TERMS STARTING WITH
agni1 ::: fire; fiery energy; the fire of Agni2, "the flame of divine Force instinct with divine knowledge"; the bhūta of fire, "the igneous, radiant and electric energy", also called tejas; the type of akashic material called "fire".
AGNICHAITANS (Skt, T.B.) Building devas of the physical eterical world.
AGNI. ::: Fire; Fire of Sacrifice; the Fire-God; Flame of Divine Force; illumined will; Divine Will; Fire of human aspiration; flame of purification or transformation in the psychic being; psychic fire.
The psychic fire is the fire of aspiration, purification and Tapasya.
Without Agni the sacrificial flame cannot bum on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with Knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Agni and colours ::: the principle of Fire can manifest all the colours and the pure white fire is that which contains in itself all the colours.
agnimaya ::: fiery; pertaining to the bhūta of agni1; (rūpa or lipi) composed of or containing the akashic material called agni or "fire".1 agnimaya varn varna
agni ::: pl. --> of Agnus
AGNISHVATTAS (Skt, T.B.) Building devas of the causal-mental world.
AGNI (Skt, T.B.) Deva raja of world 47. Symbol of the causal-mental world.
AGNISURYANS (Skt, T.B.) Building devas of the emotional world.
agni. ::: the fire element; vedic God of fire
agnition ::: n. --> Acknowledgment.
agnize ::: v. t. --> To recognize; to acknowledge.
Agni ::: 1. the godhead of fire, [psychologically]: the divine will perfectly inspired by divine Wisdom, and indeed one with it, which is the active and effective power of the Truth-Consciousness. ::: 2. [one of the five bhutas]: fire; the formatory principle of intension, represented to our senses in matter as heat, light and fire.
Agni2 (Agni; Agnih) ::: the god of Fire; in Sri Aurobindo"s interpretation of the Veda, the deva as the master of tapas, "the divine Consciousness formulating itself in universal energy"; he is the "secret inhabitant of Matter and its forms" and "the power of conscious Being, called by us will, effective behind the workings of mind and body"; his "divine birth-place and home, ::: though he is born everywhere and dwells in all things, ::: is the Truth, the Infinity, the vast cosmic Intelligence in which Knowledge and Force are unified".
Agni Abhimanin (Sanskrit) Agni Abhimānin The oldest son of Brahma who had three sons, who in turn had 45 sons, and these with Brahma made the 49 fires or agnis (cf VP index).
Agni astra: Fire missile.
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).
Agnibahu (Sanskrit) Agnibāhu [from agni fire + bāhu 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).
Agnibhu (Sanskrit) Agnibhū [from agni fire + the verbal root bhū to be, become] Fireborn; one of the names of Karttikeya or Skanda, god of war; applied to the Kshatriyas or warrior caste, whose ancestors were said to have sprung from fire (TG 10). Also a Vedic teacher.
Agnibuva See AGNIBHU
Agnidagdha (Sanskrit) Agnidagdha [from agni fire + dagdha burnt from the verbal root dah to burn] Consumed by fire; a class of pitris (fathers, ancestors) who when living regularly maintained the household fires and offered oblations with fire. Those who refrained from doing so were called anagnidagdhas (not consumed by fire).
Agni Dhatu Samadhi (Sanskrit) Agni Dhātu Samādhi A type of yogic contemplation where kundalini is excited and “the infinitude appears as one sheet of fire.” (TG 10)
Agnidhra (Sanskrit) Agnīdhra [from agnīdh kindler from the verbal root agni fire + the verbal root indh to kindle, light] Fire kindler; eldest of the ten sons of Priyavarta, the eldest son of Svayambhuva Manu. Three of Priyavarta’s sons became mendicants, the other seven became kings famed for valor and wisdom. Priyavarta divided the earth into seven dvipas or continental islands, giving one of each of his king-sons to administer. Agnidhra ruled over Jambu-dvipa which he in turn apportioned among his nine sons (VP 2:1). Blavatsky correlates the Puranic allegory to the seven globes of a planetary chain, Jambu-dvipa being equivalent to globe D in the theosophical scheme.
Agniel—in The Zohar (Tikkun suppl.), the
Agni: Fire.
Agni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.” The Secret of the Veda
Agni-hotra: A fire offering.
Agnihotra (Sanskrit) Agnihotra [from agni fire + hotra oblation from the verbal root hu to sacrifice] Fire offering; an important Vedic sacrifice to Agni, consisting of milk, oil, and sour gruel, which the head of the family is expected to observe twice a day, before sunrise and after sunset. The priest who kindles the sacred fire is called agnihotri, also agnidhra.
Agni-manavaka: Shining lad. [This illustrates Gauna Vritti or secondary sense. It literally means a lad who is fire itself. Instead of that, we should take the Guna (or quality) of fire and mean by that word a lad shining like fire.]
Agni pavaka ::: the purifying fire; the psychic fire.
Agniputra (Sanskrit) Agniputra [from agni fire + putra son, offspring] Son of Agni, fire; a name of the god of war, Skanda or Karttikeya (cf MB, skanda 9). While every individual of the numerous hierarchies which infill, and indeed are, space, is an offspring or “son” of the cosmic spirit or fire, Agniputra particularly designates one whose characteristic qualities make him an active instead of a passive or quasi-passive agent in the cosmic drama. Thus it is that the planet Mars and its influences — or Skanda, the god of war of the Mahabharata — because of their characteristic intense activity of a fiery type are referred to as Agniputra.
Agniratha (Sanskrit) Agniratha [from agni fire + ratha chariot from the verbal root ṛ to go] Fire-chariot; archaic flying vehicles, allegorized in the Ramayana and ancient works on magic. “This vibratory Force, which, when aimed at an army from an Agni Rath fixed on a flying vessel, . . . reduced to ashes 100,000 men and elephants, as easily as it would a dead rat” (SD 1:563).
Agni Rudra ::: Agni2, the god of Force, identified with Rudra2, "the Divine as master of our evolution by violence and battle".Agni Tvasta
Agni sakti (Agni Shakti) ::: the force of fire.
Agni (Sanskrit) Agni [from the verbal root ag to move tortuously, wind] Fire; as god of fire, one of the most revered of Vedic deities. As mediator between gods and humans, from whose body issue “a thousand streams of glory and seven tongues of flame,” Agni represents the divine essence or celestial fire present in every atom of the universe. Often used synonymously with the adityas. The three chief gods of Vedas are Agni, Vayu, and Surya — fire, air, and the sun — whose elements respectively are earth, air, and sky. One of the four lokapalas or world-protectors, Agni is guardian of the southeast quarter, and in the Rig-Veda as Matarisvan, messenger of Vivasvat, the sun, Agni brought down the “hidden fire” for humankind. To “kindle a fire,” therefore, is synonymous to evoking one of the three great fire-powers or “to call on God” (SD 2:114).
Agnishtoma (Sanskrit) Agniṣṭoma [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.
Agnishvatta (Sanskrit) Agniṣvātta [from agni fire + the verbal root svad to sweeten, taste] Tasted or sweetened by fire; one of the higher of the seven classes of pitris or progenitors spoken of in the Puranas as those “devoid of fire.” They are thus popularly represented as grihasthas or householders who in previous births failed to keep up their domestic fires and to offer burnt sacrifices, etc. In contrast, the pitris “possessed” of fire are the barhishads, those who kept up their household fires (cf VP 1:10).
Agnishvatta(s) ::: (Sanskrit) ::: A compound of two words: agni, "fire"; shvatta, "tasted" or "sweetened," from svad, verb-rootmeaning "to taste" or "to sweeten." Therefore, literally one who has been delighted or sweetened by fire.A class of pitris: our solar ancestors as contrasted with the barhishads, our lunar ancestors.The kumaras, agnishvattas, and manasaputras are three groups or aspects of the same beings: thekumaras represent the aspect of original spiritual purity untouched by gross elements of matter. Theagnishvattas represent the aspect of their connection with the sun or solar spiritual fire. Having tasted orbeen "sweetened" by the spiritual fire -- the fire of intellectuality and spirituality -- they have beenpurified thereby. The manasaputras represent the aspect of intellectuality -- the functions of higherintellect.The agnishvattas and manasaputras are two names for the same class or host of beings, and set forth orsignify or represent two different aspects or activities of this one class of beings. Thus, for instance, aman may be said to be a kumara in his spiritual parts, an agnishvatta in his buddhic-manasic parts, and amanasaputra in his purely manasic aspect. Other beings could be called kumaras in their highest aspects,as for instance the beasts, but they are not imbodied agnishvattas or manasaputras.The agnishvattas are the solar spiritual-intellectual parts of us, and therefore are our inner teachers. Inpreceding manvantaras, they had completed their evolution in the realms of physical matter, and whenthe evolution of lower beings had brought these latter to the proper state, the agnishvattas came to therescue of these who had only the physical "creative fire," thus inspiring and enlightening these lowerlunar pitris with spiritual and intellectual energies or "fires."When this earth's planetary chain shall have reached the end of its seventh round, we, as then havingcompleted the evolutionary course for this planetary chain, will leave this planetary chain asdhyan-chohans, agnishvattas; but the others now trailing along behind us -- the present beasts -- will bethe lunar pitris of the next planetary chain to come.While it is correct to say that these three names appertain to the same class of beings, nevertheless eachname has its own significance in the occult teaching, which is why the three names are used with threedistinct meanings. Imagine an unconscious god-spark beginning its evolution in any one solar ormaha-manvantara. We may call it a kumara, a being of original spiritual purity, but with a destinythrough karmic evolution connected with the realms of matter.At the other end of the line, at the consummation of the evolution in this maha-manvantara, when theevolving entity has become a fully self-conscious god or divinity, its proper appellation then isagnishvatta, for it has been "sweetened" or purified by means of the working through it of the spiritualfires inherent in itself.Now then, when such an agnishvatta assumes the role of a bringer of mind or of intellectual light to alunar pitri which it overshadows and in which a ray from it incarnates, it then, although in its own realman agnishvatta, functions as a manasaputra or child of mind or mahat. A brief analysis of the compoundelements of these three names may be useful.Kumara is from ku meaning "with difficulty" and mara meaning "mortal." The significance of the wordtherefore can be paraphrased as "mortal with difficulty," and the meaning usually given to it by Sanskritscholars as "easily dying" is wholly exoteric and amusing, and doubtless arose from the fact that kumarais a word frequently used for child or boy, everybody knowing that young children "die easily." The ideatherefore is that purely spiritual beings, although ultimately destined by evolution to pass through therealms of matter, become mortal, i.e., material, only with difficulty.Agnishvatta has the meaning stated above, "delighted" or "pleased" or "sweetened," i.e., "purified" byfire -- which we may render in two ways: either as the fire of suffering and pain in material existenceproducing great fiber and strength of character, i.e., spirituality; or, perhaps still better from thestandpoint of occultism, as signifying an entity or entities who have become one in essence throughevolution with the aethery fire of spirit.Manasaputra is a compound of two words: manasa, "mental" or "intellectual," from the word manas,"mind," and putra, "son" or "child," therefore a child of the cosmic mind -- a "mind-born son" as H. P.Blavatsky phrases it. (See also Pitris, Lunar Pitris)
Agni
Agnistut: He who sings the praises of Agni (in Vedic sacrifice).
Agni-tattva: The fire-principle.
Agni: The Vedic god of fire.
Agni. (T. Me lha; C. Huoshen; J. Kashin; K. Hwasin 火神). The Vedic fire deity adopted into the Buddhist pantheon as the guardian of the southeast. In the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISŮTRA, he is identified as an incarnation of VAIROCANA; in Tibet, he is associated with HEVAJRA. Agni is depicted riding a goat, with one face and two hands, the right holding a rosary, the left a vase full of the nectar of immortality (AMṚTA). The term also refers to a class of pre-Buddhist fire deities absorbed into the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon.
Agni vaisvanara (Agni Vaishwanara) ::: 1. Agni as the universal in Man or universal Power. ::: 2. the heat that digests food.
Agni-Vayu (Agni-Vayu; Agni Vayu) ::: Agni2, the divine Force, workAgni-Vayu ing through the vital energy of Vayu2.Agni-V Agni-Vayu-Aryaman
Agni-vidya: The process of meditating, taking fire as symbolising Brahman.
Agni-Vishnu-Surya (Sanskrit) Agni-Viṣṇu-Sūrya [from agni fire + viṣṇu from the verbal root viś or the verbal root viṣ to pervade + sūrya sun] Fire-pervader-solar deity; this triad of gods is probably a permutation of the original Vedic triad Agni-Indra-Surya, having their influence and place respectively on earth, in the atmosphere, and in the sky. Agni-Vishnu-Surya has been called the “synthesis and head, or the focus whence emanated in physics as in metaphysics, from the Spiritual as from the physical Sun, the Seven Rays, the seven fiery tongues, the seven planets or gods” (SD 2:608).
Agni ::: Without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 15, Page: 379-80
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. Large and impressive in size, scope, or extent; magnificent. 2. Most important; chief. 3. Eminent; great in position; stately; majestic. 4. Impressive in size, appearance or general effect. 5. Magnificent or splendid. grander.
Abhimanin, Abhimani (Sanskrit) Abhimānin, Abhimānī [from abhi towards + the verbal root man to think, reflect upon] Longing for, thinking upon; name of an Agni, eldest son of Brahma. By Svaha, Abhimanin had three sons of surpassing brilliancy: Pavaka, Pavamana, and Suchi, the personifications of the three fires that produced our earth and humanity (VP 1:10). Abhimanin, his three sons, and their 45 sons constitute the mystic 49 fires of the Puranas and the Esoteric Philosophy.
add ::: v. t. --> To give by way of increased possession (to any one); to bestow (on).
To join or unite, as one thing to another, or as several particulars, so as to increase the number, augment the quantity, enlarge the magnitude, or so as to form into one aggregate. Hence: To sum up; to put together mentally; as, to add numbers; to add up a column.
To append, as a statement; to say further.
affair ::: n. --> That which is done or is to be done; matter; concern; as, a difficult affair to manage; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public; -- often in the plural. "At the head of affairs." Junius.
Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely; as, an affair of honor, i. e., a duel; an affair of love, i. e., an intrigue.
An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be
. a ::: fiery colour; varn.a mixed with an element of agni .
aggrandise ::: to make (something) appear greater; to widen in scope ,magnify. aggrandising.
Agneya (Sanskrit) Āgneya [from agni fire] Belonging to or consecrated to fire or the god of fire, Agni. A name of the god of war (Skanda, Karttikeya, etc.); also, the son of Agni.
Agneyastra (Sanskrit) Āgneyāstra [from āgneya fiery weapon from agni fire + astra missile weapon, arrow] Fiery weapon; one of the magic weapons used by some of the gods and heroes of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. The Vishnu-Purana (3:8) recounts that the agneyastra was given by the sage Aurva to his disciple King Sagara. A magic weapon said to have been “wielded by the adept-race (the fourth), the Atlanteans” (TG 9), and to have been built of “seven elements” (SD 2:629). It can signify a weapon of fiery character used in physical warfare, or on a cosmic scale can denote the employment of a force of nature by an intelligent being either for offensive or defensive purposes. In archaic thought fire, in its abstract sense, is almost equivalent to spirit, and permeates the sevenfold nature of the universe.
agni1 ::: fire; fiery energy; the fire of Agni2, "the flame of divine Force instinct with divine knowledge"; the bhūta of fire, "the igneous, radiant and electric energy", also called tejas; the type of akashic material called "fire".
AGNI. ::: Fire; Fire of Sacrifice; the Fire-God; Flame of Divine Force; illumined will; Divine Will; Fire of human aspiration; flame of purification or transformation in the psychic being; psychic fire.
The psychic fire is the fire of aspiration, purification and Tapasya.
Without Agni the sacrificial flame cannot bum on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with Knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Agni and colours ::: the principle of Fire can manifest all the colours and the pure white fire is that which contains in itself all the colours.
agnimaya ::: fiery; pertaining to the bhūta of agni1; (rūpa or lipi) composed of or containing the akashic material called agni or "fire".1 agnimaya varn varna
agni ::: pl. --> of Agnus
agni. ::: the fire element; vedic God of fire
agnition ::: n. --> Acknowledgment.
agnize ::: v. t. --> To recognize; to acknowledge.
Agnus Dei (Latin) [from agnus lamb + deus god] Lamb of God; originating in the New Testament: “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). It is applied to various emblems, cakes, anthems, etc., used in the services of the orthodox Christian churches. As a lamb was sacrificed and partaken of in the Jewish feast of the Passover, John said in effect: behold the true divine Paschal Lamb. However, the original idea that impurity is burnt out by the divine fire from the radiant source within each person was perverted, both in the case of agni and the Lamb of God, into the idea of vicarious atonement (cf SD 2:383).
ajante arcayah. (Agner bhrajante archayah) ::: the flaming radiances of Agni2 blaze forth. [R . g Veda 1.44.12]
Aja when derived from the verbal root aj, is also a title given to various Vedic divinities such as Rudra, Indra, Agni, the sun, the maruts, and in post-Vedic works to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, as well as to cosmic Kama, counterpart of the Greek cosmic Eros — all these gods being considered leaders of their respective hierarchies in the sense of urging, driving, or propelling life and intelligence therein.
akashic material ::: "subtle-gross etheric material" of any of seven kinds (called in ascending order chaya [shadow], dhūma [smoke], tejas [brilliance], jyotih. [light], vidyut [lightning] or varn.a [colour], agni [fire], and prakasa [radiance]) out of which akasarūpa and akasalipi are formed.
Al-Azim ::: The magnificent glory beyond any manifestation’s capacity of comprehension.
Aldebaran A first magnitude ruddy star, the principal star in Taurus the Bull. It is one of the four Royal Stars of the ancient Persians, which approximately marked the solstices and equinoxes about 4000 BC. It represented the spring equinox; the others being Antares in Scorpius (summer solstice), Regulus in Leo (autumnal equinox), and Fomalhaut in the Southern Fish (winter solstice). They have been connected from an early time in India with the legends concerning the four Maharajas (regents of the cardinal points) and the four primitive elements, and have come down to us in connection with Hebrew and Semitic writings as the archangels Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, as well as in the Christian symbols of the four evangelists: the bull, the eagle (Scorpio), the lion, and the angel or man. Blavatsky says that the spring equinox was in Taurus at the beginning of the kali yuga (3102 BC), though it was approaching Aries. Aldebaran symbolizes the Hebrew aleph (A or 1).
aldebaran ::: n. --> A red star of the first magnitude, situated in the eye of Taurus; the Bull&
algebra ::: n. --> That branch of mathematics which treats of the relations and properties of quantity by means of letters and other symbols. It is applicable to those relations that are true of every kind of magnitude.
A treatise on this science.
Al-Jalil ::: The One who, with His magnificent comprehensiveness and perfection, is the sultan of the world of acts.
Al-Kabir ::: The magnitude of the worlds He created with His Names are incomprehensible.
“All birds of that region are relatives. But this is the bird of eternal Ananda, while the Hippogriff is the divinised Thought and the Bird of Fire is the Agni-bird, psychic and tapas. All that however is to mentalise too much and mentalising always takes most of the life out of spiritual things. That is why I say it can be seen but nothing said about it.”
"All birds of that region are relatives. But this is the bird of eternal Ananda, while the Hippogriff is the divinised Thought and the Bird of Fire is the Agni-bird, psychic and tapas. All that however is to mentalise too much and mentalising always takes most of the life out of spiritual things. That is why I say it can be seen but nothing said about it.” ::: "The question was: ‘In the mystical region, is the dragon bird any relation of your Bird of Fire with ‘gold-white wings" or your Hippogriff with ‘face lustred, pale-blue-lined"? And why do you write: ‘What to say about him? One can only see"?” Letters on Savitri
Al-Majeed ::: The One whose majestic glory is evident through His magnificent manifestations!
Al-Majid ::: The magnificent and glorious One with unrestricted, infinite generosity and endowment (benevolence).
Alpha Draconis. Also Thuban. A third magnitude star, north of the constellation of the Great Bear, which was the pole star about the third millennium BC. Around 2170 BC it shone down the descending passage of the Great Pyramid at its lower meridian transit, but Egyptologists generally believe that the Pyramid is much older than that. In the previous precessional period Alpha Draconis would be in about the same position rather less than 26,000 years earlier. After it ceased to be the pole star, it shared the fate of all the fallen gods and was treated as an evil demon.
Anagnidagdha. See AGNIDAGDHA
Angara, Angaraka (Sanskrit) Aṅgāra, Aṅgāraka [from the verbal root ag to move tortuously, wind (cf agni); or from the verbal root aṅg to go] The planet Mars; also charcoal, as being a latent seat of fire. Ara is another name of the planet Mars (cf Greek Ares) as well as of the planet Saturn. In the Mahabharata Angaraka is variously listed as one of the world guardians; a planet; and one of the 108 names of the sun (vB 2:51, 228).
Angirasah, Angiras rsis (the Angirasas, the Angirasa Rishis) ::: a clan of rsis that went by the name of Angiras, their progenitor; the seven sages, the seven lustres of Agni, his sons; burning powers of the Light; divine or human types of the seer-will.
Angiras (Angirasa) ::: the rsi who represents the seer-will, in later times regarded as one of the original sages, progenitor of a clan of rsis that went by his name, however it is clear that the word is used in the Veda not merely as a name of a certain family of rsis, but with a distinct meaning inherent in the word: it must have meant flaming, glowing; used as an epithet, a name of Agni, etc. [Ved.]
Āṅgirasas ::: an ancient clan of r.s.is in the Veda, the "human fathers" who discovered the Light, also portrayed as heavenly seers or as powers of Agni2, "forces of the symbolic Light and Flame"; along with the Bhr.gus, identified in the Record of Yoga with the Judeo-Christian "seraphim", the highest order of angels.
Angirasas (Sanskrit) Aṅgirasa-s [from aṅg to go, move tortuously] The descendants of Angiras through his son, Agni; a name occurring in Vedic hymns addressed to luminous deities, and later extended to all phenomena connected with light. Specifically, the hymns of the Atharva-Veda are called Angirasa, as are those priests who recite them and perform the sacrifices according to the Atharva-vedic rules. “ ‘Angirases’ was one of the names of the Dhyanis, or Devas instructors (‘guru-deva’), of the late Third, the Fourth, and even of the Fifth Race Initiates” (SD 2:605n).
Angiras (Sanskrit) Aṅgiras [from the verbal root aṅg 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.
Anticipations of experience: In Kant's Crit. of pure Reason Antizipationen der Wahrnehmung) the second of two synthetic principles of the understanding (the other being "Axioms of Intuition") by which the mind is able to determine something a priori in regard to what is in itself empirical. While the mind cannot anticipate the specific qualities which are to be experienced, we can, nevertheless, Kant holds, predetermine or anticipate any sense experience that "in all appearances the real, which is an object of sensation, has intensive magnitude or degree." -- O.F.K.
Apamnapat (Sanskrit) Apāṃnapāt [from apām of waters from ap water + napāt 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.
arcturus ::: a giant star in the constellation Boötes. It is the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere and the fourth brightest star in the sky, with an apparent magnitude of 0.00; sometimes referring to the Great Bear itself.
arcturus ::: n. --> A fixed star of the first magnitude in the constellation Bootes.
ARRESTS IN SADHANA. ::: A difficulty comes or an arrest in some movement which you have begun or have been carrying on for some time. Such arrests are inevitably frequent enough; one might almost say that every step forward is followed by an arrest. It is to be dealt with by becoming always more quiet, more firm in the will to go through, by opening oneself more and more so that any obstructing non-receptivity in the nature may diminish or disappear, by an affirmation of faith even in the midst of obscurity, faith in the presence of a Power that is working behind the cloud and the veil, in the guidance of the Guru, by an observation of oneself to find any cause of the arrest, not in a spirit of depression or discouragement but with the will to find out and remove it. This is the only right attitude and, if one is persistent in taking it, the periods of arrest are not abolished, - for that cannot be at this stage, - but greatly shortened and lightened in their incidence. Sometimes these arrests are periods, long or short, of assimilation or unseen preparation, their appearance of sterile immobility is deceptive ::: in that case, with the right attitude, one can after a time, by opening, by observation, by accumulated experience, begin to feel, to get some inkling of what is being prepared or done. Sometimes it is a period of true obstruction in which the Power at work has to deal with the obstacles in the way, obstacles in oneself, obstacles of the opposing cosmic forces or any other or of all together, and this kind of arrest may be long or short according to the magnitude or obstinacy or complexity of the impediments that are met. But here, too, the right attitude can alleviate or shorten and, if persistently taken, help to a more radical removal of the difficulties and greatly diminish the necessity of complete arrests hereafter.
On the contrary, an attitude of depression or unfaith in the help or the guidance or in the certitude of the victory of the guiding Power, a shutting up of yourself in the sense of the difficulties, helps the obstructions to recur with force instead of progressively diminishing in their incidence.
As the eldest son of Brahma, Abhimanin represents the cosmic Logos, the first force produced in the universe at its evolution, the fire of cosmic creative desire. His three sons, according to the Vayu-Purana, stand for three different aspects of Agni (fire): Pavaka is the electric fire, Pavamana the fire produced by friction, and Suchi the solar fire. Interpreted on the cosmic and human planes, these three fires are “Spirit, Soul, and Body, the three great Root groups, with their four additional divisions” (SD 2:247). They are said to have been cursed by the sage Vasishtha to be born again and again (cf BP 4:24,4; SD 2:247-8).
astrometry ::: n. --> The art of making measurements among the stars, or of determining their relative magnitudes.
astronomy ::: n. --> Astrology.
The science which treats of the celestial bodies, of their magnitudes, motions, distances, periods of revolution, eclipses, constitution, physical condition, and of the causes of their various phenomena.
A treatise on, or text-book of, the science.
Asura is used in the earliest Vedic literature as a title of the cosmic hierarch or supreme spirit. The Vedic Asura is nothing other than the Great Breath of archaic occult literature — the Great Breath coming and going as manvantara and pralaya. The other Vedic gods mentioned so much more frequently in the slokas, such as Agni, Indra, and Varuna, are all subordinate hierarchically and cosmogonically to the Vedic Asura, which is really Brahman-pradhana or the Second Logos, Father-Mother; Varuna is the acme or summit of akasa-tattva; Agni is the summit or hierarch of cosmic taijasa-tattva; and Indra is often identified with Vayu as the summit of cosmic Vayu-tattva. See also MAHASURA
Atharva Veda (Sanskrit) Atharva Veda One of the principal Vedas, commonly known as the fourth; attributed to Atharvan or Atharva. The Rig-Veda states that he was the first to “draw forth fire” and institute its worship, as well as the offering of soma and prayers. Mythologically, Atharvan is represented as a prajapati, Brahma’s eldest son, instructed by his father in brahma-vidya: thus was he inspired to compose the Veda bearing his name. At a later period he is associated with Angiras and called the father of Agni. The Atharva-Veda, considered of later origin than the other three Vedas, comprises about 6000 verses, 760 being hymns, consisting of formulas and spells or incantations for counteracting diseases and calamities. The hymns are of slightly different character from those in the other Vedas: in addition to reverencing the gods, the worshiper himself is exalted and is supposed to receive benefits by reciting the mantras.
Atman: (Skr.) Self, soul, ego, or I. Variously conceived in Indian philosophy, atomistically (cf. anu); monadically, etherially, as the hypothetical carrier of karma (q.v.), identical with the divine (cf. ayam atma brahma; tat tvam asi) or different from yet dependent on it, or as a metaphysical entity to be dissolved at death and reunited with the world ground. As the latter it is defined as "smaller than the small" (anor aniyan) or "greater than the great" (mahato mahiyan), i.e., magnitudeless as well as infinitely great. -- K.F.L.
