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branches ::: Vidya

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OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS
SEE ALSO


AUTH

BOOKS
Mind_-_Its_Mysteries_and_Control
Sayings_of_Sri_Ramakrishna_(toc)
Self_Knowledge
The_Essential_Songs_of_Milarepa
The_Gospel_of_Sri_Ramakrishna

IN CHAPTERS TITLE
1.03_-_VISIT_TO_VIDYASAGAR

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME
1.vpt_-_All_my_inhibition_left_me_in_a_flash
1.vpt_-_As_the_mirror_to_my_hand
1.vpt_-_He_promised_hed_return_tomorrow
1.vpt_-_My_friend,_I_cannot_answer_when_you_ask_me_to_explain
1.vpt_-_The_moon_has_shone_upon_me

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
00.03_-_Upanishadic_Symbolism
0.00_-_INTRODUCTION
02.02_-_Lines_of_the_Descent_of_Consciousness
06.20_-_Mind,_Origin_of_Separative_Consciousness
1.001_-_The_Aim_of_Yoga
1.010_-_Self-Control_-_The_Alpha_and_Omega_of_Yoga
1.01_-_MASTER_AND_DISCIPLE
1.02.1_-_The_Inhabiting_Godhead_-_Life_and_Action
1.02.2.1_-_Brahman_-_Oneness_of_God_and_the_World
1.02.2.2_-_Self-Realisation
1.02.3.1_-_The_Lord
1.02.3.2_-_Knowledge_and_Ignorance
1.02.3.3_-_Birth_and_Non-Birth
1.02.4.1_-_The_Worlds_-_Surya
10.26_-_A_True_Professor
1.028_-_Bringing_About_Whole-Souled_Dedication
1.02.9_-_Conclusion_and_Summary
1.02_-_IN_THE_COMPANY_OF_DEVOTEES
1.02_-_Isha_Analysis
1.02_-_SADHANA_PADA
1.02_-_The_Two_Negations_1_-_The_Materialist_Denial
1.03_-_VISIT_TO_VIDYASAGAR
1.04_-_ADVICE_TO_HOUSEHOLDERS
1.04_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda
1.053_-_A_Very_Important_Sadhana
1.056_-_Lack_of_Knowledge_is_the_Cause_of_Suffering
1.057_-_The_Four_Manifestations_of_Ignorance
1.05_-_The_Destiny_of_the_Individual
1.060_-_Tracing_the_Ultimate_Cause_of_Any_Experience
1.06_-_Man_in_the_Universe
1.06_-_Raja_Yoga
1.06_-_THE_MASTER_WITH_THE_BRAHMO_DEVOTEES
1.070_-_The_Seven_Stages_of_Perfection
1.07_-_TRUTH
1.08_-_Worship_of_Substitutes_and_Images
1.09_-_ADVICE_TO_THE_BRAHMOS
1.1.04_-_Philosophy
1.1.04_-_The_Self_or_Atman
1.107_-_The_Bestowal_of_a_Divine_Gift
1.10_-_Mantra_Yoga
1.10_-_THE_MASTER_WITH_THE_BRAHMO_DEVOTEES_(II)
1.10_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
1.11_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINEWAR
1.1.2_-_Commentary
1.12_-_THE_FESTIVAL_AT_PNIHTI
1.14_-_INSTRUCTION_TO_VAISHNAVS_AND_BRHMOS
1.15_-_LAST_VISIT_TO_KESHAB
1.15_-_The_Possibility_and_Purpose_of_Avatarhood
1.15_-_The_Supreme_Truth-Consciousness
1.16_-_The_Triple_Status_of_Supermind
1.16_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINESWAR
1.17_-_The_Transformation
1.18_-_Mind_and_Supermind
1.20_-_Death,_Desire_and_Incapacity
1.22_-_ADVICE_TO_AN_ACTOR
1.240_-_1.300_Talks
1.240_-_Talks_2
1.24_-_PUNDIT_SHASHADHAR
1.25_-_ADVICE_TO_PUNDIT_SHASHADHAR
1.27_-_AT_DAKSHINESWAR
1.300_-_1.400_Talks
1.400_-_1.450_Talks
1.439
1.450_-_1.500_Talks
1.550_-_1.600_Talks
17.11_-_A_Prayer
18.01_-_Padavali
1.vpt_-_All_my_inhibition_left_me_in_a_flash
1.vpt_-_As_the_mirror_to_my_hand
1.vpt_-_He_promised_hed_return_tomorrow
1.vpt_-_My_friend,_I_cannot_answer_when_you_ask_me_to_explain
1.vpt_-_The_moon_has_shone_upon_me
2.01_-_AT_THE_STAR_THEATRE
2.01_-_The_Yoga_and_Its_Objects
2.02_-_The_Ishavasyopanishad_with_a_commentary_in_English
2.03_-_Karmayogin__A_Commentary_on_the_Isha_Upanishad
2.05_-_On_Poetry
2.07_-_The_Knowledge_and_the_Ignorance
2.08_-_ALICE_IN_WONDERLAND
2.08_-_Memory,_Self-Consciousness_and_the_Ignorance
2.09_-_THE_MASTERS_BIRTHDAY
2.1.02_-_Classification_of_the_Parts_of_the_Being
2.11_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_IN_CALCUTTA
2.12_-_THE_MASTERS_REMINISCENCES
2.1.2_-_The_Vital_and_Other_Levels_of_Being
2.15_-_Reality_and_the_Integral_Knowledge
2.16_-_The_Integral_Knowledge_and_the_Aim_of_Life;_Four_Theories_of_Existence
22.08_-_The_Golden_Chain
2.21_-_1940
2.22_-_THE_MASTER_AT_COSSIPORE
2.23_-_THE_MASTER_AND_BUDDHA
2.24_-_THE_MASTERS_LOVE_FOR_HIS_DEVOTEES
2.25_-_AFTER_THE_PASSING_AWAY
2.3.02_-_The_Supermind_or_Supramental
2.3.1_-_Ego_and_Its_Forms
30.01_-_World-Literature
30.04_-_Intuition_and_Inspiration_in_Art
30.05_-_Rhythm_in_Poetry
30.12_-_The_Obscene_and_the_Ugly_-_Form_and_Essence
31.01_-_The_Heart_of_Bengal
31.10_-_East_and_West
32.07_-_The_God_of_the_Scientist
33.07_-_Alipore_Jail
33.13_-_My_Professors
36.07_-_An_Introduction_To_The_Vedas
37.02_-_The_Story_of_Jabala-Satyakama
3_-_Commentaries_and_Annotated_Translations
4.22_-_The_supramental_Thought_and_Knowledge
4.25_-_Towards_the_supramental_Time_Vision
5.1.01_-_Terminology
5.4.02_-_Occult_Powers_or_Siddhis
7.14_-_Modesty
9.99_-_Glossary
BOOK_II._--_PART_I._ANTHROPOGENESIS.
BOOK_II._--_PART_II._THE_ARCHAIC_SYMBOLISM_OF_THE_WORLD-RELIGIONS
BOOK_I._--_PART_I._COSMIC_EVOLUTION
BOOK_I._--_PART_III._SCIENCE_AND_THE_SECRET_DOCTRINE_CONTRASTED
Liber_71_-_The_Voice_of_the_Silence_-_The_Two_Paths_-_The_Seven_Portals
r1913_02_03
r1913_09_05b
r1913_09_07
r1913_11_13
r1913_12_02a
r1914_03_22
r1914_04_19
r1914_07_12
r1914_07_28
r1915_04_26
Sayings_of_Sri_Ramakrishna_(text)
Talks_001-025
Talks_051-075
Talks_500-550
Talks_600-652
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_2
The_Riddle_of_this_World

PRIMARY CLASS

Sanskrit
SIMILAR TITLES
Vidya
Vidyapati

DEFINITIONS


TERMS STARTING WITH

Vidyadhara: One of a class of celestials.

Vidyadhara (Sanskrit) Vidyādhara A possessor of magical knowledge; a kind of ethereal being almost always of astral habitat,

Vidya ::: Knowledge appears to signify a consciousness of the Truth, the Right, satyam rtam, and of all that is of the order of the Truth and Right; ignorance is an unconsciousness, acitti, of the Truth and Right.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 506


Vidya: Knowledge (of Brahman); there are two kinds of knowledge, Paravidya and Aparavidya; a process of meditation or worship.

Vidya: Sanskrit for knowledge. In theosophy, the “wisdom knowledge” which enables man to distinguish between true and false.

Vidya(Sanskrit) ::: The word (derived from the same verbal root vid from which comes the noun Veda) for"knowledge," "philosophy," "science." This is a term very generally used in theosophical philosophy,having in a general way the three meanings just stated. It is frequently compounded with other words,such as: atma-vidya -- "knowledge of atman" or the essential Self; Brahma-vidya -- "knowledge ofBrahman," knowledge of the universe, a term virtually equivalent to theosophy; or, again, guhya-vidya -signifying the "secret knowledge" or the esoteric wisdom. Using the word in a collective but neverthelessspecific sense, vidya is a general term for occult science.

Vidya (Sanskrit) Vidyā Wisdom in spiritual things; also occult science. See also JNANA

Vidya: (Skr.) Knowledge; especially knowledge of the real, noumenal. -- K.F.L.

vidya-avidyamayi maya ::: [maya composed of Knowledge and Ignorance].

vidya avidya ::: the Knowledge and the Ignorance.

vidya-avidya ::: the Knowledge-Ignorance, where vidya, the convidya-avidya sciousness of unity, is subject to the conditions of avidya, the divided consciousness.

vidyadhara ::: a kind of supernatural being with magical power and vidyadhara knowledge (vidya); in the evolutionary scale, a sub-type of the deva type. vidyunman vidyunmandala

vidya. ::: knowledge; both spiritual knowledge and mundane knowledge

vidya ::: knowledge, including the higher and the lower knowledge, vidya para vidya and apara vidya, "the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world"; "the Knowledge of the Oneness", the power by which "the Spirit dwells . . . in the consciousness of unity and identity"; the "science and craft and technique of things", an element of Mahasarasvati bhava.

vidya ::: Knowledge; Knowledge in its highest spiritual sense; the consciousness of Unity cf. avidya.

VIDYA. ::: Knowledge ; the consciousness of Unity.

vidyamaya ::: [the maya of the Knowledge].

vidya ::: the lower knowledge; the knowledge of the world, "the lower science which diffuses itself in an outward knowledge of phenomena, the disguises of the One and Infinite as it appears to us in or through the more exterior forms of the world-manifestation around us".


TERMS ANYWHERE

a-avidya-siddhi ::: the perfection (siddhi) that is attainable under the conditions of vidya-avidya, where Knowledge is "inextricably intertwined with an original Ignorance".

abhabbatthAna. (S. *abhavyasthAna; T. *mi rung ba'i gnas; C. buwei; J. fui; K. purwi 不爲). In PAli, "condition of being incapable" or "impossibility"; referring to nine immoral acts or inadequacies of character that an ARHAT is incapable of performing or possessing. Because he has destroyed the four ASRAVA, or contaminants-of sensuality (KAMA), becoming (BHAVA), ignorance (AVIDYA), and wrong views (DṚstI)-he is rendered forever "incapable" of engaging in the following acts: (1) deliberately killing any living being; (2) theft; (3) sexual intercourse; (4) deliberately lying; (5) accumulating personal possessions for sensual indulgence, as would a layperson; or performing wrong actions prompted by (6) attachment; (7) hatred; (8) stupidity; or (9) fear.

abhijNA. (P. abhiNNA; T. mngon shes; C. shentong; J. jinzu; K. sint'ong 神通). In Sanskrit, "superknowledges"; specifically referring to a set of supranormal powers that are by-products of meditation. These are usually enumerated as six: (1) various psychical and magical powers (ṚDDHIVIDHABHIJNA [alt. ṛddhividhi], P. iddhividhA), such as the ability to pass through walls, sometimes also known as "unimpeded bodily action" (ṛddhisAksAtkriyA); (2) clairvoyance, lit. "divine eye" (DIVYACAKsUS, P. dibbacakkhu), the ability to see from afar and to see how beings fare in accordance with their deeds; (3) clairaudience, lit. "divine ear" (DIVYAsROTRA, P. dibbasota), the ability to hear from afar; (4) the ability to remember one's own former lives (PuRVANIVASANUSMṚTI, P. pubbenivAsAnunssati); (5) "knowledge of others' states of mind" (CETOPARYAYABHIJNANA/PARACITTAJNANA, P. cetopariyaNAna), e.g., telepathy; and (6) the knowledge of the extinction of the contaminants (ASRAVAKsAYA, P. AsavakkhAya). The first five of these superknowledges are considered to be mundane (LAUKIKA) achievements, which are gained through still more profound refinement of the fourth stage of meditative absorption (DHYANA). The sixth power is said to be supramundane (LOKOTTARA) and is attainable through the cultivation of insight (VIPAsYANA) into the nature of reality. The first, second, and sixth superknowledges are also called the three kinds of knowledge (TRIVIDYA; P. tevijjA).

AcalanAtha-VidyArAja. (T. Mi g.yo mgon po rig pa'i rgyal po; C. Budong mingwang; J. Fudo myoo; K. Pudong myongwang 不動明王). In Sanskrit, a wrathful DHARMAPALA of the VAJRAYANA pantheon and the chief of the eight VIDYARAJA. As described in the MAHAVAIROCANABHISAMBODHISuTRA, he is the NIRMAnAKAYA of VAIROCANA, a protector of boundaries and vanquisher of obstacles. A late Indian deity, AcalanAtha-VidyArAja possibly originated from the YAKsA form of VAJRAPAnI, with whom he is associated in his form of AcalavajrapAni. Indian forms of the god from the eleventh century show him kneeling on his left leg, holding a sword (khadga). VajrayAna images show him standing with one or three faces and varied numbers of pairs of hands, identified by his raised sword, snare, and ACALASANA. The cult of AcalanAtha-VidyArAja entered China during the first millennium CE, and was brought to Japan by KuKAI in the ninth century, where the wrathful deity (known in Japanese as Fudo myoo) became important for the Shingon school (SHINGONSHu), even being listed by it as one of the thirteen buddhas. In East Asian iconography, AcalanAtha-VidyArAja holds the sword and a snare or lasso (pAsa), with which he binds evil spirits.

acalAsana. (T. mi g.yo ba'i 'dug stangs; C. budongzuo; J. fudoza; K. pudongjwa 不動坐). In Sanskrit, the "immovable posture"; a semi-kneeling position, where the left knee touches the ground, but the right knee is raised off the ground. This posture is commonly seen in figures bearing gifts, where the hands are clasped in front of the donor's chest in ANJALI. This pose is also characteristic of the wrathful deity ACALANATHA-VIDYARAJA, whose hands instead hold a snare (pAsa) in the left and a raised sword in the right. Bodhisattvas are also sometimes depicted in this posture.

AcalavajrapAni. See ACALANATHA-VIDYARAJA.

Achaitanya (Sanskrit) Acaitanya [from a not + the verbal root cit to be conscious of, understand] Void of intelligence and consciousness, lack of spirituality. An ancient Sanskrit verse runs: Achaitanyan na vidyate, Sarvan sarvatra sarvada (“A thing without intelligence or consciousness is not known. All is everywhere at all times”).

Adhibhuta-vidya: Science of the physical or material world.

Adhidaiva-vidya: Science of the heavens.

Adhyaropa (Sanskrit) Adhyāropa [from adhi above, over + āropa superimposition from ā-rup to confound, disturb] Usually, erroneous deduction. In Vedantic philosophy, a wrong attribution or misconception, e.g., to conceive of silver as being innate in mother-of-pearl, the sheen common to both being an adhyaropa. The mind in its absorption in the unreal (avidya, “ignorance”) superimposes a world of duality and plurality on the real — on Brahman — and as a result there is a multiplicity of confusing and often conflicting goals.

Adhyatma Vidya: Science of the Self.

Adhyatma-jnana (Sanskrit) Adhyātma-jñāna [from adhi over, superior + ātman self + jñāna knowledge from the verbal root jnā to know, understand] Knowledge of the supreme self, equivalent to adhyatma-vidya.

Adhyatma-vidya (Sanskrit) Adhyātma-vidyā [from adhi over, above + ātman self + vidyā knowledge from the verbal root vid to know, perceive, learn] Knowledge of the supreme atman or self; used interchangeably with adhyatma-jnana.

adhyatma vidya. ::: study of the Self

adhyAtmavidyA. (T. nang rig pa; C. neiming; J. naimyo; K. naemyong 内明). In Sanskrit, "inner knowledge," viz. knowledge of the three trainings (TRIsIKsA) and the two stages (UTPATTIKRAMA and NIsPANNAKRAMA) of TANTRA; the term is sometimes used to refer to knowledge of Buddhist (as opposed to non-Buddhist) subjects.

Adhyatmika Vidya: Science of Self.

Agni-vidya: The process of meditating, taking fire as symbolising Brahman.

Ahamkara (Sanskrit) Ahaṃkāra [from aham ego, I + kāra maker, doer from the verbal root kṛ to do] I-maker; conception of egoity or I-am-I-ness. In its lower aspect, the egoistical and mayavi principle, born of avidya (ignorance), which produces the notion of the personal ego as being different from the universal self. In Sankhya philosophy ahamkara is the third emanation: from prakriti (primal nature or substance) issues mahat (the great), standing for universal mind, which in turn produces ahamkara, selfhood, individuality; from ahamkara come forth the five tanmatras, the subtle forms of the elements or principles and “the two series of sense organs” (Samkhya-Sutra 1:61).

Ahankara(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word: aham, "I"; kara, "maker" or "doer," from the verb-root kri, "to do," "tomake"; egoism, personality. The egoistical and mayavi principle in man, born of the ignorance or avidyawhich produces the notion of the "I" as being different from the universal One-Self.

Aizen Myoo. (愛染明王) (S. RAgavidyArAja). In Japanese, lit. "Bright King of the Taint of Lust"; an esoteric deity considered to be the destroyer of vulgar passions. In stark contrast to the traditional Buddhist approach of suppressing the passions through various antidotes or counteractive techniques (PRATIPAKsA), this VIDYARAJA is believed to be able to transform attachment, desire, craving, and defilement directly into pure BODHICITTA. This deity became a principal deity of the heretical Tachikawa branch (TACHIKAWARYu) of the SHINGONSHu and was considered the deity of conception. As an emanation of the buddha MAHAVAIROCANA or the bodhisattva VAJRASATTVA, Aizen Myoo was favored by many followers of Shingon Buddhism in Japan and by various esoteric branches of the TENDAISHu. Aizen Myoo was also sometimes held to be a secret buddha (HIBUTSU) by these traditions. The NICHIRENSHu was the last to adopt him as an important deity, but he played an important role in the dissemination of its cult. Aizen Myoo is well known for his fierce appearance, which belies the love and affection he is presumed to convey. Aizen Myoo usually has three eyes (to see the three realms of existence) and holds a lotus in his hand, which is symbolic of the calming of the senses, among other things. Other attributes of this deity are the bow and arrows, VAJRAs, and weapons that he holds in his hands.

