and aspects. Just as the god Mercury delivered a message without changing it, Mercury in your chart shows how you deliver your personal message. The sign shows your personal bias – how you typically choose to express yourself- and the house shows the area of life in which self-expression is the most important to you.

Mercury in your chart has to do with all kinds of communication. It shows the speed and quality. It indicates how you use the senses. It shows the area of your life where the reasoning processes can best be exercised. Thus it shows where you are likely to achieve the clearest and most potent expression of your inner thoughts to others. Aspects from other planets show how your communication is influenced by the events and people around you.

(See also: Mercury , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Ayurveda is the oldest surviving complete medical system in the world. Derived from its ancient Sanskrit roots - ‘ayus' (life) and ‘ved' (knowledge) – and offering a rich, comprehensive outlook to a healthy life, its origins go back nearly 5000 years. To when it was expounded and practiced by the same spiritual rishis, who laid the foundations of the Vedic civilisation in India, by organising the fundamentals of life into proper systems.

The main source of knowledge in this field therefore remain the Vedas, the divine books of knowledge they propounded, and more specifically the fourth of the series, namely Atharvaveda that dates back to around 1000 BC. Of the few other treatises on Ayurveda that have survived from around the same time, the most famous are Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita which concentrate on internal medicine and surgery respectively. The Astanga Hridayam is a more concise compilation of earlier texts that was created about a thousand years ago. These between them forming a greater part of the knowledge base on Ayurveda as it is practiced today.

The art of Ayurveda had spread around in the 6th century BC to Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea and Sri Lanka, carried over by the Buddhist monks travelling to those lands. Although not much of it survives in original form, its effects can be seen in the various new age concepts that have originated from there.

No philosophy has had greater influence on Ayurveda than Sankhaya’s philosophy of creation and manifestation. Which professes that behind all creation there is a state of pure existence or awareness, which is beyond time and space, has no beginning or end, and no qualities. Within pure existence, there arises a desire to experience itself, which results in disequilibrium and causes the manifestation of the primordial physical energy. And the two unite to make the "dance of creation" come alive.

Imponderable, indescribable and extremely subtle, this primordial energy – which and all that flows from it existing only in pure existence – is the creative force of all action, a source of form that has qualities. Matter and energy are so closely related that when energy takes form, we tend to think of it in terms of matter only. And much modified, it ultimately leads to the manifestation of our familiar mental and physical worlds.

It also gives rise to cosmic consciousness, which is the universal order that prevades all life. Individual intelligence, as distinct from the everyday intellectual mind, is derived from and is part of this consciousness. It is the inner wisdom, the part of individuality that remains unswayed by the demands of daily life, or by Ahamkara, the sense of `I-ness’.

A Sanskrit word with no exact translation, Ahamkara, is a concept not quite understood by everyone as it is often misleadingly equated to `ego’. Embracing much more than just that, it is in essence that part of ‘me’ which knows which parts of the universal creation are ‘me’. Since ‘I’ am not separate from the universal consciousness, but ‘I’ has an identity that differentiates and defines the boundaries of `me’. All creations therefore have Ahamkara, not just human beings.

There arises from Ahamkara a two-fold creation. The first is Satwa, the subjective world, which is able to perceive and manipulate matter. It comprises the subtle body (the mind), the capacity of the five sense organs to hear, feel, see, taste and smell, and for the five organs of action to speak, grasp, move, procreate and excrete. The mind and the subtle organs providing the bridge between the body, the Ahamkara and the inner wisdom, which three together is considered the essential nature of humans.

The second is Tamas, the objective world of the five elements of sound, touch, vision, taste and smell – the five subtle elements that give rise to the dense elements of ether or space, air, fire, water and the earth – from which all matter of the physical world is derived. And it is Rajas, the force or the energy of movement, which brings together parts of these two worlds.

It is worth noting that even at the stage of the dense elements the philosophy of creation –which according to Sankaya is now and in the present, without any past and any future – is still dealing with aspects of existence beyond our simple physical realms. The point of contention being that we are the first and foremost spirit experiencing existence. To use Ayurveda in daily life, one has neither to accept nor even understand this philosophy. But it does provide a deeper insight into how Ayurveda works towards betterment of your health.