Atma-vidya (Sanskrit) Ātmavidyā [from ātma self + vidyā knowledge] Knowledge of the self; the highest form of spiritual-divine wisdom, because the fundamental or essential self is a flame or spark of the kosmic self. “Of the four Vidyas — out of the seven branches of Knowledge mentioned in the Puranas — namely, ‘Yajna-Vidya’ (the performance of religious rites in order to produce certain results); ‘Maha-Vidya,’ the great (Magic) knowledge, now degenerated into Tantrika worship; ‘Guhya-Vidya,’ the science of Mantras and their true rhythm or chanting, of mystical incantations, etc. — it is only the last one, ‘Atma-Vidya,’ or the true Spiritual and Divine wisdom, which can throw absolute and final light upon the teachings of the three first named. Without the help of Atma-Vidya, the other three remain no better than surface sciences, geometrical magnitudes having length and breadth, but no thickness. They are like the soul, limbs, and mind of a sleeping man: capable of mechanical motions, of chaotic dreams and even sleep-walking, of producing visible effects, but stimulated by instinctual not intellectual causes, least of all by fully conscious spiritual impulses. A good deal can be given out and explained from the three first-named sciences. But unless the key to their teachings is furnished by Atma-Vidya, they will remain for ever like the fragments of a mangled text-book, like the adumbrations of great truths, dimly perceived by the most spiritual, but distorted out of all proportion by those who would nail every shadow to the wall” (SD 1:168-9).
attest ::: v. t. --> To bear witness to; to certify; to affirm to be true or genuine; as, to attest the truth of a writing, a copy of record.
To give proof of; to manifest; as, the ruins of Palmyra attest its ancient magnificence.
To call to witness; to invoke. ::: n.
augustness ::: n. --> The quality of being august; dignity of mien; grandeur; magnificence.
Aura ::: An extremely subtle and therefore invisible essence or fluid that emanates from and surrounds not onlyhuman beings and beasts, but as a matter of fact plants and minerals also. It is one of the aspects of theauric egg and therefore the human aura partakes of all the qualities that the human constitution contains.It is at once magneto-mental and electrovital, suffused with the energies of mind and spirit -- the qualityin each case coming from an organ or center of the human constitution whence it flows. It is the sourceof the sympathies and antipathies that we are conscious of. Under the control of the human will it can beboth life-giving and healing, or death-dealing; and when the human will is passive the aura has an actionof its own which is automatic and follows the laws of character and latent impulses of the being fromwhom it emanates. Sensitives have frequently described it in more or less vague terms as a light flowingfrom the eyes or the heart or the tips of the fingers or from other parts of the body. Sometimes this fluid,instead of being colorless light, manifests itself by flashing and scintillating changes of color -- the coloror colors in each case depending not only upon the varying moods of the human individual, but alsopossessing a background equivalent to the character or nature of the individual. Animals are extremelysensitive to auras, and some beasts even descry the human being surrounded with the aura as with acloud or veil. In fact, everything has its aura surrounding it with a light or play of color, and especially isthis the case with so-called animated beings.The essential nature of the aura usually seen is astral and electrovital. The magnificent phenomena ofradiation that astronomers can discern at times of eclipse, long streamers with rosy and other coloredlight flashing forth from the body of the sun, are not flames nor anything of the sort, but are simply theelectrovital aura of the solar body -- a manifestation of solar vitality, for the sun in occultism is a livingbeing, as indeed everything else is.
auxesis ::: n. --> A figure by which a grave and magnificent word is put for the proper word; amplification; hyperbole.
avatara (avatar) ::: divine incarnation; the "descent into form" of the avatara Godhead (deva, isvara, purus.ottama), "when the divine Consciousness and Power, taking upon itself the human form and the human mode of action, possesses it not only by powers and magnitudes, by degrees and outward faces of itself but out of its eternal self-knowledge" in order "to exemplify the possibility of the Divine manifest in the human being" and "to leave the influence of that manifestation vibrating in the earth-nature and the soul of that manifestation presiding over its upward endeavour"; any of the ten incarnations of Vis.n.u described in the Hindu tradition, regarded by Sri Aurobindo as "a parable of evolution".
axis ::: n. --> The spotted deer (Cervus axis or Axis maculata) of India, where it is called hog deer and parrah (Moorish name).
A straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body, on which it revolves, or may be supposed to revolve; a line passing through a body or system around which the parts are symmetrically arranged.
A straight line with respect to which the different parts of a magnitude are symmetrically arranged; as, the axis of a cylinder, i.
ayu-Aryaman bhava ::: the self-manifestation of the deva as Agni2, Vayu2 and Aryaman, forming part of devabhava.
ayu-Aryaman ::: the three forceful gods Agni2, Vayu2 and Aryaman unified to form one deity.Agni-V Agni-Vayu-Aryaman
Agni ::: 1. the godhead of fire, [psychologically]: the divine will perfectly inspired by divine Wisdom, and indeed one with it, which is the active and effective power of the Truth-Consciousness. ::: 2. [one of the five bhutas]: fire; the formatory principle of intension, represented to our senses in matter as heat, light and fire.
Agni2 (Agni; Agnih) ::: the god of Fire; in Sri Aurobindo"s interpretation of the Veda, the deva as the master of tapas, "the divine Consciousness formulating itself in universal energy"; he is the "secret inhabitant of Matter and its forms" and "the power of conscious Being, called by us will, effective behind the workings of mind and body"; his "divine birth-place and home, ::: though he is born everywhere and dwells in all things, ::: is the Truth, the Infinity, the vast cosmic Intelligence in which Knowledge and Force are unified".
Agni Abhimanin (Sanskrit) Agni Abhimānin The oldest son of Brahma who had three sons, who in turn had 45 sons, and these with Brahma made the 49 fires or agnis (cf VP index).
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).
Agnibahu (Sanskrit) Agnibāhu [from agni fire + bāhu 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).
Agnibhu (Sanskrit) Agnibhū [from agni fire + the verbal root bhū to be, become] Fireborn; one of the names of Karttikeya or Skanda, god of war; applied to the Kshatriyas or warrior caste, whose ancestors were said to have sprung from fire (TG 10). Also a Vedic teacher.
Agnibuva See AGNIBHU
Agnidagdha (Sanskrit) Agnidagdha [from agni fire + dagdha burnt from the verbal root dah to burn] Consumed by fire; a class of pitris (fathers, ancestors) who when living regularly maintained the household fires and offered oblations with fire. Those who refrained from doing so were called anagnidagdhas (not consumed by fire).
Agni Dhatu Samadhi (Sanskrit) Agni Dhātu Samādhi A type of yogic contemplation where kundalini is excited and “the infinitude appears as one sheet of fire.” (TG 10)
Agnidhra (Sanskrit) Agnīdhra [from agnīdh kindler from the verbal root agni fire + the verbal root indh to kindle, light] Fire kindler; eldest of the ten sons of Priyavarta, the eldest son of Svayambhuva Manu. Three of Priyavarta’s sons became mendicants, the other seven became kings famed for valor and wisdom. Priyavarta divided the earth into seven dvipas or continental islands, giving one of each of his king-sons to administer. Agnidhra ruled over Jambu-dvipa which he in turn apportioned among his nine sons (VP 2:1). Blavatsky correlates the Puranic allegory to the seven globes of a planetary chain, Jambu-dvipa being equivalent to globe D in the theosophical scheme.
Agni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.” *The Secret of the Veda
Agni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.” The Secret of the Veda
Agnihotra (Sanskrit) Agnihotra [from agni fire + hotra oblation from the verbal root hu to sacrifice] Fire offering; an important Vedic sacrifice to Agni, consisting of milk, oil, and sour gruel, which the head of the family is expected to observe twice a day, before sunrise and after sunset. The priest who kindles the sacred fire is called agnihotri, also agnidhra.
“Agni is the Deva, the All-Seer, manifested as conscious-force or, as it would be called in modern language, Divine or Cosmic Will, first hidden and building up the eternal worlds, then manifest, ``born’’, building up in man the Truth and the Immortality.” The Secret of the Veda
“Agni is the leader of the sacrifice and protects it in the great journey against the powers of darkness. The knowledge and purpose of this divine Puissance can be entirely trusted; he is the friend and lover of the soul and will not betray it to evil gods. Even for the man sitting far off in the night, enveloped by the darkness of the human ignorance, this flame[Agni] is a light which, when it is perfectly kindled and in proportion as it mounts higher and higher, enlarges itself into the vast light of the Truth. Flaming upward to heaven to meet the divine Dawn, it rises through the vital or nervous mid-world and through our mental skies and enters at last the Paradise of Light, its own supreme home above where joyous for ever in the eternal Truth that is the foundation of the sempiternal Bliss the shining Immortals sit in their celestial sessions and drink the wine of the infinite beatitude.” The Secret of the Veda
Agni pavaka ::: the purifying fire; the psychic fire.
Agniputra (Sanskrit) Agniputra [from agni fire + putra son, offspring] Son of Agni, fire; a name of the god of war, Skanda or Karttikeya (cf MB, skanda 9). While every individual of the numerous hierarchies which infill, and indeed are, space, is an offspring or “son” of the cosmic spirit or fire, Agniputra particularly designates one whose characteristic qualities make him an active instead of a passive or quasi-passive agent in the cosmic drama. Thus it is that the planet Mars and its influences — or Skanda, the god of war of the Mahabharata — because of their characteristic intense activity of a fiery type are referred to as Agniputra.
Agniratha (Sanskrit) Agniratha [from agni fire + ratha chariot from the verbal root ṛ to go] Fire-chariot; archaic flying vehicles, allegorized in the Ramayana and ancient works on magic. “This vibratory Force, which, when aimed at an army from an Agni Rath fixed on a flying vessel, . . . reduced to ashes 100,000 men and elephants, as easily as it would a dead rat” (SD 1:563).
Agni Rudra ::: Agni2, the god of Force, identified with Rudra2, "the Divine as master of our evolution by violence and battle".Agni Tvasta
Agni sakti (Agni Shakti) ::: the force of fire.
Agni (Sanskrit) Agni [from the verbal root ag to move tortuously, wind] Fire; as god of fire, one of the most revered of Vedic deities. As mediator between gods and humans, from whose body issue “a thousand streams of glory and seven tongues of flame,” Agni represents the divine essence or celestial fire present in every atom of the universe. Often used synonymously with the adityas. The three chief gods of Vedas are Agni, Vayu, and Surya — fire, air, and the sun — whose elements respectively are earth, air, and sky. One of the four lokapalas or world-protectors, Agni is guardian of the southeast quarter, and in the Rig-Veda as Matarisvan, messenger of Vivasvat, the sun, Agni brought down the “hidden fire” for humankind. To “kindle a fire,” therefore, is synonymous to evoking one of the three great fire-powers or “to call on God” (SD 2:114).
Agnishtoma (Sanskrit) Agniṣṭoma [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.
Agnishvatta (Sanskrit) Agniṣvātta [from agni fire + the verbal root svad to sweeten, taste] Tasted or sweetened by fire; one of the higher of the seven classes of pitris or progenitors spoken of in the Puranas as those “devoid of fire.” They are thus popularly represented as grihasthas or householders who in previous births failed to keep up their domestic fires and to offer burnt sacrifices, etc. In contrast, the pitris “possessed” of fire are the barhishads, those who kept up their household fires (cf VP 1:10).
Agnishvatta(s) ::: (Sanskrit) ::: A compound of two words: agni, "fire"; shvatta, "tasted" or "sweetened," from svad, verb-rootmeaning "to taste" or "to sweeten." Therefore, literally one who has been delighted or sweetened by fire.A class of pitris: our solar ancestors as contrasted with the barhishads, our lunar ancestors.The kumaras, agnishvattas, and manasaputras are three groups or aspects of the same beings: thekumaras represent the aspect of original spiritual purity untouched by gross elements of matter. Theagnishvattas represent the aspect of their connection with the sun or solar spiritual fire. Having tasted orbeen "sweetened" by the spiritual fire -- the fire of intellectuality and spirituality -- they have beenpurified thereby. The manasaputras represent the aspect of intellectuality -- the functions of higherintellect.The agnishvattas and manasaputras are two names for the same class or host of beings, and set forth orsignify or represent two different aspects or activities of this one class of beings. Thus, for instance, aman may be said to be a kumara in his spiritual parts, an agnishvatta in his buddhic-manasic parts, and amanasaputra in his purely manasic aspect. Other beings could be called kumaras in their highest aspects,as for instance the beasts, but they are not imbodied agnishvattas or manasaputras.The agnishvattas are the solar spiritual-intellectual parts of us, and therefore are our inner teachers. Inpreceding manvantaras, they had completed their evolution in the realms of physical matter, and whenthe evolution of lower beings had brought these latter to the proper state, the agnishvattas came to therescue of these who had only the physical "creative fire," thus inspiring and enlightening these lowerlunar pitris with spiritual and intellectual energies or "fires."When this earth's planetary chain shall have reached the end of its seventh round, we, as then havingcompleted the evolutionary course for this planetary chain, will leave this planetary chain asdhyan-chohans, agnishvattas; but the others now trailing along behind us -- the present beasts -- will bethe lunar pitris of the next planetary chain to come.While it is correct to say that these three names appertain to the same class of beings, nevertheless eachname has its own significance in the occult teaching, which is why the three names are used with threedistinct meanings. Imagine an unconscious god-spark beginning its evolution in any one solar ormaha-manvantara. We may call it a kumara, a being of original spiritual purity, but with a destinythrough karmic evolution connected with the realms of matter.At the other end of the line, at the consummation of the evolution in this maha-manvantara, when theevolving entity has become a fully self-conscious god or divinity, its proper appellation then isagnishvatta, for it has been "sweetened" or purified by means of the working through it of the spiritualfires inherent in itself.Now then, when such an agnishvatta assumes the role of a bringer of mind or of intellectual light to alunar pitri which it overshadows and in which a ray from it incarnates, it then, although in its own realman agnishvatta, functions as a manasaputra or child of mind or mahat. A brief analysis of the compoundelements of these three names may be useful.Kumara is from ku meaning "with difficulty" and mara meaning "mortal." The significance of the wordtherefore can be paraphrased as "mortal with difficulty," and the meaning usually given to it by Sanskritscholars as "easily dying" is wholly exoteric and amusing, and doubtless arose from the fact that kumarais a word frequently used for child or boy, everybody knowing that young children "die easily." The ideatherefore is that purely spiritual beings, although ultimately destined by evolution to pass through therealms of matter, become mortal, i.e., material, only with difficulty.Agnishvatta has the meaning stated above, "delighted" or "pleased" or "sweetened," i.e., "purified" byfire -- which we may render in two ways: either as the fire of suffering and pain in material existenceproducing great fiber and strength of character, i.e., spirituality; or, perhaps still better from thestandpoint of occultism, as signifying an entity or entities who have become one in essence throughevolution with the aethery fire of spirit.Manasaputra is a compound of two words: manasa, "mental" or "intellectual," from the word manas,"mind," and putra, "son" or "child," therefore a child of the cosmic mind -- a "mind-born son" as H. P.Blavatsky phrases it. (See also Pitris, Lunar Pitris)
*[Agni]. Sri Aurobindo: "Agni is the leader of the sacrifice and protects it in the great journey against the powers of darkness. The knowledge and purpose of this divine Puissance can be entirely trusted; he is the friend and lover of the soul and will not betray it to evil gods. Even for the man sitting far off in the night, enveloped by the darkness of the human ignorance, this flame[Agni] is a light which, when it is perfectly kindled and in proportion as it mounts higher and higher, enlarges itself into the vast light of the Truth. Flaming upward to heaven to meet the divine Dawn, it rises through the vital or nervous mid-world and through our mental skies and enters at last the Paradise of Light, its own supreme home above where joyous for ever in the eternal Truth that is the foundation of the sempiternal Bliss the shining Immortals sit in their celestial sessions and drink the wine of the infinite beatitude.” *The Secret of the Veda
Agni: The Vedic god of fire.
Agni vaisvanara (Agni Vaishwanara) ::: 1. Agni as the universal in Man or universal Power. ::: 2. the heat that digests food.
Agni-Vayu (Agni-Vayu; Agni Vayu) ::: Agni2, the divine Force, workAgni-Vayu ing through the vital energy of Vayu2.Agni-V Agni-Vayu-Aryaman
Agni-Vishnu-Surya (Sanskrit) Agni-Viṣṇu-Sūrya [from agni fire + viṣṇu from the verbal root viś or the verbal root viṣ to pervade + sūrya sun] Fire-pervader-solar deity; this triad of gods is probably a permutation of the original Vedic triad Agni-Indra-Surya, having their influence and place respectively on earth, in the atmosphere, and in the sky. Agni-Vishnu-Surya has been called the “synthesis and head, or the focus whence emanated in physics as in metaphysics, from the Spiritual as from the physical Sun, the Seven Rays, the seven fiery tongues, the seven planets or gods” (SD 2:608).
Agni ::: Without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 15, Page: 379-80
bagnio ::: n. --> A house for bathing, sweating, etc.; -- also, in Turkey, a prison for slaves.
A brothel; a stew; a house of prostitution.
bain ::: n. --> A bath; a bagnio.
Barhishad (Sanskrit) Barhiṣad [from barhiṣ sacred kusa grass, fire + the verbal root sad to sit] Mystically, those who attend to or who are engrossed in domestic affairs, material or merely pragmatical concerns; those pitris (fathers, ancestors) who evolved the human astral-physical form. These lunar ancestors — seven or ten classes — evolved forth their astral bodies or chhayas (shadows), thus forming the first astral-physical races of humanity in which the higher classes of pitris, the agnishvattas, incarnated, thus making out of a relatively intellectually senseless mankind, true thinking human beings.
being, Master of ::: Sri Aurobindo: " Vamadeva goes on to say, "Let us give expression to this secret name of the clarity, — that is to say, let us bring out this Soma wine, this hidden delight of existence; let us hold it in this world-sacrifice by our surrenderings or submissions to Agni, the divine Will or Conscious-Power which is the Master of being.” The Secret of the Veda
betelguese ::: n. --> A bright star of the first magnitude, near one shoulder of Orion.
bhuta ::: 1. a becoming, an existence. ::: 2. an elemental power or spirit. ::: 3. an element; the five bhutas: elements, the five elemental states of substance: akasa, vayu, agni (tejas), apas (jala), prthivi. ::: bhutanam [genitive plural] ::: bhutani [nominative and accusative]
bhuta &
big ::: superl. --> Having largeness of size; of much bulk or magnitude; of great size; large.
Great with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce; -- often figuratively.
Having greatness, fullness, importance, inflation, distention, etc., whether in a good or a bad sense; as, a big heart; a big voice; big looks; to look big. As applied to looks, it indicates haughtiness or pride.
bisegment ::: n. --> One of tow equal parts of a line, or other magnitude.
brahmagni ::: the fire of the brahman. [cf. Gita 4.24, 25]
bravery ::: n. --> The quality of being brave; fearless; intrepidity.
The act of braving; defiance; bravado.
Splendor; magnificence; showy appearance; ostentation; fine dress.
A showy person; a fine gentleman; a beau.
bright ::: 1. Emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts; shining; radiant. 2. Magnificent; glorious. 3. Favourable or auspicious. 4. Fig. Characterized by happiness or gladness; full of promise and hope. 5. Distinct and clear to the mind, etc. 6. Intensely clear and vibrant in tone or quality. 7. Polished; glistening as with brilliant color. brighter, brightest, bright-hued, bright-pinioned, flame-bright, moon-bright, pearl-bright, sun-bright.
bulk ::: n. --> Magnitude of material substance; dimensions; mass; size; as, an ox or ship of great bulk.
The main mass or body; the largest or principal portion; the majority; as, the bulk of a debt.
The cargo of a vessel when stowed.
The body. ::: v. i.
canopus ::: n. --> A star of the first magnitude in the southern constellation Argo.
Category of Unity: Kant: The first of three a priori, quantitative (so-called "mathematical") categories (the others being "plurality" and "totality") from which is derived the synthetic principle, "All intuitions (appearances) are extensive magnitudes." By means of this principle Kant seeks to define the object of experience a priori with reference to its spatial features. See Crit. of pure Reason, B106, B202ff. -- O.F.K Catharsis: (Gr. katharsis) Purification; purgation; specifically the purging of the emotions of pity and fear effected by tragedy (Aristotle). -- G.R.M.
catus.t.aya (yoga chatushtaya) ::: the quaternary of yoga; another name for the siddhi catus.t.aya. yog yogagnimaya agnimaya sarira
cepheus ::: n. --> A northern constellation near the pole. Its head, which is in the Milky Way, is marked by a triangle formed by three stars of the fourth magnitude. See Cassiopeia.
cepstrum "mathematics" (Coined in a 1963 paper by Bogert, Healey, and Tukey) The {Fourier transform} of the log-magnitude spectrum: fFt(ln( | fFt(window . signal) | )) This function is used in {speech recognition} and possibly elsewhere. Note that the outer transform is NOT an inverse Fourier transform (as reported in many respectable DSP texts). [What's it for?] (1997-01-07)
C. In natural philosophy, power corresponds to effort, to the force applied to overcome resistance. More technically, it is the time rate of the performance of work, or the transfer of energy. In optics, power is the degree to which an optical instrument magnifies.
circumscription ::: n. --> An inscription written around anything.
The exterior line which determines the form or magnitude of a body; outline; periphery.
The act of limiting, or the state of being limited, by conditions or restraints; bound; confinement; limit.
complex number "mathematics" A number of the form x+iy where i is the square root of -1, and x and y are {real numbers}, known as the "real" and "imaginary" part. Complex numbers can be plotted as points on a two-dimensional plane, known as an {Argand diagram}, where x and y are the {Cartesian coordinates}. An alternative, {polar} notation, expresses a complex number as (r e^it) where e is the base of {natural logarithms}, and r and t are real numbers, known as the magnitude and phase. The two forms are related: r e^it = r cos(t) + i r sin(t) = x + i y where x = r cos(t) y = r sin(t) All solutions of any {polynomial equation} can be expressed as complex numbers. This is the so-called {Fundamental Theorem of Algebra}, first proved by Cauchy. Complex numbers are useful in many fields of physics, such as electromagnetism because they are a useful way of representing a magnitude and phase as a single quantity. (1995-04-10)
cosmic Will ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Agni is the Deva, the All-Seer, manifested as conscious-force or, as it would be called in modern language, Divine or Cosmic Will, first hidden and building up the eternal worlds, then manifest, ``born"", building up in man the Truth and the Immortality.” *The Secret of the Veda
Crescas, Don Hasdai: (1340-1410) Jewish philosopher and theologian. He was the first European thinker to criticize Aristotelian cosmology and establish the probability of the existence of an infinite magnitude and of infinite space, thus paving the way for the modern conception of the universe. He also took exception to the entire trend of the philosophy of Maimonides, namely its extreme rationalism, and endeavored to inject the emotional element into religious contemplation, and make love an attribute of God and the source of His creative activity. He also expressed original views on the problems of freedom and creation. He undoubtedly exerted influence on Spinoza who quotes him by name in the formulation of some of his theories. See Jewish Philosophy. Cf. H. A. Wolfson, Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, 1929. -- M.W.
Dadhikravan ::: the divine warhorse, a power of Agni. [Ved.]
degrade ::: v. t. --> To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to lower in rank; to deprive of office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer.
To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man.
To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and
Descent of the Force . Force descending into the head ::: it has two sides to it ::: one is peace and when that is prominent, there is the sense of coolness ; when there is a strong dynamic action instead, the feeling may be of heat, Agni-pow’cr.
De Scorraille, R., F. Suarez, de la Compagnie de Jesus, 2 vols. (Paris, 1912).
deva Agni ::: the god Agni2; the deva as "a flaming Force of knowledge".
D. Interpretations of Probability. The methods and results of mathematical probability (and of probability in general) are the subject of much controversy as regards their interpretation and value. Among the various theories proposed, we shall consider the following Probability as a measure of belief, probability as the relative frequency of events, probability as the truth-frequency of types of argument, probability as a primitive notion, probability as an operational concept, probability as a limit of frequencies, and probability as a physical magnitude determined by axioms. I. Probability as a Measure of Belief: According to this theory, probability is the measure or relative degree of rational credence to be attached to facts or statements on the strength of valid motives. This type of probability is sometimes difficult to estimate, as it may be qualitative as well as quantitative. When considered in its mathematical aspects, the measure of probable inference depends on the preponderance or failure of operative causes or observed occurrences of the case under investigation. This conception involves axioms leading to the classic rule of Laplace, namely: The measure of probability of any one of mutually exclusive and apriori equiprobable possibilities, is the ratio of the number of favorable possibilities to the total number of possibilities. In probability operations, this rule is taken as the definition of direct probability for those cases where it is applicable. The main objections against this interpretation are: that probability is largely subjective, or at least independent of direct experience; that equiprobability is taken as an apriori notion, although the ways of asserting it are empirical; that the conditions of valid equiprobability are not stated definitely; that equiprobability is difficult to determine actually in all cases; that it is difficult to attach an adequate probability to a complex event from the mere knowledge of the probabilities of its component parts, and that the notion of probability is not general, as it does not cover such cases as the inductive derivation of probabilities from statistical data. II. Probability as a Relative Frequency. This interpretation is based on the nature of events, and not on any subjective considerations. It deals with the rate with which an event will occur in a class of events. Hence, it considers probability as the ratio of frequency of true results to true conditions, and it gives as its measure the relative frequency leading from true conditions to true results. What is meant when a set of calculations predict that an experiment will yield a result A with probability P, is that the relative frequency of A is expected to approximate the number P in a long series of such experiments. This conception seems to be more concerned with empirical probabilities, because the calculations assumed are mostly based on statistical data or material assumptions suggested by past experiments. It is valuable in so far as it satisfies the practical necessity of considering probability aggregates in such problems. The main objections against this interpretation are: that it does not seem capable of expressing satisfactorily what is meant by the probability of an event being true; that its conclusions are more or less probable, owing to the difficulty of defining a proper standard for comparing ratios; that neither its rational nor its statistical evidence is made clear; that the degree of relevance of that evidence is not properly determined, on account of the theoretical indefinite ness of both the true numerical value of the probability and of the evidence assumed, and that it is operational in form only, but not in fact, because it involves the infinite without proper limitations. III. Probability as Truth-Frequency of Types of Arguments: In this interpretation, which is due mainly to Peirce and Venn, probability is shifted from the events to the propositions about them; instead of considering types and classes of events, it considers types and classes of propositions. Probability is thus the ability to give an objective reading to the relative tiuth of propositions dealing with singular events. This ability can be used successfully in interpreting definite and indefinite numerical probabilities, by taking statistical evaluations and making appropriate verbal changes in their formulation. Once assessed, the relative truth of the propositions considered can be communicated to facts expressed by these propositions. But neither the propositions nor the facts as such have a probability in themselves. With these assumptions, a proposition has a degree of probability, only if it is considered as a member of a class of propositions; and that degree is expressed by the proportion of true propositions to the total number of propositions in the class. Hence, probability is the ratio of true propositions to all the propositions of the class examined, if the class is finite, or to all the propositions of the same type in the long run, if the class is infinite. In the first case, fair sampling may cover the restrictions of a finite class; in the second case, the use of infinite series offers a practical limitation for the evidence considered. But in both cases, probability varies with the class or type chosen, and probability-inferences are limited by convention to those cases where numerical values can be assigned to the ratios considered. It will be observed that this interpretation of probability is similar to the relative frequency theory. The difference between these two theories is more formal than material in both cases the probability refers ultimately to kinds of evidence based on objective matter of fact. Hence the Truth-Frequency theory is open to the sime objections as the Relative-Frequency theory, with proper adjustments. An additional difficulty of this theory is that the pragmatic interpretation of truth it involves, has yet to be proved, and the situation is anything but improved by assimilating truth with probability.
divine ::: adj. **1. Of or pertaining to God or the Supreme Being. 2. Of, relating to, emanating from, or being the expression of a deity. 3. Being in the service or worship of a deity; sacred. 4. Heavenly, celestial. 5. Supremely good or beautiful; magnificent. diviner, divinest, divinely, half-divine. v. 6. To perceive by intuition or insight. divines, divined, divining.**
dragon of the dark foundation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother, Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, Master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, — Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.” The Secret of the Veda
dynameter ::: n. --> A dynamometer.