Akshara vidya: The Imperishable knowledge-process of meditation on Brahman.

amoha. (T. gti mug med pa; C. wuchi; J. muchi; K. much'i 無癡). In Sanskrit and PAli, "nondelusion"; one of the eleven wholesome (KUsALA) mental concomitants (CAITTA) according to the YOGACARA school, "nondelusion" is the opposite of "delusion" (MOHA). This mental quality was presumed to be so central to all wholesome activities that it was listed as one of the three wholesome faculties, or roots of virtue (KUsALAMuLA). Nondelusion is interpreted variously as clarity in perception regarding the way things are (yathAbhuta), the temporary suppression or permanent extirpation of ignorance (AVIDYA), the full comprehension of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, or the clear seeing of the three marks of existence (TRILAKsAnA).

anAsrava. (P. anAsava; T. zag pa med pa; C. wulou; J. muro; K. muru 無漏). In Sanskrit, "uncontaminated" or "non-outflow"; referring to the absence of the "contaminants" (ASRAVA) of sensuality (KAMA), the desire for continued existence (BHAVA), ignorance (AVIDYA), and sometimes wrong views (DṚstI). The absence of these contaminants may be either the quality of a specific object, such as NIRVAnA, or a state achieved through meditative training. In the former sense, anAsrava refers both to freedom from the afflictions (KLEsA) and to those factors that are uncontaminated in the sense that their observation does not serve to increase the afflictions (klesa). Examples of the latter include true cessations (NIRODHASATYA) and true paths (MARGASATYA) among the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS. The "uncontaminated actions" (anAsrava-KARMAN) performed after enlightenment by ARHATs and PRATYEKABUDDHAs, and by great BODHISATTVAs who have gained control (vasitAprAptabodhisattva) may in some cases lead to rebirth, but they will not produce continued subjection to SAMSARA as would be the case for ordinary beings. See also PARInAMIKAJARAMARAnA ("transfigurational birth-and-death").

anAtman. (P. anattA; T. bdag med; C. wuwo; J. muga; K. mua 無我). In Sanskrit, "no self" or "nonself" or more broadly "insubstantiality"; the third of the "three marks" (TRILAKsAnA) of existence, along with impermanence (ANITYA) and suffering (DUḤKHA). The concept is one of the key insights of the Buddha, and it is foundational to the Buddhist analysis of the compounded quality (SAMSKṚTA) of existence: since all compounded things are the fruition (PHALA) of a specific set of causes (HETU) and conditions (PRATYAYA), they are therefore absent of any perduring substratum of being. In the sutra analysis of existence, the "person" (PUDGALA) is said to be a product of five aggregates (SKANDHA)-materiality (RuPA), physical sensations (VEDANA), perception (SAMJNA), impulses (SAMSKARA), and consciousness (VIJNANA)-which together comprise the totality of the individual's physical, mental, and emotional existence. What in common parlance is called the person is a continuum (SAMTANA) imputed to the construction of these aggregates, but when these aggregates are separated at the time of death, the person also simultaneously vanishes. This relationship between the person and the skandhas is clarified in the MILINDAPANHA's famous simile of the chariot: a chariot is composed of various constituent parts, but if that chariot is broken down into its parts, there is no sense of "chariot" remaining. So it is with the person and his constituent parts, the skandhas. The Buddha is rigorously against any analysis of phenomena that imputes the reality of a person: when a questioner asks him, "Who senses?," for example, the Buddha rejects the question as wrongly conceived and reframes it in terms of conditionality, i.e., "With what as condition does sensation occur?" ("Sensory contact" [SPARsA] is the answer.) Buddhism thus rejects any notion of an eternal, perduring soul that survives death, or which transmigrates from lifetime to lifetime; rather, just as we can impute a conventional continuity to the person over one lifetime, so can this same continuity be imputed over several lifetimes. The continuum of karmic action and reaction ensures that the last moment of consciousness in the present life serves as the condition for the first moment of consciousness in the next. The next life is therefore neither the same as nor different from the preceding lifetime; instead, it is causally related to it. For this reason, any specific existence, or series of existences, is governed by the causes and conditions that create it, rendering life fundamentally beyond our attempts to control it (another connotation of "nonself") and thus unworthy as an object of attachment. Seeing this lack of selfhood in compounded things generates a sense of "danger" (ADĪNAVA) that catalyzes the aspiration to seek liberation (VIMOKsA). Thus, understanding this mark of anAtman is the crucial antidote (PRATIPAKsA) to ignorance (AVIDYA) and the key to liberation from suffering (duḥkha) and the continuing cycle of rebirth (SAMSARA). Although the notion of anAtman is applied to the notion of a person in mainstream Buddhism, in the PRAJNAPARAMITA scriptures and the broader MAHAYANA tradition the connotation of the term is extended to take in the "nonself of phenomena" (DHARMANAIRATMYA) as well. This extension may be a response to certain strands of the mainstream tradition, such as SARVASTIVADA (lit. the "Teaching That All [Dharmas] Exist"), which considered dharmas (i.e., the five skandhas and so on) to be factors that existed in reality throughout all three time periods (TRIKALA) of past, present, and future. In order to clarify that dharmas have only conventional validity, the MahAyAna posited that they also were anAtman, although the nature of this lack of self was differently understood by the YOGACARA and MADHYAMAKA schools.

anchin kokkaho. (安鎭國家法). In Japanese, the "technique for pacifying the state." Japanese TENDAI priests often performed this ritual in the palace at the request of the emperor. Offerings were made to the deity fudo myoo (S. ACALANATHA-VIDYARAJA), who in return would quell the demons who were disturbing the peace of the state. A simplified version of this ritual known as kachin or chintaku is now commonly performed for laity at their homes.

andham tamah pravisanti ye avidyam upasate, tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayam ratah ::: into a blind darkness they enter who follow after the Ignorance, they as if into a greater darkness who devote themselves to the Knowledge alone. [Isa 9]

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

anusaya. (P. anusaya; T. bag la nyal ba; C. suimian; J. zuimen; K. sumyon 隨眠). In Sanskrit, "proclivity" or "predisposition"; various unwholesome mental states that lead eventually to suffering. There are several lists, most common of which is a list of six or seven principal proclivities: sensual passion (KAMARAGA; see also RAGA), hostility (PRATIGHA), pride (MANA), ignorance (AVIDYA), views (DṚstI), and skeptical doubt (VICIKITSA); sometimes, passion for existence (bhavarAga) is added as a seventh. The SARVASTIVADA school of ABHIDHARMA offers an extensive list of ninety-eight proclivities, in which dṛsti is subdivided into five subtypes, giving ten, which are then further subdivided into ninety-eight in relation to the three realms of existence (sensual, subtle materiality, and immaterial) and the five classes of discipline.

aparardha ::: "the lower half of world-existence", the hemisphere of aparardha the triloka (three worlds) of manas, pran.a and anna1 or mind, life and matter; these three principles "are in themselves powers of the superior principles" (of the higher hemisphere, parardha), "but wherever they manifest in a separation from their spiritual sources, they undergo as a result a phenomenal lapse into a divided in place of the true undivided existence . . . oblivious of all that is behind it and of the underlying unity, a state therefore of cosmic and individual Ignorance" (avidya).

Apara-vidya: Knowledge of the Vedas or lower knowledge; intellectual knowledge.

Aparavidya (Sanskrit) Aparāvidyā [from a not + parā supreme + vidyā knowledge from the verbal root vid to see, know, percieve] Nonsupreme knowledge; in Vedanta philosophy the lower wisdom of Brahman, relative knowledge acquired by the intellect and through the performance of ritual worship and duties, in contradistinction to paravidya (supreme wisdom), the transcendental knowledge of Brahman attainable by him who has achieved moksha (liberation) during life. This distinction between the exoteric and esoteric tradition and doctrine is found in practically all cultures.

apara vidya ::: the lower knowledge, the knowledge of the world.

arhat. (P. arahant; T. dgra bcom pa; C. aluohan/yinggong; J. arakan/ogu; K. arahan/ŭnggong 阿羅漢/應供). In Sanskrit, "worthy one"; one who has destroyed the afflictions (KLEsA) and all causes for future REBIRTH and who thus will enter NIRVAnA at death; the standard Tibetan translation dgra bcom pa (drachompa) ("foe-destroyer") is based on the paronomastic gloss ari ("enemy") and han ("to destroy"). The arhat is the highest of the four grades of Buddhist saint or "noble person" (ARYAPUDGALA) recognized in the mainstream Buddhist schools; the others are, in ascending order, the SROTAAPANNA or "stream-enterer" (the first and lowest grade), the SAKṚDAGAMIN or "once-returner" (the second grade), and the ANAGAMIN or "nonreturner" (the third and penultimate grade). The arhat is one who has completely put aside all ten fetters (SAMYOJANA) that bind one to the cycle of rebirth: namely, (1) belief in the existence of a perduring self (SATKAYADṚstI); (2) skeptical doubt (about the efficacy of the path) (VICIKITSA); (3) belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals (sĪLAVRATAPARAMARsA); (4) sensual craving (KAMARAGA); (5) malice (VYAPADA); (6) craving for existence as a divinity (DEVA) in the realm of subtle materiality (RuPARAGA); (7) craving for existence as a divinity in the immaterial realm (ARuPYARAGA); (8) pride (MANA); (9) restlessness (AUDDHATYA); and (10) ignorance (AVIDYA). Also described as one who has achieved the extinction of the contaminants (ASRAVAKsAYA), the arhat is one who has attained nirvAna in this life, and at death attains final liberation (PARINIRVAnA) and will never again be subject to rebirth. Although the arhat is regarded as the ideal spiritual type in the mainstream Buddhist traditions, where the Buddha is also described as an arhat, in the MAHAYANA the attainment of an arhat pales before the far-superior achievements of a buddha. Although arhats also achieve enlightenment (BODHI), the MahAyAna tradition presumes that they have overcome only the first of the two kinds of obstructions, the afflictive obstructions (KLEsAVARAnA), but are still subject to the noetic obstructions (JNEYAVARAnA); only the buddhas have completely overcome both and thus realize complete, perfect enlightenment (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAMBODHI). Certain arhats were selected by the Buddha to remain in the world until the coming of MAITREYA. These arhats (called LUOHAN in Chinese, a transcription of arhat), who typically numbered sixteen (see sOdAsASTHAVIRA), were objects of specific devotion in East Asian Buddhism, and East Asian monasteries will often contain a separate shrine to these luohans. Although in the MahAyAna sutras, the bodhisattva is extolled over the arhats, arhats figure prominently in these texts, very often as members of the assembly for the Buddha's discourse and sometimes as key figures. For example, in the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA ("Lotus Sutra"), sARIPUTRA is one of the Buddha's chief interlocutors and, with other arhats, receives a prophecy of his future buddhahood; in the VAJRACCHEDIKAPRAJNAPARAMITASuTRA, SUBHuTI is the Buddha's chief interlocutor; and in the VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEsA, sAriputra is made to play the fool in a conversation with a goddess.

AryamArgaphala. (P. ariyamaggaphala; T. 'phags lam gyi 'bras bu; C. shengdaoguo; J. shodoka; K. songdo kwa 聖道果). In Sanskrit, "noble path and fruit"; the four supramundane (LOKOTTARA) paths (MARGA) and the four supramundane fruitions (PHALA) that mark the attainment of sanctity (ARYA). Attainment of the path refers to the first moment of entering into or becoming a candidate (pratipannaka) for any of the four stages of sanctity; viz., stream-enterer (SROTAAPANNA), once-returner (SAKṚDAGAMIN), nonreturner (ANAGAMIN), and worthy one (ARHAT). During this initial moment of path attainment, the mind takes the nirvAna element (NIRVAnADHATU) as its object. Path attainment is brought about by insight (VIPAsYANA) into the three universal marks (TRILAKsAnA) of existence that characterize all phenomena: impermanence (ANITYA), suffering (DUḤKHA), and nonself (ANATMAN). Attainment of the fruit refers to the moments of consciousness that immediately follow attainment of the path. Attainment of any of the four paths occurs only once, while attainment of the fruit can be repeated indefinitely during a lifetime, depending on the circumstances. It is said that, by virtue of attaining the path, one "becomes" free in stages of the ten fetters (SAMYOJANA) that bind one to the cycle of rebirth, and, by virtue of attaining the fruit, one "is" free from the fetters. The ten fetters that are put aside in stages are (1) belief in the existence of a self (ATMAN) in relation to the body (SATKAYADṚstI; P. sakkAyaditthi); (2) belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals (sĪLAVRATAPARAMARsA; P. sīlabbataparAmAsa) as a means of salvation; (3) doubt about the efficacy of the path (VICIKITSA; P. vicikicchA); (4) sensual craving (KAMACCHANDA); (5) malice (VYAPADA); (6) craving for existence as a divinity in the realm of subtle materiality (RuPARAGA); (7) craving for existence as a divinity in the immaterial realm (ARuPYARAGA; P. aruparAga); (8) pride (MANA); (9) restlessness (AUDDHATYA; P. uddhacca); and (10) ignorance (AVIDYA; P. avijjA). See also sRAMAnYAPHALA.

Aryapudgala. (P. ariyapuggala; T. 'phags pa'i gang zag; C. xiansheng; J. kenjo; K. hyonsong 賢聖). In Sanskrit, "noble person"; an epithet given to enlightened beings, i.e., those who have reached at least the path of vision (DARsANAMARGA). There is a well-known list of four types of noble persons, from stream-enterer (SROTAAPANNA) to once-returner (SAKṚDAGAMIN), nonreturner (ANAGAMIN), and worthy one (ARHAT). This list is then subdivided into eight types or grades of noble persons according to their respective attainment of the paths and fruits of the noble path (ARYAMARGAPHALA). These are (1) the person who has entered the path of stream-enterer (SROTAAPANNAPHALAPRATIPANNAKA); (2) the person who abides in the fruit of stream-enterer (SROTAAPANNAPHALASTHA); (3) the person who has entered the path of once-returner (SAKṚDAGAMIPHALAPRATIPANNAKA); (4) the person who abides in the fruit of once-returner (SAKṚDAGAMIPHALASTHA); (5) the person who has entered the path of nonreturner (ANAGAMIPHALAPRATIPANNAKA); (6) the person who abides in the fruit of nonreturner (ANAGAMIPHALASTHA); (7) the person who has entered the path of a worthy one (ARHATPRATIPANNAKA); and (8) the person who has attained that fruition and become a worthy one (arhat). In some treatments, this list is presented together with a list of seven types of noble ones (ARYA) in order of intellectual superiority. By attaining the path and fruit of stream-entry, that is, by becoming a srotaApanna, a person becomes free of the first three of the ten fetters (SAMYOJANA) that bind one to the cycle of rebirth: namely, (1) belief in the existence of a perduring self in relation to the body (SATKAYADṚstI, P. sakkAyaditthi); (2) belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals (sĪLAVRATAPARAMARsA, P. sīlabbataparAmAsa) as a means of salvation; and (3) skeptical doubt (VICIKITSA, P. vicikicchA) about the efficacy of the path. By attaining the path and fruit of once-returning, i.e., becoming a sakṛdAgAmin, a person in addition severely weakens the effects of the fourth and fifth fetters, namely, (4) sensual craving (KAMACCHANDA) and (5) malice (VYAPADA). By attaining the path and fruit of nonreturning, i.e., becoming an anAgAmin, a person is completely freed of the first five fetters. Finally, by attaining the path and fruit of a worthy one and becoming an arhat, a person is additionally freed of the last five of the ten fetters: (6) craving for existence as a divinity (DEVA) in the realm of subtle materiality (RuPARAGA); (7) craving for existence as a divinity in the immaterial realm (ARuPYARAGA; P. aruparAga); (8) pride (MANA); (9) restlessness (AUDDHATYA, P. uddhacca); and (10) ignorance (AVIDYA, P. avijjA).

Ashtar, Ashtar-vidya [possibly from Sanskrit astra weapon, missile + vidyā knowledge] Used by Blavatsky for “the highest magical knowledge” (SD 2:427). Astra-vidya, the science of warfare, when transferred in usage to the everlasting struggle of the adepts of the right-hand with those of the left, would take the significance not so much of the science of missiles or weapons, but that of high and powerful magic forces. “The most ancient of the Hindu works on Magic. Though there is a claim that the entire work is in the hands of some Occultists, yet the Orientalists deem it lost. A very few fragments of it are now extant, and even these are very much disfigured” (TG 35).

Asravaksaya. (P. Asavakkhaya; T. zag pa zad pa; C. loujin[zhi]; J. rojin[chi]; K. nujin[ji] 漏盡[智]). In Sanskrit, "extinction of the contaminants"; a supranormal power (ABHIJNA) produced through the perfection of insight (VIPAsYANA), and one of the three knowledges (TRIVIDYA) that are the products of enlightenment (BODHI). One who achieves this state is a "worthy one" (ARHAT) and at death passes into NIRVAnA, never to be reborn. See also ANASRAVA; ASRAVA.

Asrava. (P. ASAVA; T. zag pa; C. lou; J. ro; K. nu 漏). In Sanskrit, "contaminants," "outflows," or "fluxes"; mental contaminants that are eradicated upon attaining the status of a "worthy one" (ARHAT); also written as Asrava. They are (1) the contaminant of sensuality (kAmAsrava; KAMA); (2) the contaminant of continuing existence (bhavAsrava; BHAVA); and (3) the contaminant of ignorance (avidyAsrava; AVIDYA); to this list is often added (4) the contaminant of views (dṛstyAsrava; DṚstI). Since the Asravas bind or immerse one in the cycle of existence, they are also sometimes called the "floods" (OGHA) and the "yokes" (yoga). The term Asrava is used in both Buddhism and Jainism, suggesting that it is one of the earliest such terms for the mental contaminants used within the tradition. (In the Buddhist interpretation, an Asrava is more of an "outflow," because the contaminants flow out from the mind and affect the ways in which one interacts with the external world; indeed, the Chinese translation of the term means literally to "leak." In the JAINA tradition, an Asrava is more of an "inflow," because the contaminants flow into the body, where they adhere to the ATMAN, thus defiling it.) The term is a synonym of the KLEsAs (afflictions, defilements), since objects (such as the five SKANDHAs) that can serve as objects of defilement are "contaminated" (sAsrava). The contaminants are permanently overcome through insight into such fundamental Buddhist truths as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, conditioned origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA), or the three marks of existence (TRILAKsAnA). Because the ARHAT has permanently uprooted the contaminants from the mind, he or she receives the epithet KsĪnASRAVA ("one whose contaminants are extinguished"). See also ASAVA, ANASRAVA, ASRAVAKsAYA.