Ayurveda therefore is not simply a health care system but a form of lifestyle adopted to maintain perfect balance and harmony within the human existence, from the most abstract transcendental values to the most concrete physiological expressions. Based on the premise that life represents an intelligent co-ordination of the Atma (Soul), Mana (Mind), Indriya (Senses) and Sharira (Body). That revolves around the five dense elements that go into the making of the constitution of each individual, called Prakriti. Which in turn is determined by the vital balance of the three physical energies - Vata, Pitta, Kapha and the three mental energies - Satwa, Rajas,

Ayurveda thus offers a unique blend of science and philosophy that balances the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual components necessary for holistic health.

(See also: Ayurveda , Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Dictionary, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Bhagavata Purana

It is the fifth purana in length but is the most popular and influencial among the puranas. It is primarily a vaishnava text and is later to and influenced by the Visnupurana. As the name indicates, it describes some of the incarnations of Visnu and particularly that of Krsna. It is a marvellous bhakti work and includes the story of bhagavathas or devotees of the Lord.

"The metaphysical and spiritual legacy of the Vedas and the upanishads is ably synthesized with the agamic tradition of the pancaratras and embraced even non-aryan tribes in its fold."

-- G V Tagare, Ancient Indian Traditions and Mythology, Vol. 7

(See also: Bhagavata Purana , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Sun: The Sun rules Leo. Vitality is the energy reflected by the Sun in the astrological chart. Just as the Sun is the source of life for all living things we know of, the Sun’s position in your chart is an indicator of the way you approach life. Nearly everyone knows their Sun sign and a little bit about it. We read the astrology column in the newspaper to see how the day will be for our sign. Many people like the time of year around their birthday, not just because it is near their birthday, but because the energy of the Sun sign is so conformable.

Young children express the Sun sign energy clearly and directly. We tend to move away from this clarity as we learn different forms of expression, yet we always come back to the foundation of the Sun sign, learning to perfect the strengths that it indicates and to compensate for any weaknesses. The Sun is, in addition to being the source of life, the sustainer of our individual character. When you understand the deeper nature of your Sun sign, you also understand the core direction for your personal expression in the world.

The house position of the Sun in your chart indicates one area of life that takes on greater importance than any other. It is the area where you are perhaps the most self-conscious, it is where your will can be best expressed, it is where you can develop the greatest arrogance. You will focus loyalty and generosity in that area, as well as discover your own personal dignity.

The house and sign of the sun indicates an area in which you will strive to express yourself, and you will want to be recognized for your activities in that area of life. As you gain experience in living, you may become bolder in your efforts to attain your Sun sign goals. You can become a leader in this area because you understand the deepest and broadest values of this area of your life.

When you read about your Sun sign, take the details to heart. Make a personal effort – use your will – to develop the highest and best expression of this sign. It is your birthright, and the area where you can learn to speak and act with authority.

(See also: Sun , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

RITUAL:

1) (noun) a system of rites, the order prescribed for a ceremony. (adjective) relating to rites. General usage: refer to Sabbats such as "The Rites of Spring". Ritual is used more often when referring to Magickal practices.

2) A ceremony or festival.

3) A spell.

3) Specific movements and manipulations to produce desired effects. In religeon, its purpose is to unite Self with the Divine. But in magick, it's to allow the person to move energy in desired ways.

(See also: RITUAL , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

STRENGTH

Tarot Trump number 8 (in Crowley's system, 11). This is probably the least understood of all the Atus. Our average mind, unable to appreciate the mystery of ordinary movement, conceives of M/magic(k) as the ability to move solid objects through the air without physical assistance. And yet we betray our own unconscious perception by the fact that we are invariably far less impressed at seeing a feather suspended in the air, than a piano. Is physical strength the equivalent of strength of will?

Strength, however, whether muscular or mental, is the foundation of true M/magic(k), for it is the magic of everyday life. When philosophy fails, when cleverness fails, when riches fail, when everything fails and one is stripped of all one's powers -- there yet remains the "coiled serpent" of being (Teth), source of all energy. The miracle of daily movement, work and pleasure is based upon our physical health and confidence. It is this connection to the "magic of everyday life," that drew Crowley to the decision to renumber "Strength" as 11, the well-known number of sorcery. Moreover, since he believed that the source of all strength lay in the sex drive, he renamed it Lust!

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

Arani (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ri to tend upward, move, insert, fix)

Moving around; being fitted in or inserted. Arani (sing) is one of the two ceremonial rubbing-sticks used to ignite the sacrificial fire: the upper stick, uttararani or pramantha, is held upright and set into a groove in the lower stick, adhararani, and when twirled or rotated rapidly it generates heat and flame. According to the Rig-Veda, the upright stick was made from the sami tree (Mimosa suma), and the horizontal from the asvattha or pipal tree (Ficus religiosa), the sacred fig tree. In the Satapatha-brahmana, however, both sticks were carved from the wood of the asvattha.