An instrument for determining the magnifying power of telescopes, consisting usually of a doubleimage micrometer applied to the eye end of a telescope for measuring accurately the diameter of the image of the object glass there formed; which measurement, compared with the actual diameter of the glass, gives the magnifying power.
egotism ::: n. --> The practice of too frequently using the word I; hence, a speaking or writing overmuch of one&
egotist ::: n. --> One addicted to egotism; one who speaks much of himself or magnifies his own achievements or affairs.
electron model "electronics" A {model} of {semiconductor} behaviour in which {donors} contribute the {charge} of an {electron}, and {acceptors} contribute a space for same, in effect contributing a fictional positive charge of similiar magnitude. Physicists use the {electron model}. Some language theorists consider language and the {electron} to be {models} in themselves. Contrast {hole model}. (1995-10-06)
elements ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The first ripple or vibration in causal matter creates a new and exceedingly fine and pervasive condition of matter called Akasha or Ether; more complex motion evolves out of Ether a somewhat intenser condition which is called Vayu, Air; and so by ever more complex motion with increasing intensity of condition for result, yet three other matter-states are successively developed, Agni or Fire, Apah or Water and Prithvi or Earth.” *Supplement to the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library
elements ::: “The first ripple or vibration in causal matter creates a new and exceedingly fine and pervasive condition of matter called Akasha or Ether; more complex motion evolves out of Ether a somewhat intenser condition which is called Vayu, Air; and so by ever more complex motion with increasing intensity of condition for result, yet three other matter-states are successively developed, Agni or Fire, Apah or Water and Prithvi or Earth.” Supplement to the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library
enlarge ::: v. t. --> To make larger; to increase in quantity or dimensions; to extend in limits; to magnify; as, the body is enlarged by nutrition; to enlarge one&
equal ::: a. --> Agreeing in quantity, size, quality, degree, value, etc.; having the same magnitude, the same value, the same degree, etc.; -- applied to number, degree, quantity, and intensity, and to any subject which admits of them; neither inferior nor superior, greater nor less, better nor worse; corresponding; alike; as, equal quantities of land, water, etc. ; houses of equal size; persons of equal stature or talents; commodities of equal value.
Bearing a suitable relation; of just proportion; having
equality ::: n. --> The condition or quality of being equal; agreement in quantity or degree as compared; likeness in bulk, value, rank, properties, etc.; as, the equality of two bodies in length or thickness; an equality of rights.
Sameness in state or continued course; evenness; uniformity; as, an equality of temper or constitution.
Evenness; uniformity; as, an equality of surface.
Exact agreement between two expressions or magnitudes
equivalent ::: a. --> Equal in wortir or value, force, power, effect, import, and the like; alike in significance and value; of the same import or meaning.
Equal in measure but not admitting of superposition; -- applied to magnitudes; as, a square may be equivalent to a triangle.
Contemporaneous in origin; as, the equivalent strata of different countries.
estimation ::: v. t. --> The act of estimating.
An opinion or judgment of the worth, extent, or quantity of anything, formed without using precise data; valuation; as, estimations of distance, magnitude, amount, or moral qualities.
Favorable opinion; esteem; regard; honor.
Supposition; conjecture.
exaggerate ::: v. t. --> To heap up; to accumulate.
To amplify; to magnify; to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth ; to delineate extravagantly ; to overstate the truth concerning.
exalt ::: v. t. --> To raise high; to elevate; to lift up.
To elevate in rank, dignity, power, wealth, character, or the like; to dignify; to promote; as, to exalt a prince to the throne, a citizen to the presidency.
To elevate by prise or estimation; to magnify; to extol; to glorify.
To lift up with joy, pride, or success; to inspire with delight or satisfaction; to elate.
extended ::: 1. Spread out or elongated in breadth or length. 2. Fully extended or stretched forth. 3. Widespread or extensive; having extension or spatial magnitude.
extent ::: the range, magnitude, or distance over which a thing extends.
extol ::: v. t. --> To place on high; to lift up; to elevate.
To elevate by praise; to eulogize; to praise; to magnify; as, to extol virtue; to extol an act or a person.
feaster ::: n. --> One who fares deliciously.
One who entertains magnificently.
figure ::: n. --> The form of anything; shape; outline; appearance.
The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modeling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body; as, a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble.
A pattern in cloth, paper, or other manufactured article; a design wrought out in a fabric; as, the muslin was of a pretty figure.
A diagram or drawing; made to represent a magnitude or the relation of two or more magnitudes; a surface or space inclosed on all
Fire is spoken of as the Primary in the Stanzas of Dzyan: “The Spirit, beyond manifested Nature, is the fiery breath in its absolute Unity. In the manifested Universe, it is the Central Spiritual Sun, the electric Fire of all Life. In our System it is the visible Sun, the Spirit of Nature, the terrestrial god. And in, on, and around the Earth, the fiery Spirit thereof — air, fluidic fire; water, liquid fire; Earth, solid fire. All is fire — ignis, in its ultimate constitution, or I, the root of which is 0 (nought) in our conceptions, the All in nature and its mind. Pro-Mater is divine fire. It is the Creator, the Destroyer, the Preserver. The primitive names of the gods are all connected with fire, from Agni, the Aryan, to the Jewish god who ‘is a consuming fire’ ” (ibid.).
flame (Agni)
fomalhaut ::: n. --> A star of the first magnitude, in the constellation Piscis Australis, or Southern Fish.
fraction ::: n. --> The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
A portion; a fragment.
One or more aliquot parts of a unit or whole number; an expression for a definite portion of a unit or magnitude. ::: v. t.
gallant ::: a. --> Showy; splendid; magnificent; gay; well-dressed.
Noble in bearing or spirit; brave; high-spirited; courageous; heroic; magnanimous; as, a gallant youth; a gallant officer.
Polite and attentive to ladies; courteous to women; chivalrous. ::: n.
generate ::: v. t. --> To beget; to procreate; to propagate; to produce (a being similar to the parent); to engender; as, every animal generates its own species.
To cause to be; to bring into life.
To originate, especially by a vital or chemical process; to produce; to cause.
To trace out, as a line, figure, or solid, by the motion of a point or a magnitude of inferior order.
generatrix ::: n. --> That which generates; the point, or the mathematical magnitude, which, by its motion, generates another magnitude, as a line, surface, or solid; -- called also describent.
geometry ::: n. --> That branch of mathematics which investigates the relations, properties, and measurement of solids, surfaces, lines, and angles; the science which treats of the properties and relations of magnitudes; the science of the relations of space.
A treatise on this science.
gigantesque ::: a. --> Befitting a giant; bombastic; magniloquent.
glamour ::: n. --> A charm affecting the eye, making objects appear different from what they really are.
Witchcraft; magic; a spell.
A kind of haze in the air, causing things to appear different from what they really are.
Any artificial interest in, or association with, an object, through which it appears delusively magnified or glorified.
glorify ::: v. t. --> To make glorious by bestowing glory upon; to confer honor and distinction upon; to elevate to power or happiness, or to celestial glory.
To make glorious in thought or with the heart, by ascribing glory to; to asknowledge the excellence of; to render homage to; to magnify in worship; to adore.
glorious ::: 1. Full of glory. 2. Brilliantly beautiful or magnificent; splendid. gloriously.
gorgeous ::: dazzlingly beautiful or magnificent.
gorgeous ::: n. --> Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent.
grandeur ::: 1. Nobility or greatness of character. 2. The quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand. Grandeur, grandeur"s, grandeurs.
grandeur ::: n. --> The state or quality of being grand; vastness; greatness; splendor; magnificence; stateliness; sublimity; dignity; elevation of thought or expression; nobility of action.
grand ::: superl. --> Of large size or extent; great; extensive; hence, relatively great; greatest; chief; principal; as, a grand mountain; a grand army; a grand mistake.
Great in size, and fine or imposing in appearance or impression; illustrious, dignifled, or noble (said of persons); majestic, splendid, magnificent, or sublime (said of things); as, a grand monarch; a grand lord; a grand general; a grand view; a grand conception.
graphoscope ::: n. --> An optical instrument for magnifying engravings, photographs, etc., usually having one large lens and two smaller ones.
guest ::: Sri Aurobindo: " When the Rishis speak of Indra or Agni or Soma in men, they are speaking of the god in his cosmic presence, power or function. This is evident from the very language when they speak of Agni as the immortal in mortals, the immortal Light in men, the inner Warrior, the Guest in human beings.” *Letters on Yoga
Guest ::: “ When the Rishis speak of Indra or Agni or Soma in men, they are speaking of the god in his cosmic presence, power or function. This is evident from the very language when they speak of Agni as the immortal in mortals, the immortal Light in men, the inner Warrior, the Guest in human beings.” Letters on Yoga
HAKMEM "publication" /hak'mem/ MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A legendary collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT and elsewhere. (The title of the memo really is "HAKMEM", which is a 6-letterism for "hacks memo".) Some of them are very useful techniques, powerful theorems, or interesting unsolved problems, but most fall into the category of mathematical and computer trivia. Here is a sampling of the entries (with authors), slightly paraphrased: Item 41 (Gene Salamin): There are exactly 23,000 prime numbers less than 2^18. Item 46 (Rich Schroeppel): The most *probable* suit distribution in bridge hands is 4-4-3-2, as compared to 4-3-3-3, which is the most *evenly* distributed. This is because the world likes to have unequal numbers: a thermodynamic effect saying things will not be in the state of lowest energy, but in the state of lowest disordered energy. Item 81 (Rich Schroeppel): Count the magic squares of order 5 (that is, all the 5-by-5 arrangements of the numbers from 1 to 25 such that all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same number). There are about 320 million, not counting those that differ only by rotation and reflection. Item 154 (Bill Gosper): The myth that any given programming language is machine independent is easily exploded by computing the sum of powers of 2. If the result loops with period = 1 with sign +, you are on a sign-magnitude machine. If the result loops with period = 1 at -1, you are on a twos-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, including the beginning, you are on a ones-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, not including the beginning, your machine isn't binary - the pattern should tell you the base. If you run out of memory, you are on a string or bignum system. If arithmetic overflow is a fatal error, some fascist pig with a read-only mind is trying to enforce machine independence. But the very ability to trap overflow is machine dependent. By this strategy, consider the universe, or, more precisely, algebra: Let X = the sum of many powers of 2 = ...111111 (base 2). Now add X to itself: X + X = ...111110. Thus, 2X = X - 1, so X = -1. Therefore algebra is run on a machine (the universe) that is two's-complement. Item 174 (Bill Gosper and Stuart Nelson): 21963283741 is the only number such that if you represent it on the {PDP-10} as both an integer and a {floating-point} number, the bit patterns of the two representations are identical. Item 176 (Gosper): The "banana phenomenon" was encountered when processing a character string by taking the last 3 letters typed out, searching for a random occurrence of that sequence in the text, taking the letter following that occurrence, typing it out, and iterating. This ensures that every 4-letter string output occurs in the original. The program typed BANANANANANANANA.... We note an ambiguity in the phrase, "the Nth occurrence of." In one sense, there are five 00's in 0000000000; in another, there are nine. The editing program TECO finds five. Thus it finds only the first ANA in BANANA, and is thus obligated to type N next. By Murphy's Law, there is but one NAN, thus forcing A, and thus a loop. An option to find overlapped instances would be useful, although it would require backing up N - 1 characters before seeking the next N-character string. Note: This last item refers to a {Dissociated Press} implementation. See also {banana problem}. HAKMEM also contains some rather more complicated mathematical and technical items, but these examples show some of its fun flavour. HAKMEM is available from MIT Publications as a {TIFF} file. {(ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker)}. (1996-01-19)
handwave [possibly from gestures characteristic of stage magicians] To gloss over a complex point; to distract a listener; to support a (possibly actually valid) point with blatantly faulty logic. If someone starts a sentence with "Clearly..." or "Obviously..." or "It is self-evident that...", it is a good bet he is about to handwave (alternatively, use of these constructions in a sarcastic tone before a paraphrase of someone else's argument suggests that it is a handwave). The theory behind this term is that if you wave your hands at the right moment, the listener may be sufficiently distracted to not notice that what you have said is wrong. Failing that, if a listener does object, you might try to dismiss the objection with a wave of your hand. The use of this word is often accompanied by gestures: both hands up, palms forward, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting at the elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the handwave); alternatively, holding the forearms in one position while rotating the hands at the wrist to make them flutter. In context, the gestures alone can suffice as a remark; if a speaker makes an outrageously unsupported assumption, you might simply wave your hands in this way, as an accusation, far more eloquent than words could express, that his logic is faulty. [{Jargon File}]
Hebbian learning "artificial intelligence" The most common way to train a {neural network}; a kind of {unsupervised learning}; named after canadian neuropsychologist, Donald O. Hebb. The {algorithm} is based on Hebb's Postulate, which states that where one cell's firing repeatedly contributes to the firing of another cell, the magnitude of this contribution will tend to increase gradually with time. This means that what may start as little more than a coincidental relationship between the firing of two nearby neurons becomes strongly causal. Despite limitations with Hebbian learning, e.g., the inability to learn certain patterns, variations such as {Signal Hebbian Learning} and {Differential Hebbian Learning} are still used. {(http://neuron-ai.tuke.sk/NCS/VOL1/P3_html/node14.html)}. (2003-11-07)
High bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line "communications, protocol" (HDSL) A form of {Digital Subscriber Line}, providing {T1} or {E1} connections over two or three {twisted-pair} copper lines, respectively. Unlike most other forms of DSL HDSL is not a typical consumer service, it's used mostly to replace traditional T1/E1 connections, such as connecting {PBXes} to {telco} offices. The advantage of HDSL over the {Alternate Mark Inversion} line coding scheme traditionally used on T1/E1 lines is that it requires about an order of magnitude lower bandwidth to carry the same traffic. (1998-05-18)
hole model "electronics" A {model} of semiconductor behaviour in which {donors} contribute a positive charge equal in magnitude to the charge of an {electron}, and {acceptors} contribute space for such a charge within the crystal lattice. The hole model was proposed well before electrons were discovered and described. Much of {electronics}, especially at the engineering level, continues to consider {current} as flowing from positive to negative. (1995-10-05)
hothouse ::: n. --> A house kept warm to shelter tender plants and shrubs from the cold air; a place in which the plants of warmer climates may be reared, and fruits ripened.
A bagnio, or bathing house.
A brothel; a bagnio.
A heated room for drying green ware.
How these magnificent lines from Savitri continue to reverberate in the mind and heart and soul I do not know. I know only this, that Savitri, as Mother has said, is”a mantra for the transformation of the world.” As understanding grows within, not in the mind but in the inner cathedral which is always drenched in light, certain lines repeat themselves as mantra and I share what comes to me in a spirit of wonder and hushed elation.
humble ::: superl. --> Near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; as, a humble cottage.
Thinking lowly of one&
. ima agni ::: the fire of an.ima.
imperial ::: 1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of an empire or a sovereign, especially an emperor or empress. 2. Regal; majestic. 3. Something magnificent or outstanding in size or quality.
incommensurable ::: lacking a common quality on which to make a comparison of magnitude or value. Incommensurable.
In connection with man, the kabiri are the four lower classes of spiritual entities otherwise known as pitris, kumaras, and agnishvattas — all children of kosmic mahat. These divinities, although minor gods compared with the twelve great gods, were nevertheless held in the highest veneration particularly by those who were initiated into their Mysteries. Herodotus speaks of them and their functions with great reserve, but refers to them as being fire gods — which they were because cosmically representing the divine powers of the creative intellectual fire which in humanity works in similar fashion as the intellectual fire- or solar pitris. Their human influence is connected directly with manas and buddhi-manas.
Indra ::: "the Puissant", a Vedic god, lord of svar, the luminous world; the deva as "the master of mental force". As Agni2 "is one pole of Force instinct with knowledge that sends its current upward from earth to heaven, so Indra is the other pole of Light instinct with force which descends from heaven to earth"; he "comes down into our world as the Hero" and "slays darkness and division with his lightnings, pours down the life-giving heavenly waters [svarvatir apah.], finds in the trace of the hound, Intuition [Sarama], the lost or hidden illuminations, makes the Sun of Truth [sūrya1] mount high in the heaven of our mentality".
ingreat ::: v. t. --> To make great; to enlarge; to magnify.
::: In India"s languages, they have this OM … which is a marvel. You know what they say? That OM is the totality of the sounds of the creation perceived by the Supreme; He hears OM as a call to Him—as an idea, it"s magnificent! As a symbol, as a … Only …
In India’s languages, they have this OM … which is a marvel. You know what they say? That OM is the totality of the sounds of the creation perceived by the Supreme; He hears OM as a call to Him—as an idea, it’s magnificent! As a symbol, as a … Only …
inspiring mingled reverence and admiration; impressing the emotions or imagination as magnificent; majestic, stately, sublime, solemnly grand; venerable, revered; of supreme dignity.
INTEGRAL YOGA ::: This yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality; its object is to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ānanda. But for that, the surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to the Higher Consciousnessis indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a Supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the call to such a change should enter into this yoga.
Aim of the Integral Yoga ::: It is not merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter.
Conditions of the Integral Yoga ::: This yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human ego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. It cannot be done in a spirit of levity or laxity; the work is too high and difficult, the adverse powers in the lower Nature too ready to take advantage of the least sanction or the smallest opening, the aspiration and tapasyā needed too constant and intense.
Method in the Integral Yoga ::: To concentrate, preferably in the heart and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. One can concentrate also in the head or between the eye-brows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is the beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother’s Power and Presence.
Integral method ::: The method we have to pursue is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform Our entire being into His, so that in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sādhaka of the sādhana* as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.
In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sādhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for the weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It” makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills.” The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a Succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.
Secondly, the process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organised by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all to undergo a divine change. Everything in us is seized by the hands of a mighty Artificer and transformed into a clear image of that which it now seeks confusedly to present. In that ever-progressive experience we begin to perceive how this lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less distorted or imperfect figure of some elements or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin to understand what the Vedic Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefathers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy.
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every inner experience, even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. And we recognise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and miserable. We see the divine method to be the same in the lower and in the higher working; only in the one it is pursued tardily and obscurely through the subconscious in Nature, in the other it becomes swift and selfconscious and the instrument confesses the hand of the Master. All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
Key-methods ::: The way to devotion and surrender. It is the psychic movement that brings the constant and pure devotion and the removal of the ego that makes it possible to surrender.
The way to knowledge. Meditation in the head by which there comes the opening above, the quietude or silence of the mind and the descent of peace etc. of the higher consciousness generally till it envelops the being and fills the body and begins to take up all the movements.
Yoga by works ::: Separation of the Purusha from the Prakriti, the inner silent being from the outer active one, so that one has two consciousnesses or a double consciousness, one behind watching and observing and finally controlling and changing the other which is active in front. The other way of beginning the yoga of works is by doing them for the Divine, for the Mother, and not for oneself, consecrating and dedicating them till one concretely feels the Divine Force taking up the activities and doing them for one.
Object of the Integral Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine’s sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.
Principle of the Integral Yoga ::: The whole principle of Integral Yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother all the transcendent light, power, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ānanda of the Supramental Divine.
Central purpose of the Integral Yoga ::: Transformation of our superficial, narrow and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life.
Fundamental realisations of the Integral Yoga ::: The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness.
Results ::: First, an integral realisation of Divine Being; not only a realisation of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary to the complete knowledge of it by the relative consciousness; not only realisation of unity in the Self, but of unity in the infinite diversity of activities, worlds and creatures.
Therefore, also, an integral liberation. Not only the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujya mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; not only the sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda ; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
By this integral realisation and liberation, the perfect harmony of the results of Knowledge, Love and Works. For there is attained the complete release from ego and identification in being with the One in all and beyond all. But since the attaining consciousness is not limited by its attainment, we win also the unity in Beatitude and the harmonised diversity in Love, so that all relations of the play remain possible to us even while we retain on the heights of our being the eternal oneness with the Beloved. And by a similar wideness, being capable of a freedom in spirit that embraces life and does not depend upon withdrawal from life, we are able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. In integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine Being in ourselves and on the other the perfect outpouring of its Truth and Law in us in the terms of life and through the right functioning of the complex instrument we are in our outer parts, is the condition of an integral liberty. Its result is an integral beatitude, in which there becomes possible at once the Ānanda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ānanda of that which is not-world. And it prepares the integral perfection of our humanity as a type of the Divine in the conditions of the human manifestation, a perfection founded on a certain free universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unegoistic action. This integrality also can be attained by the integral Yoga.
Sādhanā of the Integral Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by a self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come.
The yoga does not proceed by upadeśa but by inner influence.
Integral Yoga and Gita ::: The Gita’s Yoga consists in the offering of one’s work as a sacrifice to the Divine, the conquest of desire, egoless and desireless action, bhakti for the Divine, an entering into the cosmic consciousness, the sense of unity with all creatures, oneness with the Divine. This yoga adds the bringing down of the supramental Light and Force (its ultimate aim) and the transformation of the nature.
Our yoga is not identical with the yoga of the Gita although it contains all that is essential in the Gita’s yoga. In our yoga we begin with the idea, the will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature. If we do not do this double movement, we are in danger of making a tamasic and therefore unreal surrender, making no effort, no tapas and therefore no progress ; or else we make a rajasic surrender not to the Divine but to some self-made false idea or image of the Divine which masks our rajasic ego or something still worse.
Integral Yoga, Gita and Tantra ::: The Gita follows the Vedantic tradition which leans entirely on the Ishvara aspect of the Divine and speaks little of the Divine Mother because its object is to draw back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation beyond it.
The Tantric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishvari aspect and makes all depend on the Divine Mother because its object is to possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation through it.
This yoga insists on both the aspects; the surrender to the Divine Mother is essential, for without it there is no fulfilment of the object of the yoga.
Integral Yoga and Hatha-Raja Yogas ::: For an integral yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. Their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psychophysical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action. Integral Yoga and Kundalini Yoga: There is a feeling of waves surging up, mounting to the head, which brings an outer unconsciousness and an inner waking. It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the ādhāra to meet the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on which so much stress is laid in the Tantric process, the awakening of the Kundalini, the Energy coiled up and latent in the body and its mounting through the spinal cord and the centres (cakras) and the Brahmarandhra to meet the Divine above. In our yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous upnish of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves, sometimes in a less concrete motion, and on the other side a descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force into the body.
Integral Yoga and other Yogas ::: The old yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence), absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-exist- ence, absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the Supramcntal plane.
The suprcfhe supra-cosmic Sachchidananda is above all. Supermind may be described as its power of self-awareness and W’orld- awareness, the world being known as within itself and not out- side. So to live consciously in the supreme Sachchidananda one must pass through the Supermind.
Distinction ::: The realisation of Self and of the Cosmic being (without which the realisation of the Self is incomplete) are essential steps in our yoga ; it is the end of other yogas, but it is, as it were, the beginning of outs, that is to say, the point where its own characteristic realisation can commence.
It is new as compared with the old yogas (1) Because it aims not at a departure out of world and life into Heaven and Nir- vana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object.
If there is a descent in other yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent — the ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent is the first step, but it is a means for the descent. It is the descent of the new coosdousness attain- ed by the ascent that is the stamp and seal of the sadhana. Even the Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the release from life ; here the object is the divine fulfilment of life.
(2) Because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realisation for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth-consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic acbievement. The thing to be gained also is the bringing of a Power of consciousness (the Supramental) not yet organised or active directly in earth-nature, even in the spiritual life, but yet to be organised and made directly active.
(3) Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, viz., the total and integral change of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods, but only as a part action and present aid to others that are distinctive.
Integral Yoga and Patanjali Yoga ::: Cilia is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness out of which arise the movements of thought, emotion, sensation, impulse etc.
It is these that in the Patanjali system have to be stilled altogether so that the consciousness may be immobile and go into Samadhi.
Our yoga has a different function. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.
intensity ::: n. --> The state or quality of being intense; intenseness; extreme degree; as, intensity of heat, cold, mental application, passion, etc.
The amount or degree of energy with which a force operates or a cause acts; effectiveness, as estimated by results produced.
The magnitude of a distributed force, as pressure, stress, weight, etc., per unit of surface, or of volume, as the case
Interval Scale ::: Any scale of measurement possessing magnitude and equal intervals, but not an absolute zero.
In the Puranas, Agni is variously a rishi of the fourth manvantara, the name of a kalpa, and also a star. See also FIRE.
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).
In the Puranas, the agnishvattas are identified with the seasons, and are spoken of as one of the classes of deities presiding over the cyclic divisions of the year.
ita palm ::: --> A magnificent species of palm (Mauritia flexuosa), growing near the Orinoco. The natives eat its fruit and buds, drink its sap, and make thread and cord from its fiber.
“It thus becomes clear why the Agnishwatta, devoid of the grosser creative fire, hence unable to create physical man, having no double, or astral body, to project, since they were without any form, are shown in exoteric allegories as Yogis, Kumaras (chaste youths), who became ‘rebels,’ Asuras, fighting and opposing gods . . . Yet it is they alone who could complete man, i.e., make of him a self-conscious, almost a divine being — a god on Earth. The Barhishad, though possessed of creative fire, were devoid of the higher mahat-mic element. Being on a level with the lower principles — those which precede gross objective matter — they could only give birth to the outer man, or rather to the model of the physical, the astral man” (SD 2:78-9). The barhishads “could only create, or rather clothe, the human Monads with their own astral Selves, but they could not make man in their image and likeness. ‘Man must not be like one of us,’ say the creative gods, entrusted with the fabrication of the lower animal but higher; . . . Their creating the semblance of men out of their own divine Essence means, esoterically, that it is they who became the first Race, and thus shared its destiny and further evolution. They would not, simply because they could not, give to man that sacred spark which burns and expands into the flower of human reason and self-consciousness, for they had it not to give” (SD 2:94-5).
jatavedas ::: knower of all things born (a Vedic epithet of Agni2). jatavedas
Jatavedas ::: knower of the births (the worlds); [a Vedic epithet of Agni].
Jhumur: “This Grandeur is the craftsman who labours at his high and difficult plan and then he begins to outline his dreamed magnificence of things to be. He remains hidden in the magic stuff of self so he is masked, he is hidden. In himself, in his essence he is the Supreme, therefore he is the Grandeur.”
largeness ::: large or extensive in breadth or importance, comprehensiveness or magnitude. largenesses.
least ::: 1. Lowest in importance or rank. 2. Smallest in magnitude or degree. 3. To or in the lowest or smallest degree.
lens ::: a ground or moulded piece of glass, plastic, or other transparent material with opposite surfaces either or both of which are curved, by means of which light rays are refracted so that they converge or diverge to form an image as for magnification, or in correcting defects of vision.
lens ::: n. --> A piece of glass, or other transparent substance, ground with two opposite regular surfaces, either both curved, or one curved and the other plane, and commonly used, either singly or combined, in optical instruments, for changing the direction of rays of light, and thus magnifying objects, or otherwise modifying vision. In practice, the curved surfaces are usually spherical, though rarely cylindrical, or of some other figure.
lessen ::: a. --> To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune. ::: v. i. --> To become less; to shrink; to contract; to decrease; to be diminished; as, the apparent magnitude of objects lessens as we
lineal ::: a. --> Descending in a direct line from an ancestor; hereditary; derived from ancestors; -- opposed to collateral; as, a lineal descent or a lineal descendant.
Inheriting by direct descent; having the right by direct descent to succeed (to).
Composed of lines; delineated; as, lineal designs.