Asuddha-maya: Maya preponderating with Rajas; this is Avidya Upadhi of Jiva; this is termed as Malina Maya or Malina-Sattva; impure Maya; this is Avidya or Malina-sattva or impure Sattva mixed with Rajas and Tamas.

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. (P. attan; T. bdag; C. wo; J. ga; K. a 我). In Sanskrit, "self" or "I," with a similar range of meanings as the terms possess in English, but used especially to refer to a perduring substratum of being that is the agent of actions, the possessor of mind and body (NAMARuPA), and that passes from lifetime to lifetime. The misconception that there is an "I" (Atman), a perduring soul that exists in reality (SATKAYADṚstI), and a "mine" (Atmīya), viz., things that belong to me, injects a "point of view" into all of one's perception (SAMJNA), which inevitably leads to clinging (toward things we like, viz., LOBHA) and hatred (toward things we dislike, viz., DVEsA). This mistaken belief that there is such a permanent self is regarded as fundamental ignorance (AVIDYA) and the root cause of all suffering (DUḤKHA). The Buddha therefore taught "nonself" (ANATMAN) as a palliative to this misconception of permanence. The precise meaning of Atman, the ways in which the misconception arises, and how that misconception is then extended beyond the person are considered in great detail in the various Buddhist philosophical schools. See also PUDGALA.

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).

atma vidya. ::: teaching about the Self and Reality

Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430.   St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents.   Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided.   Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients.   S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings").   This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism).   (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment.   Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect.   Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good."   In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love.   In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909).   Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint.   The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value.   (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey).   (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience.   (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria.   (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers:   subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists);   logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality);   metaphysical objectivism (values   --or norms or ideals   --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.

Avarana-sakti: Veiling power of Maya; Avidya the individual.

Avidya: A Sanskrit term for ignorance. Unawareness of true reality.

Avidya: Ignorance; nescience; a Sakti or illusive power in Brahman which is sometimes regarded as one with Maya and sometimes as different from it. It forms the condition of the individual soul and is otherwise called Ajnana or Asuddha-maya. It forms the Karana Sarira of Jiva. It is Malina or impure Sattva.

avidya ::: ignorance; the power by which "the Spirit dwells . . . in the avidya consciousness of multiplicity and relativity"; "the knowledge of the Many" (bahu), which "becomes no longer knowledge at all but ignorance, Avidya" because it "takes the Many for the real fact of existence and views the One [eka1] only as a cosmic sum of the Many". avikalpa samadhi

avidyamaya ::: [maya of the Ignorance].

Avidyanasa: Destruction of ignorance; liberation from bondage of embodiment.

Avidya-nivritti: Removal of ignorance; Moksha.

avidyA. (P. avijjA; T. ma rig pa; C. wuming; J. mumyo; K. mumyong 無明). In Sanskrit, "ignorance"; the root cause of suffering (DUḤKHA) and one of the key terms in Buddhism. Ignorance occurs in many contexts in Buddhist doctrine. For example, ignorance is the first link in the twelvefold chain of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA) that sustains the cycle of birth and death (SAMSARA); it is the condition that creates the predispositions (SAMSKARA) that lead to rebirth and thus inevitably to old age and death. Ignorance is also listed as one of the root afflictions (S. MuLAKLEsA) and the ten "fetters" (SAMYOJANA) that keep beings bound to saMsAra. AvidyA is closely synonymous with "delusion" (MOHA), one of the three unwholesome roots (AKUsALAMuLA). When they are distinguished, moha may be more of a generic foolishness and benightedness, whereas avidyA is instead an obstinate misunderstanding about the nature of the person and the world. According to ASAnGA's ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, for example, moha is the factor of nescience, while avidyA is the active misconstruction of the nature of reality; he uses the analogy of twilight (= moha) falling on a coiled rope (= reality), which someone in the darkness wrongly conceives to be a snake (= avidyA). Due to the pervasive influence of ignorance, the deluded sentient being (PṚTHAGJANA) sees what is not self as self, what is impermanent as permanent, what is impure as pure, and what is painful as pleasurable (see VIPARYASA); and due to this confusion, one is subject to persistent suffering (duḥkha) and continued rebirth. The inveterate propensity toward ignorance is first arrested in the experience of stream-entry (see SROTAAPANNA), which eliminates the three cognitive fetters of belief in a perduring self (SATKAYADṚstI), attachment to rules and rituals (S. sĪLAVRATAPARAMARsA), and skeptical doubt (S. VICIKITSA). AvidyA is gradually alleviated at the stages of once-returners (SAKṚDAGAMIN) and nonreturners (ANAGAMIN), and permanently eliminated at the stage of arhatship (see ARHAT), the fourth and highest degree of sanctity in mainstream Buddhism (see ARYAPUDGALA).

Avidya-samskara: The impression of basic ignorance.

Avidya(Sanskrit) ::: A compound word: a, "not"; vidya, "knowledge"; hence nonknowledge, ignorance -- perhaps abetter translation would be nescience -- ignorance or rather lack of knowledge of reality, produced byillusion or maya.

Avidya (Sanskrit) Avidyā [from a not + vidyā knowledge, wisdom] Nescience rather than ignorance; it implies absence of wisdom rather than inherent incapacity, and is the result of illusion producing ignorance. Hence ignorance of spiritual things. See also VIDYA

avidya ::: the Ignorance; the consciousness of Multiplicity; the relative and multiple consciousness.

Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flows from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 103


avidya. ::: "to know not"; nescience; inexplicable ignorance that lulls the spiritual being away from its true nature

avidyayam antare vartamanah ::: living and moving within the Ignorance. [Katha 1.2.5; Mund. 1.2.8]

avidyayam antare ::: within the Ignorance. [see the following]

Ayur Veda (Sanskrit) Āyurveda [from āyus life, health, vital power + veda knowledge] One of the minor Vedas, generally considered a supplement to the Atharva-Veda, one of the four principal Vedas. It treats of the science of health and medicine, and is divided into eight departments: 1) salya, surgery; 2) salakya, the science and cure of diseases of the head and its organs; 3) kaya-chikitsa, the cure of diseases affecting the whole body, or general medical treatment; 4) bhuta-vidya, the treatment of mental — and consequent physical — diseases supposed to be produced by bhutas (demons); 5) kaumara-bhritya, the medical treatment of children; 6) agada-tantra, the doctrine of antidotes; 7) rasayana-tantra, the doctrine of elixirs; and 8) vajikarana-tantra, the doctrine of aphrodisiacs. Medicine was regarded as one of the sacred sciences by all ancient peoples and in archaic ages was one of the knowledges or sciences belonging to the priesthood; and this list of subjects shows that the field covered by its practitioners was extensive. Its authorship is attributed by some to Dhanvantari, sometimes called the physician of the gods, who was produced by the mystical churning of the ocean and appeared holding a cup of amrita (immortality) in his hands.

Bhakti: (Skr. division, share) Fervent, loving devotion to the object of contemplation or the divine being itself, the almost universally recognized feeling approach to the highest reality, in contrast to vidya (s.v.) or jnana (s.v.), sanctioned by Indian philosophy and productive of a voluminous literature in which the names of Ramamanda, Vallabha, Nanak, Caitanya, and Tulsi Das are outstanding. It is distinguished as apara (lower) and para (higher) bhakti, the former theistic piety, the latter philosophic meditation on the unmanifest brahman (cf. avyakta). -- K.F.L.

bhrAntijNAna. (T. 'khrul shes; C. luanshi; J. ranjiki; K. nansik 亂識). In Sanskrit, "mistaken consciousness"; an epistemological term that is used to describe a consciousness that is mistaken with regard to its external sensory object, or "appearing object" (T. snang yul). Hence, according to the SAUTRANTIKA school, all conceptual consciousnesses, even those that are veridical, are mistaken in the sense that they mistake a generic image (arthasAmAnya) of an object for the actual object. YOGACARA schools say all consciousness of external appearance is mistaken, and some MADHYAMAKA schools say basic ignorance makes even nonconceptual sensory perceptions mistaken. In addition to mistaken consciousnesses that arise from such forms of ignorance (AVIDYA), there are also mistaken consciousnesses produced by superficial causes--inner and outer causes and conditions that distort the five physical senses and sixth mental sense. For example, jaundice may cause something that is white to appear yellow and summer sunlight and sand may cause a mirage, in which the mistaken consciousness sees water where there is none.

Bhuta-vidya or Bhuta-vijnana (Sanskrit) Bhūta-vidyā, Bhūta-vijñāna [from bhūta has been, kama-lokic spooks + vidyā, vijñāna knowledge] The knowledge of evil beings, demonology; hence, the art of exorcising, treating, and curing demoniac possession — one of the branches of ancient medicine. Bhuta in ancient usage, while including what medieval Europeans called demons, refers to what in theosophy is called elementaries and other denizens of the astral realms — commonly of human origination, but sometimes astral rejects of the animal kingdom. See also AYUR VEDA

bodhi. (T. byang chub; C. puti/jue; J. bodai/kaku; K. pori/kak 菩提/覺). In Sanskrit and PAli, "awakening," "enlightenment"; the consummate knowledge that catalyzes the experience of liberation (VIMOKsA) from the cycle rebirth. Bodhi is of three discrete kinds: that of perfect buddhas (SAMYAKSAMBODHI); that of PRATYEKABUDDHAs or "solitary enlightened ones" (pratyekabodhi); and that of sRAVAKAs or disciples (srAvakabodhi). The content of the enlightenment experience is in essence the understanding of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (catvAry AryasatyAni): namely, the truth of suffering (DUḤKHA), the truth of the cause of suffering (SAMUDAYA), the truth of the cessation of suffering (NIRODHA), and the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering (MARGA). Bodhi is also elaborated in terms of its thirty-seven constituent factors (BODHIPAKsIKADHARMA) that are mastered in the course of perfecting one's understanding, or the seven limbs of awakening (BODHYAnGA) that lead to the attainment of the "threefold knowledge" (TRIVIDYA; P. tevijjA): "recollection of former lives" (S. PuRVANIVASANUSMṚTI; P. pubbenivAsAnussati), the "divine eye" (DIVYACAKsUS; P. dibbacakkhu), which perceives that the death and rebirth of beings occurs according to their actions (KARMAN), and the "knowledge of the extinction of the contaminants" (ASRAVAKsAYA; P. AsavakkayaNAna). Perfect buddhas and solitary buddhas (pratyekabuddha) become enlightened through their own independent efforts, for they discover the four noble truths on their own, without the aid of a teacher in their final lifetime (although pratyekabuddhas may rely on the teachings of a buddha in previous lifetimes). Of these two types of buddhas, perfect buddhas are then capable of teaching these truths to others, while solitary buddhas are not. srAvakas, by contrast, do not become enlightened on their own but are exposed to the teachings of perfect buddhas and through the guidance of those teachings gain the understanding they need to attain awakening. Bodhi also occupies a central place in MAHAYANA religious conceptions. The MahAyAna ideal of the BODHISATTVA means literally a "being" (SATTVA) intent on awakening (bodhi) who has aroused the aspiration to achieve buddhahood or the "thought of enlightenment" (BODHICITTA; BODHICITTOTPADA). The MahAyAna, especially in its East Asian manifestations, also explores in great detail the prospect that enlightenment is something that is innate to the mind (see BENJUE; HONGAKU) rather than inculcated, and therefore need not be developed gradually but can instead be realized suddenly (see DUNWU). The MahAyAna also differentiates between the enlightenment (bodhi) of srAvakas and pratyekabuddhas and the full enlightenment (samyaksaMbodhi) of a buddha. According to Indian and Tibetan commentaries on the PRAJNAPARAMITA sutras, buddhas achieve full enlightenment not beneath the BODHI TREE in BODHGAYA, but in the AKANIstHA heaven in the form of a SAMBHOGAKAYA, or enjoyment body remaining for eternity to work for the welfare of sentient beings. The bodhisattva who strives for enlightenment and achieves buddhahood beneath the Bodhi tree is a NIRMAnAKAYA, a conjured body meant to inspire the world. See also WU; JIANWU.

bodhyanga. (P. bojjhanga; T. byang chub kyi yan lag; C. juezhi/qijuezhi; J. kakushi/shichikakushi; K. kakchi/ch'ilgakchi 覺支/七覺支). In Sanskrit, "branches of enlightenment," or "limbs of awakening"; seven qualities attained at the point of realizing the path of vision (DARsANAMARGA): mindfulness (SMṚTI; P. sati), investigation of factors (dharmapravicaya; P. dhammavicaya), energy (VĪRYA; P. viriya), rapture (PRĪTI; pīti), tranquility (PRAsRABDHI; passaddhi), concentration (SAMADHI), and equanimity (UPEKsA; upekkhA). In their roles as "branches of enlightenment," mindfulness, first, refers to the "four foundations of mindfulness" (SMṚTYUPASTHANA; P. SATIPAttHANA), where the practitioner dwells contemplating four types of objects: namely, the body (KAYA), sensations (VEDANA), the mind (CITTA), and mental objects (DHARMA). Investigation of factors refers to investigating, examining, and reflecting on the teachings and numerical lists of factors taught by the Buddha. Energy refers to firm and unshaken energy that arises in the mind of the practitioner while investigating factors, etc. Rapture refers to the supersensuous bliss that arises as a consequence of contemplating with energy. Tranquility refers to the tranquility that arises as a consequence of the mind experiencing rapture. Concentration refers to the mental absorption that arises as a consequence of tranquility. Finally, equanimity refers to the sense of complete composure that arises as a consequence of the mind being well concentrated on an object. These are called factors of "enlightenment," because they lead to awakening (BODHI) or more specifically to the attainment of the "threefold knowledge" (TRIVIDYA; P. tevijjA): "recollection of former lives" (S. PuRVANIVASANUSMṚTI; P. pubbenivAsAnussati), the "divine eye" (DIVYACAKsUS; P. dibbacakkhu), which sees the death and rebirth of beings occurring according to their actions, and the "knowledge of the extinction of the contaminants" (ASRAVAKsAYA JNANA; P. AsavakhayaNAna).

bodhyangīmudrA. (T. byang chub mchog gi phyag rgya; C. zhiquan yin; J. chiken'in; K. chigwon in 智拳印). In Sanskrit, "gesture of the branches of enlightenment"; a gesture (MUDRA) found primarily with images of VAIROCANA, the DHARMAKAYA buddha, the central figure of the esoteric traditions of Buddhism and the chief buddha of the TATHAGATA family (see PANCAKULA). The gesture is typically formed with the right fist clasping the raised left index finger at the level of the heart, although the hand positions may be reversed. (This gesture is known in Chinese as the zhiquan yin, or "wisdom-fist gesture" a rendering often found in English accounts.) Alternatively, the raised thumb of the left fist may be clasped by the four fingers of the right fist, symbolizing the MAndALA of the five buddhas (PANCATATHAGATA). The gesture is interpreted to indicate the unity in the DHARMAKAYA of the divergent experience of ordinary beings (PṚTHAGJANA) and buddhas, SAMSARA and NIRVAnA, ignorance (AVIDYA) and wisdom (PRAJNA), and delusion (MOHA) and enlightenment (BODHI). See also JNANAMUstI.

Brahmavidya (Sanskrit) Brahmavidyā Brahma-knowledge, divine knowledge; equivalent to theosophia, the wisdom of the gods. The secret or esoteric science or wisdom about the universe, its nature, laws, structure, and operations.

Brahmavidya: Science of Brahman; knowledge of Brahman; learning pertaining to Brahman or the Absolute Reality.

brahmavidya. ::: science of Brahman; knowledge of Brahman, the supreme Reality; using reasoning to attain the absolute Truth

brahmavidya ::: the knowledge of brahman.

buddhAnusmṛti. (P. buddhAnussati; T. sangs rgyas rjes su dran pa; C. nianfo; J. nenbutsu; K. yombul 念佛). In Sanskrit, "recollection of the Buddha"; one of the common practices designed to develop concentration, in which the meditator reflects on the meritorious qualities of the Buddha, often through contemplating a series of his epithets. The oldest list of epithets of the Buddha used in such recollection, which is found across all traditions, is worthy one (ARHAT), fully enlightened (SAMYAKSAMBUDDHA), perfect in both knowledge and conduct (vidyAcaranasampanna), well gone (SUGATA), knower of all worlds (lokavid), teacher of divinities (or kings) and human beings (sAstṛ devamanusyAnaM), buddha, and BHAGAVAT. BuddhAnusmṛti is listed among the forty meditative exercises (KAMMAttHANA) discussed in the VISUDDHIMAGGA and is said to be conducive to gaining access concentration (UPACARASAMADHI). In East Asia, this recollection practice evolved into the recitation of the name of the buddha AMITABHA (see NIANFO) in the form of the phrase namo Amituo fo ("homage to AmitAbha Buddha"; J. NAMU AMIDABUTSU). This recitation was often performed in a ritual setting accompanied by the performance of prostrations, the burning of incense, and the recitation of scriptures, all directed toward gaining a vision of AmitAbha's PURE LAND (SUKHAVATĪ), which was considered proof that one would be reborn there. Nianfo practice was widely practiced across schools and social strata in China. In Japan, repetition of the phrase in its Japanese pronunciation of namu Amidabutsu (homage to AmitAbha Buddha) became a central practice of the Japanese Pure Land schools of Buddhism (see JoDOSHu, JoDO SHINSHu).

Vidyadhara: One of a class of celestials.

Vidyadhara (Sanskrit) Vidyādhara A possessor of magical knowledge; a kind of ethereal being almost always of astral habitat,

Vidya ::: Knowledge appears to signify a consciousness of the Truth, the Right, satyam rtam, and of all that is of the order of the Truth and Right; ignorance is an unconsciousness, acitti, of the Truth and Right.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 506


Vidya: Knowledge (of Brahman); there are two kinds of knowledge, Paravidya and Aparavidya; a process of meditation or worship.

Vidya: Sanskrit for knowledge. In theosophy, the “wisdom knowledge” which enables man to distinguish between true and false.

Vidya(Sanskrit) ::: The word (derived from the same verbal root vid from which comes the noun Veda) for"knowledge," "philosophy," "science." This is a term very generally used in theosophical philosophy,having in a general way the three meanings just stated. It is frequently compounded with other words,such as: atma-vidya -- "knowledge of atman" or the essential Self; Brahma-vidya -- "knowledge ofBrahman," knowledge of the universe, a term virtually equivalent to theosophy; or, again, guhya-vidya -signifying the "secret knowledge" or the esoteric wisdom. Using the word in a collective but neverthelessspecific sense, vidya is a general term for occult science.