The arani (dual) represent the father and mother elements in nature, the creative, generative energy producing the offspring from the receiver, the mother. While the male/female metaphor has application physiologically, it may be interpreted cosmically: "this idea of the creative power of fire is explained at once by the ancient assimilation of the human soul to a celestial spark" (M. G. Dech 261); again "The 'female Arani,' the mistress of the race, is Aditi, the mother of the gods, or Shekinah, eternal light -- in the world of Spirit, the 'Great Deep' and Chaos; or primordial Substance in its first remove from the Unknown, in the manifested Kosmos" (SD 2:527).

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

Dream Interpretation Boat

The boat is a symbol of a part of your personality which you need in order to move ahead in the ocean of life. Seeing a boat foretells a trip or a change in life. If the water is clear, it betokens a good trip or change. If the water is murky, it predicts misfortune or mishap. The water also symbolizes a shaky ground, and the physical condition of the boat will show you what your actual situation is.

Source: Dream-Land, http://www.dream-land.info

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Boat , Meaning of Dreams about Boat , Dream Interpretation Boat )

Jury

• To dream that you are on the jury, denotes dissatisfaction with your employments, and you will seek to materially change your position.
• If you are cleared from a charge by the jury, your business will be successful and affairs will move your way, but if you should be condemned, enemies will overpower you and harass you beyond endurance.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Jury , Meaning of Dreams about Jury , Dream Interpretation Jury )

Mahabharata

"[The Mahabharata] is...probably the longest single poem in the world's literature. Traditionally the author of the poem was the sage Vyasa, who is said to have taught it to his pupil Vaisampayana. The latter, according to tradition, recited it in public for the first time at a great sacrifice held by King Janamejaya, the great grandson of Arjuna, one of the heroes of the story. ...the poem tells of the great civil war in the kingdom of the Kurus, in the region about the modern Delhi, then known as Kuruksetra."

-- A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, p. 407

"The Mahabharata is the creation and expression not of a single individual mind, but of a whole people. ...The whole poem has been built like a vast national temple unrolling slowly its immense and complex idea from chanber to chamber, crowded with significant groups and sculptures and inscriptions, the grouped figures carved in divine or semi-divine proportions, a humanity aggrandised and half-uplifted to super-humanity and yet always true to the human motive and idea and feeling, the strain of the real constantly raised by the tones of the ideal, the life of this world amply portrayed but subjected to the conscious influence and presence of the powers of the worlds behind it, and the whole unified by the long embodied procession of a consistent idea worked out in the wide steps of the poetic story."

"The leading motive is the Indian idea of the Dharma. Here the Vedic notion of the struggle between the godheads of truth and light and unity and the powers of darkness and division and falsehood is brought out from the spiritual and religious and internal into the outer intellectual, ethical and vital plane. It takes there in the figure of the story a double form of a personal and a political struggle, the personal a conflict between typical and representative personalities embodying the greater ethical ideals of the Indian Dharma and others who are embodiments of Asuric egoism and self-will and misuse of the Dharma, the political a battle in which the personal struggle culminates, an international clash ending in the establishment of a new rule of righteiousness and justice, a kingdom or rather an empire of the Dharma uniting warring races and substituting for the ambitious arrogance of kings and aristocratic clans the supremacy, the calm and peace of a just and humane empire. It is the old struggle of Deva and Asura, God and Titan, but represented in the terms of human life."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture, SABCL Vol.14 pp. 287-88

(See also: Mahabharata , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Clothing

1. Dreaming of wearing clothes that are totally inappropriate—such as wearing a bathing suit on the ski slopes—indicates circumstances in your life that require a reality check before you can move ahead. If in the dream you change your clothes, you’ll be successful.

2. A dream of being naked in public is a very common type of dream, and usually means that the dreamer feels exposed, vulnerable and at the mercy of others.

3. Dressing yourself, especially if in fashionable clothes, indicates advancement socially and professionally. Undressing, however, indicates temporary setbacks.

4. Dirty, soiled, or worn clothing is a warning not to take anyone’s word for anything. Get the facts yourself.

5. Tight or otherwise uncomfortable clothing hints at being involved in a prickly situation or that some situation in your life is making you uncomfortable, and you need to make some adjustments.

Source: Astrocenter, http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/DreamDictionary.aspx

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Clothing , Meaning of Dreams about Clothing , Dream Interpretation Clothing )

Ex-lover, Ex-boyfriend, Ex-girlfriend

1. The ex-lover is thinking about the dreamer intensely, and projecting telepathic messages towards her which she receives in her dreams.