In the direction of a line; of or pertaining to a line; measured on, or ascertained by, a line; linear; as, lineal magnitude.
looming ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Loom ::: n. --> The indistinct and magnified appearance of objects seen in particular states of the atmosphere. See Mirage.
Lorem ipsum "text" A common piece of text used as mock-{content} when testing a given page layout or {font}. The following text is often used: "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetaur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." This continues at length and variously. The text is not really Greek, but badly garbled Latin. It started life as extracted phrases from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of Cicero's "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" ("The Extremes of Good and Evil"), which read: Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur? At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio cumque nihil impedit quo minus id quod maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat. Translation: But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains. -- Translation by H. Rackham, from his 1914 edition of De Finibus. However, since textual fidelity was unimportant to the goal of having {random} text to fill a page, it has degraded over the centuries, into "Lorem ipsum...". The point of using this text, or some other text of incidental intelligibility, is that it has a more-or-less normal (for English and Latin, at least) distribution of ascenders, descenders, and word-lengths, as opposed to just using "abc 123 abc 123", "Content here content here", or the like. The text is often used when previewing the layout of a document, as the use of more understandable text would distract the user from the layout being examined. A related technique is {greeking}. {Lorem Ipsum - All the facts (http://lipsum.com/)}. (2006-09-18)
loss "jargon" Something (not a person) that loses; a situation in which something is losing. Emphatic forms include "moby loss", and "total loss", "complete loss". Common interjections are "What a loss!" and "What a moby loss!" Note that "moby loss" is OK even though **"moby loser" is not used; applied to an abstract noun, moby is simply a magnifier, whereas when applied to a person it implies substance and has positive connotations. Compare {lossage}. (1995-04-19)
Lunar Pitri(s) ::: Lunar of course means "belonging to the moon," while pitri is a Sanskrit word meaning "father." It is aterm used in theosophy to signify the seven or ten grades of evolving entities which at the end of thelunar manvantara pass into a nirvanic state, to leave it aeons later as the seven or tenfold hierarchy ofbeings which inform the planetary chain of earth. In a general sense lunar pitris means all entities whichoriginally came from the moon-chain to the earth-chain; but in a more particular and restricted sense itrefers to those elements of the human constitution beneath the evolutionary standing of the agnishvattas.Another term for lunar pitris is lunar ancestors or barhishads. These lunar ancestors are usually given asof seven classes, three being arupa, incorporeal, and four being rupa or corporeal. There is a vast body ofteaching connected with the lunar pitris, of which the best modern exposition thus far given is to befound in H. P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine. Briefly, the earth-chain including our own globe Terrawas populated from the moon-chain, because all entities now on earth, whatever their grade in evolution,came from the chain of the moon. (See also Pitris, Agnishvattas)
lyra ::: n. --> A northern constellation, the Harp, containing a white star of the first magnitude, called Alpha Lyrae, or Vega.
The middle portion of the ventral surface of the fornix of the brain; -- so called from the arrangement of the lines with which it is marked in the human brain.
Madhav: “The House of Flame is the plenary manifestation of Agni, the Mystic Fire of which the Seers of the Veda speak. Here blazes the Divine Consciousness in its incandescent purity.” The Book of the Divine Mother
magnifiable ::: a. --> Such as can be magnified, or extolled.
magnific ::: a. --> Alt. of Magnifical
magnifical ::: a. --> Grand; splendid; illustrious; magnificent.
magnificate ::: v. t. --> To magnify or extol.
magnification ::: n. --> The act of magnifying; enlargement; exaggeration.
magnificat ::: n. --> The song of the Virgin Mary, Luke i. 46; -- so called because it commences with this word in the Vulgate.
magnificence ::: 1. The quality or state of being magnificent; splendour, grandeur; sublimity, majesty. 2. Greatness or lavishness of surroundings; splendor; luxuriousness, opulence.
magnificence ::: n. --> The act of doing what magnificent; the state or quality of being magnificent.
magnificent ::: 1. Making a splendid appearance or show; of exceptional beauty, size, etc. 2. Extraordinarily fine; superb. 3. Noble; sublime. magnificently.
magnificent ::: a. --> Doing grand things; admirable in action; displaying great power or opulence, especially in building, way of living, and munificence.
Grand in appearance; exhibiting grandeur or splendor; splendid&
magnificently ::: adv. --> In a Magnificent manner.
Magnificently natural at this height
magnificoes ::: pl. --> of Magnifico
magnifico ::: n. --> A grandee or nobleman of Venice; -- so called in courtesy.
A rector of a German university.
magnified ::: 1. Made greater in size or importance; enlarged. 2. Caused to appear greater or seem more important than is in fact the case; exaggerated. magnifies, magnifying.
magnified ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Magnify
magnifier ::: n. --> One who, or that which, magnifies.
magnifying ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Magnify
magnify ::: v. t. --> To make great, or greater; to increase the dimensions of; to amplify; to enlarge, either in fact or in appearance; as, the microscope magnifies the object by a thousand diameters.
To increase the importance of; to augment the esteem or respect in which one is held.
To praise highly; to land; to extol.
To exaggerate; as, to magnify a loss or a difficulty.
magniloquence ::: n. --> The quality of being magniloquent; pompous discourse; grandiloquence.
magniloquent ::: a. --> Speaking pompously; using swelling discourse; bombastic; tumid in style; grandiloquent.
magniloquous ::: a. --> Magniloquent.
Magnitude ::: Characteristic of a scale of measurement where the individual units possess the qualities of greater than, equal to, or less than.
magnitude ::: n. --> Extent of dimensions; size; -- applied to things that have length, breath, and thickness.
That which has one or more of the three dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness.
Anything of which greater or less can be predicated, as time, weight, force, and the like.
Greatness; grandeur.
Greatness, in reference to influence or effect;
magnitudes ::: 1. Greatness of size, extent or amount. 2. Great importance or consequence.
mahima. ::: greatness; glory; magnification; extensive magnitude; miracle
Manasaputra(s)(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound word: manas, "mind," putra, "son" -- "sons of mind." The teaching is thatthere exists a Hierarchy of Compassion, which H. P. Blavatsky sometimes called the Hierarchy of Mercyor of Pity. This is the light side of nature as contrasted with its matter side or shadow side, its night side.It is from this Hierarchy of Compassion that came those semi-divine entities at about the middle periodof the third root-race of this round, who incarnated in the semi-conscious, quasi-senseless men of thatperiod. These advanced entities are otherwise known as the solar lhas as the Tibetans call them, the solarspirits, who were the men of a former kalpa, and who during the third root-race thus sacrificedthemselves in order to give us intellectual light -- incarnating in those senseless psychophysical shells inorder to awaken the divine flame of egoity and self-consciousness in the sleeping egos which we thenwere. They are ourselves because belonging to the same spiritray that we do; yet we, more strictlyspeaking, were those halfunconscious, half-awakened egos whom they touched with the divine fire oftheir own being. This, our "awakening," was called by H. P. Blavatsky, the incarnation of themanasaputras, or the sons of mind or light. Had that incarnation not taken place, we indeed should havecontinued our evolution by merely "natural" causes, but it would have been slow almost beyondcomprehension, almost interminable; but that act of self-sacrifice, through their immense pity, theirimmense love, though, indeed, acting under karmic impulse, awakened the divine fire in our own selves,gave us light and comprehension and understanding. From that time we ourselves became "sons of thegods," the faculty of self-consciousness in us was awakened, our eyes were opened, responsibilitybecame ours; and our feet were set then definitely upon the path, that inner path, quiet, wonderful,leading us inwards back to our spiritual home.The manasaputras are our higher natures and, paradoxical as it is, are more largely evolved beings thanwe are. They were the spiritual entities who "quickened" our personal egos, which were thus evolved intoself-consciousness, relatively small though that yet be. One, and yet many! As you can light an infinitenumber of candles from one lighted candle, so from a spark of consciousness can you quicken andenliven innumerable other consciousnesses, lying, so to speak, in sleep or latent in the life-atoms.These manasaputras, children of mahat, are said to have quickened and enlightened in us themanas-manas of our manas septenary, because they themselves are typically manasic in their essentialcharacteristic or svabhava. Their own essential or manasic vibrations, so to say, could cause that essenceof manas in ourselves to vibrate in sympathy, much as the sounding of a musical note will causesympathetic response in something like it, a similar note in other things. (See also Agnishvattas)
manifoldness ::: n. --> Multiplicity.
A generalized concept of magnitude.
mascagnin ::: n. --> Alt. of Mascagnite
mascagnite ::: n. --> Native sulphate of ammonia, found in volcanic districts; -- so named from Mascagni, who discovered it.
mathematics ::: n. --> That science, or class of sciences, which treats of the exact relations existing between quantities or magnitudes, and of the methods by which, in accordance with these relations, quantities sought are deducible from other quantities known or supposed; the science of spatial and quantitative relations.
Mathematics: The traditional definition of mathematics as "the science of quantity" or "the science of discrete and continuous magnitude" is today inadequate, in that modern mathematics, while clearly in some sense a single connected whole, includes many branches which do not come under this head. Contemporary accounts of the nature of mathematics tend to characterize it rather by its method than by its subject matter.
mausoleum ::: n. --> A magnificent tomb, or stately sepulchral monument.
Mean: In general, that which in some way mediates or occupies a middle position among various things or between two extremes. Hence (especially in the plural) that through which an end is attained; in mathematics the word is used for any one of various notions of average; in ethics it represents moderation, temperance, prudence, the middle way. In mathematics: The arithmetic mean of two quantities is half their sum; the arithmetic mean of n quantities is the sum of the n quantities, divided by n. In the case of a function f(x) (say from real numbers to real numbers) the mean value of the function for the values x1, x2, . . . , xn of x is the arithmetic mean of f(x1), f(x2), . . . , f(xn). This notion is extended to the case of infinite sets of values of x by means of integration; thus the mean value of f(x) for values of x between a and b is ∫f(x)dx, with a and b as the limits of integration, divided by the difference between a and b. The geometric mean of or between, or the mean proportional between, two quantities is the (positive) square root of their product. Thus if b is the geometric mean between a and c, c is as many times greater (or less) than b as b is than a. The geometric mean of n quantities is the nth root of their product. The harmonic mean of two quantities is defined as the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of their reciprocals. Hence the harmonic mean of a and b is 2ab/(a + b). The weighted mean or weighted average of a set of n quantities, each of which is associated with a certain number as weight, is obtained by multiplying each quantity by the associated weight, adding these products together, and then dividing by the sum of the weights. As under A, this may be extended to the case of an infinite set of quantities by means of integration. (The weights have the role of estimates of relative importance of the various quantities, and if all the weights are equal the weighted mean reduces to the simple arithmetic mean.) In statistics, given a population (i.e., an aggregate of observed or observable quantities) and a variable x having the population as its range, we have: The mean value of x is the weighted mean of the values of x, with the probability (frequency ratio) of each value taken as its weight. In the case of a finite population this is the same as the simple arithmetic mean of the population, provided that, in calculating the arithmetic mean, each value of x is counted as many times over as it occurs in the set of observations constituting the population. In like manner, the mean value of a function f(x) of x is the weighted mean of the values of f(x), where the probability of each value of x is taken as the weight of the corresponding value of f(x). The mode of the population is the most probable (most frequent) value of x, provided there is one such. The median of the population is so chosen that the probability that x be less than the median (or the probability that x be greater than the median) is ½ (or as near ½ as possible). In the case of a finite population, if the values of x are arranged in order of magnitude --repeating any one value of x as many times over as it occurs in the set of observations constituting the population --then the middle term of this series, or the arithmetic mean of the two middle terms, is the median. --A.C. In cosmology, the fundamental means (arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic) were used by the Greeks in describing or actualizing the process of becoming in nature. The Pythagoreans and the Platonists in particular made considerable use of these means (see the Philebus and the Timaeus more especially). These ratios are among the basic elements used by Plato in his doctrine of the mixtures. With the appearance of the qualitative physics of Aristotle, the means lost their cosmological importance and were thereafter used chiefly in mathematics. The modern mathematical theories of the universe make use of the whole range of means analyzed by the calculus of probability, the theory of errors, the calculus of variations, and the statistical methods. In ethics, the 'Doctrine of the Mean' is the moral theory of moderation, the development of the virtues, the determination of the wise course in action, the practice of temperance and prudence, the choice of the middle way between extreme or conflicting decisions. It has been developed principally by the Chinese, the Indians and the Greeks; it was used with caution by the Christian moralists on account of their rigorous application of the moral law. In Chinese philosophy, the Doctrine of the Mean or of the Middle Way (the Chung Yung, literally 'Equilibrium and Harmony') involves the absence of immoderate pleasure, anger, sorrow or joy, and a conscious state in which those feelings have been stirred and act in their proper degree. This doctrine has been developed by Tzu Shu (V. C. B.C.), a grandson of Confucius who had already described the virtues of the 'superior man' according to his aphorism "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the mean". In matters of action, the superior man stands erect in the middle and strives to follow a course which does not incline on either side. In Buddhist philosophy, the System of the Middle Way or Madhyamaka is ascribed more particularly to Nagarjuna (II c. A.D.). The Buddha had given his revelation as a mean or middle way, because he repudiated the two extremes of an exaggerated ascetlsm and of an easy secular life. This principle is also applied to knowledge and action in general, with the purpose of striking a happy medium between contradictory judgments and motives. The final objective is the realization of the nirvana or the complete absence of desire by the gradual destruction of feelings and thoughts. But while orthodox Buddhism teaches the unreality of the individual (who is merely a mass of causes and effects following one another in unbroken succession), the Madhyamaka denies also the existence of these causes and effects in themselves. For this system, "Everything is void", with the legitimate conclusion that "Absolute truth is silence". Thus the perfect mean is realized. In Greek Ethics, the doctrine of the Right (Mean has been developed by Plato (Philebus) and Aristotle (Nic. Ethics II. 6-8) principally, on the Pythagorean analogy between the sound mind, the healthy body and the tuned string, which has inspired most of the Greek Moralists. Though it is known as the "Aristotelian Principle of the Mean", it is essentially a Platonic doctrine which is preformed in the Republic and the Statesman and expounded in the Philebus, where we are told that all good things in life belong to the class of the mixed (26 D). This doctrine states that in the application of intelligence to any kind of activity, the supreme wisdom is to know just where to stop, and to stop just there and nowhere else. Hence, the "right-mean" does not concern the quantitative measurement of magnitudes, but simply the qualitative comparison of values with respect to a standard which is the appropriate (prepon), the seasonable (kairos), the morally necessary (deon), or generally the moderate (metrion). The difference between these two kinds of metretics (metretike) is that the former is extrinsic and relative, while the latter is intrinsic and absolute. This explains the Platonic division of the sciences into two classes: those involving reference to relative quantities (mathematical or natural), and those requiring absolute values (ethics and aesthetics). The Aristotelian analysis of the "right mean" considers moral goodness as a fixed and habitual proportion in our appetitions and tempers, which can be reached by training them until they exhibit just the balance required by the right rule. This process of becoming good develops certain habits of virtues consisting in reasonable moderation where both excess and defect are avoided: the virtue of temperance (sophrosyne) is a typical example. In this sense, virtue occupies a middle position between extremes, and is said to be a mean; but it is not a static notion, as it leads to the development of a stable being, when man learns not to over-reach himself. This qualitative conception of the mean involves an adaptation of the agent, his conduct and his environment, similar to the harmony displayed in a work of art. Hence the aesthetic aspect of virtue, which is often overstressed by ancient and neo-pagan writers, at the expense of morality proper. The ethical idea of the mean, stripped of the qualifications added to it by its Christian interpreters, has influenced many positivistic systems of ethics, and especially pragmatism and behaviourism (e.g., A. Huxley's rule of Balanced Excesses). It is maintained that it is also involved in the dialectical systems, such as Hegelianism, where it would have an application in the whole dialectical process as such: thus, it would correspond to the synthetic phase which blends together the thesis and the antithesis by the meeting of the opposites. --T.G. Mean, Doctrine of the: In Aristotle's ethics, the doctrine that each of the moral virtues is an intermediate state between extremes of excess and defect. -- O.R.M.
megaphone ::: n. --> A device to magnify sound, or direct it in a given direction in a greater volume, as a very large funnel used as an ear trumpet or as a speaking trumpet.
megascope ::: n. --> A modification of the magic lantern, used esp. for throwing a magnified image of an opaque object on a screen, solar or artificial light being used.
micro-chemistry ::: n. --> The application of chemical tests to minute objects or portions of matter, magnified by the use of the microscopy; -- distinguished from macro-chemistry.
microphotograph ::: n. --> A microscopically small photograph of a picture, writing, printed page, etc.
An enlarged representation of a microscopic object, produced by throwing upon a sensitive plate the magnified image of an object formed by a microscope or other suitable combination of lenses.
Monuments of its own magnificence;
More general kinds of definition by recursion allow sets of recursion equations of various forms, the essential requirement being that the equations specify the value of the function being introduced (or the values of the functions being introduced), for any given set of arguments, either absolutely, or in terms of the value (values) for preceding sets of arguments. The word preceding here may refer to the natural order or order of magnitude of the non-negative integers, or it may refer to some other method of ordering arguments or sets of arguments, but the method of ordering shall be such that infinite descending sequences ot sets of arguments (in which each set of arguments is preceded by the next set) are impossible.
Music of the Spheres ::: Every sphere that runs its course in the abysmal depths of space sings a song as it passes along. Everylittle atom is attuned to a musical note. It is in constant movement, in constant vibration at speeds whichare incomprehensible to the ordinary brain-mind of man; and each such speed has its own numericalquantity, in other words its own numerical note, and therefore sings that note. This is called the music ofthe spheres, and if man had the power of spiritual clairaudience, the life surrounding him would be onegrand sweet song: his very body would be as it were a symphonic orchestra, singing some magnificent,incomprehensible, musical symphonic composition. The growth of a flower, for instance, would be like achanging melody running along from day to day; he could hear the grass grow, and understand why itgrows; he could hear the atoms sing and see their movements, and hear the unison of the songs of allindividual atoms, and the melodies that any physical body produces; and he would know what the stars intheir courses are constantly singing.
Mystically the agnishvattas are far higher beings than are the barhishads because they are devoid of the fire of creative passion. Being too divine and pure for this, they are devoid (i.e., freed) of the grosser creative fire, and thus unable to form physical man. They are, on the other hand, possessed of spiritual-intellectual fire and are the endowers of the human conscious, spiritually immortal ego or selfhood. Hence the agnishvatta-pitris are those who are “purified by fire” — which may be interpreted as either 1) the fire of suffering and pain in material existence producing great fiber and strength of character or spirituality; or 2) from the esoteric standpoint as signifying those entities who have through evolution become one in essence with the aethery fire of spirit.
napatah. ::: "grandsons of luminous Force", an epithet of the R.bhus as offspring of Indra, who "is born out of luminous Force as is Agni out of pure Force".
nobility ::: 1. The state or quality of being exalted in character or spirit. 2. The noble class; noble birth or rank. 3. Grandeur or magnificence. nobility"s.
noble ::: superl. --> Possessing eminence, elevation, dignity, etc.; above whatever is low, mean, degrading, or dishonorable; magnanimous; as, a noble nature or action; a noble heart.
Grand; stately; magnificent; splendid; as, a noble edifice.
Of exalted rank; of or pertaining to the nobility; distinguished from the masses by birth, station, or title; highborn; as, noble blood; a noble personage.
nobly ::: adv. --> Of noble extraction; as, nobly born or descended.
In a noble manner; with greatness of soul; heroically; with magnanimity; as, a deed nobly done.
Splendidly; magnificently.
Nominal Scale ::: Any scale that contains no magnitude. Often nominal is thought of as name only, meaning that the variables of a nominal scale can be identified but not measured.
OM Agnih. ::: an invocation to Agni2.OM anandamayi anandamayi caitanyamayi satyamayi parame (OM anandamayi
Ordinal Scale ::: Any scale that reflects only magnitude but does not contain equal intervals or an absolute zero
outbrave ::: v. t. --> To excel in bravery o/ in insolence; to defy with superior courage or audacity
To excel in magnificence or comeliness.
overmagnify ::: v. t. --> To magnify too much.
OVOF magnified 133
palace ::: n. --> The residence of a sovereign, including the lodgings of high officers of state, and rooms for business, as well as halls for ceremony and reception.
The official residence of a bishop or other distinguished personage.
Loosely, any unusually magnificent or stately house.
palatial ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a palace; suitable for a palace; resembling a palace; royal; magnificent; as, palatial structures.
Palatal; palatine. ::: n. --> A palatal letter.
panca bhuta ::: "the five elements", the five elementary states of substance: ::: [akasa, vayu, agni (tejas), apas (jala), prthivi].
pancratic ::: a. --> Having all or many degrees of power; having a great range of power; -- said of an eyepiece made adjustable so as to give a varying magnifying power.
Alt. of Pancratical
Paramanu: (Skr.) An exceedingly (parama) or infinitely small or magnitudeless thing (cf. anu), a discrete physical entity playing a similar role in Indian philosophy as ions, electrons, or protons in modern physics. -- K.F.L.
parameter ::: n. --> A term applied to some characteristic magnitude whose value, invariable as long as one and the same function, curve, surface, etc., is considered, serves to distinguish that function, curve, surface, etc., from others of the same kind or family.
Specifically (Conic Sections), in the ellipse and hyperbola, a third proportional to any diameter and its conjugate, or in the parabola, to any abscissa and the corresponding ordinate.
The ratio of the three crystallographic axes which
Pessimism: (Lat. pessimus, the worst) The attitude gained by reflection on life, man, and the world (psychiatrically explained as due to neurotic or other physiological conditions, economically to over-population, mechanization, rampant utilitarianism; religiously to lack of faith; etc.) which makes a person gloomy, despondent, magnifying evil and sorrow, or holding the world in contempt. Rationalizations of this attitude have been attempted before Schopenhauer (as in Hesiod, Job, among the Hindus, in Byron, Giacomo Leopardi, Heine, Musset, and others), but never with such vigor, consistency, and acumen, so that since his Welt als Wille und Vorstellung we speak of a 19th century philosophic literature of pessimism which considers this world the worst possible, holds man to be born to sorrow, and thinks it best if neither existed. Buddhism (q.v.) blames the universal existence of pain, sorrow, and death; Schopenhauer the blind, impetuous will as the very stuff life and the world are made of; E. v. Hartmann the alogical or irrational side of the ill-powerful subconscious; Oswald Spengler the Occidental tendency toward civilization and hence the impossibility of extricating ourselves from decay as the natural terminus of all organic existence. All pessimists, however, suggest compensations or remedies; thus, Buddhism looks hopefully to nirvana (q.v.), Schopenhauer to the Idea, v. Hartmann to the rational, Spengler to a rebirth through culture. See Optimism. -- K.F.L.
Pitri(s)(Sanskrit) ::: A word meaning "father." There are seven (or ten) classes of pitris. They are called "fathers"because they are more particularly the actual progenitors of our lower principles; whereas thedhyani-chohans are actually, in one most important sense, our own selves. We were born from them; wewere the monads, we were the atoms, the souls, projected, sent forth, emanated, by the dhyanis.The pitris, for easy understanding, may be divided into two great groups, the solar and lunar. The lunarpitris or barhishads, as the name implies, came from the moon-chain; while the solar pitris whom we maygroup under the expressive name agnishvatta-pitris are those dhyan-chohans which have not the physical"creative fire," because they belong to a much superior sphere of being, but they have all the fires of thespiritual-intellectual realms active or latent within them as the case may be. In preceding manvantarasthey had finished their evolution so far as the realms of astral and physical matter were concerned, andwhen the proper time came in the cycling ages, the agnishvatta-pitris came to the rescue of those whohad only the physical creative fire, or barhishad-pitris, the lunar pitris, inspiring and enlightening theselower pitris with the spiritual and intellectual energies or "fires."In other words, the lunar pitris may briefly be said to be those consciousness-centers in the humanconstitution which feel humanly, which feel instinctually, and which possess the brain-mind mentality.The agnishvatta-pitris are those monadic centers of the human constitution which are of a purely spiritualtype. (See also Agnishvatas, Lunar Pitris)
pollux ::: n. --> A fixed star of the second magnitude, in the constellation Gemini. Cf. 3d Castor.
Same as Pollucite.
polyacoustic ::: a. --> Multiplying or magnifying sound. ::: n. --> A polyacoustic instrument.
polyacoustics ::: n. --> The art of multiplying or magnifying sounds.
pomp ::: 1. Dignified or magnificent display; splendour. Also fig. 2. A procession or pageant. 3. Vain or ostentatious display. pomps.
pomp ::: n. --> A procession distinguished by ostentation and splendor; a pageant.
Show of magnificence; parade; display; power. ::: v. i. --> To make a pompons display; to conduct.
pompous ::: a. --> Displaying pomp; stately; showy with grandeur; magnificent; as, a pompous procession.
Ostentatious; pretentious; boastful; vainlorious; as, pompous manners; a pompous style.
praise ::: v. --> To commend; to applaud; to express approbation of; to laud; -- applied to a person or his acts.
To extol in words or song; to magnify; to glorify on account of perfections or excellent works; to do honor to; to display the excellence of; -- applied especially to the Divine Being.
To value; to appraise.
Commendation for worth; approval expressed; honor rendered because of excellence or worth; laudation; approbation.
Prajapati ::: "the Lord of creatures", the divine purus.a of whom all beings are the manifestations; the deva presiding over janaloka; one of "the three primal Purushas of the earth life", who appears after Agni Tvas.t.a and Matarisvan in the form of the four Manus (also called "the four Prajapatis"); any of certain mental beings connected with the terrestrial creation, one of whom is Manu Prajapati.
princely ::: a. --> Of or relating to a prince; regal; royal; of highest rank or authority; as, princely birth, character, fortune, etc.
Suitable for, or becoming to, a prince; grand; august; munificent; magnificent; as, princely virtues; a princely fortune. ::: adv. --> In a princely manner.
procyon ::: n. --> A star of the first magnitude in the constellation Canis Minor, or the Little Dog.
A genus of mammals including the raccoon.
proportion ::: n. --> The relation or adaptation of one portion to another, or to the whole, as respect magnitude, quantity, or degree; comparative relation; ratio; as, the proportion of the parts of a building, or of the body.
Harmonic relation between parts, or between different things of the same kind; symmetrical arrangement or adjustment; symmetry; as, to be out of proportion.
The portion one receives when a whole is distributed by
proud ::: 1. Having, proceeding from, or showing a high opinion, dignity, importance, or superiority. 2. Feeling or showing justifiable self-respect. 3. Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or relationship by which one measures one"s stature or self-worth. 4. Of lofty dignity or distinction. 5. Majestic; magnificent. 6. In a bad sense: filled with or showing excessive self-esteem. 7. Highly honourable or creditable.
proud ::: superl. --> Feeling or manifesting pride, in a good or bad sense
Possessing or showing too great self-esteem; overrating one&
Quantum: An indivisible unit, or atom, of any physical quantity. Quantum mechanics (q.v.) is based on the existence of quanta of energy, the magnitude of the quantum of radiant energy (light) of a given frequency -- or of the energy of a particle oscillating with given frequency -- being equal to Planck's constant (q.v.) multiplied by the fiequency. -- A.C.
ratio ::: n. --> The relation which one quantity or magnitude has to another of the same kind. It is expressed by the quotient of the division of the first by the second; thus, the ratio of 3 to 6 is expressed by / or /; of a to b by a/b; or (less commonly) the second term is made the dividend; as, a:b = b/a.
Hence, fixed relation of number, quantity, or degree; rate; proportion; as, the ratio of representation in Congress.
Ratio Scale ::: Any scale of measurement possessing magnitude, equal intervals, and an absolute zero
regal ::: 1. Of or pertaining to a king or queen; royal. 2. Belonging to or befitting a monarch; magnificent; splendid.
regulus ::: n. --> A petty king; a ruler of little power or consequence.