Vidya (Sanskrit) Vidyā Wisdom in spiritual things; also occult science. See also JNANA

Vidya: (Skr.) Knowledge; especially knowledge of the real, noumenal. -- K.F.L.

Cheng weishi lun. (S. *VijNaptimAtratAsiddhi; J. Joyui-shikiron; K. Song yusik non 成唯識論). In Chinese, "Demonstration of Consciousness-Only"; a magnum opus of Sino-Indian YOGACARA Buddhism and the foundational text of the Chinese WEISHI, or FAXIANG, school. The text is often cited by its reconstructed Sanskrit title *VIJNAPTIMATRATASIDDHI, and its authorship attributed to DHARMAPALA (530-561), but the text as we have it in Chinese translation has no precise analogue in Sanskrit and was never used within the Indian or Tibetan traditions. Its Chinese translator XUANZANG (600/602-664), one of the most important figures in the history of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism, traveled to India in the seventh century, where he specialized in YogAcAra doctrine at NALANDA monastic university under one of DharmapAla's disciples, sĪLABHADRA (529-645). At NAlandA, Xuanzang studied VASUBANDHU's TRIMsIKA (TriMsikAvijNaptimAtratA[siddhi]kArikA), the famous "Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only," along with ten prose commentaries on the verses by the prominent YogAcAra scholiasts DharmapAla, STHIRAMATI, Nanda, CitrabhAnu, Gunamati, Jinamitra, JNAnamitra, JNAnacandra, Bandhusrī, suddhacandra, and Jinaputra. After his return to China in 645, Xuanzang set to work translating this massive amount of new material into Chinese. Rather than translate in their entirety all ten commentaries, however, on the advice of his translation team Xuanzang chose to focus on DharmapAla's exegesis, which he considered orthodox, rather than muddy the waters in China with the divergent interpretations of the other teachers. As a foil for DharmapAla's interpretation, Xuanzang uses the commentaries by Sthiramati, Nanda, and occasionally CitrabhAnu, but he typically concludes any discussion with DharmapAla's definitive view. This decision to rely heavily on DharmapAla's interpretation probably comes from the fact that Xuanzang's own Indian teacher, sīlabhadra, was himself a pupil of DharmapAla. ¶ The Cheng weishi lun is principally concerned with the origination and removal of ignorance (AVIDYA), by clarifying the processes by which erroneous perception arises and enlightened understanding is produced. Unlike the writings of STHIRAMATI, which understood the bifurcation of consciousness into subject and object to be wholly imaginary, the Cheng weishi lun proposed instead that consciousness in fact always appears in both subjective and objective aspects, viz., a "seeing part" (darsanabhAga) and a "seen part" (nimittabhAga). The apparent dichotomy between inner self and external images is a supposition of mentality (MANAS), which in turn leads to the various afflictions (KLEsA), as the mind clings to those images it likes and rejects those it dislikes; thus, suffering (DUḤKHA) is created and the cycle of rebirth (SAMSARA) sustained. Both the perceiving self and the perceived images are therefore both simply projections of the mind and thus mere-representation (VIJNAPTIMATRA) or, as Xuanzang translated the term, consciousness-only (WEISHI). This clarification of the perceptual process produces an enlightened understanding that catalyzes a transmutation of the basis (AsRAYAPARAVṚTTI), so that the root consciousness (MuLAVIJNANA), or ALAYAVIJNANA, no longer serves as the storehouse of either wholesome or unwholesome seeds (BĪJA), thus bringing an end to the subject-object bifurcation. In the course of its discussion, the Cheng weishi lun offers an extensive treatment of the YogAcAra theory of the eight consciousnesses (VIJNANA) and especially the storehouse consciousness (AlayavijNAna) that stores the seeds, or potentialities, of these representational images. The text also offers an overview of the three-nature (TRISVABHAVA) theory of vijNaptimAtra as imaginary (PARIKALPITA), dependent (PARATANTRA), and perfected (PARINIsPANNA). Finally, the Cheng weishi lun provides such exhaustive detail on the hundred dharmas (BAIFA) taxonomical system of the YogAcAra that it has been used within the tradition as a primer of YogAcAra dharma theory.

Chikitsa-vidya-sastra (Sanskrit) Cikitsā-vidyā-śāstra [from cikitsa the practice or science of medicine, particularly therapeutics + vidyā knowledge, science + śāstra scripture] A manual on the science of medicine “which contains a number of ‘magic’ prescriptions. It is one of the Pancha Vidya Shastras or Scriptures” (TG 324).

Chittavidya: Psychology; science of the mind and the sub-conscience.

Cikitsa-vidya-sastra. See CHIKITSA-VIDYA-SASTRA

citta. (T. sems; C. xin; J. shin; K. sim 心). In Sanskrit and PAli, "mind," "mentality," or "thought"; used broadly to refer to general mentality, citta is the factor (DHARMA) that is present during any type of conscious activity. Citta is contrasted with the physical body or materiality (RuPA), and is synonymous in this context with "name" (NAMA), as in the term NAMARuPA. In this sense, citta corresponds to the last four of the five aggregates (SKANDHA), excluding only the first aggregate, of materiality (RuPA), i.e., sensation (VEDANA), perception (SAMJNA), conditioning factors (SAMSKARA), and consciousness (VIJNANA). (Where the correspondences on this list are further refined, the first three of these mentality aggregates correspond to the mental concomitants, viz., CAITTA, while citta is restricted to the last aggregate, that of consciousness, or vijNAna.) Citta in this broad sense is synonymous with both mentality (MANAS) and consciousness (vijNAna): mind is designated as citta because it "builds up" (cinoti) virtuous and nonvirtuous states; as manas, because it calculates and examines; and as vijNAna, because it discriminates among sensory stimuli. Mind as "consciousness" refers to the six consciousnesses (sadvijNAna): the five sensory consciousnesses of the visual (CAKsURVIJNANA), auditory (sROTRAVIJNANA), olfactory (GHRAnAVIJNANA), gustatory (JIHVAVIJNANA), and tactile (KAYAVIJNANA), along with the mental consciousness (MANOVIJNANA). In some strands of MAHAYANA thought, such as YOGACARA, mind is instead considered to encompass not only mentality but all dharmas, and the distinction between mentality and materiality is presumed to be merely nominal; YogAcAra is thus sometimes called the school of CITTAMATRA, or "mind-only." Citta as mentality serves as one of the four foundations of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHANA) in Buddhist meditative training, and refers to various general states of mind, e.g., a mind (citta) that is depressed, distracted, developed, concentrated, or freed. Citta is also used to signify mind itself in distinction to various sets of mental concomitants (caitta) that accompany the basic sensory consciousnesses. The DHAMMASAnGAnI, the first of the seven books of the PAli ABHIDHAMMAPItAKA, classifies citta as the first of a fourfold division of factors into mind (citta), mental concomitants (P. CETASIKA), materiality or form (rupa), and NIRVAnA (P. nibbAna). In this text's treatment, a moment of consciousness (citta) will always arise in association with a variety of associated mental factors (P. cetasika), seven of which are always present during every moment of consciousness: (1) sensory contact or sense impression (P. phassa; S. SPARsA), (2) feeling or sensation (VEDANA), (3) perception or conception (P. saNNA; S. SAMJNA), (4) volition (CETANA), (5) concentration (SAMADHI), (6) vitality (JĪVITA), and (7) attention, viz., the advertence of the mind toward an object (P. manasikAra; S. MANASKARA). The SARVASTIVADA ABHIDHARMA instead divides all dharmas into five groups: mind (citta), mental concomitants (caitta), materiality (rupa), forces dissociated from thought (CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKARA), and the unconditioned (ASAMSKṚTA). In this system, ten specific factors are said universally to accompany all conscious activity and are therefore called "factors of wide extent" or "omnipresent mental factors" (MAHABHuMIKA): (1) sensation (vedanA); (2) volition (cetanA); (3) perception (saMjNA); (4) zeal or "desire-to-act" (CHANDA) (5) sensory contact (sparsa); (6) discernment (mati); (7) mindfulness (SMṚTI); (8) attention (manaskAra); (9) determination (ADHIMOKsA); (10) concentration (samAdhi). According to the system set forth by ASAnGA in his ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, this list is divided into two sets of five: the five omnipresent (SARVATRAGA) mental factors (vedanA, saMjNA, cetanA, sparsa, and manaskAra) and the five determining (pratiniyama) mental factors (chanda, adhimoksa, smṛti, samAdhi, and prajNA). ¶ In the experience of enlightenment (BODHI), the citta is said to be "freed" from the "point of view" that is the self (ATMAN). The citta is then no longer subject to the limitations perpetuated by ignorance (AVIDYA) and craving (TṚsnA) and thus becomes nonmanifesting (because there is no longer any projection of ego into the perceptual process), infinite (because the mind is no longer subject to the limitations of conceptualization), and lustrous (because the ignorance that dulls the mind has been vanquished forever). Scriptural statements attest to this inherent luminosity of the citta, which may be revealed through practice and manifested in enlightenment. For example, in the PAli AnGUTTARANIKAYA, the Buddha says, "the mind, O monks, is luminous" (P. pabhassaraM idaM bhikkhave cittaM). Such statements are the strands from which the MahAyAna subsequently derives such concepts as the inherent quality of buddhahood (BUDDHADHATU; C. FOXING) or the embryo of the TATHAGATAs (TATHAGATAGARBHA) that is said to be innate in the mind.

Culahatthipadopamasutta. (C. Xiangjiyu jing; J. Zoshakuyugyo; K. Sangjogyu kyong 象跡經). In PAli, "Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant's Footprint"; the twenty-seventh sutta in the MAJJHIMANIKAYA (a separate SARVASTIVADA recension appears as the 146th sutra in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMAGAMA), preached by the Buddha to the brAhmana JAnussoni at the JETAVANA grove in the city of SAvatthi (sRAVASTĪ). JAnussoni asks the Buddha whether a person could infer something of the virtues of the Buddha and his teachings in the same way that a hunter can infer the size of an elephant from its footprint. The Buddha responds that the virtues of the Buddha and his teachings could only be fully comprehended by following the teachings oneself until one has attained the final goal of NIRVAnA; this is just as with a hunter, who can only truly know the size of an elephant by following its tracks and seeing it directly at its watering hole. The Buddha then provides a systematic outline of his path of training, from morality (sīla, S. sĪLA), through the four meditative absorptions (jhAna; S. DHYANA), to the three higher knowledges (tevijjA; S. TRIVIDYA).

cyutyupapattijNAna. [alt. cyutyupapAdAnusmṛti] (P. cutupapAtaNAna; T. 'chi 'pho ba dang skye ba rjes su dran pa; C. shengsizhi; J. shojichi; K. saengsaji 生死智). In Sanskrit, lit., "recollection of the disappearance [in one life] and rebirth [in another]," viz., "insight into the future rebirth destinies" of all other beings, a by-product of the "divine eye" (DIVYACAKsUS), or clairvoyance, and the second of the "three knowledges" (TRIVIDYA). This recollection comes as a by-product of the enlightenment experience of a "worthy one" (ARHAT), and is an insight achieved by the Buddha during the second watch of the night of his own enlightenment. Through his enlightenment, the adept realizes not only that himself and all beings have been governed by the association between past actions (KARMAN) and their fruitions (VIPAKA) throughout all their past lives; but through this insight, he also realizes that all other beings continue to be governed by their actions, and he is able to observe where beings will be reborn in the future as well. Specifically, one who possesses this insight sees the disappearance and arising of beings as low or noble, beautiful or ugly, etc., according to their good and evil deeds (KARMAN) performed through body, speech, and mind. Those who revile the noble ones (ARYAPUDGALA), hold perverse views (MITHYADṚstI), and act in accordance with perverse views are observed to be reborn in lower realms of existence, e.g., in baleful destinies (APAYA; DURGATI) such as the hells. Those who honor the noble ones, hold right views, and act in accordance with right views are observed to be reborn in higher realms of existence, e.g., in pleasant destinies such as the heavens. This ability is also listed as one of the superknowledges (ABHIJNA).

dahara vidya. :::contemplation of the deity in the cavity of the Heart

Dehavidya: Physiology.

Every true Mason is in search of the Lost Word, the secret knowledge or gupta-vidya, yet the lost secrets of the Royal Art can never be communicated to, because they cannot be comprehended by, one who does not recognize and in degree at least realize his own inner divinity, the immanent christos or buddha within, which is his true self; i.e., through initiation become, actually and in fact, a Christos, an Osiris, a Hiram Abif. Every degree of initiation into the Mysteries has its secrets, its Word, its sacred formula, which may be communicated only to those who, according to Masonic ritual “are duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified,” else the penalty is death to the one so revealing the Word or secrets.

Falsehood ::: not Ignorance (Avidya), but an extreme result of it. Falsehood is created by an Asuric power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power puts forth its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its willful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. Whenever these perversions created out of the stuff of ignorance are put forward as the Truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the yogic sense.

…for since the nature of the Knowledge is to find the Truth and the fundamental Truth is the One, —the Veda speaks repeatedly of it as "That Truth" and "That One",—Vidya, Knowledge in its highest spiritual sense, came to mean purely and trenchantly the knowledge of the One.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 508


Gayatrividya: The process of meditation taking Gayatri as the symbol of Brahman.

Gnosis (Greek) [cf Sanskrit jnana knowledge] Knowledge; used by Plato and the Neoplatonists to signify the divine knowledge (gupta-vidya) attained through initiation; and means for the student the active penetration into and going beyond the veils of mind, by which process a true vision of reality is to be obtained.

Guhya-vidya (Sanskrit) Guhyavidyā [from guhya secret from the verbal root guh to conceal, keep secret + vidyā knowledge, wisdom.] Secret knowledge, esoteric wisdom; in India, especially, the esoteric knowledge and science of the mantras and their true rhythm in chanting. Equivalent in grammatical meaning to gupta-vidya.

Gupta Vidya: Sanskrit for esoteric knowledge.

Gupta-vidya (Sanskrit) Gupta-vidyā [from gupta from the verbal root gup to conceal, preserve + vidyā knowledge, wisdom] Secret knowledge, secret wisdom; the source of all religions and philosophies known to the world: theosophy, the ancient wisdom-religion, the esoteric philosophy. See also THEOSOPHY

Hridayagranthi: The knot of the heart, viz., Avidya, Kama, and Karma.

IGNORANCE. ::: Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life.

This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth.

Sevenfold Ignorance ::: If we look at this Ignorance in which ordinarily we live by the very circumstance of our separative existence in a material, ip a spatial and temporal universe, wc see that on its obscurer side it reduces itself, from whatever direction we look at or approach it, into the fact of a many- sided self-ignorance. We are Ignorant of the Absolute which is the source of all being and becoming ; we take partial facts of being, temporal relations of the becoming for the whole truth of existence — that is the first, the original ignorance. We are ignorant of the spaceless, timeless, immobile and immutable Self ; we take the constant mobility and mutation of the cosmic becom- ing in Time and Space for the whole truth of existence — that is the second, the cosmic ignorance. We are ignorant of our universal self, the cosmic existence, the cosmic consciousness, our infinite unity with all being and becoming ; we take our limited egoistic mentality, vitality, corporeality for our true self and regard everything other than that as not-sclf — that is the tViTid, \Vie egoistic ignorance. V/c aie ignorant of oat eteinai becoming in Time ; we take this Uttle life in a small span of Time, in a petty field of Space for our beginning, our middle and our end, — that is the fourth, the temporal ignorance. Even within this brief temporal becoming we are ignorant of our large and complex being, of that in us which is super-conscient, sub- conscient, intraconscient, circumcooscient to our surface becoming; we take that surface becoming with its small selection of overtly mentalised experiences for our whole existence — that is the fifth, the psychological ignorance. We are ignorant of the true constitution of our becoming ; we take the mind or life or body or any two or all three tor our true principle or the whole account of what we are, losing sight of that which constitutes them and determines by its occult presence and is meant to deter- mine sovereignly by its emergence from their operations, — that is the sixth, the constitutional ignorance. As a result of all these ignorances, we miss the true knowledge, government and enjoy- ment of our life in the world ; we are ignorant in our thought, will, sensations, actions, return wrong or imperfect responses at every point to the questionings of the world, wander in a maze of errors and desires, strivings and failures, pain and pleasure, sin and stumbling, follow a crooked road, grope blindly for a changing goal, — that is the seventh, the practical ignorance.


“Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth,—truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother

Ignorance (the) ::: Avidya, the Ignorance of oneness; the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life; the consciousness of the divided Many divorced from the unifying knowledge of the One Reality.

ignorance ::: the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information. Ignorance, ignorance"s, Ignorance"s, ignorance", world-ignorance, World-Ignorance.

Sri Aurobindo: "Ignorance is the absence of the divine eye of perception which gives us the sight of the supramental Truth; it is the non-perceiving principle in our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge.” *The Life Divine

"Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine

"Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, — truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother

". . . all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge . . . .”The Life Divine

"This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga

"Knowledge is no doubt the knowledge of the One, the realisation of the Being; Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being, the experience of separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings: . . . .” The Life Divine*


• individual being is subjected to Nature which acts here as the lower Prakriti, a force of Ignorance, Avidya. The Purusha in itself is divine, but exteriorised in the ignorance of Nature it is the individual apparent being imperfect with her imperfection.

In modern theosophy, the seven jewels are given as reimbodiment, karma, hierarchies, svabhava, evolution, the two paths, and atma-vidya (self-knowledge, the One and the many).

In regard to the remarkable achievements that the Atlanteans made in all the arts and sciences, we read that the early fifth root-race received their knowledge from the fourth root-race. “It is from them that they learnt aeronautics, Viwan Vidya [vimana-vidya] (the ‘knowledge of flying in air-vehicles’), and, therefore, their great arts of meteorography and meteorology. It is from them, again, that the Aryans inherited their most valuable science of the hidden virtues of precious and other stones, of chemistry, or rather alchemy, of mineralogy, geology, physics and astronomy” (SD 2:426).

In Vedantic philosophy, the projecting power of maya or avidya, the mental activity which brings upon the mirror of the soul enveloping illusions producing the apparently real appearance of an external world.

  “It is this vibratory Force, which, when aimed at an army from an Agni Rath fixed on a flying vessel, a balloon, according to the instructions found in Ashtar Vidya, reduced to ashes 100,000 men and elephants, as easily as it would a dead rat. It is allegorised in the Vishnu Purana, in the fable about the sage Kapila whose glance made a mountain of ashes of King Sagara’s 60,000 sons, and which is explained in the esoteric works, and referred to as the Kapilaksha — ‘Kapila’s Eye’ ” (SD 1:563).