2. Incompletions with this person that need to be resolved within the dreamer before he is truly free to move on to a new relationship.

3. Similarities between this past relationship and situations now in the dreamer's life. Solutions to current difficulties may be resolved by the dreamer's remembering how he dealt with the ex-lover.

Astrological parallel: Venus-Saturn combinations.

Tarot parallel: The Lovers.

Source: Astrocenter, http://astrocenter.astrology.msn.com/msn/DreamDictionary.aspx

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Ex-lover, Ex-boyfriend, Ex-girlfriend , Meaning of Dreams about Ex-lover, Ex-boyfriend, Ex-girlfriend , Dream Interpretation Ex-lover, Ex-boyfriend, Ex-girlfriend )

Vedas

Veda is a generic name for the most ancient Indian sacred literature, i.e. the Rg-veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-veda and Atharva-veda. Each of these books is divided into two portions, mantra and brahmana. The term Veda is generally reserved for the mantras or metrical hymns, especially those of the Rg-veda. Sri Aurobindo has translated and/or commented on many of the Vedic hymns. Most of his writings related to the Vedas have been collected in Volumes 10 and 11of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library(SABCL), The Secret of the Veda, and Hymns to the Mystic Fire.

"I propose...that the Rig-Veda is itself the one considerable document that remains to us from the early period of human thought of which the historic Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries were the failing remnants, when the spiritual and psychological knowledge of the race was concealed, for reasons now difficult to determine, in a veil of concrete and material figures and symbols which protected the sense from the profane and revealed it to the initiated. One of the leading principles of the mystics was the sacredness and secrecy of self-knowledge and the true knowledge of the Gods.

The Veda...is an inspired knowledge as yet insufficiently equipped with intellectual and philosophical terms. We find a language of poets and illuminates to whom all experience is real, vivid, sensible, even concrete, not yet of thinkers and sytematisers to whom the realities of the mind and soul have become abstractions.

The Vedic Rishis believed that their Mantras were inspired from higher planes of consciousness and contained this secret knowledge. The words of the Veda could only be known in their true meaning by one who was himself a seer or mystic; from others the verses withheld their hidden knowledge.

Many of the lines, many whole hymns even of the Veda bear on their face a mystic meaning; they are evidently an occult form of speech, have an inner meaning.

Under pressure of the necessity to mask their meaning with symbols and symbolic words...the Rishis resorted to fix double meanings, a device easily manageable in the Sanskrit language where one word often bears several different meanings, but not easy to render in an English translation and very often impossible....The Rishis, it must be remembered, were seers as well as sages, they were men of vision who saw things in their meditation in images, often symbolic images which might precede or accompany an experience and put it in a concrete form, might predict or give an occult body to it. ...The mystics were and normally are symbolists, they can even see all physical things and happenings as symbols of inner truths and realities, even their outer selves, the outer happenings of their life and all around them."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, SABCL Vol. 10

(See also: Vedas , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Angiras (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ang to go, move tortuously (cf agni))

One of the Saptarshis (seven rishis) or manasaputras (mind-born sons of Brahma) of the first manvantara; a secondary projection of Brahma's mind and will because his first "mind-engendered progeny . . . did not multiply themselves (VP 1:7; SD 2:78). Hence Angiras is one of the prajapatis or progenitors whose sons and daughters people the earth in succeeding manvantaras, mankind included in their progeny.

These progenitors are divided into two main classes: those which are incorporeal, such as the agnishvattas, and those which are corporeal, such as the angirasas, the descendants of Angiras (VP 3:14). Theosophically, angirasas are a class of manasaputras, the emanated offspring of the incorporeal agnishvattas or kumaras. In the seventh manvantara (our present one) Angiras is given as the son of Agni, though originally Agni was born from Angiras. In astronomy Angiras is both the father or regent of Brihaspati (the planet Jupiter) and the planet itself; also a star in Ursa Major, inasmuch as Angiras is one of the seven great rishis. As such the name of Angiras is linked with the bringing of light and associated with luminous bodies.

A number of hymns in the Rig-Veda are attributed to Angiras, and in one of his births he is famed for his supreme virtue and as an expounder of brahma-vidya (divine or transcendental wisdom). In the Vayu-Purana and elsewhere in Puranic literature some of the descendants of Angiras were said to be Kshattriya by birth and Brahmins by calling (VP 4:8n p.39).

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