The button, globule, or mass of metal, in a more or less impure state, which forms in the bottom of the crucible in smelting and reduction of ores.
A star of the first magnitude in the constellation Leo; -- called also the Lion&
rich ::: 1. Abounding in desirable elements or qualities. 2. Having great worth or value. 3. Abundant. 4. Possessing great material wealth: Also fig. **5. Expensively elegant, elaborate, or fine; costly. 6. Magnificent; sumptuous. 7. Warm and strong in colour. 8. Of sounds: Pleasantly full and mellow. Also fig. richer, richest, richly, rich-coloured, rich-hearted, rich-plumaged.**
rigel ::: n. --> A fixed star of the first magnitude in the left foot of the constellation Orion.
rippled ::: v. 1. Flowed with a light rise and fall. 2. Of sound: undulated or rose and fell in tone, inflection, or magnitude. rippling. *adj. 3. Marked with small undulations, ruffles, or folds; formed of small waves as water agitated by a breeze. *wind-rippled, forward-rippling.
rose ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The rose is among the first of flowers because of the richness of its colour, the intensity of sweetness of its scent and the grace and magnificence of its form.”
rose ::: “The rose is not the only beautiful flower, there are hundreds of others; most flowers are beautiful. There are degrees and kinds of beauty, that is all. The rose is among the first of flowers because of the richness of its colour, the intensity of sweetness of its scent and the grace and magnificence of its form.” Letters on Yoga , Volume—22 , SABCL
royal ::: a. --> Kingly; pertaining to the crown or the sovereign; suitable for a king or queen; regal; as, royal power or prerogative; royal domains; the royal family; royal state.
Noble; generous; magnificent; princely.
Under the patronage of royality; holding a charter granted by the sovereign; as, the Royal Academy of Arts; the Royal Society. ::: n.
sapta arcisa ::: the seven flames, tongues or rays (of Agni). [Ved.]
sapta jvalah ::: the seven flames, tongues or rays (of Agni). [Ved.]
saptarci (saptarchi) ::: the seven rays or flames (of agni1, the principle of visible formation, or Agni2, the deity who supports this principle), identified with the seven types of akashic material.
sarira (yogagnimaya sharira) ::: a body filled with the fiery energy generated by yoga. [Śvetasvatara Upanis.ad 2.12]
saturn ::: n. --> One of the elder and principal deities, the son of Coelus and Terra (Heaven and Earth), and the father of Jupiter. The corresponding Greek divinity was Kro`nos, later CHro`nos, Time.
One of the planets of the solar system, next in magnitude to Jupiter, but more remote from the sun. Its diameter is seventy thousand miles, its mean distance from the sun nearly eight hundred and eighty millions of miles, and its year, or periodical revolution round the sun, nearly twenty-nine years and a half. It is surrounded by a
scalar ::: n. --> In the quaternion analysis, a quantity that has magnitude, but not direction; -- distinguished from a vector, which has both magnitude and direction.
sea cocoa ::: --> A magnificent palm (Lodoicea Sechellarum) found only in the Seychelles Islands. The fruit is an immense two-lobed nut. It was found floating in the Indian Ocean before the tree was known, and called sea cocoanut, and double cocoanut.
Shruti: “The aisle holds the fire of purity, of truth; it holds Agni, the spark of the Divine illumination.”
Shruti: “The sanctum sanctorum of the consciousness where the truth resides. It is the representation of the Divine within us, the space we enter when we have left the corridors of time and space, where the leader of the sacrifice, Agni, resides. The words describe the beauty of that space we enter when we leave all else behind.”
SI prefix "unit, standard" The {standard} metric prefixes used in the {Système International d'Unités} (SI) conventions for scientific measurement. Here are the SI magnifying prefixes, along with the corresponding binary interpretations in common use: prefix abr decimal binary yocto- 1000^-8 zepto- 1000^-7 atto- 1000^-6 femto- f 1000^-5 pico- p 1000^-4 nano- n 1000^-3 micro- * 1000^-2 * Abbreviation: Greek mu milli- m 1000^-1 kilo- k 1000^1 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024 mega- M 1000^2 1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576 giga- G 1000^3 1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 tera- T 1000^4 1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776 peta- 1000^5 1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624 exa- 1000^6 1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 zetta- 1000^7 1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 yotta- 1000^8 1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 "Femto" and "atto" derive not from Greek but from Danish. The abbreviated forms of these prefixes are common in electronics and physics. When used with bytes of storage, these prefixes usually denote multiplication by powers of 1024 = 2^10 (K, M, G and T are common in computing). Thus "MB" stands for megabytes (2^20 bytes). This common practice goes against the edicts of the {BIPM} who deprecate the use of these prefixes for powers of two. The formal SI prefix for 1000 is lower case "k"; some, including this dictionary, use this strictly, reserving upper case "K" for multiplication by 1024 (KB is thus "kilobytes"). Also, in data transfer rates the prefixes stand for powers of ten so, for example, 28.8 kb/s means 28,800 bits per second. The unit is often dropped so one may talk of "a 40K salary" (40000 dollars) or "2 meg of disk space" (2*2^20 bytes). The accepted pronunciation of the initial G of "giga-" is hard, /gi'ga/. Confusing 1000 and 1024 (or other powers of 2 and 10 close in magnitude) - for example, describing a memory in units of 500K or 524K instead of 512K - is a sure sign of the {marketroid}. For example, 3.5" {microfloppies} are often described as storing "1.44 MB". In fact, this is completely specious. The correct size is 1440 KB = 1440 * 1024 = 1474560 bytes. Alas, this point is probably lost on the world forever. In 1993, hacker Morgan Burke proposed, to general approval on {Usenet}, the following additional prefixes: groucho (10^-30), harpo (10^-27), harpi (10^27), grouchi (10^30). This would leave the prefixes zeppo-, gummo-, and chico- available for future expansion. Sadly, there is little immediate prospect that Mr. Burke's eminently sensible proposal will be ratified. (2009-09-01)
sized ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Size ::: a. --> Adjusted according to size.
Having a particular size or magnitude; -- chiefly used in compounds; as, large-sized; common-sized.
size ::: n. --> Six.
A settled quantity or allowance. See Assize.
An allowance of food and drink from the buttery, aside from the regular dinner at commons; -- corresponding to battel at Oxford.
Extent of superficies or volume; bulk; bigness; magnitude; as, the size of a tree or of a mast; the size of a ship or of a rock.
Figurative bulk; condition as to rank, ability, character, etc.; as, the office demands a man of larger size.
&
solempne ::: a. --> Solemn; grand; stately; splendid; magnificent.
solomon ::: n. --> One of the kings of Israel, noted for his superior wisdom and magnificent reign; hence, a very wise man.
Sometimes spelled Agnidhra, especially with reference to the priest who kindles the sacrificial fire (RV 2:36:4).
space complexity "complexity" The way in which the amount of storage space required by an {algorithm} varies with the size of the problem it is solving. Space complexity is normally expressed as an order of magnitude, e.g. O(N^2) means that if the size of the problem (N) doubles then four times as much working storage will be needed. See also {computational complexity}, {time complexity}. (1996-05-08)
sphagnicolous ::: a. --> Growing in moss of the genus Sphagnum.
spherics ::: n. --> The doctrine of the sphere; the science of the properties and relations of the circles, figures, and other magnitudes of a sphere, produced by planes intersecting it; spherical geometry and trigonometry.
spica ::: n. --> A kind of bandage passing, by successive turns and crosses, from an extremity to the trunk; -- so called from its resemblance to a spike of a barley.
A star of the first magnitude situated in the constellation Virgo.
splendid ::: 1. Glorious or illustrious; having great beauty and splendour. 2. Distinguished or glorious, as a name, reputation, victory, etc. 3. Imposing by reason of showiness or grandeur; magnificent. 4. Brilliant with light or colour; radiant. (Sometimes used, by way of contrast, to qualify nouns having an opposite or different connotation.) splendidly.
splendid ::: a. --> Possessing or displaying splendor; shining; very bright; as, a splendid sun.
Showy; magnificent; sumptuous; pompous; as, a splendid palace; a splendid procession or pageant.
Illustrious; heroic; brilliant; celebrated; famous; as, a splendid victory or reputation.
splendidly ::: adv. --> In a splendid manner; magnificently.
splendor ::: n. --> Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun.
Magnifience; pomp; parade; as, the splendor of equipage, ceremonies, processions, and the like.
Brilliancy; glory; as, the splendor of a victory.
splendour ::: 1. Great light or lustre; brilliance. 2. Of a quality that outshines the usual; grand, imposing. 3. Magnificent appearance or display. Splendour, splendour"s, splendours, splendour-peaks, splendour-stream, splendour-trance.
spout ::: v. t. --> To throw out forcibly and abudantly, as liquids through an office or a pipe; to eject in a jet; as, an elephant spouts water from his trunk.
To utter magniloquently; to recite in an oratorical or pompous manner.
To pawn; to pledge; as, spout a watch.
That through which anything spouts; a discharging lip, pipe, or orifice; a tube, pipe, or conductor of any kind through which
Sri Aurobindo: “So too when the seer of the house of Atri cries high to Agni, ‘O Agni, O Priest of the offering, loose from us the cords,’ he is using not only a natural, but a richly-laden image. He is thinking of the triple cord of mind, nerves and body by which the soul is bound as a victim in the great world-sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Purusha; he is thinking of the force of the divine Will already awakened and at work within him, a fiery and irresistible godhead that shall uplift his oppressed divinity and cleave asunder the cords of its bondage; he is thinking of the might of that growing Strength and inner Flame which receiving all that he has to offer carries it to its own distant and difficult home, to the high-seated Truth, to the Far, to the Secret, to the Supreme.” The Secret of the Veda
stateroom ::: n. --> A magnificent room in a place or great house.
A small apartment for lodging or sleeping in the cabin, or on the deck, of a vessel; also, a somewhat similar apartment in a railway sleeping car.
sumptuous ::: 1. Rich and superior in quality. 2. Magnificent; splendid. 3. Luxuriously fine or large; lavish; splendid.
superprogrammer A prolific programmer; one who can code exceedingly well and quickly. Not all hackers are superprogrammers, but many are. Productivity can vary from one programmer to another by three orders of magnitude. For example, one programmer might be able to write an average of three lines of working code in one day, while another, with the proper tools, might be able to write 3,000. This range is astonishing; it is matched in very few other areas of human endeavour. The term "superprogrammer" is more commonly used within such places as IBM than in the hacker community. It tends to stress naive measures of productivity and to underweight creativity, ingenuity, and getting the job *done* - and to sidestep the question of whether the 3,000 lines of code do more or less useful work than three lines that do the {Right Thing}. Hackers tend to prefer the terms {hacker} and {wizard}. [{Jargon File}]
swell ::: n. 1. (music) A gradual increase in loudness or volume. v. 2. To increase in size, magnitude, number, or intensity. swelled.
tagnicate ::: n. --> The white-lipped peccary.
Tanmatras: A Sanskrit term for the “subtle elements.” There are five tanmatras, each tanmatra being the essence of one of the five basic elements (air, fire, earth, water and ether), viz. the essence of sound (sabda), touch (sparsa), form (rupa), flavor (rasa), and odor (gandha); they are the subtle objects of the sense powers (indriyas), the subtlest form of actual matter, without magnitude, supersensible, and perceived mediately only through gross objects.
Tehmi: “Agni.”
Tehmi: “Agni, surely.”
Tehmi: “The hour just before dawn. The Gods awake with the dawn in the Veda. The Gods are called ‘Ushabuddha, ‘those who awake with the dawn’. All the gods are sons of light except Agni who burns also in the light and the darkness.”
Tehmi: The triple Fire is the three degrees of Agni, Earth Fire, (thick, material), Jada; Lightning Fire, Vidyut; Solar Fire, Saura Agni.”
tejas ::: fiery brilliance; mental light and energy; the energy of temperament that manifests itself in each element of the fourfold personality (brahmatejas, etc.); a term in the first general formula of the sakti catus.t.aya; "a strong and ardent force and intensity", an element of cittasakti; one of the seven kinds of akashic material; rūpa or lipi . composed of this material; fire, the principle of light and heat, one of "the five elements of ancient philosophy or rather elementary conditions of Nature, pañca bhūta, which constitute objects by their various combination", also called agni1; the virile energy carried to the head by udana.
tejas, tejah ::: light of energy; force; puissance; energy and soul-force; [as one of the five bhutas: light and heat energy, see agni, definition 2].
The agnidagdhas, corresponding to the lunar pitris of The Secret Doctrine, are as mysterious as the higher or arupa classes of kumaras or agnishvattas. The agnidagdhas are the vehicles of the arupa classes and, because of their grosser or more materialized essences, are able to coalesce with the forces and substances of nature on more material planes of the solar system. Known also as barhishads, they “kept up the household flame,” and thus were conversant with and living with flames of the material or quasimaterial realms. Such “material” flames are the fiery or magneto-electric forces and substances of the lower worlds, which include the flame of desire and passion as well as the electric fire of the physical universe. They not only equipped man with the lower parts of his constitution, but likewise projected their chhayas (shadows or astral vehicles), thus furnishing the astral-physical vehicle of early humanity.
The agnishvattas, our solar spiritual-intellectual parts, are those who in preceding manvantaras completed their evolution in the realms of matter; and when evolution had brought the nascent human stock to the state where they had only the physical creative fire, the agnishvattas came to their rescue by inspiring and enlightening these lower lunar pitris with spiritual and intellectual energies or fires (OG 14-15; SD 2:91-2).
The agnishvattas signify our ancestral solar selves in contradistinction to the barhishads, our lunar ancestors. The agnishvattas are variously spoken of in The Secret Doctrine as the fashioners of the inner man, manasa-dhyanis (lords of mind), solar devas, sons of the flame of wisdom, givers of human intelligence and consciousness, and fire-dhyanis. In ancient Greece they were collectively personified by the epic figure of Prometheus, and in China by the Fiery Dragons of Wisdom.
The anagnidagdhas are the more spiritual and intellectual classes of pitris who provided nascent humanity with its spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic principles. Blavatsky writes: “The first or primordial Pitris, the ‘Seven Sons of Fire’ or of the Flame, are distinguished or divided into seven classes . . . [VP 3:14; Manu 3:199] three of which classes are Arupa, formless, ‘composed of intellectual not elementary substance,’ and four are corporeal. The first are pure Agni (fire) or Sapta-jiva (‘seven lives,’ now become Sapta-jihva, seven-tongued, as Agni is represented with seven tongues and seven winds as the wheels of his car). As a formless, purely spiritual essence, in the first degree of evolution, they could not create that, the prototypical form of which was not in their minds, as this is the first requisite. They could only give birth to ‘mind-born’ beings, their ‘Sons,’ the second class of Pitris (or Prajapati, or Rishis, etc.), one degree more material; these, to the third — the last of the Arupa class. It is only this last class that was enabled with the help of the Fourth principle of the Universal Soul (Aditi, Akasha) to produce beings that became objective and having a form. But when these came to existence, they were found to possess such a small proportion of the divine immortal Soul or Fire in them, that they were considered failures. . . . The three orders of Beings, the Pitri-Rishis, the Sons of Flame, had to merge and blend together their three higher principles with the Fourth (the Circle), and the Fifth (the microcosmic) principle before the necessary union could be obtained and result therefrom achieved” (BCW 6:191-3).
The Agni- or Agneya-Purana is so named because Agni imparted to the sage Vasishtha the twofold knowledge of Brahman: that acquired through study of the “word,” the Vedas; and that higher apprehension attained through mystical contemplation (cf VP preface lviii; also 6:5).
"The cosmic consciousness is that in which the limits of ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces, universal mind forces, universal life forces, universal energies of Matter, universal overmind forces. But one does not become aware of all these together; the opening of the cosmic consciousness is usually progressive. It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself. One begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetitions of oneself, the same self modified by Nature in other bodies. Or, at the least, as living in the larger universal self which is henceforth one"s own greater reality. All things in fact begin to change their nature and appearance; one"s whole experience of the world is radically different from that of those who are shut up in their personal selves. One begins to know things by a different kind of experience, more direct, not depending on the external mind and the senses. It is not that the possibility of error disappears, for that cannot be so long as mind of any kind is one"s instrument for transcribing knowledge, but there is a new, vast and deep way of experiencing, seeing, knowing, contacting things; and the confines of knowledge can be rolled back to an almost unmeasurable degree. The thing one has to be on guard against in the cosmic consciousness is the play of a magnified ego, the vaster attacks of the hostile forces — for they too are part of the cosmic consciousness — and the attempt of the cosmic Illusion (Ignorance, Avidya) to prevent the growth of the soul into the cosmic Truth. These are things that one has to learn from experience; mental teaching or explanation is quite insufficient. To enter safely into the cosmic consciousness and to pass safely through it, it is necessary to have a strong central unegoistic sincerity and to have the psychic being, with its divination of truth and unfaltering orientation towards the Divine, already in front in ::: —the nature.” Letters on Yoga*
“The cosmic consciousness is that in which the limits of ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces, universal mind forces, universal life forces, universal energies of Matter, universal overmind forces. But one does not become aware of all these together; the opening of the cosmic consciousness is usually progressive. It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself. One begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetitions of oneself, the same self modified by Nature in other bodies. Or, at the least, as living in the larger universal self which is henceforth one’s own greater reality. All things in fact begin to change their nature and appearance; one’s whole experience of the world is radically different from that of those who are shut up in their personal selves. One begins to know things by a different kind of experience, more direct, not depending on the external mind and the senses. It is not that the possibility of error disappears, for that cannot be so long as mind of any kind is one’s instrument for transcribing knowledge, but there is a new, vast and deep way of experiencing, seeing, knowing, contacting things; and the confines of knowledge can be rolled back to an almost unmeasurable degree. The thing one has to be on guard against in the cosmic consciousness is the play of a magnified ego, the vaster attacks of the hostile forces—for they too are part of the cosmic consciousness—and the attempt of the cosmic Illusion (Ignorance, Avidya) to prevent the growth of the soul into the cosmic Truth. These are things that one has to learn from experience; mental teaching or explanation is quite insufficient. To enter safely into the cosmic consciousness and to pass safely through it, it is necessary to have a strong central unegoistic sincerity and to have the psychic being, with its divination of truth and unfaltering orientation towards the Divine, already in front in—the nature.” Letters on Yoga
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 Vaivasvata or 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.
". . . the Titan, who lives in his own inordinately magnified shadow, mistakes ego for the self and spirit and tries to impose his fragmentary personality as the one dominant existence upon all his surroundings.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“… the Titan, who lives in his own inordinately magnified shadow, mistakes ego for the self and spirit and tries to impose his fragmentary personality as the one dominant existence upon all his surroundings.” The Synthesis of Yoga
time complexity "complexity" The way in which the number of steps required by an {algorithm} varies with the size of the problem it is solving. Time complexity is normally expressed as an order of magnitude, e.g. O(N^2) means that if the size of the problem (N) doubles then the algorithm will take four times as many steps to complete. See also {computational complexity}, {space complexity}. (1996-05-08)
tremendous ::: a. --> Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall.
triple cord of mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "So too when the seer of the house of Atri cries high to Agni, ‘O Agni, O Priest of the offering, loose from us the cords," he is using not only a natural, but a richly-laden image. He is thinking of the triple cord of mind, nerves and body by which the soul is bound as a victim in the great world-sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Purusha; he is thinking of the force of the divine Will already awakened and at work within him, a fiery and irresistible godhead that shall uplift his oppressed divinity and cleave asunder the cords of its bondage; he is thinking of the might of that growing Strength and inner Flame which receiving all that he has to offer carries it to its own distant and difficult home, to the high-seated Truth, to the Far, to the Secret, to the Supreme.” *The Secret of the Veda
triumph ::: n. --> A magnificent and imposing ceremonial performed in honor of a general who had gained a decisive victory over a foreign enemy.
Hence, any triumphal procession; a pompous exhibition; a stately show or pageant.
A state of joy or exultation for success.
Success causing exultation; victory; conquest; as, the triumph of knowledge.
A trump card; also, an old game at cards.
tumor ::: n. --> A morbid swelling, prominence, or growth, on any part of the body; especially, a growth produced by deposition of new tissue; a neoplasm.
Affected pomp; bombast; swelling words or expressions; false magnificence or sublimity.
turgescency ::: n. --> The act of swelling, or the state of being swollen, or turgescent.
Empty magnificence or pompousness; inflation; bombast; turgidity.
Tvas.t.a (Agni Twashta) ::: Agni2, the universal energy, as Tvas.t.a,"the Fashioner of things".
two-binary, one-quaternary "communications" (2B1Q) A {physical layer} encoding used for {Integrated Services Digital Network} {basic rate interface}. 2B1Q represents two {bits} (2B - a "dibit") using one of four signal levels (1Q - a "quadratude"). The first bit of the dibit is indicated by polarity: positive indicates a binary 1 and negative indicates a 0. The second half of the dibit is indicated by voltage magnitude: 1 Volt indicates a binary 1 and 3 Volts indicates binary 0. (2003-01-10)
underflow "programming" (or "floating point underflow", "floating underflow", after "{overflow}") A condition that can occur when the result of a {floating-point} operation would be smaller in magnitude (closer to zero, either positive or negative) than the smallest quantity representable. Underflow is actually (negative) {overflow} of the {exponent} of the {floating point} quantity. For example, an eight-bit {twos complement} exponent can represent multipliers of 2^-128 to 2^127. A result less than 2^-128 would cause underflow. Depending on the {processor}, the programming language and the {run-time system}, underflow may set a status bit, raise an {exception} or generate a {hardware} {interrupt} or some combination of these effects. Alternatively, it may just be ignored and zero substituted for the unrepresentable value, though this might lead to a later {divide by zero} error which cannot be so easily ignored. (2006-11-09)
unit ::: n. --> A single thing or person.
The least whole number; one.
A gold coin of the reign of James I., of the value of twenty shillings.
Any determinate amount or quantity (as of length, time, heat, value) adopted as a standard of measurement for other amounts or quantities of the same kind.
A single thing, as a magnitude or number, regarded as an
unity ::: n. --> The state of being one; oneness.
Concord; harmony; conjunction; agreement; uniformity; as, a unity of proofs; unity of doctrine.
Any definite quantity, or aggregate of quantities or magnitudes taken as one, or for which 1 is made to stand in calculation; thus, in a table of natural sines, the radius of the circle is regarded as unity.
In dramatic composition, one of the principles by which a
ūta (panchabhuta) ::: the five bhūtas or "elements, as it is rendered, but rather elemental or essential conditions of material being to which are given the concrete names of earth [pr.thivi1], water [jala],fire [tejas or agni1], air [vayu1] and ether [akasa]". pañcapr ñcaprana
vaidyuta Agni ::: [Agni (fire) as vidyut (lightning)]; God of electricity.
“Vamadeva goes on to say,”Let us give expression to this secret name of the clarity,—that is to say, let us bring out this Soma wine, this hidden delight of existence; let us hold it in this world-sacrifice by our surrenderings or submissions to Agni, the divine Will or Conscious-Power which is the Master of being.” The Secret of the Veda
Variable error: The average departure or deviation from the average between several given values. In successive measurements of magnitudes considered in the natural sciences or in experimental psychology, the observed differences are the unavoidable result of a great number of small causes independent of each other and equally likely to make the measurement too small or too large. In experimental psychology in particular, the real magnitude is known in some cases, but its evaluation tends to be on the average too large or too small. The average error is the average departure from the true magnitude, while the variable error is the deviation as already defined. -- T.G.
vasus. :::eight elemental gods representing aspects of nature, representing cosmic natural phenomenon &
vatican ::: n. --> A magnificent assemblage of buildings at Rome, near the church of St. Peter, including the pope&
Vayu, Master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities,—Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.” The Secret of the Veda
vector ::: n. --> Same as Radius vector.
A directed quantity, as a straight line, a force, or a velocity. Vectors are said to be equal when their directions are the same their magnitudes equal. Cf. Scalar.
Vedic Religion: Or the Religion of the Vedas (q.v.). It is thoroughly cosmological, inspirational and ritualistic, priest and sacrifice playing an important role. It started with belief in different gods, such as Indra, Agni, Surya, Vishnu, Ushas, the Maruts, usually interpreted as symbolizing the forces of nature, but with the development of Hinduism it deteriorated into a worship of thousands of gods corresponding to the diversification of function and status in the complex social organism. Accompanying there was a pronounced tendency toward magic even in Vedic times, while the more elevated thoughts which have found expression in magnificent praises of the one or the other deity finally became crystallized in the philosophic thought of the Upanishads (q.v.). There is a distinct break, however, between Vedic culture with its free and autochthonous religious consciousness and the rigidly caste and custom controlled religion as we know it in India today, as also the religion of bhakti (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
vega ::: n. --> A brilliant star of the first magnitude, the brightest of those constituting the constellation Lyra.
vestige ::: n. --> The mark of the foot left on the earth; a track or footstep; a trace; a sign; hence, a faint mark or visible sign left by something which is lost, or has perished, or is no longer present; remains; as, the vestiges of ancient magnificence in Palmyra; vestiges of former population.
viaduct ::: n. --> A structure of considerable magnitude, usually with arches or supported on trestles, for carrying a road, as a railroad, high above the ground or water; a bridge; especially, one for crossing a valley or a gorge. Cf. Trestlework.
vibhuti ::: divine power, efflorescence of the Divine's powers, energies and magnitudes of its knowledge, love, joy, developed force of being; a power of God in man, embodied World-Force or human leader. ::: vibhuitayah [plural], master powers of the becoming.
VII. Probability as a Physical Magnitude determined by Axioms.. This theory, which is favoured mainly by the Intuitionist school of mathematics, considers probability as a physical constant of which frequencies are measures. Thus, any frequency is an approximate measure of one physical constant attached to an event and to a set of trials: this constant is the probability of that event over the set of trials. As the observed frequencies differ little for large numbers of trials from their corresponding probabilities, some obvious properties of frequencies may be extended to probabilities. This is done without proceeding to the limit, but through general approximation as in the case of physical magnitudes. These properties are not constructed (as in the axiomatization of Mises), but simply described as such, they form a set of axioms defining probability. The classical postulates involved in the treatises of Laplace, Bertrand or Poincare have been modified in this case, under the joint influence of the discovery of measure by Borei, and of the use of abstract sets. Their new form has been fully stated by Kolmogoroff and interpreted by Frechet who proposes to call this latest theory the 'modernized axiomatic definition' of probability. Its interpretation requires that it should be preceded by an inductive synthesis, and followed by numerical verifications.