Jewels of Wisdom, The Seven Theosophical term for seven fundamental teachings explanatory of the universe, its structure, laws, and operations. As enumerated with their Sanskrit names, they are: 1) reimbodiment (punarjanman); 2) the doctrine of consequences, results, or of causes and effects (karma); 3) hierarchies (lokas and talas); 4) individual characteristics involving self-generation or self-becoming (svabhava); 5) evolution and involution (pravritti and nivritti); 6) the two paths (amritayana and pratyekayana); and 7) the knowledge of the divine self and how the One becomes the many (atma-vidya).

Jnana and vidya are closely similar, with perhaps the suggestion of intuitive intellectual cognizance expressed in jnana, and a more active and individualized activity expressed by vidya. Either word can stand for knowledge or wisdom; in theosophy jnana is often translated as innate or intuitive knowledge, and vidya as reflective or stored-up cognizance of intellectual and other values, or wisdom, though these distinctions are somewhat arbitrary. See also JHANA

Jnana-vidya (Sanskrit) Jñāna-vidyā [from jñāna knoweldge + vidyā wisdom] Equivalent to Brahma-vidya or theosophy, the wisdom-tradition or gnosis. (BCW 11:271)

Karanopadhi(Sanskrit) ::: A compound meaning the "causal instrument" or "instrumental cause" in the long series ofreimbodiments to which human and other reimbodying entities are subject. Upadhi, the second elementof this compound, is often translated as "vehicle"; but while this definition is accurate enough for popularpurposes, it fails to set forth the essential meaning of the word which is rather "disguise," or certainnatural properties or constitutional characteristics supposed to be the disguises or clothings or masks inand through which the spiritual monad of man works, bringing about the repetitive manifestations uponearth of certain functions and powers of this monad, and, indeed, upon the other globes of the planetarychain; and, furthermore, intimately connected with the peregrinations of the monad through the variousspheres and realms of the solar kosmos. In one sense of the word, therefore, karanopadhi is almostinterchangeable with the thoughts set forth under the term maya, or the illusory disguises through whichspirit works, or rather through which spiritual monadic entities work and manifest themselves.Karanopadhi, as briefly explained under the term "causal body," is dual in meaning. The first and moreeasily understood meaning of this term shows that the cause bringing about reimbodiment is avidya,nescience rather than ignorance; because when a reimbodying entity through repeated reimbodiments inthe spheres of matter has freed itself from the entangling chains of the latter, and has risen intoself-conscious recognition of its own divine powers, it thereby shakes off the chains or disguises of mayaand becomes what is called a jivanmukta. It is only imperfect souls, or rather monadic souls, speaking ina general way, which are obliged by nature's cyclic operations and laws to undergo the repetitivereimbodiments on earth and elsewhere in order that the lessons of self-conquest and mastery over all theplanes of nature may be achieved. As the entity advances in wisdom and knowledge, and in the acquiringof self-conscious sympathy for all that is, in other words, as it grows more and more like unto itsdivine-spiritual counterpart, the less is it subject to avidya. It is, in a sense, the seeds of kama-manas leftin the fabric or being of the reincarnating entity, which act as the karana or reproducing cause, orinstrumental cause, of such entity's reincarnations on earth.The higher karanopadhi, however, although in operation similar to the lower karanopadhi, orkarana-sarira just described, nevertheless belongs to the spiritual-intellectual part of man's constitution,and is the reproductive energy inherent in the spiritual monad bringing about its re-emergence after thesolar pralaya into the new activities and new series of imbodiments which open with the dawn of thesolar manvantara following upon the solar pralaya just ended. This latter karanopadhi or karana-sarira,therefore, is directly related to the element-principle in man's constitution called buddhi -- a veil, as itwere, drawn over the face or around the being of the monadic essence, much as prakriti surroundsPurusha, or pradhana surrounds Brahman, or mulaprakriti surrounds and is the veil or disguise or sakti ofparabrahman. Hence, in the case of man, this karanopadhi or causal disguise or vehicle corresponds in ageneral way to the buddhi-manas, or spiritual soul, in which the spiritual monad works and manifestsitself.It should be said in passing that the doctrine concerning the functions and operations of buddhi in thehuman constitution is extremely recondite, because in buddhi lie the causal impulses or urges bringingabout the building of the constitution of man, and which, when the latter is completed, and when formingman as a septenary entity, express themselves as the various strata or qualities of the auric egg.Finally, the karana-sarira, the karanopadhi or causal body, is the vehicular instrumental form orinstrumental body-form, produced by the working of what is perhaps the most mysterious principle orelement, mystically speaking, in the constitution not only of man, but of the universe -- the verymysterious spiritual bija.The karanopadhi, the karana-sarira or causal body, is explained with minor differences of meaning invarious works of Hindu philosophy; but all such works must be studied with the light thrown upon themby the great wisdom-teaching of the archaic ages, esoteric theosophy. The student otherwise runs everyrisk of being led astray.I might add that the sushupti state or condition, which is that of deep dreamless sleep, involving entireinsensibility of the human consciousness to all exterior impressions, is a phase of consciousness throughwhich the adept must pass, although consciously pass in his case, before reaching the highest state ofsamadhi, which is the turiya state. According to the Vedanta philosophy, the turiya (meaning "fourth") isthe fourth state of consciousness into which the full adept can self-consciously enter and wherein hebecomes one with the kosmic Brahman. The Vedantists likewise speak of the anandamaya-kosa, whichthey describe as being the innermost disguise or frame or vehicle surrounding the atmic consciousness.Thus we see that the anandamaya-kosa and the karana-sarira, or karanopadhi, and the buddhi inconjunction with the manasic ego, are virtually identical.The author has been at some pains to set forth and briefly to develop the various phases of occult andesoteric theosophical thought given in this article, because of the many and various misunderstandingsand misconceptions concerning the nature, characteristics, and functions of the karana-sarira or causalbody.

Klesa (Sanskrit) Kleśa [from the verbal root kliś to molest, torment, suffer] Pain, suffering, involving nevertheless love of physical existence. Philosophically, the love of life, the cleaving to existence, the love of pleasure or of worldly enjoyment, evil or good. In the Yoga philosophy there are five klesa-karins (causes of pain): avidya (ignorance or nescience); asmita (egoism); raga (passion); dvesha (hatred); and abhinevesa (attachment, devotion).

Kshatriyavidya: Military science of the warrior-caste.

Lesa-avidya: Trace of ignorance.

Madhuvidya: The process of meditation on Brahman taking the sun (honey) as a symbol of Brahman.

Magic, Magician [from Persian magus a wise man, great; cf magi] The great art; a knowledge of the mysteries of nature and the power to apply them. In its true sense it is gupta-vidya (divine knowledge), the aim of those who tread the path of wisdom; but in ages of decline its chief secrets are withdrawn from public access, and what remains passes through transformations and gradually degenerates.

Mahavidya (Sanskrit) Mahāvidyā [from mahā great + vidyā knowledge] The great knowledge, magic knowledge “now degenerated into Tantrika worship” (SD 1:169). This great esoteric science is possessed in its relative fullness by the highest initiates alone, as it embraces almost universal wisdom.

Malinasattva: Impure Sattva; nescience; Avidya in the individual.

Marma (Skt.): A term used in the tan tras to indicate the site of a power-zone in the human body. In the secret science of Sri Vidya such a site is indicated on the Sri Yantra at the intersection of three ormore lines.

Mula-avidya: Same as Mula-ajnana.

Multiplicity is the play or varied self-expansion of the One, shifting in its terms, divisible in its view of itself, by force of which the One occupies many centres of consciousness, inhabits many formations of energy in the universal Movement. Multiplicity is implicit or explicit in unity. Without it the Unity would be either a void of non-existence or a powerless, sterile limitation to the state of indiscriminate self-absorption or of blank repose. But the consciousness of multiplicity separated from the true knowledge in the many of their own essential oneness,—the view-point of the separate ego identifying itself with the divided form and the limited action,—is a state of error and delusion. In man this is the form taken by the consciousness of multiplicity. Th
   refore it is given the name of Avidya, the Ignorance.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 17, Page: 51-52


na abhavo vidyate satah ::: that which (really) is cannot go out of existence. [Gita 2.16]

Nakshatravidya: The science of stars; astronomy.

nanyah pantha vidyateyanaya ::: there is no other road for the great passage. [Svet. 3.8; 6.15]

Nidana (Sanskrit) Nidāna [from ni down, into + the verbal root dā to bind] That which binds, to earth or to existence, philosophically speaking. Originally meaning bond, rope, halter — that which binds. From this arose the implication of binding cause, or bonds of causation, and hence in Buddhist philosophy it signifies cause of existence, the concatenation of cause and effect. The twelve nidanas given as the chief causes are: 1) jati (birth) according to one of the chatur-yoni, the four modes of entering incarnation, each mode placing the being in one of the six gatis; 2) jara-marana (decrepitude) and death, following the maturity of the skandhas; 3) bhava, which leads every sentient being to be born in this or another mode of existence in the trailokya and gatis; 4) upadana, the creative cause of bhava which thus becomes the cause of jati, and this creative cause is the clinging to life; 5) trishna (thirst for life, love, attachment); 6) vedana (sensation) perception by the senses, the fifth skandha; 7) sparsa (the sense of touch) contact of any kind, whether mental or physical; 8) shadayatana (the organs of sensation) the inner or mental astral seats of the organs of sense; 9) nama-rupa (name-form, personality, a form with a name to it) the symbol of the unreality of material phenomenal appearances; 10) vijnana, the perfect knowledge of every perceptible thing and of all objects in their concatenation and unity; 11) samskara, action on the plane of illusion; and 12) avidya (nescience, ignorance) lack of true perception.

night ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Night is the symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which men live just as Light is the symbol of Truth and Knowledge.” *Letters on Yoga
"In the way that one treads with the greater Light above, even every difficulty gives its help and has its value and Night itself carries in it the burden of the Light that has to be.” Letters on Yoga **Night, Night"s.


Night ::: Symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which men live.

Night ::: “The Night is the symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which men live just as Light is the symbol of Truth and Knowledge.” Letters on Yoga

Occult Arts Blavatsky in “Occultism versus the Occult Arts” (Studies in Occultism), distinguishes between occultism (gupta-vidya, the path of wisdom) and occult arts (evil occultism, sorcery, black magic, spells, incantations, etc.). While true occultism completely renounces self, the occult arts are practiced with selfish motives or from love of evil. Even where there is no sinister motive in one who ventures upon the occult arts, yet he enters a field where danger and destruction threaten unless he is protected by a training in true occultism. He will arouse in himself forces with which he cannot cope, open doors which later he seeks in vain to close, and put himself at the mercy of evil wills probably stronger than his own.

Panchagnividya: Science of five fires; esoteric explanation of five processes of sacrifices. (See Chhandogya Upanishad).

parardha ::: "the upper half of world-existence", consisting of the parardha worlds of saccidananda linked by vijñana to the aparardha or lower . hemisphere of mind, life and matter, "an upper hemisphere of manifestation based on the Spirit"s eternal self-knowledge" (vidya). para par a sakti

paratpara ::: higher than the highest; supreme; "the supreme of the paratpara Supreme". para par a vidy vidya

Paravidya: Higher knowledge; direct knowledge of Brahman.

para vidya ::: the higher knowledge; the knowledge of the brahman in Himself.

parikalpitāvidyā. (T. kun btags ma rig pa; C. fenbie wuming; J. funbetsumumyo; K. punbyol mumyong 分別無明). In Sanskrit, "imaginary" or "artificial ignorance"; the form of ignorance that derives from the study and adoption of mistaken philosophical views during the present lifetime of a human being. It is thus more superficial and more easily overcome than the "innate ignorance" (SAHAJĀVIDYA) that is accumulated over the course of many lifetimes. Because of its more superficial nature, imaginary ignorance is not cited as the cause of cyclical existence; rebirth is instead said to be caused by innate ignorance. Imaginary ignorance is, however, understood to be the cause of the multitude of wrong views (MITHYĀDṚstI) regarding the nature of the self.

prakr.ti (prakriti) ::: nature; "the active force of Nature which by its prakrti motion creates and maintains and by its sinking into rest dissolves the phenomenon of the cosmos"; the universal energy acting for the enjoyment of the purus.a on all the planes of being; the "outer or executive side" of the sakti or Conscious Force of the isvara, working in the Ignorance (avidya) as the lower or apara prakr.ti and in the Knowledge (vidya) as the higher or para prakr.ti.

Raga (Sanskrit) Rāga Desire, passion, love, affection; in Patanjali’s Yoga philosophy the five klesas (afflictions) are named: avidya (ignorance), asmita (egoism), raga (desire), dvesha (aversion), and abhinivesa (tenacity of mundane existence).

Rāma V. (Chulalongkorn) (1853-1910). Thai monarch revered for his efforts to modernize the country; credited with moving Thailand into the modern age and maintaining close relations with the European colonial powers, while protecting the independence of his kingdom. He was known in Thai as the Royal Buddha ("Phra Phutta Jao Luang"). Like his father, RĀMA IV, he was a strong patron of Buddhism. In 1893, he had the Pāli tipitaka (S. TRIPItAKA) published in thirty-nine volumes and distributed to five hundred monasteries of the kingdom. This was the first time that a Buddhist canon had been printed in codex form. In 1895, he sent sets to 260 academic institutions and libraries around the world. Rāma V founded both of Thailand's public Buddhist universities, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya (affiliated with the MAHANIKAI fraternity) and Mahamakut Buddhist University (affiliated with the THAMMAYUT fraternity), in 1887 and 1893, respectively. Since the late 1980s, Rāma V has been the object of popular devotion. Books, portraits, amulets, and chanting of khatha (magic formulae) are among the manifestations of this reverence, which culminates on Chulalongkorn Day (October 23), a national holiday commemorating the monarch's death.

Rohanee (Arabic) Rūhānī. Used by the modern Sufis, in some senses equivalent to the Sanskrit gupta-vidya (secret knowledge); “the Magic of modern Egypt, supposed to proceed from Angels and Spirits, that is Genii, and by the use of the mystery names of Allah; they distinguish two forms — Ilwee, that is the Higher or White Magic; and Suflee and Sheytanee, the Lower or Black Demoniac Magic. There is also Es-Seemuja, which is deception or conjuring. Opinions differ as to the importance of a branch of Magic called Darb el Mendel, or as Barker calls it in English, the Mendal: by this is meant a form of artificial clairvoyance, exhibited by a young boy before puberty, or a virgin, who, as the result of self-fascination by gazing on a pool of ink in the hand, with coincident use of incense and incantation, sees certain scenes of real life passing over its surface” (TG 280).

Sandhya (Skt.): In the secret science of the Kalas (Kala Vidya), the Sandhya'denotes a crossing or intersection of two lines on the Sri Yantra (or Sri Chakra). In orthodox Hinduism, the Sandhya refers to the times of dawn and dusk, the junctures or divisions between light and darkness.

Sandilya-vidya: The process of meditation on Brahman as the ideal effulgent indwelling spirit in its all-pervading aspect.

Sarpadevajanavidya: The science of snake-charming and fire arts.

Seer In its highest sense, one who discerns truths clearly by the use of the real inner vision, the Eye of Siva; who can see throughout the ranges of space and time belonging to a universe — not barring intuitions of the spaces and times of other surrounding universes. But it is also used for a number of varying degrees of ability to see clairvoyantly in the astral light. Swedenborg is sometimes called a seer, which he was in small degree, but because he was untrained, what he saw was mainly peculiar to himself, as is the case with seers of the same class. Instructions for aspirants to wisdom are replete with warnings as to the manifold dangers and deceptions of the astral light, and the obstacles thrown up by the unpurified and undisciplined nature of the disciple. The ability to become a true spiritual seer using the inner eye, means the fruits of many lives of aspiration and training, involving the successful passing of many trials and initiations. The science called gupta-vidya is due to the collaboration and teaching of real seers, whose trained faculties enable them to have direct vision of actualities.

Shodasi: A particular aspect of Goddess conceived of in a sixteen year old maiden; the Brahmavidya of the Saktas, consisting of 16 letters; a modification of the Agnistoma sacrifice.

Sri Aurobindo: "Unity is the eternal and fundamental fact, without which all multiplicity would be an unreal and an impossible illusion. The consciousness of Unity is therefore called Vidya, the Knowledge.” *The Upanishads

Sthula-avidya: Gross ignorance that envelopes all objects.

Taraka (Sanskrit) Tāraka The daitya or giant-demon whose yoga austerities were so extraordinary that he had obtained all the divine knowledge of yoga-vidya and occult powers. The gods feared his superhuman powers and Skanda or Karttikeya, the god of war, was miraculously born to destroy him.

Tchikitsa Vidya Shastra. See CHIKITSA-VIDYA-SASTRA

Ten-brel Chug-nyi (Tibetan) rTen-hBrel hchu-gnis. In philosophy, the twelve interdependent contributories to the origination of all phenomena, equivalent to the Sanskrit nidanas. As each one of these twelve originants or causes is dependent upon its predecessor, from which it is emanated, owing to a process of reaction the predecessor is karmically also dependent for its manifestation on its successor, and thus the twelve are not simultaneous in origination but occur in a certain regular sequence; because of this inseparable interdependence they also of necessity coordinate in action. They are rendered in the Pratitya-samutpada as: 1) ma-rig-pa (Sanskrit avidya) nonwisdom; 2) hDu-bYed (Sanskrit samskara) aggregative forces; 3) rNam-Ches (Sanskrit vijnana) will, consciousness; 4) rMin-gZugs (Sanskrit nama-rupa) name-form; 5) Skye-mched (Sanskrit shadayatana) the six sense organs; 6) sparsa (Sanskrit sparsa) contact (for mind or senses); 7) tShor-ba (Sanskrit vedana) feeling; 8) sRed-pa (Sanskrit trishna) desire, thirst; 9) len-pa (Sanskrit upadana) sensual enthrallment; 10) sird-pa (Sanskrit bhava) being; 11) che-ba (Sanskrit jati) birth; and 12) rGa (Sanskrit jaramarana) old age and death.