YAGNI {You aren't gonna need it}
Yogi(Yogin, Sanskrit) ::: A yogi is a devotee, one who practices the Yoga system or one or more of its varioussubordinate branches.In some cases, yogis are those who strive in various ways to conquer the body and physical temptations,for instance by torture of the body. They also study more or less some of the magnificent philosophicalteachings of India coming down from far distant ages of the past; but mere mental study will not make aman a mahatma, nor will any torture of the body bring about the spiritual vision -- the vision sublime.(See also Yoga)
You aren't gonna need it "programming" (YAGNI) A motto of {extreme programming} expressing the principle that functionality should not be implemented until it is needed. The traditional {waterfall model} makes it difficult to add features after the specification has been signed off, tempting the specifier to add features that may never be used but which take time to program, debug, test and document. (2014-03-27)
zoom "graphics" To show a smaller area of an {image} at a higher magnification ("zoom in") or a larger area at a lower magnification ("zoom out"), as though using a zoom lense on a camera. Unlike in an optical system, zooming in on a computer {image} does not necessarily increase the amount of detail displayed since this is limited by what is actually stored in the image. Similarly, you cannot zoom out beyond the full size of the image. (1997-10-24)
KEYS (10k)
7 Sri Aurobindo
1 Tao Te Ching
1 Saint Basil of Caesarea
1 Quetzalcoatl
1 Judge Rosemarie Aquilina
1 Hafiz
1 Georg C Lichtenberg
1 Gabby Bernstein
1 The Mother
1 Saint Thomas Aquinas
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
4 Vinny Guadagnino
2 Tacitus
1:That which refuses to give itself, is still the food of the cosmic Powers ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #KEYS
2:Self-fulfilment by self-immolation, to grow by giving is the universal law. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #KEYS
3:Force and Love united and both illumined by Knowledge fulfil God in the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #KEYS
4:Love illuminated fulfils the harmony which is the goal of the divine movement. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #KEYS
5:The true Agni always burns in deep peace; it is the fire of an all-conquering will. Let it grow in you in perfect equanimity.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
6:Equality of soul created by the surrender to the universal Wisdom gives us a supreme peace and calm. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #KEYS
7:Agni in the form of an aspiration full of concentrated calm and surrender is certainly the first thing to be lighted in the heart. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, Experiences Associated with the Psychic, #KEYS
8: Agni is the energy of consciousness, Varuna is the vastness of consciousness, Mitra is the harmony. Ila is the revelation, Saraswati inspiration, Bharati is the Goddess of the Divine Word. ~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, 04, 10.04 - Transfiguration, #KEYS
9:In the same Upanishad, Agni is invoked for purely moral functions as the purifier from sin, the leader of the soul by the good path to the divine Bliss, and he seems to be identified with the power of the will and responsible for human actions
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret Of The Veda, [7],#KEYS
10:Sometimes I think that the Agni You have kindled in me is going to burn up everything that separates me from You. What should I do to contribute to its fulfilment?
Each time that you discover in yourself something that denies or resists, throw it into the flame of Agni, which is the fire of aspiration. 19 May 1967
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
11:But Indra does not turn back from the quest like Agni and Vayu; he pursues his way through the highest ether of the pure mentality and there he approaches the Woman, the manyshining, Uma Haimavati; from her he learns that this Daemon is the Brahman by whom alone the gods of mind and life and body conquer and affirm themselves, and in whom alone they are great. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena And Other Upanishads, 83, #KEYS
12:Agni is the power of conscious Being, called by us will, effective behind the workings of mind and body. Agni is the strong God within (maryah, the strong, the masculine) who puts out his strength against all assailing powers, who forbids inertia, who repels every failing of heart and force, who spurns out all lack of manhood. Agni actualises what otherwise remain as an ineffectual thought or aspiration.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret Of The Veda,#KEYS
13:DISCIPLE: It is said that the psychic is a spark of the Divine.
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.
DISCIPLE: Then it seems that the function of the psychic being is the same as that of Vedic Agni, who is the leader of the journey?
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Agni is the God of the Psychic and, among the other things it does, it leads the upward journey.
DISCIPLE: How does the psychic carry the personalities formed in this life into another life?
SRI AUROBINDO: After death, it gathers its elements and carries them onward to another birth. But it is not the same personality that is born. People easily misunderstand these things, specially when they are put in terms of the mind. The past personality is taken only as the basis but a new personality is put forward. If it was the same personality, then it would act exactly in the same manner and there would be no meaning in that. ~ Sri Aurobindo, EVENING TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO, RECORDED BY A B PURANI (page no 665-666),#KEYS
14:Gaya, the Rishi, prays to Agni, Lord of Tapas, the representative in Nature of the Divine Power that builds the worlds & works in them towards our soul's fulfilment in and beyond heaven - Agni, as játavedas, the self-existent luminosity of knowledge in this Cosmic Force - for Force is only Chitshakti, working power of the Divine Consciousness & therefore Cosmic Force is always self-luminous, all-knowing force. Agni Jatavedas then is the ray of divine knowledge in this embodied state of existence; - he is Adhrigu - the Light in our embodied being. For this reason all action offered by us to Agni as a work of divine tapas becomes in its nature a self-luminous activity guiding itself whether consciously in our minds or super-consciously, guháhitam, to the divine goal. All Tapas is self-effective and God-effective. As Adhrigu, the divine Light in our embodied being, Agni is to bring to us an illumination of knowledge in our mentality which is ojistha, most full of ojas, superabundant ... ~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns To The Mystic Fire, #KEYS
15:Vijnana, true ideation, called ritam, truth or vedas, knowledge in the Vedas, acts in human mind by four separate functions; revelation, termed drishti, sight; inspiration termed sruti,hearing; and the two faculties of discernment, smriti, memory,which are intuition, termed ketu, and discrimination, termed daksha, division, or viveka, separation. By drishti we see ourselves the truth face to face, in its own form, nature or self-existence; by sruti we hear the name, sound or word by which the truth is expressed & immediately suggested to the knowledge; by ketu we distinguish a truth presented to us behind a veil whether of result or process, as Newton discovered the law of gravitation hidden behind the fall of the apple; by viveka we distinguish between various truths and are able to put them in their right place, order and relation to each other, or, if presented with mingled truth & error, separate the truth from the falsehood. Agni Jatavedas is termed in the Veda vivichi, he who has the viveka, who separates truth from falsehood; but this is only a special action of the fourth ideal faculty & in its wider scope, it is daksha, that which divides & rightly distributes truth in its multiform aspects. The ensemble of the four faculties is Vedas or divine knowledge. When man is rising out of the limited & error-besieged mental principle, the faculty most useful to him, most indispensable is daksha or viveka. Drishti of Vijnana transmuted into terms of mind has become observation, sruti appears as imagination, intuition as intelligent perception, viveka as reasoning & intellectual judgment and all of these are liable to the constant touch of error. Human buddhi, intellect, is a distorted shadow of the true ideative faculties. As we return from these shadows to their ideal substance viveka or daksha must be our constant companion; for viveka alone can get rid of the habit of mental error, prevent observation being replaced by false illumination, imagination by false inspiration, intelligence by false intuition, judgment & reason by false discernment. The first sign of human advance out of the anritam of mind to the ritam of the ideal faculty is the growing action of a luminous right discernment which fixes instantly on the truth, feels instantly the presence of error. The fullness, the manhana of this viveka is the foundation & safeguard of Ritam or Vedas. The first great movement of Agni Jatavedas is to transform by the divine will in mental activity his lower smoke-covered activity into the bright clearness & fullness of the ideal discernment. Agne adbhuta kratw a dakshasya manhana.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns To The Mystic Fire, 717,#KEYS
16:To what gods shall the sacrifice be offered? Who shall be invoked to manifest and protect in the human being this increasing godhead?
Agni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with Knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Indra, the Puissant next, who is the power of pure Existence self-manifested as the Divine Mind. As Agni is one pole of Force instinct with knowledge that sends its current upward from earth to heaven, so Indra is the other pole of Light instinct with force which descends from heaven to earth. He comes down into our world as the Hero with the shining horses and slays darkness and division with his lightnings, pours down the life-giving heavenly waters, finds in the trace of the hound, Intuition, the lost or hidden illuminations, makes the Sun of Truth mount high in the heaven of our mentality.
Surya, the Sun, is the master of that supreme Truth, - truth of being, truth of knowledge, truth of process and act and movement and functioning. He is therefore the creator or rather the manifester of all things - for creation is out-bringing, expression by the Truth and Will - and the father, fosterer, enlightener of our souls. The illuminations we seek are the herds of this Sun who comes to us in the track of the divine Dawn and releases and reveals in us night-hidden world after world up to the highest Beatitude.
Of that beatitude Soma is the representative deity. The wine of his ecstasy is concealed in the growths of earth, in the waters of existence; even here in our physical being are his immortalising juices and they have to be pressed out and offered to all the gods; for in that strength these shall increase and conquer.
Each of these primary deities has others associated with him who fulfil functions that arise from his own. For if the truth of Surya is to be established firmly in our mortal nature, there are previous conditions that are indispensable; a vast purity and clear wideness destructive of all sin and crooked falsehood, - and this is Varuna; a luminous power of love and comprehension leading and forming into harmony all our thoughts, acts and impulses, - this is Mitra; an immortal puissance of clear-discerning aspiration and endeavour, - this is Aryaman; a happy spontaneity of the right enjoyment of all things dispelling the evil dream of sin and error and suffering, - this is Bhaga. These four are powers of the Truth of Surya. For the whole bliss of Soma to be established perfectly in our nature a happy and enlightened and unmaimed condition of mind, vitality and body are necessary. This condition is given to us by the twin Ashwins; wedded to the daughter of Light, drinkers of honey, bringers of perfect satisfactions, healers of maim and malady they occupy our parts of knowledge and parts of action and prepare our mental, vital and physical being for an easy and victorious ascension.
Indra, the Divine Mind, as the shaper of mental forms has for his assistants, his artisans, the Ribhus, human powers who by the work of sacrifice and their brilliant ascension to the high dwelling-place of the Sun have attained to immortality and help mankind to repeat their achievement. They shape by the mind Indra's horses, the chariot of the Ashwins, the weapons of the Gods, all the means of the journey and the battle. But as giver of the Light of Truth and as Vritra-slayer Indra is aided by the Maruts, who are powers of will and nervous or vital Force that have attained to the light of thought and the voice of self-expression. They are behind all thought and speech as its impellers and they battle towards the Light, Truth and Bliss of the supreme Consciousness.
There are also female energies; for the Deva is both Male and Female and the gods also are either activising souls or passively executive and methodising energies. Aditi, infinite Mother of the Gods, comes first; and there are besides five powers of the Truthconsciousness, - Mahi or Bharati, the vast Word that brings us all things out of the divine source; Ila, the strong primal word of the Truth who gives us its active vision; Saraswati, its streaming current and the word of its inspiration; Sarama, the Intuition, hound of heaven who descends into the cavern of the subconscient and finds there the concealed illuminations; Dakshina, whose function is to discern rightly, dispose the action and the offering and distribute in the sacrifice to each godhead its portion. Each god, too, has his female energy.
All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, - Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.
The development of all these godheads is necessary to our perfection. And that perfection must be attained on all our levels, - in the wideness of earth, our physical being and consciousness; in the full force of vital speed and action and enjoyment and nervous vibration, typified as the Horse which must be brought forward to upbear our endeavour; in the perfect gladness of the heart of emotion and a brilliant heat and clarity of the mind throughout our intellectual and psychical being; in the coming of the supramental Light, the Dawn and the Sun and the shining Mother of the herds, to transform all our existence; for so comes to us the possession of the Truth, by the Truth the admirable surge of the Bliss, in the Bliss infinite Consciousness of absolute being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Doctrine of the Mystics,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:To become wise, meditate on the third eye, between the eyebrows and a little bit above. Focus on that spot, the Agni chakra. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 2:The power chakra is the navel center. The center of balance is the heart chakra; it's the center of our being. The third eye is the center of wisdom, the Agni chakra. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:They who deny God have not seen Him. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden II, Illumination 180, (1924), #NFDB
2:They who deny God have not seen Him. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One: The Call, 12, (1924), #NFDB
3:Love even the knot-grass. God created it. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One: The Call, 237, (1924), #NFDB
4:In a rational religion there is no perplexity. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One: The Call, 11, (1924), #NFDB
5:mission as their nearest Friend, Then, like the far−resounding billows of the flood, thy flames, O Agni, roar aloud. ~ Various, #NFDB
6:God — or Aum (om) —is the Highest Being of your inner self. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One: The Call, 6, (1924), #NFDB
7:That which refuses to give itself, is still the food of the cosmic Powers ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #NFDB
8:To become wise, meditate on the third eye, between the eyebrows and a little bit above. Focus on that spot, the Agni chakra. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
9:Self-fulfilment by self-immolation, to grow by giving is the universal law. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #NFDB
10:Force and Love united and both illumined by Knowledge fulfil God in the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #NFDB
11:Love illuminated fulfils the harmony which is the goal of the divine movement. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #NFDB
12:Even in the most ancient times people understood the significance of the heart. They regarded the heart as the Dwelling of God. ~ Agni Yoga, Heart 73, (1932), #NFDB
13:Agni was her brother and she loved him, and he often understood her, but he was a man. In the end he thought as a man thinks, of owning and mastering. ~ Judith Tarr, #NFDB
14:The true Agni always burns in deep peace; it is the fire of an all-conquering will. Let it grow in you in perfect equanimity.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#NFDB
15:Equality of soul created by the surrender to the universal Wisdom gives us a supreme peace and calm. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Agni, the Illumined Will, #NFDB
16:It was after the time of Origen’s disciples that the false religion of the priesthood began to spread. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One: The Call, 268, (1924), #NFDB
17:Months passed away without dreams about the Agni Ki…or my father. My new life began to find new rhythm. But then…as suddenly as it always does…everything changed. ~ Dave Roman, #NFDB
18:It is useful to teach about immortality in the schools. Religion that teaches about death will pass away, as will all those who believe in death. ~ Agni Yoga, Agni Yoga, 333, (1929), #NFDB
19:The power chakra is the navel center. The center of balance is the heart chakra; it's the center of our being. The third eye is the center of wisdom, the Agni chakra. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
20:A knowledge of reincarnation would also be helpful. But existing conditions of government and religion severely impede the development of such responsibility. ~ Agni Yoga, Agni Yoga, 397, (1929), #NFDB
21:Agni in the form of an aspiration full of concentrated calm and surrender is certainly the first thing to be lighted in the heart. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, Experiences Associated with the Psychic, #NFDB
22:To what is One, sages give many a title they call it Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan.
एकं सद विप्रा बहुधा वदन्त्यग्निं यमं मातरिश्वानमाहुः ||
1:164:46
(ekaṃ sad viprā bahudhā vadantyaghniṃ yamaṃ mātariśvānamāhuḥ) ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
23:Religions have frightened humanity with their dogma of final judgment, and have thereby deprived it of daring... Can one accept on faith the decisions of strangers who take fees for communing with heaven? ~ Agni Yoga, Agni Yoga, 245, (1929), #NFDB
24:The Brahma Puranas that glorify Brahma are Brahma Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Agni Purana, Brahmavaivarta Purana, Brahmanda Purana, and Padma Purana. ~ Shantha N. Nair, in "Echoes of Ancient Indian Wisdom: The Universal Hindu Vision and Its Edifice (1 January 2008)", p. 266, #NFDB
25:In the same Upanishad, Agni is invoked for purely moral functions as the purifier from sin, the leader of the soul by the good path to the divine Bliss, and he seems to be identified with the power of the will and responsible for human actions
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret Of The Veda, [7],#NFDB
26:Shepherds have received the revelations, While emperors have searched for them. Dogmatic scholars have resisted them. Leaders have been fearful of them. The Voice of God overshadows all when there is spiritual readiness. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One: The Call, 367, (1924), #NFDB
27:What is meant by "mad in God"? Why were the prophets of antiquity called madmen? Precisely because of the fire of straight-knowledge, which isolated them from all else, a valuable quality that severed them from the ordinary, everyday ways of thinking. ~ Agni Yoga, Agni Yoga, 281, (1929), #NFDB
28:On the day of the agni pariksha, light transfixed Amar’s face.
“I have every faith in you, my love,” he said, trailing fingers along my jaw. “This will put an end to every rumor. This will keep you safe from them. I know our days have been cold, but after this, we will be as we once were. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
29:One could well ask if there is some subconscious link in the patriarchal mind between the agni-pariksha, fire-ordeal of Sita; the encouraging of women to become satis, the practice of entering the fire jointly in a jauhar when a Rajput raja was defeated in a campaign; and the frequency of dowry deaths in recent times. ~ Romila Thapar, #NFDB
30:The Yaksha asked, 'Who is the guest of all creatures? What is the eternal duty? What, O foremost of kings, is Amrita? And what is this entire Universe?' Yudhishthira answered, Agni is the guest of all creatures: the milk of kine is amrita: Homa (therewith) is the eternal duty: and this Universe consists of air alone. ~ Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, #NFDB
31:The loss of religion has shaken the movement forward. Without God there is no path. Call Him what one will, the highest Hierarchic Principle must be observed, otherwise there is nothing to adhere to. Thus, one must understand how the upward aspiration of people's wills surrounds the planet like a protective net. ~ Agni Yoga, Fiery World Part I, 628, (1933), #NFDB
32:Sometimes I think that the Agni You have kindled in me is going to burn up everything that separates me from You. What should I do to contribute to its fulfilment?
Each time that you discover in yourself something that denies or resists, throw it into the flame of Agni, which is the fire of aspiration. 19 May 1967
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#NFDB
33:In 1991, while looking forward to his retirement and planning to open a school for underprivileged children, he started writing down his memoirs. He had always written poetry and was an avid reader from his days as a student in Madras. The book he wrote began with his childhood days and ended somewhere after the launch of Agni. Called Wings of Fire, ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
34:He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and around that time was asked to take charge of the Guided Missile Development Programme at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by Dr Raja Ramanna. Here he went on to develop India’s missile programme with the missile systems Prithvi, Trishul, Nag, Akash and Agni taking shape at this time. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
35:I don’t remember when the agni pariksha ended. I only remembered emerging, my ankles encircled with ash. A deafening roar--applause or resentment, fury or joy--as I left. And I remember Amar’s face, one dark eyebrow arched as he surveyed the crowd, a proud smirk on his face as though he expected this all along.
All that time, I thought he was merely pretending. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
36:As per some Vedic marriage rites, a woman is first given in marriage to the romantic moon-god, Chandra, then to the highly sensual Gandharva named Vishwavasu, then to the fire-god, Agni, who cleanses and purifies all things, and finally to her human husband. Thus, the ‘four men’ quota is exhausted. Clearly this was an attempt of society to prevent Hindu women from remarrying. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
37:But Indra does not turn back from the quest like Agni and Vayu; he pursues his way through the highest ether of the pure mentality and there he approaches the Woman, the manyshining, Uma Haimavati; from her he learns that this Daemon is the Brahman by whom alone the gods of mind and life and body conquer and affirm themselves, and in whom alone they are great. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena And Other Upanishads, 83, #NFDB
38:Agni is the power of conscious Being, called by us will, effective behind the workings of mind and body. Agni is the strong God within (maryah, the strong, the masculine) who puts out his strength against all assailing powers, who forbids inertia, who repels every failing of heart and force, who spurns out all lack of manhood. Agni actualises what otherwise remain as an ineffectual thought or aspiration.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret Of The Veda,#NFDB
39:Linga Purana is where Maheshwara, present in the Agni Linga, explained {the objects of life) virtue, wealth, pleasure, and final liberation at the end of the Agni Kalpa, and this Purana, consists of eleven thousand stanzas. It is said to have been originally composed by Brahma and the primitive Linga is a pillar of radiance, in which Maheswara is present. ~ Horace H. Wilson, in Works:¬Vol. ¬6 : ¬The Vishṅu Purāṅa: a system of Hindu mythology ..., Volume 6 (1864), p. LXVii-LXViii, #NFDB
40:It would seem, then, that a true striving toward realization of supreme possibilities should fill the greater part of human life as a most essential and engrossing occupation. But in reality the light of knowledge has been replaced by the conventional dogma of religion; and man, meant to be a thinker, worships his dark corner of idols, hanging amulets upon himself without even understanding the meaning of their symbols. Repeat this to all those who sleep in the darkness of the ordinary. ~ Agni Yoga, Agni Yoga, 158, (1929), #NFDB
41:The primary concern of religion should be to provide a practical solution of life. The heavenly reward is too remote; the return should be brought within the earthly span. People can now understand as universally accessible the miracle of the renewal of possibilities. Hence, either the hand of the Invisible Friend or a sharp sword. And, remembering the advantage of immediate remuneration, people will find a new path to the Temple. There is no need to implore Divinity. One should bring to oneself the best deed. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book Two: Illumination, 111. (1925), #NFDB
42:If the Purana written by Vyasa were still existing, then it would be honoured as a “Sruti”. In the absence of this Purana and the one written by Lomaharshana, the eighteen Puranas that still exist cannot all be given the same place of honour; among them, the Vishnu and the Bhagwata Purana composed by accomplished yogis are definitely more precious and we must recognise that the Markandeya Purana written by a sage devoted to spiritual pursuits is more profound in Knowledge than either the Shiva or the Agni Purana. ~ Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English"., #NFDB
43:Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications... (106) ...It is true that Armageddon is raging and incredible crimes have been committed, but it is also true that against the background of these terrors a speedy evolution rushes onward. Is it possible that people do not see how much of the new is entering life? We should not permit the doubting worldlings to proclaim that the dark forces are victorious. That which belongs to Infinity cannot be conquered. (259) ~ Agni Yoga, Supermundane, (1938), #NFDB
44:Agni, for me, was a project very close to my heart. I had chosen the name for I felt it symbolized all the fire that we as a nation had lying latent within all of us. It was Agni not because it was destructive, but because it gave us strength and confidence and in developing it indigenously we made great strides in our own technological capabilities. The wings I had once dreamt of flying on were now a reality. They were wings that made dreams into reality, hard work into success, they were the wings of fire that can destroy ignorance and backwardness and fly us towards becoming a strong, developed nation. ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
45:In primitive religions the fear of God was taught first of all. Thus was suggested a feeling which usually ends in rebellion. Certainly, each one who contacts the Higher World experiences a trembling, but this unavoidable sensation has nothing in common with fear. Fear is cessation of creative energy. Fear is ossification and submission to darkness. Whereas turning to the Higher World must evoke ecstasy and expansion of one’s forces for the expression of the beautiful. Such qualities are born not of fear but through love. Therefore higher religion teaches not fear but love. Only by such a path can people become attached to the Higher World. ~ Agni Yoga, Fiery World Part II, 292, (1934), #NFDB
46:In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285) ~ Agni Yoga, Supermundane, (1938), #NFDB
47:The canon, “By thy God,” is the higher, and this canon is the basis of the New World. Formerly one said: “And my spirit rejoiceth in God, my Savior.” Now you will say: “And my spirit rejoiceth in God, thy Savior.” Solemnly do I say that therein is salvation. “Long live thy God!” So you will say to everyone; and, exchanging Gods, you will walk to the One. There where one might otherwise sink one can tread softly, if without negation. There where one could suffocate one can pass, by pronouncing “Thy God.” There where matter is revered one can pass only by elevating the earthly matter into the Cosmos. Essentially, one should not have any attachment to Earth... Thus, find the God of each one and exalt Him. ~ Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden II, Illumination, 211, (1924), #NFDB
48:The Thinker wisely encouraged His disciples, and prophesied the victory of the Forces of Light. (259) In the Puranas it was predicted that toward the end of Kali Yuga humanity would be driven to acts of madness. It is very dangerous that people do not recognize this state, for while it is possible to cure a patient who does not resist treatment, if he struggles against it the beneficial effects of the medicine will be diminished. But how do you explain to people that their leaders and their teachers are insane? ...such mental confusion fully corresponds with the end of Kali Yuga... Most people hate the messenger who brings knowledge... let them at least remember the warning that humanity is acting insanely. The Thinker warned, “Do not fall into madness.” (285) ~ Agni Yoga, Supermundane, (1938), #NFDB
49:I don’t trust you.”
He stepped back, wounded. “Has your judgment become so compromised? If you truly do not believe the truth in my words, then you have no place here.”
We stared at one another, fury swelling between us. The silence expanded, solidifying our words like manacles.
“Once, I thought you loved me,” I said in a broken voice. “I refuse to live in your shadow for the rest of eternity.”
His eyes widened, obsidian eyes searching and disbelieving.
“Then leave!” he said, gesturing to the door angrily.
So I did.
I stepped into the reincarnation pool, letting the waters tease my life apart, inflicting upon myself the same curse that had forced me to undergo the agni pariksha. In the distance, Amar’s voice roared for me. Pleading. But it was too little. And far too late. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
50:DISCIPLE: It is said that the psychic is a spark of the Divine.
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes.
DISCIPLE: Then it seems that the function of the psychic being is the same as that of Vedic Agni, who is the leader of the journey?
SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. Agni is the God of the Psychic and, among the other things it does, it leads the upward journey.
DISCIPLE: How does the psychic carry the personalities formed in this life into another life?
SRI AUROBINDO: After death, it gathers its elements and carries them onward to another birth. But it is not the same personality that is born. People easily misunderstand these things, specially when they are put in terms of the mind. The past personality is taken only as the basis but a new personality is put forward. If it was the same personality, then it would act exactly in the same manner and there would be no meaning in that. ~ Sri Aurobindo, EVENING TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO, RECORDED BY A B PURANI (page no 665-666),#NFDB
51:But they don't deserve to be winning!"
"And who does in this world, Roland? Only the gifted and the beautiful and the brave? What about the rest of us, Champ? What about the wretched, for example? What about the weak and the lowly and the desperate and the fearful and the deprived, to name but a few who come to mind? What about losers? What about failures? What about the ordinary fucking outcasts of this world - who happen to comprise ninety percent of the human race! Don't they have dreams, Agni? Don't they have hopes? Just who told you clean-cut bastards own the world anyway? Who put you clean-cut bastards in charge, that's what I'd like to know! Oh, let me tell you something. All-American Adonis : you fair-haired sons of bitches have had your day. It's all over, Agni. We're not playing according to your clean-cut rules anymore - we're playing according to our own! The Revolution has begun! Henceforth the Mundys are the master race! Long live Glorious Mundy! ~ Philip Roth,#NFDB
52:On the day of the agni pariksha, light transfixed Amar’s face.
“I have every faith in you, my love,” he said, trailing fingers along my jaw. “This will put an end to every rumor. This will keep you safe from them. I know our days have been cold, but after this, we will be as we once were.”
Inside, my heart snarled, but I kept my face blank. “I will not disappoint.”
All the members of the Otherworld assembled for my trial. I wore white, the dress of mourning. In the Night Bazaar, a dim glow lit up the faces of the attendees, clinging to well-oiled horns and scaled skin. Leonine rakshasa waited patiently, weapons quivering in their grip. If I failed, they were free to depose me. If I succeeded, they would end their bloodshed in the human realms.
Sacred flames lapped up from the ground. Ribbons of fire snaked out like tongues and grasping hands. I looked to Amar. His face was stern. Hopeful. For what outcome, I thought I knew. But I was wrong. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
53:Gaya, the Rishi, prays to Agni, Lord of Tapas, the representative in Nature of the Divine Power that builds the worlds & works in them towards our soul's fulfilment in and beyond heaven - Agni, as játavedas, the self-existent luminosity of knowledge in this Cosmic Force - for Force is only Chitshakti, working power of the Divine Consciousness & therefore Cosmic Force is always self-luminous, all-knowing force. Agni Jatavedas then is the ray of divine knowledge in this embodied state of existence; - he is Adhrigu - the Light in our embodied being. For this reason all action offered by us to Agni as a work of divine tapas becomes in its nature a self-luminous activity guiding itself whether consciously in our minds or super-consciously, guháhitam, to the divine goal. All Tapas is self-effective and God-effective. As Adhrigu, the divine Light in our embodied being, Agni is to bring to us an illumination of knowledge in our mentality which is ojistha, most full of ojas, superabundant ... ~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns To The Mystic Fire, #NFDB
54:The cyclopedial character of the Agni Purana, as it is now described, excludes it from any legitimate claims to be regarded as a Purana, and proves that its origin cannot be remote. It is subsequent to the Itihasas; to the chief works on grammar, rhetoric, and medicine; and to the introduction of the Tantrika worship of Devi. When this latter took place is yet far from determined, but there is every probability that it dates long after the beginning of our era. The materials of the Agni Purana are however, no doubt of some antiquity. The medicine of Sushruta is considerably older than the ninth century; and the grammar of Panini probably precedes Christianity. The chapters on archery and arms, and on regal administration, are also distinguished by an entirely Hindu character, and must have been written long anterior to the Mohammedan invasion. So far the Agni Purana is valuable, as embodying and preserving relics of antiquity, although compiled at a more recent date. ~ H.H.Wilson, in "Oriental Translation Fund, Volume 52 (Google eBook), Volume 52 (1840)}, p. xxxviii, #NFDB
55:Are you disappointed?” I asked coldly.
Amar slipped his arms around my waist. “I always believed in you. It is the world outside who needed convincing.”
“Liar,” I hissed, stepping out of the ring of his arms.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“You humiliated me. You left me to them like carrion before vultures. And like vultures, they devoured me.”
My voice was hoarse and brittle. I hated him. I hated him for abandoning me. I hated him for needing him.
Amar stepped back, his jaw clenched. “I did it to quell dissent. To keep you safe. I was ashamed that I had to ask you to undergo the agni pariksha.”
“So ashamed you distanced yourself from me the moment you demanded that trial?”
Amar looked stunned. “I am the Dharma Raja for a reason. I would not have my own impartiality questioned by favoring you. Surely, you knew this.”
“What would you have done if I failed?”
“You couldn’t fail,” said Amar. “That’s why I did not worry. You were meant to be the queen of these lands. We were meant to rule together. For all of eternity. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
56:The manifestation of unfit elements is great at the end of Kali Yuga. The fiercer Armageddon is, the better it serves as purifier of the dross. (66) The end of Kali Yuga is significant, for many cosmic events are connected with this period... Armageddon was predicted ages ago, and the abnormalities at the end of Kali Yuga were described in the Puranas, but even keen thinkers underestimated those clear indications.However, the unusualness of the events does not impress humanity, whose mental confusion was also predicted ages ago. (106) The significance of Armageddon is little understood. Anyone who knows about the approaching end of Kali Yuga recognizes that it cannot occur without world upheavals. The forces that were particularly powerful during the Black Age must now struggle for survival, and they prefer a general catastrophe to defeat... The tension of spatial currents and the discovery of Primal Energy could not be mentioned in the Puranas even though they were intended for the seeking, advanced thinkers. But both of these conditions have now been manifested in a pronounced form, making the significance of the approaching end of Kali Yuga the more obvious.(127) ~ Agni Yoga, Supermundane, (1938), #NFDB
57:Throughout my questioning, the Dharma Raja stood by my side, a silken shadow against all this light. I believed in myself, and with Amar supporting me, my decision was invincible.
“How could you be so cruel?” exclaimed one. “No wife in his mortal life?”
“His wife would not be reincarnated with him. I will not give him another.”
A woman with a white veil, whose skin glowed like dawn, shot me a trembling smile.
“And what about his brothers? Did they not also partake in his crime of theft?” retorted another.
“They did,” I said.
“Then why must he endure a whole life as a human when his brothers live less than a year in that realm?”
“Because they were accomplices. Not the instigators of the crime. It was he who committed the most wrong. It is he who must live the longest.”
The deva beside me stomped his feet and lightning flared behind him.
“And what say you, Dharma Raja? How will you defend your queen’s decision?”
I remembered holding my chin high, surveying the crowd with the tasteful indifference of one who knew she was impervious. And I remembered when that moment fell with his next words:
“If you doubt her, then I propose an agni pariksha. Fire will always tell.”
The devas and devis nodded approvingly to themselves. A trial by fire. Humiliation burned through me. I dropped my hand from his and the world broke between us. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
58:I am the Dharma Raja for a reason. I would not have my own impartiality questioned by favoring you. Surely, you knew this.”
“What would you have done if I failed?”
“You couldn’t fail,” said Amar. “That’s why I did not worry. You were meant to be the queen of these lands. We were meant to rule together. For all of eternity.”
“I would rather die than rule by the side of a coward.”
Shadows curled away from Amar’s body.
“Coward?” he hissed. “Cowardice is running from the difficult choices made by the ones that love you most. If I have been a coward, so have you, jaani. But we may start anew. Let us not speak of this time any longer.”
He tried, once more, to tilt my face into a kiss, but I moved away.
“I saw you spread the rumors yourself in the Otherworld. I watched you take solace in another’s arms. And if surviving the agni pariksha means spending eternity with you, then I would rather live life as a mortal.”
The room became damp and sticky with darkness.
“What lies you hurl at me,” he murmured.
“I don’t trust you.”
He stepped back, wounded. “Has your judgment become so compromised? If you truly do not believe the truth in my words, then you have no place here.”
We stared at one another, fury swelling between us. The silence expanded, solidifying our words like manacles.
“Once, I thought you loved me,” I said in a broken voice. “I refuse to live in your shadow for the rest of eternity.”
His eyes widened, obsidian eyes searching and disbelieving.
“Then leave!” he said, gesturing to the door angrily. ~ Roshani Chokshi,#NFDB
59:He no longer saw the face of his friend Siddhartha, instead he saw other faces, many, a long sequence, a flowing river of faces, of hundreds, of thousands, which all came and disappeared, and yet all seemed to be there simultaneously, which all constantly changed and renewed themselves, and which were still all Siddhartha. He saw the face of a fish, a carp, with an infinitely painfully opened mouth, the face of a dying fish, with fading eyes—he saw the face of a new-born child, red and full of wrinkles, distorted from crying—he saw the face of a murderer, he saw him plunging a knife into the body of another person—he saw, in the same second, this criminal in bondage, kneeling and his head being chopped off by the executioner with one blow of his sword—he saw the bodies of men and women, naked in positions and cramps of frenzied love—he saw corpses stretched out, motionless, cold, void— he saw the heads of animals, of boars, of crocodiles, of elephants, of bulls, of birds—he saw gods, saw Krishna, saw Agni—he saw all of these figures and faces in a thousand relationships with one another, each one helping the other, loving it, hating it, destroying it, giving re-birth to it, each one was a will to die, a passionately painful confession of transitoriness, and yet none of them died, each one only transformed, was always re-born, received evermore a new face, without any time having passed between the one and the other face—and all of these figures and faces rested, flowed, generated themselves, floated along and merged with each other, and they were all constantly covered by something thin, without individuality of its own, but yet existing, like a thin glass or ice, like a transparent skin, a shell or mold or mask of water, and this mask was smiling, and this mask was Siddhartha's smiling face, which he, Govinda, in this very same moment touched with his lips. And, Govinda saw it like this, this smile of the mask, this smile of oneness above the flowing forms, this smile of simultaneousness above the thousand births and deaths, this smile of Siddhartha was precisely the same, was precisely of the same kind as the quiet, delicate, impenetrable, perhaps benevolent, perhaps mocking, wise, thousand-fold smile of Gotama, the Buddha, as he had seen it himself with great respect a hundred times. Like this, Govinda knew, the perfected ones are smiling. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
60:Vijnana, true ideation, called ritam, truth or vedas, knowledge in the Vedas, acts in human mind by four separate functions; revelation, termed drishti, sight; inspiration termed sruti,hearing; and the two faculties of discernment, smriti, memory,which are intuition, termed ketu, and discrimination, termed daksha, division, or viveka, separation. By drishti we see ourselves the truth face to face, in its own form, nature or self-existence; by sruti we hear the name, sound or word by which the truth is expressed & immediately suggested to the knowledge; by ketu we distinguish a truth presented to us behind a veil whether of result or process, as Newton discovered the law of gravitation hidden behind the fall of the apple; by viveka we distinguish between various truths and are able to put them in their right place, order and relation to each other, or, if presented with mingled truth & error, separate the truth from the falsehood. Agni Jatavedas is termed in the Veda vivichi, he who has the viveka, who separates truth from falsehood; but this is only a special action of the fourth ideal faculty & in its wider scope, it is daksha, that which divides & rightly distributes truth in its multiform aspects. The ensemble of the four faculties is Vedas or divine knowledge. When man is rising out of the limited & error-besieged mental principle, the faculty most useful to him, most indispensable is daksha or viveka. Drishti of Vijnana transmuted into terms of mind has become observation, sruti appears as imagination, intuition as intelligent perception, viveka as reasoning & intellectual judgment and all of these are liable to the constant touch of error. Human buddhi, intellect, is a distorted shadow of the true ideative faculties. As we return from these shadows to their ideal substance viveka or daksha must be our constant companion; for viveka alone can get rid of the habit of mental error, prevent observation being replaced by false illumination, imagination by false inspiration, intelligence by false intuition, judgment & reason by false discernment. The first sign of human advance out of the anritam of mind to the ritam of the ideal faculty is the growing action of a luminous right discernment which fixes instantly on the truth, feels instantly the presence of error. The fullness, the manhana of this viveka is the foundation & safeguard of Ritam or Vedas. The first great movement of Agni Jatavedas is to transform by the divine will in mental activity his lower smoke-covered activity into the bright clearness & fullness of the ideal discernment. Agne adbhuta kratw a dakshasya manhana.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns To The Mystic Fire, 717,#NFDB
61:To what gods shall the sacrifice be offered? Who shall be invoked to manifest and protect in the human being this increasing godhead?
Agni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with Knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Indra, the Puissant next, who is the power of pure Existence self-manifested as the Divine Mind. As Agni is one pole of Force instinct with knowledge that sends its current upward from earth to heaven, so Indra is the other pole of Light instinct with force which descends from heaven to earth. He comes down into our world as the Hero with the shining horses and slays darkness and division with his lightnings, pours down the life-giving heavenly waters, finds in the trace of the hound, Intuition, the lost or hidden illuminations, makes the Sun of Truth mount high in the heaven of our mentality.
Surya, the Sun, is the master of that supreme Truth, - truth of being, truth of knowledge, truth of process and act and movement and functioning. He is therefore the creator or rather the manifester of all things - for creation is out-bringing, expression by the Truth and Will - and the father, fosterer, enlightener of our souls. The illuminations we seek are the herds of this Sun who comes to us in the track of the divine Dawn and releases and reveals in us night-hidden world after world up to the highest Beatitude.
Of that beatitude Soma is the representative deity. The wine of his ecstasy is concealed in the growths of earth, in the waters of existence; even here in our physical being are his immortalising juices and they have to be pressed out and offered to all the gods; for in that strength these shall increase and conquer.
Each of these primary deities has others associated with him who fulfil functions that arise from his own. For if the truth of Surya is to be established firmly in our mortal nature, there are previous conditions that are indispensable; a vast purity and clear wideness destructive of all sin and crooked falsehood, - and this is Varuna; a luminous power of love and comprehension leading and forming into harmony all our thoughts, acts and impulses, - this is Mitra; an immortal puissance of clear-discerning aspiration and endeavour, - this is Aryaman; a happy spontaneity of the right enjoyment of all things dispelling the evil dream of sin and error and suffering, - this is Bhaga. These four are powers of the Truth of Surya. For the whole bliss of Soma to be established perfectly in our nature a happy and enlightened and unmaimed condition of mind, vitality and body are necessary. This condition is given to us by the twin Ashwins; wedded to the daughter of Light, drinkers of honey, bringers of perfect satisfactions, healers of maim and malady they occupy our parts of knowledge and parts of action and prepare our mental, vital and physical being for an easy and victorious ascension.
Indra, the Divine Mind, as the shaper of mental forms has for his assistants, his artisans, the Ribhus, human powers who by the work of sacrifice and their brilliant ascension to the high dwelling-place of the Sun have attained to immortality and help mankind to repeat their achievement. They shape by the mind Indra's horses, the chariot of the Ashwins, the weapons of the Gods, all the means of the journey and the battle. But as giver of the Light of Truth and as Vritra-slayer Indra is aided by the Maruts, who are powers of will and nervous or vital Force that have attained to the light of thought and the voice of self-expression. They are behind all thought and speech as its impellers and they battle towards the Light, Truth and Bliss of the supreme Consciousness.
There are also female energies; for the Deva is both Male and Female and the gods also are either activising souls or passively executive and methodising energies. Aditi, infinite Mother of the Gods, comes first; and there are besides five powers of the Truthconsciousness, - Mahi or Bharati, the vast Word that brings us all things out of the divine source; Ila, the strong primal word of the Truth who gives us its active vision; Saraswati, its streaming current and the word of its inspiration; Sarama, the Intuition, hound of heaven who descends into the cavern of the subconscient and finds there the concealed illuminations; Dakshina, whose function is to discern rightly, dispose the action and the offering and distribute in the sacrifice to each godhead its portion. Each god, too, has his female energy.
All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, - Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.
The development of all these godheads is necessary to our perfection. And that perfection must be attained on all our levels, - in the wideness of earth, our physical being and consciousness; in the full force of vital speed and action and enjoyment and nervous vibration, typified as the Horse which must be brought forward to upbear our endeavour; in the perfect gladness of the heart of emotion and a brilliant heat and clarity of the mind throughout our intellectual and psychical being; in the coming of the supramental Light, the Dawn and the Sun and the shining Mother of the herds, to transform all our existence; for so comes to us the possession of the Truth, by the Truth the admirable surge of the Bliss, in the Bliss infinite Consciousness of absolute being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Doctrine of the Mystics,#NFDB
62: Love and Death
Love and Death
In woodlands of the bright and early world,
When love was to himself yet new and warm
And stainless, played like morning with a flower
Ruru with his young bride Priyumvada.
Fresh-cheeked and dew-eyed white Priyumvada
Opened her budded heart of crimson bloom
To love, to Ruru; Ruru, a happy flood
Of passion round a lotus dancing thrilled,
Blinded with his soul's waves Priyumvada.
To him the earth was a bed for this sole flower,
To her all the world was filled with his embrace.
Wet with new rains the morning earth, released
From her fierce centuries and burning suns,
Lavished her breath in greenness; poignant flowers
Thronged all her eager breast, and her young arms
Cradled a childlike bounding life that played
And would not cease, nor ever weary grew
Of her bright promise; for all was joy and breeze
And perfume, colour and bloom and ardent rays
Of living, and delight desired the world.
Then Earth was quick and pregnant tamelessly;
A free and unwalled race possessed her plains
Whose hearts uncramped by bonds, whose unspoiled thoughts
At once replied to light. Foisoned the fields;
Lonely and rich the forests and the swaying
Of those unnumbered tops affected men
With thoughts to their vast music kin. Undammed
The virgin rivers moved towards the sea,
And mountains yet unseen and peoples vague
Winged young imagination like an eagle
To strange beauty remote. And Ruru felt
The sweetness of the early earth as sap
All through him, and short life an aeon made
By boundless possibility, and love,
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Sweetest of all unfathomable love,
A glory untired. As a bright bird comes flying
From airy extravagance to his own home,
And breasts his mate, and feels her all his goal,
So from boon sunlight and the fresh chill wave
Which swirled and lapped between the slumbering fields,
From forest pools and wanderings mid leaves
Through emerald ever-new discoveries,
Mysterious hillsides ranged and buoyant-swift
Races with our wild brothers in the meads,
Came Ruru back to the white-bosomed girl,
Strong-winged to pleasure. She all fresh and new
Rose to him, and he plunged into her charm.
For neither to her honey and poignancy
Artlessly interchanged, nor any limit
To the sweet physical delight of her
He found. Her eyes like deep and infinite wells
Lured his attracted soul, and her touch thrilled
Not lightly, though so light; the joy prolonged
And sweetness of the lingering of her lips
Was every time a nectar of surprise
To her lover; her smooth-gleaming shoulder bared
In darkness of her hair showed jasmine-bright,
While her kissed bosom by rich tumults stirred
Was a moved sea that rocked beneath his heart.
Then when her lips had made him blind, soft siege
Of all her unseen body to his rule
Betrayed the ravishing realm of her white limbs,
An empire for the glory of a God.
He knew not whether he loved most her smile,
Her causeless tears or little angers swift,
Whether held wet against him from the bath
Among her kindred lotuses, her cheeks
Soft to his lips and dangerous happy breasts
That vanquished all his strength with their desire,
Meeting his absence with her sudden face,
Or when the leaf-hid bird at night complained
Love and Death
Near their wreathed arbour on the moonlit lake,
Sobbing delight out from her heart of bliss,
Or in his clasp of rapture laughing low
Of his close bosom bridal-glad and pleased
With passion and this fiery play of love,
Or breaking off like one who thinks of grief,
Wonderful melancholy in her eyes
Grown liquid and with wayward sorrow large.
Thus he in her found a warm world of sweets,
And lived of ecstasy secure, nor deemed
Any new hour could match that early bliss.
But Love has joys for spirits born divine
More bleeding-lovely than his thornless rose.
That day he had left, while yet the east was dark,
Rising, her bosom and into the river
Swam out, exulting in the sting and swift
Sharp-edged desire around his limbs, and sprang
Wet to the bank, and streamed into the wood.
As a young horse upon the pastures glad
Feels greensward and the wind along his mane
And arches as he goes his neck, so went
In an immense delight of youth the boy
And shook his locks, joy-crested. Boundlessly
He revelled in swift air of life, a creature
Of wide and vigorous morning. Far he strayed
Tempting for flower and fruit branches in heaven,
And plucked, and flung away, and brighter chose,
Seeking comparisons for her bloom; and followed
New streams, and touched new trees, and felt slow beauty
And leafy secret change; for the damp leaves,
Grey-green at first, grew pallid with the light
And warmed with consciousness of sunshine near;
Then the whole daylight wandered in, and made
Hard tracts of splendour, and enriched all hues.
But when a happy sheltered heat he felt
And heard contented voice of living things
Harmonious with the noon, he turned and swiftly
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Went homeward yearning to Priyumvada,
And near his home emerging from green leaves
He laughed towards the sun: "O father Sun,"
He cried, "how good it is to live, to love!
Surely our joy shall never end, nor we
Grow old, but like bright rivers or pure winds
Sweetly continue, or revive with flowers,
Or live at least as long as senseless trees."
He dreamed, and said with a soft smile: "Lo, she!
And she will turn from me with angry tears
Her delicate face more beautiful than storm
Or rainy moonlight. I will follow her,
And soo the her heart with sovereign flatteries;
Or rather all tyranny exhaust and taste
The beauty of her anger like a fruit,
Vexing her soul with helplessness; then soften
Easily with quiet undenied demand
Of heart insisting upon heart; or else
Will reinvest her beauty bright with flowers,
Or with my hands her little feet persuade.
Then will her face be like a sudden dawn,
And flower compelled into reluctant smiles."
He had not ceased when he beheld her. She,
Tearing a jasmine bloom with waiting hands,
Stood drooping, petulant, but heard at once
His footsteps and before she was aware,
A sudden smile of exquisite delight
Leaped to her mouth, and a great blush of joy
Surprised her cheeks. She for a moment stood
Beautiful with her love before she died;
And he laughed towards her. With a pitiful cry
She paled; moaning, her stricken limbs collapsed.
But petrified, in awful dumb surprise,
He gazed; then waking with a bound was by her,
All panic expectation. As he came,
He saw a brilliant flash of coils evade
The sunlight, and with hateful gorgeous hood
Love and Death
Darted into green safety, hissing, death.
Voiceless he sank beside her and stretched out
His arms and desperately touched her face,
As if to attract her soul to live, and sought
Beseeching with his hands her bosom. O, she
Was warm, and cruel hope pierced him; but pale
As jasmines fading on a girl's sweet breast
Her cheek was, and forgot its perfect rose.
Her eyes that clung to sunlight yet, with pain
Were large and feebly round his neck her arms
She lifted and, desiring his pale cheek
Against her bosom, sobbed out piteously,
"Ah, love!" and stopped heart-broken; then, "O Love!
Alas the green dear home that I must leave
So early! I was so glad of love and kisses,
And thought that centuries would not exhaust
The deep embrace. And I have had so little
Of joy and the wild day and throbbing night,
Laughter, and tenderness, and strife and tears.
I have not numbered half the brilliant birds
In one green forest, nor am familiar grown
With sunrise and the progress of the eves,
Nor have with plaintive cries of birds made friends,
Cuckoo and rainlark and love-speak-to-me.
I have not learned the names of half the flowers
Around me; so few trees know me by my name;
Nor have I seen the stars so very often
That I should die. I feel a dreadful hand
Drawing me from the touch of thy warm limbs
Into some cold vague mist, and all black night
Descends towards me. I no more am thine,
But go I know not where, and see pale shapes
And gloomy countries and that terrible stream.
O Love, O Love, they take me from thee far,
And whether we shall find each other ever
In the wide dreadful territory of death,
I know not. Or thou wilt forget me quite,
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And life compel thee into other arms.
Ah, come with me! I cannot bear to wander
In that cold cruel country all alone,
Helpless and terrified, or sob by streams
Denied sweet sunlight and by thee unloved."
Slower her voice came now, and over her cheek
Death paused; then, sobbing like a little child
Too early from her bounding pleasures called,
The lovely discontented spirit stole
From her warm body white. Over her leaned
Ruru, and waited for dead lips to move.
Still in the greenwood lay Priyumvada,
And Ruru rose not from her, but with eyes
Emptied of glory hung above his dead,
Only, without a word, without a tear.
Then the crowned wives of the great forest came,
They who had fed her from maternal breasts,
And grieved over the lovely body cold,
And bore it from him; nor did he entreat
One last look nor one kiss, nor yet denied
What he had loved so well. They the dead girl
Into some distant greenness bore away.
But Ruru, while the stillness of the place
Remembered her, sat without voice. He heard
Through the great silence that was now his soul,
The forest sounds, a squirrel's leap through leaves,
The cheeping of a bird just overhead,
A peacock with his melancholy cry
Complaining far away, and tossings dim
And slight unnoticeable stir of trees.
But all these were to him like distant things
And he alone in his heart's void. And yet
No thought he had of her so lately lost.
Rather far pictures, trivial incidents
Of that old life before her delicate face
Had lived for him, dumbly distinct like thoughts
Love and Death
Of men that die, kept with long pomps his mind
Excluding the dead girl. So still he was,
The birds flashed by him with their swift small wings,
Fanning him. Then he moved, then rigorous
Memory through all his body shuddering
Awoke, and he looked up and knew the place,
And recognised greenness immutable,
And saw old trees and the same flowers still bloom.
He felt the bright indifference of earth
And all the lonely uselessness of pain.
Then lifting up the beauty of his brow
He spoke, with sorrow pale: "O grim cold Death!
But I will not like ordinary men
Satiate thee with cries, and falsely woo thee,
And make my grief thy theatre, who lie
Prostrate beneath thy thunderbolts and make
Night witness of their moans, shuddering and crying
When sudden memories pierce them like swords,
And often starting up as at a thought
Intolerable, pace a little, then
Sink down exhausted by brief agony.
O secrecy terrific, darkness vast,
At which we shudder! Somewhere, I know not where,
Somehow, I know not how, I shall confront
Thy gloom, tremendous spirit, and seize with hands
And prove what thou art and what man." He said,
And slowly to the forest wandered. There
Long months he travelled between grief and grief,
Reliving thoughts of her with every pace,
Measuring vast pain in his immortal mind.
And his heart cried in him as when a fire
Roars through wide forests and the branches cry
Burning towards heaven in torture glorious.
So burned, immense, his grief within him; he raised
His young pure face all solemnised with pain,
Voiceless. Then Fate was shaken, and the Gods
Grieved for him, of his silence grown afraid.
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Therefore from peaks divine came flashing down
Immortal Agni and to the uswutth-tree
Cried in the Voice that slays the world: "O tree
That liftest thy enormous branches able
To shelter armies, more than armies now
Shelter, be famous, house a brilliant God.
For the grief grows in Ruru's breast up-piled,
As wrestles with its anguished barricades
In silence an impending flood, and Gods
Immortal grow afraid. For earth alarmed
Shudders to bear the curse lest her young life
Pale with eclipse and all-creating love
Be to mere pain condemned. Divert the wrath
Into thy boughs, Uswuttha - thou shalt be
My throne - glorious, though in eternal pangs,
Yet worth much pain to harbour divine fire."
So ended the young pure destroyer's voice,
And the dumb god consented silently.
In the same noon came Ruru; his mind had paused,
Lured for a moment by soft wandering gleams
Into forgetfulness of grief; for thoughts
Gentle and near-eyed whispering memories
So sweetly came, his blind heart dreamed she lived.
Slow the uswuttha-tree bent down its leaves,
And smote his cheek, and touched his heavy hair.
And Ruru turned illumined. For a moment,
One blissful moment he had felt 'twas she.
So had she often stolen up and touched
His curls with her enamoured fingers small,
Lingering, while the wind smote him with her hair
And her quick breath came to him like spring. Then he,
Turning, as one surprised with heaven, saw
Ready to his swift passionate grasp her bosom
And body sweet expecting his embrace.
Oh, now saw her not, but the guilty tree
Shrinking; then grief back with a double crown
Arose and stained his face with agony.
Love and Death
Nor silence he endured, but the dumb force
Ascetic and inherited, by sires
Fierce-musing earned, from the boy's bosom blazed.
"O uswutth-tree, wantonly who hast mocked
My anguish with the wind, but thou no more
Have joy of the cool wind nor green delight,
But live thy guilty leaves in fire, so long
As Aryan wheels by thy doomed shadow vast
Thunder to war, nor bless with cool wide waves
Lyric Saruswathi nations impure."
He spoke, and the vast tree groaned through its leaves,
Recognising its fate; then smouldered; lines
Of living fire rushed up the girth and hissed
Serpentine in the unconsuming leaves;
Last, all Hutashan in his chariot armed
Sprang on the boughs and blazed into the sky,
And wailing all the great tormented creature
Stood wide in agony; one half was green
And earthly, the other a weird brilliance
Filled with the speed and cry of endless flame.
But he, with the fierce rushing-out of power
Shaken and that strong grasp of anguish, flung
His hands out to the sun; "Priyumvada!"
He cried, and at that well-loved sound there dawned
With overwhelming sweetness miserable
Upon his mind the old delightful times
When he had called her by her liquid name,
Where the voice loved to linger. He remembered
The chompuc bushes where she turned away
Half-angered, and his speaking of her name
Masterfully as to a lovely slave
Rebellious who has erred; at that the slow
Yielding of her small head, and after a little
Her sliding towards him and beautiful
Propitiating body as she sank down
With timid graspings deprecatingly
In prostrate warm surrender, her flushed cheeks
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Upon his feet and little touches soft;
Or her long name uttered beseechingly,
And the swift leap of all her body to him,
And eyes of large repentance, and the weight
Of her wild bosom and lips unsatisfied;
Or hourly call for little trivial needs,
Or sweet unneeded wanton summoning,
Daily appeal that never staled nor lost
Its sudden music, and her lovely speed,
Sedulous occupation left, quick-breathing,
With great glad eyes and eager parted lips;
Or in deep quiet moments murmuring
That name like a religion in her ear,
And her calm look compelled to ecstasy;
Or to the river luring her, or breathed
Over her dainty slumber, or secret sweet
Bridal outpantings of her broken name.
All these as rush unintermitting waves
Upon a swimmer overborne, broke on him
Relentless, things too happy to be endured,
Till faint with the recalled felicity
Low he moaned out: "O pale Priyumvada!
O dead fair flower! yet living to my grief!
But I could only slay the innocent tree,
Powerless when power should have been. Not such
Was Bhrigu from whose sacred strength I spring,
Nor Bhrigu's son, my father, when he blazed
Out from Puloma's side, and burning, blind,
Fell like a tree the ravisher unjust.
But I degenerate from such sires. O Death
That showest not thy face beneath the stars,
But comest masked, and on our dear ones seizing
Fearest to wrestle equally with love!
Nor from thy gloomy house any come back
To tell thy way. But O, if any strength
In lover's constancy to torture dwell
Earthward to force a helping god and such
Love and Death
Ascetic force be born of lover's pain,
Let my dumb pangs be heard. Whoe'er thou art,
O thou bright enemy of Death, descend
And lead me to that portal dim. For I
Have burned in fires cruel as the fire
And lain upon a sharper couch than swords."
He ceased, and heaven thrilled, and the far blue
Quivered as with invisible downward wings.
But Ruru passioned on, and came with eve
To secret grass and a green opening moist
In a cool lustre. Leaned upon a tree
That bathed in faery air and saw the sky
Through branches, and a single parrot loud
Screamed from its top, there stood a golden boy,
Half-naked, with bright limbs all beautiful -
Delicate they were, in sweetness absolute:
For every gleam and every soft strong curve
Magically compelled the eye, and smote
The heart to weakness. In his hands he swung
A bow - not such as human archers use:
For the string moved and murmured like many bees,
And nameless fragrance made the casual air
A peril. He on Ruru that fair face
Turned, and his steps with lovely gesture chained.