"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

  “The double triangle — the Satkiri Chakram of Vishnu — or the six-pointed star, is the perfect seven. In all the old Sanskrit works — Vedic and Tantrik — you find the number 6 mentioned more often than the 7 — this last figure, the central point being implied, for it is the germ of the six and their matrix. . . . the central point standing for seventh, and the circle, the Mahakasha — endless space — for the seventh Universal Principle. In one sense, both are viewed as Avalokitesvara, for they are respectively the Macrocosm and the microcosm. The interlaced triangles — the upper pointing one — is Wisdom concealed, and the downward pointing one — Wisdom revealed (in the phenomenal world). The circle indicates the bounding, circumscribing quality of the All, the Universal Principle which, from any given point expands so as to embrace all things, while embodying the potentiality of every action in the Cosmos. As the point then is the centre round which the circle is traced — they are identical and one, and though from the standpoint of Maya and Avidya — (illusion and ignorance) — one is separated from the other by the manifested triangle, the 3 sides of which represent the three gunas — finite attributes. In symbology the central point is Jivatma (the 7th principle), and hence Avalokitesvara, the Kwan-Shai-yin, the manifested ‘Voice’ (or Logos), the germ point of manifested activity; — hence — in the phraseology of the Christian Kabalists ‘the Son of the Father and Mother,’ and agreeably to ours — ‘the Self manifested in Self’ — Yih-sin, the ‘one form of existence,’ the child of Dharmakaya (the universally diffused Essence), both male and female. Parabrahm or ‘Adi-Buddha’ while acting through that germ point outwardly as an active force, reacts from the circumference inwardly as the Supreme but latent Potency. The double triangles symbolize the Great Passive and the Great Active; the male and female; Purusha and Prakriti. Each triangle is a Trinity because presenting a triple aspect. The white represents in its straight lines: Gnanam — (Knowledge); Gnata — (the Knower); and Gnayam — (that which is known). The black — form, colour, and substance, also the creative, preservative, and destructive forces and are mutually correlating . . .” (ML 345-6).

Their name is not given to them because they are the possessors of cosmic wisdom, since these vidya-dharas are hierarchical ranges below the gods who are the holders of cosmic wisdom; but they are called the possessors of at least a certain portion of the instinctive or innate magical knowledge of the realms of maya, and for this reason have always been looked upon as among the most dangerous and misleading beings in the multifarious interacting hierarchies of the universe. They are, in fact, a species of semi-intelligent, or in their higher grades intelligent, cosmic elementals or genii, and may be either beneficent or highly maleficent to mankind, depending upon mankind’s innate strength of resistance or innate weakness to impressions received from them.

The lower karanopadhi or cause bringing about reimbodiment is avidya (nescience). When a reimbodying entity through repeated reimbodiments in material spheres rises into self-conscious recognition of its own divine powers, it shakes off the disguises of maya and becomes a jivanmukta. As an entity grows more and more like its divine-spiritual counterpart, it is less subject to avidya. “It is, in a sense, the seeds of Kama-manas left in the fabric or being of the reincarnating entity, which act as the karana or reproducing cause, or instrumental cause, of such entity’s reincarnations on earth” (OG 78).

  “the personification of the powers of one initiated into Gupta Vidya (secret knowledge) . . .

  ” ‘The Yajna,’ say the Brahmans, ‘exists from eternity, for it proceeded from the Supreme, in whom it lay dormant from no beginning.’ It is the key to the Trai-Vidya, the thrice sacred science contained in the Rig-Veda verses, which teaches the Yajna or sacrificial mysteries. As Haug states in his Introduction to the Aitareya Brahmana — the Yajna exists as an invisible presence at all times, extending from the Ahavaniya or sacrificial fire to the heavens, forming a bridge or ladder by means of which the sacrificer can communicate with the world of devas, ‘and even ascend when alive to their abodes.’ It is one of the forms of Akasa, within which the mystic Word (or its underlying ‘Sound’) calls it into existence. Pronounced by the Priest-Initiate or Yogi, this Word receives creative powers, and is communicated as an impulse on the terrestrial plane through a trained Will-power” (TG 375).

.. this being we are is or can be whatever it has the faith and will to be – for faith is only will aiming at a higher truth – and cease to set limits to our possibility… - Sri Aurobindo ::: .Falsehood ::: Falsehood, on the other hand, is not this Avidya, but an extreme result of it. It is created by an Asuric power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from the Truth and th
   refore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power, the dark Asuric Shakti or Rakshasic Maya, puts forward its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its wilful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. It is the powers and personalities of this perverted and perverting consciousness that we call hostile beings, hostile forces. Whenever these perversions created by them out of the stuff of the Ignorance are put forward as the truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the Yogic sense, mithya, moha.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 103


Though sometimes used as an equivalent for avidya, maya is properly applicable only to prakriti, which is doomed to disappear at the time of pralaya. It is thus prakriti and its productions or changes (vikaras) which, by reacting against the operations of the consciousness of a perceiving being, casts the perceiver into the bonds of illusions, out of which the deluded being has to strive in order to free himself from the maya with which he is surrounded.

traividya

traividya. (S). See TRIVIDYĀ.

Trividya (Sanskrit) Trividyā [from tri three + vidyā knowledge, science] The three knowledges or sciences; the three fundamental axioms in mysticism: “(a) the impermanency of all existence, or Anityata; (b) suffering and misery of all that lives and is, or Dukha [duhkhata]; and (c) all physical, objective existence as evanescent and unreal as a water-bubble in a dream, or Anatmata” (TG 344).

Truth ; and, if you allow pride and arrogance and ostentation of power to creep in and hold you, you will surely fall into error and into the power of rajasic Maya ond Avidya. Our object is not to get powen, but to ascend towards the divine Truth-

Unity and Multiplicity ::: Unity is the eternal and fundamental fact, without which all multiplicity would be unreal and an impossible illusion. The consciousness of Unity is th
   refore called Vidya, the Knowledge.


unity ::: “Unity is the eternal and fundamental fact, without which all multiplicity would be an unreal and an impossible illusion. The consciousness of Unity is therefore called Vidya, the Knowledge.” The Upanishads

Unity ::: Unity is the eternal and fundamental fact, without which all multiplicity would be unreal and an impossible illusion. The consciousness of Unity is th
   refore called Vidya, the Knowledge
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 17, Page: 51


Upadhi: A superimposed thing or attribute that veils and gives a coloured view of the substance beneath it; limiting adjunct; instrument; vehicle; body; a technical term used in Vedanta philosophy for any superimposition that gives a limited view of the Absolute and makes It appear as the relative. Jiva's Upadhi is Avidya; Isvara's Upadhi is Maya.

Vaisvanaravidya: The process of meditation on Brahman, taking the digestive fire of the animal body as the symbol; method of meditation on the Virat.

vidya-avidyamayi maya ::: [maya composed of Knowledge and Ignorance].

vidya avidya ::: the Knowledge and the Ignorance.

vidya-avidya ::: the Knowledge-Ignorance, where vidya, the convidya-avidya sciousness of unity, is subject to the conditions of avidya, the divided consciousness.

vidyadhara ::: a kind of supernatural being with magical power and vidyadhara knowledge (vidya); in the evolutionary scale, a sub-type of the deva type. vidyunman vidyunmandala

vidya. ::: knowledge; both spiritual knowledge and mundane knowledge

vidya ::: knowledge, including the higher and the lower knowledge, vidya para vidya and apara vidya, "the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world"; "the Knowledge of the Oneness", the power by which "the Spirit dwells . . . in the consciousness of unity and identity"; the "science and craft and technique of things", an element of Mahasarasvati bhava.

vidya ::: Knowledge; Knowledge in its highest spiritual sense; the consciousness of Unity cf. avidya.

VIDYA. ::: Knowledge ; the consciousness of Unity.

vidyamaya ::: [the maya of the Knowledge].

vidya ::: the lower knowledge; the knowledge of the world, "the lower science which diffuses itself in an outward knowledge of phenomena, the disguises of the One and Infinite as it appears to us in or through the more exterior forms of the world-manifestation around us".

Wat Mahathat. In Thai, "Monastery of the Great Relic" (P. Mahādhātu); the abbreviated name of several important Thai monasteries. ¶ Wat Mahathat in the ancient Thai capital of AYUTHAYA was constructed in 1374 and served as the seat of the SAnGHARĀJA of the Kamavasi (P. Gāmavāsi, lit. "city-dweller") sect. The temple complex was expanded and restored several times before the city was sacked by the Burmese in 1767; it remains in ruins. Excavations in 1956 unearthed relics. ¶ Wat Phra Mahathat Woromaha Vihan (P. Mahādhātuvaramahāvihāra), located in Nakhon Si Thammarat and thus also known as WAT PHRA THAT NAKHON SI THAMMARAT, was founded c. 757 CE and was originally a sRĪVIJAYA MAHĀYĀNA Buddhist monastery. Its famous STuPA, modeled on the MAHĀTHuPA in Sri Lanka, was built in the early thirteenth century to house a tooth relic of the Buddha brought back from the island. ¶ The best-known of the contemporary wats with this name, Wat Mahathat Yuwaraja Rangsarit Raja Woramaha Wihan (P. Mahādhātuyuvarāja [Thai, Rangsarit] Rājavaramāhavihāra), dates from the Ayuthaya period (when it was called Wat Salak), and was named the relic temple for Bangkok in 1803. Because of its location near the palaces, it has often been used for royal ceremonies. Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya, Thailand's largest Buddhist university, was located on its grounds until 2008, when the main campus was moved to Wangnoi, Ayuthaya.

Wisdom. See ATMA-VIDYA; BODHI; HOCHMAH; SOPHIA, ETC.

Yajna-vidya (Sanskrit) Yajña-vidyā [from yajña sacrifice + vidyā knowledge] The knowledge or science of sacrificial rites. These religious rites are performed by the Brahmins to produce certain results, although the esoteric significance of the true yajna has been lost sight of. The four vidyas are yajna-vidya, maha-vidya (the great magic knowledge, now degenerated into Tantric worship), guhya-vidya (the science of mantras, etc.), and atma-vidya (true spiritual and divine wisdom), the last of which contains the keys to the other three.

Yantra (Skt.): The linear form of a mantra or Divine Name of which the most complete example is the famous Sri Yantra (sometimes called Sri Chakra), the diagrammatical represen tation of the Primordial Energy (Sakti). The Sri Yantra con stitutes the basis of Sri Vidya, the secret science of the Kalas or mystical vibrations that emanate from the suvasini chosen to fulfil the role of the Goddess in the Tantric Ritual of the Sri Chakra.

Yoga Vidya (Sanskrit) Yoga vidyā [from yoga union + vidyā knowledge, science] Spiritual knowledge, the attaining of liberation, moksha, or initiation. Practically identical with jnana-vidya.



QUOTES [7 / 7 - 42 / 42]


KEYS (10k)

   4 Sri Ramakrishna
   2 Sri Aurobindo
   1 Swami Vivekananda

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

   26 Vidya Balan
   2 Sri Aurobindo
   2 Robert Svoboda
   2 Mahatma Gandhi

1:Work Purifies the heart and so leads to Vidya (wisdom). ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VII. 39),
2:By doing the right thing one may take refuge in Vidya-Maya (sattva) and by Vidya-Maya one may reach God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna,
3:Maya is of two kinds, one leading towards God, Vidya-Maya, the other leading away from God, Avidya-Maya. ~ Sri Ramakrishna,
4:The ego of the servant, the ego of the worshiper, and the ego of wisdom, vidya -- these are all names of the ripe ego. ~ Sri Ramakrishna,
5:The divine Maya comprehends Vidya as well as Avidya, the Knowledge as well as the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Mind and Supermind,
6:Jnanaprakasha:: Jnana includes both the Para and the Apara Vidya, the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world; but the Yogin, reversing the order of the worldly mind, seeks to know Brahman first and through Brahman the world. Scientific knowledge, worldly information & instruction are to him secondary objects, not as it is with the ordinary scholar & scientist, his primary aim. Nevertheless these too we must take into our scope and give room to God's full joy in the world. The methods of the Yogin are also different for he tends more and more to the use of direct vision and the faculties of the vijnana and less and less to intellectual means. The ordinary man studies the object from outside and infers its inner nature from the results of his external study. The Yogin seeks to get inside his object, know it from within & use external study only as a means of confirming his view of the outward action resulting from an already known inner nature.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Record Of Yoga - I,
7:64 Arts
   1. Geet vidya: art of singing.
   2. Vadya vidya: art of playing on musical instruments.
   3. Nritya vidya: art of dancing.
   4. Natya vidya: art of theatricals.
   5. Alekhya vidya: art of painting.
   6. Viseshakacchedya vidya: art of painting the face and body with color
   7. Tandula­kusuma­bali­vikara: art of preparing offerings from rice and flowers.
   8. Pushpastarana: art of making a covering of flowers for a bed.
   9. Dasana­vasananga­raga: art of applying preparations for cleansing the teeth, cloths and painting the body.
   10. Mani­bhumika­karma: art of making the groundwork of jewels.
   11. Aayya­racana: art of covering the bed.
   12. Udaka­vadya: art of playing on music in water.
   13. Udaka­ghata: art of splashing with water.
   14. Citra­yoga: art of practically applying an admixture of colors.
   15. Malya­grathana­vikalpa: art of designing a preparation of wreaths.
   16. Sekharapida­yojana: art of practically setting the coronet on the head.
   17. Nepathya­yoga: art of practically dressing in the tiring room.
   18. Karnapatra­bhanga: art of decorating the tragus of the ear.
   19. Sugandha­yukti: art of practical application of aromatics.
   20. Bhushana­yojana: art of applying or setting ornaments.
   21. Aindra­jala: art of juggling.
   22. Kaucumara: a kind of art.
   23. Hasta­laghava: art of sleight of hand.
   24. Citra­sakapupa­bhakshya­vikara­kriya: art of preparing varieties of delicious food.
   25. Panaka­rasa­ragasava­yojana: art of practically preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts with red color.
   26. Suci­vaya­karma: art of needleworks and weaving.
   27. Sutra­krida: art of playing with thread.
   28. Vina­damuraka­vadya: art of playing on lute and small drum.
   29. Prahelika: art of making and solving riddles.
   30. Durvacaka­yoga: art of practicing language difficult to be answered by others.
   31. Pustaka­vacana: art of reciting books.
   32. Natikakhyayika­darsana: art of enacting short plays and anecdotes.
   33. Kavya­samasya­purana: art of solving enigmatic verses.
   34. Pattika­vetra­bana­vikalpa: art of designing preparation of shield, cane and arrows.
   35. Tarku­karma: art of spinning by spindle.
   36. Takshana: art of carpentry.
   37. Vastu­vidya: art of engineering.
   38. Raupya­ratna­pariksha: art of testing silver and jewels.
   39. Dhatu­vada: art of metallurgy.
   40. Mani­raga jnana: art of tinging jewels.
   41. Akara jnana: art of mineralogy.
   42. Vrikshayur­veda­yoga: art of practicing medicine or medical treatment, by herbs.
   43. Mesha­kukkuta­lavaka­yuddha­vidhi: art of knowing the mode of fighting of lambs, cocks and birds.
   44. Suka­sarika­pralapana: art of maintaining or knowing conversation between male and female cockatoos.
   45. Utsadana: art of healing or cleaning a person with perfumes.
   46. Kesa­marjana­kausala: art of combing hair.
   47. Akshara­mushtika­kathana: art of talking with fingers.
   48. Dharana­matrika: art of the use of amulets.
   49. Desa­bhasha­jnana: art of knowing provincial dialects.
   50. Nirmiti­jnana: art of knowing prediction by heavenly voice.
   51. Yantra­matrika: art of mechanics.
   52. Mlecchita­kutarka­vikalpa: art of fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry.
   53. Samvacya: art of conversation.
   54. Manasi kavya­kriya: art of composing verse
   55. Kriya­vikalpa: art of designing a literary work or a medical remedy.
   56. Chalitaka­yoga: art of practicing as a builder of shrines called after him.
   57. Abhidhana­kosha­cchando­jnana: art of the use of lexicography and meters.
   58. Vastra­gopana: art of concealment of cloths.
   59. Dyuta­visesha: art of knowing specific gambling.
   60. Akarsha­krida: art of playing with dice or magnet.
   61. Balaka­kridanaka: art of using children's toys.
   62. Vainayiki vidya: art of enforcing discipline.
   63. Vaijayiki vidya: art of gaining victory.
   64. Vaitaliki vidya: art of awakening master with music at dawn.
   ~ Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger, Sexual Secrets,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:The seeker of God is the real lover of vidya, unchangeable truth; all else is avidya, relative knowledge. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:I could live in a sari; I was born to wear a sari. ~ Vidya Balan,
2:I think a woman should be wholesome, voluptuous and sizzling! ~ Vidya Balan,
3:Work Purifies the heart and so leads to Vidya (wisdom). ~ Swami Vivekananda,
4:I was a happy person before marriage. I'm definitely happier after marriage. ~ Vidya Balan,
5:Marriage is something I'd recommend everyone to try, if you find the right person, of course. ~ Vidya Balan,
6:I don't think I'm competing with anyone. I don't mean to sound Zen, but genuinely, when I stopped ~ Vidya Balan,
7:Siddharth accepts me in the way I am. In the first few months of marriage I got bogged down by the ~ Vidya Balan,
8:I'm not fashionable, and I know nothing about fashion, but I have my individual style, and style is eternal. ~ Vidya Balan,
9:The seeker of God is the real lover of vidya, unchangeable truth; all else is avidya, relative knowledge. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda,
10:Life has been kind to me. I am happy with the love and appreciation that I have been getting throughout my career. I feel blessed. ~ Vidya Balan,
11:The divine Maya comprehends Vidya as well as Avidya, the Knowledge as well as the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Mind and Supermind,
12:I eat every two hours. I sleep for eight hours. I have lots of water. I pray to keep calm. Most importantly, I have a smile on my face. ~ Vidya Balan,
13:Black coffee is the latest fad I have picked up. Then there are my endless cups of chai! I'm trying to cut down and keep it to no more than three cups a day. ~ Vidya Balan,
14:Women are blessed with energy - a power which is unique. I have been very fortunate to have played strong women and explored their strengths through my films. ~ Vidya Balan,
15:like how a lotus is unaffected by dewdrops on lotus leaves, don’t get affected by situations of life. Develop that secretion in you; develop that knowledge — vidya ~ Sukhabodhananda,
16:I have never thought of winning an Oscar. Rather, I never thought I would get the Padma Shri. I think God has been kind to me. I think getting Oscar award is not too far away. ~ Vidya Balan,
17:I've wanted recognition; I wanted success; I wanted appreciation; I love the perks of being in the movies. I love the fame that comes with it - but that's why I became an actor. ~ Vidya Balan,
18:I enjoy the sari. I think it's the sexiest garment ever. It shows you the right amount, it covers the right amount, it's extremely versatile, it suits every body type, it suits every face. ~ Vidya Balan,
19:Friends, you are lucky you can talk about what you did as lovers; the tricks, laughter, the words, the ecstasy. After my darling put his hand on the knot of my dress, I swear I remember nothing. ~ Vidya Balan,
20:I work out at home. I don't have a gym, but I use light weights. I do calisthenics, which is basically using your own body weight, like you do in yoga, to strengthen your core. I also do a bit of cardio. ~ Vidya Balan,
21:I started feeling secure in every way once I began to accept myself the way I was. Whether that was emotional, financial or professional security, all of it came and embraced me because I embraced myself. ~ Vidya Balan,
22:I have enjoyed the success my work has brought me. Some might say I haven't really struggled to be successful. I think it is my perspective that is utopian. My state of mind is positive and peaceful. And I dare to dream. ~ Vidya Balan,
23:At every moment we have to decide whether a particular action will serve the atman or the body. We cannot, however, break open the cage of the body, and so we must simultaneously follow vidya and avidya, of knowledge and ignorance. ~ Mahatma Gandhi,
24:Weight used to be an issue. I was always fat as a child. And everyone used to tell me, Youve got such a pretty face; why dont you lose some weight? Over the years Ive realised that my body is a certain type, and I have learned to accept it. ~ Vidya Balan,
25:My so-called bad dress-sense phase happened when I was confused - I think I was taking advice all too often, without listening to my inner voice. Add to the fact that I was a little overweight; so every wrong 'outfit' got compounded all that much. ~ Vidya Balan,
26:Being traditional is a choice for me. South Indian families bring up their children with a sense of freedom, self-respect and self-value. We do whatever we have to with earnestness and honesty, including being uninhibited. Yet we hold onto our roots. ~ Vidya Balan,
27:My father said that I could always become an actress, but I couldn't go back to college later in life. So I had to first finish my education, and then I could do what I wanted. At the time, I was not pleased, but now, I can't thank him enough. My parents were absolutely right. ~ Vidya Balan,
28:My idea of an actor is to be different persons with different roles. Every time a script interests me, I look for interesting characters because I intend to completely transport myself into it. This happens only because I am a very greedy actor. I am not part of the rat race because I am living a dream. ~ Vidya Balan,
29:I always wanted to live the lives of different people, portray characters that are different from me. But I could have done that in front of a mirror, also, I didn't need to do films for that. At the end of the day, it's this fame, recognition, popularity, the love and appreciation you get from your audience that drives you. ~ Vidya Balan,
30:It’s a most natural way for me. I can tell people I can run in a saree and I can do five sequences in a saree. I can romance in a saree and I can do everything in a saree. For me, it’s a most versatile garment…it’s extremely sensuous and at the same time it is strong, there is an elegance and at the same time it teases your imagination…It’s very powerful. ~ Vidya Balan,
31:It's very important to distinguish between what most people in the West think about knowledge, and what the Indian concept of knowledge is. In the West the knowledge is something that is tangible, is material, it is something that can be transferred easily, can be bought and sold; or as in India real knowledge is something that is a living being - is a Vidya. ~ Robert Svoboda,
32:Some people warned me against getting married soon. They said your career will end if you do. I felt I wanted to marry Siddharth (Roy Kapur) and I went ahead and married him. And I guess he felt like he wanted to marry me, so we are married today. If I hadn’t felt it for the next ten years probably I wouldn’t have got married. There is no right time. There’s never a right time. ~ Vidya Balan,
33:But each year, Bali is allowed to rise up above the ground. His arrival is marked by many festivals such as Diwali in north India and Onam in Kerala. It is a time of bounty and prosperity. To get the harvest to the granary, Bali has to be killed, like all Asuras. Only when shoved underground, will he return the following year, nourished by Sanjivani Vidya, with yet another bountiful harvest. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik,
34:It is sublime as night and a breathless ocean. It contains every religious sentiment, all the grand ethics, which visit in turn each noble poetic mind .... It is of no use to put away the book if! trust myself in the woods or in a boat upon the pond. Nature makes a Brahmin of me presently: eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken silence .... This is her creed. Peace, she saith to me, and purity and absolute abandonment - these panaceas expiate all sin and bring you to the beatitude of the Eight Gods. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, About Vedic thought. Quoted in Palkhivala, Nani Ardeshir. India s priceless heritage 1st ed. Bombay Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1980. 1980 P 9 - 24.,
35:tahiya hote pavan nahin pani, tahiya srishti kown utpati;
tahiya hote kali nahin phula, tahiya hote garbh nahi mula;
tahiya hote vidya nahin Veda, tahiya hote shabd nahin swada;
tahiya hote pind nahin basu,
nahin dhar dharni na pavan akasu;
tahiya hote guru nahin chela, gamya agamya na panth duhela.