"Who art thou here, in forests wandering,
And thy young exquisite face is solemnised
With pain? Luxuriously the Gods have tortured
Thy heart to see such dreadful glorious beauty
Agonise in thy lips and brilliant eyes:
As tyrants in the fierceness of others' pangs
Joy and feel strong, clothing with brilliant fire,
Tyrants in Titan lands. Needs must her mouth
Have been pure honey and her bosom a charm,
Whom thou desirest seeing not the green
And common lovely sounds hast quite forgot."
And Ruru, mastered by the God, replied:
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"I know thee by thy cruel beauty bright,
Kama, who makest many worlds one fire.
Ah, wherefore wilt thou ask of her to increase
The passion and regret? Thou knowest, great love!
Thy nymph her mother, if thou truly art he
And not a dream of my disastrous soul."
But with the thrilled eternal smile that makes
The spring, the lover of Rathi golden-limbed
Replied to Ruru, "Mortal, I am he;
I am that Madan who inform the stars
With lustre and on life's wide canvas fill
Pictures of light and shade, of joy and tears,
Make ordinary moments wonderful
And common speech a charm: knit life to life
With interfusions of opposing souls
And sudden meetings and slow sorceries:
Wing the boy bridegroom to that panting breast,
Smite Gods with mortal faces, dreadfully
Among great beautiful kings and watched by eyes
That burn, force on the virgin's fainting limbs
And drive her to the one face never seen,
The one breast meant eternally for her.
By me come wedded sweets, by me the wife's
Busy delight and passionate obedience,
And loving eager service never sated,
And happy lips, and worshipping soft eyes:
And mine the husband's hungry arms and use
Unwearying of old tender words and ways,
Joy of her hair, and silent pleasure felt
Of nearness to one dear familiar shape.
Nor only these, but many affections bright
And soft glad things cluster around my name.
I plant fraternal tender yearnings, make
The sister's sweet attractiveness and leap
Of heart towards imperious kindred blood,
And the young mother's passionate deep look,
Earth's high similitude of One not earth,
Love and Death
Teach filial heart-beats strong. These are my gifts
For which men praise me, these my glories calm:
But fiercer shafts I can, wild storms blown down
Shaking fixed minds and melting marble natures,
Tears and dumb bitterness and pain unpitied,
Racked thirsting jealousy and kind hearts made stone:
And in undisciplined huge souls I sow
Dire vengeance and impossible cruelties,
Cold lusts that linger and fierce fickleness,
The loves close kin to hate, brute violence
And mad insatiable longings pale,
And passion blind as death and deaf as swords.
O mortal, all deep-souled desires and all
Yearnings immense are mine, so much I can."
So as he spoke, his face grew wonderful
With vast suggestion, his human-seeming limbs
Brightened with a soft splendour: luminous hints
Of the concealed divinity transpired.
But soon with a slight discontented frown:
"So much I can, as even the great Gods learn.
Only with death I wrestle in vain, until
My passionate godhead all becomes a doubt.
Mortal, I am the light in stars, of flowers
The bloom, the nameless fragrance that pervades
Creation: but behind me, older than me,
He comes with night and cold tremendous shade.
Hard is the way to him, most hard to find,
Harder to tread, for perishable feet
Almost impossible. Yet, O fair youth,
If thou must needs go down, and thou art strong
In passion and in constancy, nor easy
The soul to slay that has survived such grief -
Steel then thyself to venture, armed by Love.
Yet listen first what heavy trade they drive
Who would win back their dead to human arms."
So much the God; but swift, with eager eyes
And panting bosom and glorious flushed face,
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The lover: "O great Love! O beautiful Love!
But if by strength is possible, of body
Or mind, battle of spirit or moving speech,
Sweet speech that makes even cruelty grow kind,
Or yearning melody - for I have heard
That when Saruswathi in heaven her harp
Has smitten, the cruel sweetness terrible
Coils taking no denial through the soul,
And tears burst from the hearts of Gods - then I,
Making great music, or with perfect words,
Will strive, or staying him with desperate hands
Match human strength 'gainst formidable Death.
But if with price, ah God! what easier! Tears
Dreadful, innumerable I will absolve,
Or pay with anguish through the centuries,
Soul's agony and torture physical,
So her small hands about my face at last
I feel, close real hair sting me with life,
And palpable breathing bosom on me press."
Then with a lenient smile the mighty God:
"O ignorant fond lover, not with tears
Shalt thou persuade immitigable Death.
He will not pity all thy pangs: nor know
His stony eyes with music to grow kind,
Nor lovely words accepts. And how wilt thou
Wrestle with that grim shadow, who canst not save
One bloom from fading? A sole thing the Gods
Demand from all men living, sacrifice:
Nor without this shall any crown be grasped.
Yet many sacrifices are there, oxen,
And prayers, and Soma wine, and pious flowers,
Blood and the fierce expense of mind, and pure
Incense of perfect actions, perfect thoughts,
Or liberality wide as the sun's,
Or ruthless labour or disastrous tears,
Exile or death or pain more hard than death,
Absence, a desert, from the faces loved;
Love and Death
Even sin may be a sumptuous sacrifice
Acceptable for unholy fruits. But none
Of these the inexorable shadow asks:
Alone of gods Death loves not gifts: he visits
The pure heart as the stained. Lo, the just man
Bowed helpless over his dead, nor all his virtues
Shall quicken that cold bosom: near him the wild
Marred face and passionate and will not leave
Kissing dead lips that shall not chide him more.
Life the pale ghost requires: with half thy life
Thou mayst protract the thread too early cut
Of that delightful spirit - half sweet life.
O Ruru, lo, thy frail precarious days,
And yet how sweet they are! simply to breathe
How warm and sweet! And ordinary things
How exquisite, thou then shalt learn when lost,
How luminous the daylight was, mere sleep
How soft and friendly clasping tired limbs,
And the deliciousness of common food.
And things indifferent thou then shalt want,
Regret rejected beauty, brightnesses
Bestowed in vain. Wilt thou yield up, O lover,
Half thy sweet portion of this light and gladness,
Thy little insufficient share, and vainly
Give to another? She is not thyself:
Thou dost not feel the gladness in her bosom,
Nor with the torture of thy body will she
Throb and cry out: at most with tender looks
And pitiful attempt to feel move near thee,
And weep how far she is from what she loves.
Men live like stars that see each other in heaven,
But one knows not the pleasure and the grief
The others feel: he lonely rapture has,
Or bears his incommunicable pain.
O Ruru, there are many beautiful faces,
But one thyself. Think then how thou shalt mourn
When thou hast shortened joy and feelst at last
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The shadow that thou hadst for such sweet store."
He ceased with a strange doubtful look. But swift
Came back the lover's voice, like passionate rain.
"O idle words! For what is mere sunlight?
Who would live on into extreme old age,
Burden the impatient world, a weary old man,
And look back on a selfish time ill-spent
Exacting out of prodigal great life
Small separate pleasures like an usurer,
And no rich sacrifice and no large act
Finding oneself in others, nor the sweet
Expense of Nature in her passionate gusts
Of love and giving, first of the soul's needs?
Who is so coldly wise, and does not feel
How wasted were our grandiose human days
In prudent personal unshared delights?
Why dost thou mock me, friend of all the stars?
How canst thou be love's god and know not this,
That love burns down the body's barriers cold
And laughs at difference - playing with it merely
To make joy sweeter? O too deeply I know,
The lover is not different from the loved,
Nor is their silence dumb to each other. He
Contains her heart and feels her body in his,
He flushes with her heat, chills with her cold.
And when she dies, oh! when she dies, oh me,
The emptiness, the maim! the life no life,
The sweet and passionate oneness lost! And if
By shortening of great grief won back, O price
Easy! O glad briefness, aeons may envy!
For we shall live not fearing death, nor feel
As others yearning over the loved at night
When the lamp flickers, sudden chills of dread
Terrible; nor at short absence agonise,
Wrestling with mad imagination. Us
Serenely when the darkening shadow comes,
One common sob shall end and soul clasp soul,
Love and Death
Leaving the body in a long dim kiss.
Then in the joys of heaven we shall consort,
Amid the gladness often touching hands
To make bliss sure; or in the ghastly stream
If we must anguish, yet it shall not part
Our passionate limbs inextricably locked
By one strong agony, but we shall feel
Hell's pain half joy through sweet companionship.
God Love, I weary of words. O wing me rather
To her, my eloquent princess of the spring,
In whatsoever wintry shores she roam."
He ceased with eager forward eyes; once more
A light of beauty immortal through the limbs
Gleaming of the boy-god and soft sweet face,
Glorifying him, flushed, and he replied:
"Go then, O thou dear youth, and bear this flower
In thy hand warily. For thou shalt come
To that high meeting of the Ganges pure
With vague and violent Ocean. There arise
And loudly appeal my brother, the wild sea."
He spoke and stretched out his immortal hand,
And Ruru's met it. All his young limbs yearned
With dreadful rapture shuddering through them. He
Felt in his fingers subtle uncertain bloom,
A quivering magnificence, half fire,
Whose petals changed like flame, and from them breathed
Dangerous attraction and alarmed delight,
As at a peril near. He raised his eyes,
But the green place was empty of the God.
Only the faery tree looked up at heaven
Through branches, and with recent pleasure shook.
Then over fading earth the night was lord.
But from Shatudru and Bipasha, streams
Once holy, and loved Iravathi and swift
Clear Chandrabhaga and Bitosta's toil
For man, went Ruru to bright sumptuous lands
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By Aryan fathers not yet paced, but wild,
But virgin to our fruitful human toil,
Where Nature lay reclined in dumb delight
Alone with woodlands and the voiceless hills.
He with the widening yellow Ganges came,
Amazed, to trackless countries where few tribes,
Kirath and Poundrian, warred, worshipping trees
And the great serpent. But robust wild earth,
But forests with their splendid life of beasts
Savage mastered those strong inhabitants.
Thither came Ruru. In a thin soft eve
Ganges spread far her multitudinous waves,
A glimmering restlessness with voices large,
And from the forests of that half-seen bank
A boat came heaving over it, white-winged,
With a sole silent helmsman marble-pale.
Then Ruru by his side stepped in; they went
Down the mysterious river and beheld
The great banks widen out of sight. The world
Was water and the skies to water plunged.
All night with a dim motion gliding down
He felt the dark against his eyelids; felt,
As in a dream more real than daylight,
The helmsman with his dumb and marble face
Near him and moving wideness all around,
And that continual gliding dimly on,
As one who on a shoreless water sails
For ever to a port he shall not win.
But when the darkness paled, he heard a moan
Of mightier waves and had the wide great sense
Of ocean and the depths below our feet.
But the boat stopped; the pilot lifted on him
His marble gaze coeval with the stars.
Then in the white-winged boat the boy arose
And saw around him the vast sea all grey
And heaving in the pallid dawning light.
Loud Ruru cried across the murmur: "Hear me,
Love and Death
O inarticulate grey Ocean, hear.
If any cadence in thy infinite
Rumour was caught from lover's moan, O Sea,
Open thy abysses to my mortal tread.
For I would travel to the despairing shades,
The spheres of suffering where entangled dwell
Souls unreleased and the untimely dead
Who weep remembering. Thither, O, guide me,
No despicable wayfarer, but Ruru,
But son of a great Rishi, from all men
On earth selected for peculiar pangs,
Special disaster. Lo, this petalled fire,
How freshly it blooms and lasts with my great pain!"
He held the flower out subtly glimmering.
And like a living thing the huge sea trembled,
Then rose, calling, and filled the sight with waves,
Converging all its giant crests; towards him
Innumerable waters loomed and heaven
Threatened. Horizon on horizon moved
Dreadfully swift; then with a prone wide sound
All Ocean hollowing drew him swiftly in,
Curving with monstrous menace over him.
He down the gulf where the loud waves collapsed
Descending, saw with floating hair arise
The daughters of the sea in pale green light,
A million mystic breasts suddenly bare,
And came beneath the flood and stunned beheld
A mute stupendous march of waters race
To reach some viewless pit beneath the world.
Ganges he saw, as men predestined rush
Upon a fearful doom foreseen, so run,
Alarmed, with anguished speed, the river vast.
Veiled to his eyes the triple goddess rose.
She with a sound of waters cried to him,
A thousand voices moaning with one pain:
"Lover, who fearedst not sunlight to leave,
With me thou mayst behold that helpless spirit
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Lost in the gloom, if still thy burning bosom
Have courage to endure great Nature's night
In the dire lands where I, a goddess, mourn
Hurting my heart with my own cruelty."
She darkened to the ominous descent,
Unwilling, and her once so human waves
Sent forth a cry not meant for living ears.
And Ruru chilled; but terrible strong love
Was like a fiery finger in his breast
Pointing him on; so he through horror went
Conducted by inexorable sound.
For monstrous voices to his ear were close,
And bodiless terrors with their dimness seized him
In an obscurity phantasmal. Thus
With agony of soul to the grey waste
He came, glad of the pain of passage over,
As men who through the storms of anguish strive
Into abiding tranquil dreariness
And draw sad breath assured; to the grey waste,
Hopeless Patala, the immutable
Country, where neither sun nor rain arrives,
Nor happy labour of the human plough
Fruitfully turns the soil, but in vague sands
And indeterminable strange rocks and caverns
That into silent blackness huge recede,
Dwell the great serpent and his hosts, writhed forms,
Sinuous, abhorred, through many horrible leagues
Coiling in a half darkness. Shapes he saw,
And heard the hiss and knew the lambent light
Loathsome, but passed compelling his strong soul.
At last through those six tired hopeless worlds,
Too hopeless far for grief, pale he arrived
Into a nether air by anguish moved,
And heard before him cries that pierced the heart,
Human, not to be borne, and issued shaken
By the great river accursed. Maddened it ran,
Anguished, importunate, and in its waves
Love and Death
The drifting ghosts their agony endured.
There Ruru saw pale faces float of kings
And grandiose victors and revered high priests
And famous women. Now rose from the wave
A golden shuddering arm and now a face.
Torn piteous sides were seen and breasts that quailed.
Over them moaned the penal waters on,
And had no joy of their fierce cruelty.
Then Ruru, his young cheeks with pity wan,
Half moaned: "O miserable race of men,
With violent and passionate souls you come
Foredoomed upon the earth and live brief days
In fear and anguish, catching at stray beams
Of sunlight, little fragrances of flowers;
Then from your spacious earth in a great horror
Descend into this night, and here too soon
Must expiate your few inadequate joys.
O bargain hard! Death helps us not. He leads
Alarmed, all shivering from his chill embrace,
The naked spirit here. O my sweet flower,
Art thou too whelmed in this fierce wailing flood?
Ah me! But I will haste and deeply plunge
Into its hopeless pools and either bring
Thy old warm beauty back beneath the stars,
Or find thee out and clasp thy tortured bosom
And kiss thy sweet wrung lips and hush thy cries.
Love shall draw half thy pain into my limbs;
Then we shall triumph glad of agony."
He ceased and one replied close by his ear:
"O thou who troublest with thy living eyes
Established death, pass on. She whom thou seekest
Rolls not in the accursed tide. For late
I saw her mid those pale inhabitants
Whom bodily anguish visits not, but thoughts
Sorrowful and dumb memories absolve,
And martyrdom of scourged hearts quivering."
He turned and saw astride the dolorous flood
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A mighty bridge paved with mosaic fire,
All restless, and a woman clothed in flame,
With hands calamitous that held a sword,
Stood of the quaking passage sentinel.
Magnificent and dire her burning face.
"Pass on," she said once more, "O Bhrigu's son;
The flower protects thee from my hands." She stretched
One arm towards him and with violence
Majestic over the horrid arch compelled.
Unhurt, though shaking from her touch, alone
He stood upon an inner bank with strange
Black dreary mosses covered and perceived
A dim and level plain without one flower.
Over it paced a multitude immense
With gentle faces occupied by pain;
Strong men were there and grieving mothers, girls
With early beauty in their limbs and young
Sad children of their childlike faces robbed.
Naked they paced with falling hair and gaze
Drooping upon their bosoms, weak as flowers
That die for want of rain unmurmuring.
Always a silence was upon the place.
But Ruru came among them. Suddenly
One felt him there and looked, and as a wind
Moves over a still field of patient corn,
And the ears stir and shudder and look up
And bend innumerably flowing, so
All those dumb spirits stirred and through them passed
One shuddering motion of raised faces; then
They streamed towards him without sound and caught
With desperate hands his robe or touched his hair
Or strove to feel upon them living breath.
Pale girls and quiet children came and knelt
And with large sorrowful eyes into his looked.
Yet with their silent passion the cold hush
Moved not; but Ruru's human heart half burst
With burden of so many sorrows; tears
Love and Death
Welled from him; he with anguish understood
That terrible and wordless sympathy
Of dead souls for the living. Then he turned
His eyes and scanned their lovely faces strange
For that one face and found it not. He paled,
And spoke vain words into the listless air:
"O spirits once joyous, miserable race,
Happier if the old gladness were forgot!
My soul yearns with your sorrow. Yet ah! reveal
If dwell my love in your sad nation lost.
Well may you know her, O wan beautiful spirits!
But she most beautiful of all that died,
By sweetness recognisable. Her name
The sunshine knew." Speaking his tears made way:
But they with dumb lips only looked at him,
A vague and empty mourning in their eyes.
He murmured low: "Ah, folly! were she here,
Would she not first have felt me, first have raised
Her lids and run to me, leaned back her face
Of silent sorrow on my breast and looked
With the old altered eyes into my own
And striven to make my anguish understand?
Oh joy, had she been here! for though her lips
Of their old excellent music quite were robbed,
Yet her dumb passion would have spoken to me;
We should have understood each other and walked
Silently hand in hand, almost content."
He said and passed through those untimely dead.
Speechless they followed him with clinging eyes.
Then to a solemn building weird he came
With grave colossal pillars round. One dome
Roofed the whole brooding edifice, like cloud,
And at the door strange shapes were pacing, armed.
Then from their fear the sweet and mournful dead
Drew back, returning to their wordless grief.
But Ruru to the perilous doorway strode,
And those disastrous shapes upon him raised
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Their bows and aimed; but he held out Love's flower,
And with stern faces checked they let him pass.
He entered and beheld a silent hall
Dim and unbounded; moving then like one
Who up a dismal stair seeks ever light,
Attained a dais brilliant doubtfully
With flaming pediment and round it coiled
Python and Naga monstrous, Joruthcaru,
Tuxuc and Vasuki himself, immense,
Magic Carcotaca all flecked with fire;
And many other prone destroying shapes
Coiled. On the wondrous dais rose a throne,
And he its pedestal whose lotus hood
With ominous beauty crowns his horrible
Sleek folds, great Mahapudma; high displayed
He bears the throne of Death. There sat supreme
With those compassionate and lethal eyes,
Who many names, who many natures holds;
Yama, the strong pure Hades sad and subtle,
Dharma, who keeps the laws of old untouched,
Critanta, who ends all things and at last
Himself shall end. On either side of him
The four-eyed dogs mysterious rested prone,
Watchful, with huge heads on their paws advanced;
And emanations of the godhead dim
Moved near him, shadowy or serpentine,
Vast Time and cold irreparable Death.
Then Ruru came and bowed before the throne;
And swaying all those figures stirred as shapes
Upon a tapestry moved by the wind,
And the sad voice was heard: "What breathing man
Bows at the throne of Hades? By what force,
Spiritual or communicated, troubles
His living beauty the dead grace of Hell?"
And one replied who seemed a neighbouring voice:
"He has the blood of Gods and Titans old.
An Apsara his mother liquid-orbed
Love and Death
Bore to the youthful Chyavan's strong embrace
This passionate face of earth with Eden touched.
Chyavan was Bhrigu's child, Puloma bore,
The Titaness, - Bhrigu, great Brahma's son.
Love gave the flower that helps by anguish; therefore
He chilled not with the breath of Hades, nor
The cry of the infernal stream made stone."
But at the name of Love all hell was moved.
Death's throne half faded into twilight; hissed
The phantoms serpentine as if in pain,
And the dogs raised their dreadful heads. Then spoke
Yama: "And what needs Love in this pale realm,
The warm great Love? All worlds his breath confounds,
Mars solemn order and old steadfastness.
But not in Hell his legates come and go;
His vernal jurisdiction to bare Hell
Extends not. This last world resists his power
Youthful, anarchic. Here will he enlarge
Tumult and wanton joys?" The voice replied:
"Menaca momentary on the earth,
Heaven's Apsara by the fleeting hours beguiled
Played in the happy hidden glens; there bowed
To yoke of swift terrestrial joys she bore,
Immortal, to that fair Gundhurva king
A mortal blossom of delight. That bloom
Young Ruru found and plucked, but her too soon
Thy fatal hooded snake on earth surprised,
And he through gloom now travels armed by Love."
But then all Hades swaying towards him cried:
"O mortal, O misled! But sacrifice
Is stronger, nor may law of Hell or Heaven
Its fierce effectual action supersede.
Thy dead I yield. Yet thou bethink thee, mortal,
Not as a tedious evil nor to be
Lightly rejected gave the gods old age,
But tranquil, but august, but making easy
The steep ascent to God. Therefore must Time
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Still batter down the glory and form of youth
And animal magnificent strong ease,
To warn the earthward man that he is spirit
Dallying with transience, nor by death he ends,
Nor to the dumb warm mother's arms is bound,
But called unborn into the unborn skies.
For body fades with the increasing soul
And wideness of its limit grown intolerant
Replaces life's impetuous joys by peace.
Youth, manhood, ripeness, age, four seasons
Twixt its return and pale departing life
Describes, O mortal, - youth that forward bends
Midst hopes, delights and dreamings; manhood deepens
To passions, toils and thoughts profound; but ripeness
For large reflective gathering-up of these,
As on a lonely slope whence men look back
Down towards the cities and the human fields
Where they too worked and laughed and loved; next age,
Wonderful age with those approaching skies.
That boon wilt thou renounce? Wherefore? To bring
For a few years - how miserably few! -
Her sunward who must after all return.
Ah, son of Rishis, cease. Lo, I remit
Hell's grasp, not oft relinquished, and send back
Thy beautiful life unborrowed to the stars.
Or thou must render to the immutable
Total all thy fruit-bearing years; then she
Reblossoms." But the Shadow antagonist:
"Let him be shown the glory he would renounce."
And over the flaming pediment there moved,
As on a frieze a march of sculptures, carved
By Phidias for the Virgin strong and pure,
Most perfect once of all things seen in earth
Or Heaven, in Athens on the Acropolis,
But now dismembered, now disrupt! or as
In Buddhist cavern or Orissan temple,
Large aspirations architectural,
Love and Death
Warrior and dancing-girl, adept and king,
And conquering pomps and daily peaceful groups
Dream delicately on, softening with beauty
Great Bhuvanayshwar, the Almighty's house,
With sculptural suggestion so were limned
Scenes future on a pediment of fire.
There Ruru saw himself divine with age,
A Rishi to whom infinity is close,
Rejoicing in some green song-haunted glade
Or boundless mountain-top where most we feel
Wideness, not by small happy things disturbed.
Around him, as around an ancient tree
Its seedlings, forms august or flame-like rose;
They grew beneath his hands and were his work;
Great kings were there whom time remembers, fertile
Deep minds and poets with their chanting lips
Whose words were seed of vast philosophies -
These worshipped; above this earth's half-day he saw
Amazed the dawn of that mysterious Face
And all the universe in beauty merge.
Mad the boy thrilled upwards, then spent ebbed back.
Over his mind, as birds across the sky
Sweep and are gone, the vision of those fields
And drooping faces came; almost he heard
The burdened river with human anguish wail.
Then with a sudden fury gathering
His soul he hurled out of it half its life,
And fell, like lightning, prone. Triumphant rose
The Shadow chill and deepened giant night.
Only the dais flickered in the gloom,
And those snake-eyes of cruel fire subdued.
But suddenly a bloom, a fragrance. Hell
Shuddered with bliss: resentful, overborne,
The world-besetting Terror faded back
Like one grown weak by desperate victory,
And a voice cried in Ruru's tired soul:
"Arise! the strife is over, easy now
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The horror that thou hast to face, the burden
Now shared." And with a sudden burst like spring
Life woke in the strong lover over-tried.
He rose and left dim Death. Twelve times he crossed
Boithorini, the river dolorous,
Twelve times resisted Hell and, hurried down
Into the ominous pit where plunges black
The vast stream thundering, saw, led puissantly
From night to unimaginable night, -
As men oppressed in dreams, who cannot wake,
But measure penal visions, - punishments
Whose sight pollutes, unheard-of tortures, pangs
Monstrous, intolerable mute agonies,
Twisted unmoving attitudes of pain,
Like thoughts inhuman in statuary. A fierce
And iron voicelessness had grasped those worlds.
No horror of cries expressed their endless woe,
No saving struggle, no breathings of the soul.
And in the last hell irremediable
Where Ganges clots into that fatal pool,
Appalled he saw her; pallid, listless, bare -
O other than that earthly warmth and grace
In which the happy roses deepened and dimmed
With come-and-go of swift enamoured blood!
Dumb drooped she; round her shapes of anger armed
Stood dark like thunder-clouds. But Ruru sprang
Upon them, burning with the admitted God.
They from his touch like ineffectual fears
Vanished; then sole with her, trembling he cried
The old glad name and crying bent to her
And touched, and at the touch the silent knots
Of Hell were broken and its sombre dream
Of dreadful stately pains at once dispersed.
Then as from one whom a surpassing joy
Has conquered, all the bright surrounding world
Streams swiftly into distance, and he feels
His daily senses slipping from his grasp,
Love and Death
So that unbearable enormous world
Went rolling mighty shades, like the wet mist
From men on mountain-tops; and sleep outstretched
Rising its soft arms towards him and his thoughts,
As on a bed, sank to ascending void.
But when he woke, he heard the kol insist
On sweetness and the voice of happy things
Content with sunlight. The warm sense was round him
Of old essential earth, known hues and custom
Familiar tranquillising body and mind,
As in its natural wave a lotus feels.
He looked and saw all grass and dense green trees,
And sunshine and a single grasshopper
Near him repeated fierily its note.
Thrilling he felt beneath his bosom her;
Oh, warm and breathing were those rescued limbs
Against the greenness, vivid, palpable, white,
With great black hair and real and her cheek's
Old softness and her mouth a dewy rose.
For many moments comforting his soul
With all her jasmine body sun-ensnared
He fed his longing eyes and, half in doubt,
With touches satisfied himself of her.
Hesitating he kissed her eyelids. Sighing
With a slight sob she woke and earthly large
Her eyes looked upward into his. She stretched
Her arms up, yearning, and their souls embraced;
Then twixt brief sobbing laughter and blissful tears,
Clinging with all her limbs to him, "O love,
The green green world! the warm sunlight!" and ceased,
Finding no words; but the earth breathed round them,
Glad of her children, and the kol's voice
Persisted in the morning of the world.
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A NOTE ON LOVE AND DEATH
The story of Ruru and Pramadvura - I have substituted a name more manageable to the English tongue - her death in the forest by the snake and restoration at the price of half her husband's life is told in the Mahabharata. It is a companion legend to the story of Savitri but not being told with any poetic skill or beauty has remained generally unknown. I have attempted in this poem to bring it out of its obscurity. For full success, however, it should have had a more faithfully Hindu colouring, but it was written a score of years ago when I had not penetrated to the heart of the Indian idea and its traditions, and the shadow of the Greek underworld and Tartarus with the sentiment of life and love and death which hangs about them has got into the legendary framework of the Indian Patala and hells. The central idea of the narrative alone is in the Mahabharata; the meeting with
Kama and the descent into Hell were additions necessitated by the poverty of incident in the original story.
~ Sri Aurobindo, - Love and Death
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