Sakhi: avigati ki gati ka kahown, jake gawn na thawn
gun bihuna pekhana, ka kahi lijai nawn

In that state there is no air or water, and no creation or creator; There is no bud or flower, and no fetus or semen; There is no education or Vedas, and no word or taste; There is no body or settlement, and no earth, air or space; There is no guru or disciple, and no easy or difficult path.

Sakhi: That state is very strange. I cannot explain it. It has no village or resting place. That state is without gunas (qualities). What name can on give it? ~ Kabir,
36:tahiya hote pavan nahin pani, tahiya srishti kown utpati;
tahiya hote kali nahin phula, tahiya hote garbh nahi mula;
tahiya hote vidya nahin Veda, tahiya hote shabd nahin swada;
tahiya hote pind nahin basu,
nahin dhar dharni na pavan akasu;
tahiya hote guru nahin chela, gamya agamya na panth duhela.

Sakhi: avigati ki gati ka kahown, jake gawn na thawn
gun bihuna pekhana, ka kahi lijai nawn

In that state there is no air or water, and no creation or creator; There is no bud or flower, and no fetus or semen; There is no education or Vedas, and no word or taste; There is no body or settlement, and no earth, air or space; There is no guru or disciple, and no easy or difficult path.

Sakhi: That state is very strange. I cannot explain it. It has no village or resting place. That state is without gunas (qualities). What name can on give it? ~ Kabir,
37:Jnanaprakasha:: Jnana includes both the Para and the Apara Vidya, the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world; but the Yogin, reversing the order of the worldly mind, seeks to know Brahman first and through Brahman the world. Scientific knowledge, worldly information & instruction are to him secondary objects, not as it is with the ordinary scholar & scientist, his primary aim. Nevertheless these too we must take into our scope and give room to God's full joy in the world. The methods of the Yogin are also different for he tends more and more to the use of direct vision and the faculties of the vijnana and less and less to intellectual means. The ordinary man studies the object from outside and infers its inner nature from the results of his external study. The Yogin seeks to get inside his object, know it from within & use external study only as a means of confirming his view of the outward action resulting from an already known inner nature.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Record Of Yoga - I,
38:southern star or constellation which once temporarily gained prominence in the sky, or may stand for some recurrent phenomenon, he most likely represented different ‘things’ on different occasions. Bali was guided by Venus, the guru of the asuras who, as we saw in “The Greatness of Saturn,” possesses the Sanjivani Vidya, which can revive the dead. Indeed, Venus is always dying (disappearing from view when it goes too close to the sun) and being reborn (reappearing after a predictable period of residence in the ‘underworld’). Asuras are known to be stronger at night, which they rule, but each dawn the potential chaos that night represents is dispelled by the sun, who reappears to separate the earth from the sky and to measure the world by rising in the east, appearing overhead at noon, and setting in the west. These may be the three great strides that the dwarf Vamana uses in The Begging of the Universe incident from the “The Greatness of Saturn” to subdue Bali and return him to the celestial underworld. Or perhaps the three steps are measured at the vernal equinox, when Vamana’s left foot reaches to the North (celestial) ~ Robert E Svoboda,
39:Cuatro nombres sirven especialmente, entre muchos otros en el sánscrito, para designar las diferentes ramas del saber esotérico, y aun el mismo de los Purânas exotéricos. 1º la Yajna Vidya, que es el conocimiento de los poderes ocultos que pueden despertarse en la Naturaleza por ciertas ceremonias y ciertos ritos religiosos; 2º la Maha Vidya “La Gran Ciencia”, respecto de la cual es a veces la magia de los cabalistas y la de los tantrikas, una hechicería de la peor especie; 3º, la Gupta– Vidya, la ciencia de los poderes místicos contenidos en el sonido (éter) y que son despertados por los Mantras (plegarias, cantos o encantamientos), cuyo efecto depende del ritmo y la melodía; una operación mágica, en fin, basada sobre el conocimiento de las fuerzas de la Naturaleza y su correlación, y 4º, el Alma Vidya que equivale a las palabras Ciencia del Alma o Sabiduría Verdadera cuyo sentido, entre los Orientales, alcanza una extensión mucho más considerable, que entre nosotros los europeos. Esta última ciencia del Alma Vidya es la sola especie del ocultismo a que debe aspirar todo teosofista admirador de “Luz sobre el sendero”, o la que desea llegar a ser un sabio despojándose del egoísmo. Las otras son solamente ramas de las “Ciencias ocultas”, es decir, partes basadas sobre el conocimiento de la esencia de las cosas en los diferentes reinos de la Naturaleza ~ Anonymous,
40:Cuatro nombres sirven especialmente, entre muchos otros en el sánscrito, para designar las diferentes ramas del saber esotérico, y aun el mismo de los Purânas exotéricos. 1º la Yajna Vidya, que es el conocimiento de los poderes ocultos que pueden despertarse en la Naturaleza por ciertas ceremonias y ciertos ritos religiosos; 2º la Maha Vidya “La Gran Ciencia”, respecto de la cual es a veces la magia de los cabalistas y la de los tantrikas, una hechicería de la peor especie; 3º, la Gupta– Vidya, la ciencia de los poderes místicos contenidos en el sonido (éter) y que son despertados por los Mantras (plegarias, cantos o encantamientos), cuyo efecto depende del ritmo y la melodía; una operación mágica, en fin, basada sobre el conocimiento de las fuerzas de la Naturaleza y su correlación, y 4º, el Alma Vidya que equivale a las palabras Ciencia del Alma o Sabiduría Verdadera cuyo sentido, entre los Orientales, alcanza una extensión mucho más considerable, que entre nosotros los europeos. Esta última ciencia del Alma Vidya es la sola especie del ocultismo a que debe aspirar todo teosofista admirador de “Luz sobre el sendero”, o la que desea llegar a ser un sabio despojándose del egoísmo. Las otras son solamente ramas de las “Ciencias ocultas”, es decir, partes basadas sobre el conocimiento de la esencia de las cosas en los diferentes reinos de la Naturaleza –minerales, plantas, animales –ciencias materiales en suma, por más que la esencia de las cosas sea invisible hasta el punto de haber escapado hasta aquí a las investigaciones de la Ciencia. ~ Anonymous,
41:The beginning point is that there is open space, belonging to no one. There is always primordial intelligence connected with the space and openness. Vidya, which means “intelligence” in Sanskrit—precision, sharpness, sharpness with space, sharpness with room in which to put things, exchange things. It is like a spacious hall where there is room to dance about, where there is no danger of knocking things over or tripping over things, for there is completely open space. We are this space, we are one with it, with vidya, intelligence, and openness. But if we are this all the time, where did the confusion come from, where has the space gone, what has happened? Nothing has happened, as a matter of fact. We just became too active in that space. Because it is spacious, it brings inspiration to dance about; but our dance became a bit too active, we began to spin more than was necessary to express the space. At this point we became self-conscious, conscious that “I” am dancing in the space. At such a point, space is no longer space as such. It becomes solid. Instead of being one with the space, we feel solid space as a separate entity, as tangible. This is the first experience of duality—space and I, I am dancing in this space, and this spaciousness is a solid, separate thing. Duality means “space and I,” rather than being completely one with the space. This is the birth of “form,” of “other.” Then a kind of blackout occurs, in the sense that we forget what we were doing. There is a sudden halt, a pause; and we turn around and “discover” solid space, as though we had never before done anything at all, as though we were not the creators of all that solidity. There is a gap. Having already created solidified space, then we are overwhelmed by it and begin to become lost in it. There is a blackout and then, suddenly, an awakening. When we awaken, we refuse to see the space as openness, refuse to see its smooth and ventilating quality. We completely ignore it, which is called avidya. A means “negation,” vidya means “intelligence,” so it is “un-intelligence.” Because this extreme intelligence has been transformed into the perception of solid space, because this intelligence with a sharp and precise and flowing luminous quality has become static, therefore it is called avidya, “ignorance.” We deliberately ignore. We are not satisfied just to dance in the space but we want to have a partner, and so we choose the space as our partner. If you choose space as your partner in the dance, then of course you want it to dance with you. In order to possess it as a partner, you have to solidify it and ignore its flowing, open quality. This is avidya, ignorance, ignoring the intelligence. ~ Ch gyam Trungpa,
42:64 Arts
   1. Geet vidya: art of singing.
   2. Vadya vidya: art of playing on musical instruments.
   3. Nritya vidya: art of dancing.
   4. Natya vidya: art of theatricals.
   5. Alekhya vidya: art of painting.
   6. Viseshakacchedya vidya: art of painting the face and body with color
   7. Tandula­kusuma­bali­vikara: art of preparing offerings from rice and flowers.
   8. Pushpastarana: art of making a covering of flowers for a bed.
   9. Dasana­vasananga­raga: art of applying preparations for cleansing the teeth, cloths and painting the body.
   10. Mani­bhumika­karma: art of making the groundwork of jewels.
   11. Aayya­racana: art of covering the bed.
   12. Udaka­vadya: art of playing on music in water.
   13. Udaka­ghata: art of splashing with water.
   14. Citra­yoga: art of practically applying an admixture of colors.
   15. Malya­grathana­vikalpa: art of designing a preparation of wreaths.
   16. Sekharapida­yojana: art of practically setting the coronet on the head.
   17. Nepathya­yoga: art of practically dressing in the tiring room.
   18. Karnapatra­bhanga: art of decorating the tragus of the ear.
   19. Sugandha­yukti: art of practical application of aromatics.
   20. Bhushana­yojana: art of applying or setting ornaments.
   21. Aindra­jala: art of juggling.
   22. Kaucumara: a kind of art.
   23. Hasta­laghava: art of sleight of hand.
   24. Citra­sakapupa­bhakshya­vikara­kriya: art of preparing varieties of delicious food.
   25. Panaka­rasa­ragasava­yojana: art of practically preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts with red color.
   26. Suci­vaya­karma: art of needleworks and weaving.
   27. Sutra­krida: art of playing with thread.
   28. Vina­damuraka­vadya: art of playing on lute and small drum.
   29. Prahelika: art of making and solving riddles.
   30. Durvacaka­yoga: art of practicing language difficult to be answered by others.
   31. Pustaka­vacana: art of reciting books.
   32. Natikakhyayika­darsana: art of enacting short plays and anecdotes.
   33. Kavya­samasya­purana: art of solving enigmatic verses.
   34. Pattika­vetra­bana­vikalpa: art of designing preparation of shield, cane and arrows.
   35. Tarku­karma: art of spinning by spindle.
   36. Takshana: art of carpentry.
   37. Vastu­vidya: art of engineering.
   38. Raupya­ratna­pariksha: art of testing silver and jewels.
   39. Dhatu­vada: art of metallurgy.
   40. Mani­raga jnana: art of tinging jewels.
   41. Akara jnana: art of mineralogy.
   42. Vrikshayur­veda­yoga: art of practicing medicine or medical treatment, by herbs.
   43. Mesha­kukkuta­lavaka­yuddha­vidhi: art of knowing the mode of fighting of lambs, cocks and birds.
   44. Suka­sarika­pralapana: art of maintaining or knowing conversation between male and female cockatoos.
   45. Utsadana: art of healing or cleaning a person with perfumes.
   46. Kesa­marjana­kausala: art of combing hair.
   47. Akshara­mushtika­kathana: art of talking with fingers.
   48. Dharana­matrika: art of the use of amulets.
   49. Desa­bhasha­jnana: art of knowing provincial dialects.
   50. Nirmiti­jnana: art of knowing prediction by heavenly voice.
   51. Yantra­matrika: art of mechanics.
   52. Mlecchita­kutarka­vikalpa: art of fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry.
   53. Samvacya: art of conversation.
   54. Manasi kavya­kriya: art of composing verse
   55. Kriya­vikalpa: art of designing a literary work or a medical remedy.
   56. Chalitaka­yoga: art of practicing as a builder of shrines called after him.
   57. Abhidhana­kosha­cchando­jnana: art of the use of lexicography and meters.
   58. Vastra­gopana: art of concealment of cloths.
   59. Dyuta­visesha: art of knowing specific gambling.
   60. Akarsha­krida: art of playing with dice or magnet.
   61. Balaka­kridanaka: art of using children's toys.
   62. Vainayiki vidya: art of enforcing discipline.
   63. Vaijayiki vidya: art of gaining victory.
   64. Vaitaliki vidya: art of awakening master with music at dawn.
   ~ Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger, Sexual Secrets,

IN CHAPTERS [91/91]



   32 Yoga
   24 Integral Yoga
   4 Poetry


   25 Sri Ramakrishna
   24 Sri Aurobindo
   15 Nolini Kanta Gupta
   5 Swami Krishnananda
   4 Vidyapati
   3 Sri Ramana Maharshi
   2 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
   2 Mahendranath Gupta
   2 A B Purani


   24 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
   9 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
   8 Isha Upanishad
   6 Talks
   5 The Study and Practice of Yoga
   4 The Secret Doctrine
   3 The Life Divine
   2 The Synthesis Of Yoga
   2 Record of Yoga
   2 Letters On Yoga IV
   2 Letters On Yoga I
   2 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
   2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05


00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   One is an ideal in and of the world, the other is an ideal transcending the world. The Path of the Fathers (Pityna) enjoins the right accomplishing of the dharma of Lifeit is the path of works, of Karma; it is the line of progressive evolution that, man follows through the experience of life after life on earth. The Path of the Gods (Devayna) runs above life's evolutionary course; it lifts man out of the terrestrial cycle and places him in a superior consciousness it is the path of knowledge, of Vidya.4 The Path of the Fathers is the soul's southern or inferior orbit (dakiyana, aparrdha); the Path of the Gods is the northern or superior orbit (uttaryaa, parrdha)The former is also called the Lunar Path and the latter the Solar Path.5 For the moon represents the mind,6 and is therefore, an emblem that befits man so long as he is a mental being and pursues a dharma that is limited by the mind; the sun, on the other hand, is the knowledge and consciousness that is beyond the mindit is the eye of the Gods.7
   Man has two aspects or natures; he dwells in two worlds. The first is the manifest world the world of the body, the life and the mind. The body has flowered into the mind through the life. The body gives the basis or the material, the life gives power and energy and the mind the directing knowledge. This triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is another world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that his soul the Purusha in his heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted into another triune realitySat, Chit and Ananda.
  --
   Karma pitloka Vidyay devoloka (jayy)Brihadaranyaka, 1.5.16.
   Devalokddityam... pitlokccandramBrihadaranyaka, VI. 2.15.16.

0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
   Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali vanished from before his vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways, and he termed these "a Vidyamaya" and " Vidyamaya". A Vidyamaya represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But Vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of Vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of a Vidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue autumn heaven.
   The Divine Mother asked Sri Ramakrishna not to be lost in the featureless Absolute but to remain, in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness, the border line between the Absolute and the Relative. He was to keep himself at the "sixth centre" of Tantra, from which he could see not only the glory of the seventh, but also the divine manifestations of the Kundalini in the lower centres. He gently oscillated back and forth across the dividing line. Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity. He thus bridged the gulf between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent aspects of Reality. This is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual history of the world.
  --
   Mahendranath Gupta, better known as "M.", arrived at Dakshineswar in March 1882. He belonged to the Brahmo Samaj and was headmaster of the Vidyasagar High School at Syambazar, Calcutta. At the very first sight the Master recognized him as one of his "marked" disciples. Mahendra recorded in his diary Sri Ramakrishna's conversations with his devotees. These are the first directly recorded words, in the spiritual history of the world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Christ. The present volume is a translation of this diary. Mahendra was instrumental, through his personal contacts, in spreading the Master's message among many young and aspiring souls.
   --- NAG MAHASHAY
  --
   Sri Ramakrishna also became acquainted with a number of people whose scholarship or wealth entitled them everywhere to respect. He had met, a few years before, Devendranath Tagore, famous all over Bengal for his wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master found him disappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakrishna expected of a saint complete renunciation of the world, Devendranath combined with his saintliness a life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakrishna met the great poet Michael Madhusudan, who had embraced Christianity "for the sake of his stomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine Mother "pressed his tongue". In addition he met Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore, a titled aristocrat of Bengal; Kristodas Pal, the editor, social reformer, and patriot; Iswar Vidyasagar, the noted philanthropist and educator; Pundit Shashadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aswini Kumar Dutta, a headmaster, moralist, and leader of Indian Nationalism; and Bankim Chatterji, a deputy magistrate, novelist, and essayist, and one of the fashioners of modern Bengali prose. Sri Ramakrishna was not the man to be dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without discrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts for the light of God, and if that was missing he would have nothing to do with them.
   --- KRISTODAS PAL

1.001 - The Aim of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  The ancient sages and masters, both of the East and the West, have deeply pondered over this question, and one of the most magnificent proclamations of a solution to these problems is found in the Veda. Among the many aspects of this solution that are presented before us by these mighty revelations, I can quote one which to my mind appears to be a final solution at least, I have taken it as a solution to all my problems - which comes in the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. In all the four Vedas it occurs: tam eva viditv atimtyum eti nnya panth Vidyate ayanya. This is a great proclamation. What is the meaning of this proclamation? There is no way of escape from this problem, says this mantra, other than knowing 'That'. This is a very simple aphoristic precept that is before us: Knowing 'That' is the solution, and we have no other solution. Now, knowing 'That' what is this 'That'.
  Knowing has been generally regarded as a process of understanding and accumulation of information, gathering intellectual or scientific definitive descriptions in respect of things. These days, this is what we call education. We gather definitions of things and try to understand the modes of their apparent functions in temporal life. This is what we call knowing, ordinarily speaking. I know that the sun is rising. This is a kind of knowledge. What do I mean by this knowledge? I have only a functional perception of a phenomenon that is taking place which I regard as the rise of the sun. This is not real knowledge. When I say, "I know that the sun is rising", I cannot say that I have a real knowledge of the sun, because, first of all, the sun is not rising it is a mistake of my senses. Secondly, the very idea of rising itself is a misconception in the mind. Unless I am static and immovable, I cannot know that something is moving. So when I say, "The sun is moving", I mean that I am not moving; it is understood there. But it is not true that I am not moving. I am also in a state of motion for other reasons which are not easily understandable. So it is not possible for a moving body to say that something else is moving. Nothing that is in a state of motion can say that something else is in motion. There is a relative motion of things, and so perception of the condition of any object ultimately would be impossible. This is a reason why scientific knowledge fails.
  --
  All our knowledge is insufficient, inadequate, temporal, empirical ultimately useless. It does not touch the core of life. Therefore, we will find that any learned person, whatever be the depth of his learning, whatever be the greatness of his scholarship, is miserable in the end. The reason is that life is different from this kind of knowledge. It is an all-comprehensive organic being in which the knowing individual is unfortunately included, a fact which misses the attention of every person. It is not possible for anyone to observe or see or know anything, inasmuch as the conditions which describe the object of observation also condition the subject of observation. The Veda points this out in a mystical formula:tam eva viditv atimtyum eti nnya panth Vidyate ayanya. Now, when it is said, by knowing 'That', every problem is solved, the Veda does not mean knowing this object or that object, or this person or that person, or this thing or that thing, or this subject or that subject it is nothing of that kind. It is a 'That' with a capital 'T', which means to say, the true object of knowledge. The true object of knowledge is to be known, and when 'That' is known, all problems are solved.
  What are problems? A problem is a situation that has arisen on account of the irreconcilability of one person, or one thing, with the status and condition of another person, or another thing. I cannot reconcile my position with your position; this is a problem. You cannot reconcile your position with mine; this is a problem. Why should there be such a condition? How is it that it is not possible for me to reconcile myself with you? It is not possible because there is no clear perception of my relationship with you. I have a misconceived idea of my relationship with you and, therefore, there is a misconceived adjustment of my personality with yours, and a misconception cannot solve a problem. The problem is nothing but this misconception nothing else. The irreconcilability of one thing with another arises on account of the basic difficulty I mentioned, that the person who wishes to bring about this reconciliation, or establish a proper relationship, misses the point of one's own vital connection underline the word 'vital' with the object or the person with which, or with whom, this reconciliation is to be effected. Inasmuch as this kind of knowledge is beyond the purview or capacity of the ordinary human intellect, the knowledge of the Veda is regarded as supernormal, superhuman: apaurusheya not created or manufactured by an individual. This is not knowledge that has come out of reading books. This is not ordinary educational knowledge. It is a knowledge which is vitally and organically related to the fact of life. I am as much connected with the fact of life as you are, and so in my observation and study and understanding of you, in my relationship with you, I cannot forget this fact. The moment I disconnect myself from this fact of life which is unanimously present in you as well as in me, I miss the point, and my effort becomes purposeless.

1.010 - Self-Control - The Alpha and Omega of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  Transcendence is different from giving up. When we transcend a condition, we do not reject that condition as something necessary or unnecessary, but absorb that condition into a higher nature, include it in our higher condition and make it a part of our experience, so that nothing is lost but everything is found in a more real form. So in the practice of yoga, nothing is lost. Nehbhikramanso'sti pratyavyo na Vidyate (B.G. II.40), says the Bhagavadgita. There is no loss in the practice of yoga; always there is a gain. And no question of sin arises here. If we do it well, so much the better for us. If we cannot do it well, there is no sin in it; the only thing is, we have not got what we wanted. Such is the impartiality and the genuine character of this wonderful practice called yoga.
  Previously we were touching upon the nature of perceptions of objects, and these were explained as the reasons behind our attachments and aversions, our love of individual physical life and dread of death, etc. It was also discovered that self-affirmation or egoism becomes a necessary link, an intermediary between the external acts of cognition, perception, attachment, aversion etc., and the ultimate cause of the appearance of this phenomenon, of which we have no knowledge. This phenomenon was explained also as having been caused by a vast multiple manifestation of the Ultimate Reality in the form of what we may call 'located individuals', as if one is not connected with the other, so that each individual which was originally an inseparable part of the Ultimate Truth or Reality, enjoying the status of pure selfhood or subjectivity got distorted into an object of the cognitive act and perceptive action of the senses, so that it is possible to regard any person and any object in this world either as a subject from its own point of view, or as an object from another's point of view. It is this peculiar double character, or dual role, of persons and things in this world that has made life difficult. Which is the correct attitude: to regard things as subjects, or regard them as objects? Well, the correct attitude would be to regard everything as it ought to be regarded from the point of view of what it really is.

1.02.1 - The Inhabiting Godhead - Life and Action, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  The cause of ego is that while by Its double power of Vidya and A Vidya the Spirit dwells at once in the consciousness of multiplicity and relativity and in the consciousness of unity and identity and is therefore not bound by the Ignorance, yet It can, in mind, identify Itself with the object in the movement, absorbingly, to the apparent exclusion of the Knowledge which remains behind, veiled at the back of the mentality. The movement of Mind in Nature is thus able to conceive of the object as the reality and the Inhabitant as limited and determined by the appearances of the object. It conceives of the object, not as the universe in one of its frontal appearances, but as itself a separate existence standing out from the Cosmos and different in being from all the rest of it. It conceives similarly of the Inhabitant. This is the illusion of ignorance which falsifies all realities. The illusion is called ahamkara, the separative ego-sense which makes each being conceive of itself as an independent personality.
  The result of the separation is the inability to enter into harmony and oneness with the universe and a consequent inability to possess and enjoy it. But the desire to possess and enjoy is the master impulse of the Ego which knows itself obscurely to be the Lord, although owing to the limitations of its relativity, it is unable to realise its true existence. The result is discord with others and oneself, mental and physical suffering, the sense of weakness and inability, the sense of obscuration, the straining of energy in passion and in desire towards self-fulfilment, the recoil of energy exhausted or disappointed towards death and disintegration.

1.02.2.1 - Brahman - Oneness of God and the World, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  Many. It asserts the simultaneous validity of Vidya and A Vidya and upholds as the object
  of action and knowledge an immortality consistent with Life and Birth in this world. It
  --
  multiplicity. Vidya and A Vidya are equally eternal powers of the
  supreme Chit. Neither Vidya nor A Vidya by itself is the absolute
  knowledge. (See verses 9 - 11.)

1.02.2.2 - Self-Realisation, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  to embrace simultaneously Vidya and A Vidya, the One and the
  Many; to exist in the world, but change the terms of the Death

1.02.3.2 - Knowledge and Ignorance, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  All manifestation proceeds by the two terms, Vidya and A Vidya,
  the consciousness of Unity and the consciousness of Multiplicity. They are the two aspects of the Maya, the formative
  --
  consciousness of Unity is therefore called Vidya, the Knowledge.
  Multiplicity is the play or varied self-expansion of the One,
  --
  eternally in His own oneness. He is Lord of Vidya and A Vidya.
  They are the two sides of His self-conception (Maya), the twin
  --
  following Vidya alone or A Vidya alone.
  Those who are devoted entirely to the principle of multiplicity and division and take their orientation away from oneness enter into a blind darkness of Ignorance. For this tendency is one of increasing contraction and limitation, disaggregation of the gains of knowledge and greater and greater subjection to the mechanical necessities of Prakriti and finally to her separative and self-destructive forces. To turn away from the progression towards Oneness is to turn away from existence and from light.
  --
  path of Vidya.
  Although a higher state than the other, this supreme Night
  --
  Pursued with a less entire attachment the paths of Vidya and
  A Vidya have each their legitimate gains for the human soul, but
  --
  By Vidya one may attain to the state of the silent Brahman
  or the Akshara Purusha regarding the universe without actively
  --
  integrality and does not follow eagerly after one consciousness rather than another, is no more attached to Vidya than
  to A Vidya. This was the knowledge of the ancient sages who
  --
  Brahman embraces in His manifestation both Vidya and A Vidya
  and if they are both present in the manifestation, it is because
  --
  A Vidya subsists because Vidya supports and embraces it; Vidya
  depends upon A Vidya for the preparation and the advance of
  --
  any moment be released into activity. The office of Vidya is
  not to destroy A Vidya as a thing that ought never to have been
  --
  A Vidya fulfilled by turning more and more to Vidya enables
  the individual and the universal to become what the Lord is
  --
  path of A Vidya surrendering itself to Vidya, the Multiplicity to
  the Unity, the Ego to the One in all and beyond all, and of Vidya
  accepting A Vidya into itself, the Unity fulfilling the Multiplicity,
  --
  By A Vidya fulfilled man passes beyond death, by Vidya accepting
  A Vidya into itself he enjoys immortality.
  --
  Thus A Vidya becomes one with Vidya. By A Vidya man passes
  beyond that death, suffering, ignorance, weakness which were
  --
  of the Multiplicity. By Vidya he enjoys even in the birth the Immortality.
  IMMORTALITY
  Immortality does not mean survival of the self or the ego after dissolution of the body. The Self always survives the dissolution of the body, because it always pre-existed before the birth of the body. The Self is unborn and undying. The survival of the ego is only the first condition by which the individual soul is able to continue and link together its experiences in A Vidya so as to pursue with an increasing self-possession and mastery that process of self-enlargement which culminates in Vidya.
  By immortality is meant the consciousness which is beyond birth and death, beyond the chain of cause and effect, beyond all bondage and limitation, free, blissful, self-existent in consciousbeing, the consciousness of the Lord, of the supreme Purusha, of Sachchidananda.

1.02.3.3 - Birth and Non-Birth, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  Brahman is both Vidya and A Vidya, both Birth and NonBirth. The realisation of the Self as the unborn and the poise of
  the soul beyond the dualities of birth and death in the infinite
  --
  of Vidya and A Vidya, consciousness of essential unity and consciousness of phenomenal multiplicity.
  The Multiplicity carried to its extreme limit returns upon

10.26 - A True Professor, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The mother says a professor, a true professor, must be truly a yogi. That is to say, a teacher, even a schoolteacher, one imparting what is called secular education, has to be nothing less than a yogi. The Indian term for teacher is 'guru' and 'guru' meant a teacher both spiritual and secular. This distinction of the two words is made by the modern spirit, it did not belong to the ancient culture. The secular knowledge was also considered a necessary part of the spiritual knowledge, that which prepared for it and led towards it. The 'apara Vidya' or the 'vedangas' were but limbs of the supreme knowledge 'para Vidya' and 'veda'.
   A teacher has to be a yogi does not mean that he is to be a paragon of moral qualities, following, for example, the ten commandments scrupulously. Not to tell a lie, not to lose temper, to be patient, impartial, to be honest and unselfish, all these more or less social qualities have their values but something else is needed for the true teacher, something of another category and quality. I said social qualities, I might say also mental qualities. The consciousness of the teacher has to be other than mental, something deeper, more abiding, more constant, less relative, something absolute. Do we then prescribe the supreme Brahma-consciousness for the teacher? Not quite. We mean the consciousness of a soul, the living light that is within every aspiring human being. It is a glad luminousness in the heart that can exist with or without the brilliant riches of a cultivated brain. And one need not go so far as the vedantic Sachchidananda consciousness.

1.028 - Bringing About Whole-Souled Dedication, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  The other point is that this practice will not bring results in only a few days. Sa tu drghakla nairantarya satkra sevita dhabhmi (I.14), says Patanjali. In many cases the result will not follow at all, due to obstructing prarabdhas. There were great seekers, sadhakas, who used to perform japa purascharana, the chanting of a mantra, for years and years together, with the hope of having the vision of the deity. But they had no vision of the deity. We hear of the story of the purascharanas performed by Sage Vidyaranya of yore, Yogi Sri Madhusudana Saraswati and others, but they had no vision. The reason mentioned is that they had obstructing prarabdhas.
  We have three kinds of prarabdha the tamasica, the rajasica and the sattvica. The tamasica and rajasica prarabdhas will not allow even the rise of aspiration for God. The tamasica prarabdha will always bring the most intense form of obstacles, including a mood of lethargy, indolence, sleepiness, and even doubt of the possibility of gaining any such realisation at all, as yoga promises. Atheism, materialism and lack of faith are due to the working of tamasica prarabdhas. As long as these types of prarabdha function, as long as the tamasica prarabdhas are active, there is no question of the practice of yoga we can do nothing.

1.02.9 - Conclusion and Summary, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  7. Vidya and A Vidya.
  8. Birth and Non-Birth.
  --
  it loses Vidya, the knowledge of the One, and has only the
  knowledge of the Many which becomes no longer knowledge

1.02 - IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  The devotees and the Master sang and danced in a state of divine fervour. Several of them were in an ecstatic mood. Nityagopal's chest glowed with the upsurge of emotion, and Rakhal lay on the floor in ecstasy, completely unconscious of the world. The Master put his hand on Rakhal's chest and said: "Peace. Be quiet." This was Rakhal's first experience of ecstasy. He lived with his father in Calcutta and now and then visited the Master at Dakshineswar. About this time he had studied a short while in Vidyasagar's school at Syampukur.
  When the music was over, the devotees sat down for their meal. Balaram stood there humbly, like a servant. Nobody would have taken him for the master of the house. M.

1.03 - VISIT TO VIDYASAGAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  object:1.03 - VISIT TO VidyaSAGAR
  subject class:Yoga
  --
  VISIT TO VidyaSAGAR
  August 5, 1882
  PUNDIT ISWAR CHANDRA VidyaSAGAR was born in the village of Beersingh, not far from Kamarpukur, Sri Ramakrishna's birthplace. He was known as a great scholar, educator, writer, and philanthropist. One of the creators of modern Bengali, he was also well versed in Sanskrit grammar and poetry. His generosity made his name a household word with his countrymen, most of his income being given in charity to widows, orphans, indigent students, and other needy people. Nor was his compassion limited to human beings: he stopped drinking milk for years so that the calves should not be deprived of it, and he would not drive in a carriage for fear of causing discomfort to the horses. He was a man of indomitable spirit, which he showed when he gave up the lucrative position of principal of the Sanskrit College of Calcutta because of a disagreement with the authorities. His affection for his mother was especially deep. One day, in the absence of a ferryboat, he swam a raging river at the risk of his life to fulfil her wish that he should be present at his brother's wedding. His whole life was one of utter simplicity. The title Vidyasagar, meaning "Ocean of Learning", was given him in recognition of his vast erudition.
  Master's visit to the scholar
  Sri Ramakrishna had long wanted to visit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. Learning from M.
  that he was a teacher at Vidyasagar's school, the Master asked: "Can you take me to Vidyasagar? I should like very much to see him." M. told Iswar Chandra of Sri Ramakrishna's wish, and the pundit gladly agreed that M. should bring the Master, some Saturday afternoon at four o'clock. He only asked M. what kind of paramahamsa the Master was, saying, "Does he wear an ochre cloth?" M. answered: "No, sir. He is an unusual person. He wears a red-bordered cloth and polished slippers. He lives in a room in Rani Rasmani's temple garden. In his room there is a couch with a mattress and mosquito net. He has no outer indication of holiness. But he doesn't know anything except God. Day and night he thinks of God alone."
  On the afternoon of August 5 the Master left Dakshineswar in a hackney carriage, accompanied by Bhavanath, M., and Hazra. Vidyasagar lived in Badurbagan, in central Calcutta, about six miles from Dakshineswar. On the way Sri Ramakrishna talked with his companions; but as the carriage neared Vidyasagar's house his mood suddenly changed. He was overpowered with divine ecstasy. Not noticing this, M. pointed out the garden house where Raja Rammohan Roy had lived. The Master was annoyed and said, "I don't care about such things now." He was going into an ecstatic state.
  The carriage stopped in front of. Vidyasagar's house. The Master alighted, supported by M., who then led the way. In the courtyard were many flowering plants. As the Master walked to the house he said to M., like a child, pointing to his shirt-button: "My shirt is un buttoned. Will that offend Vidyasagar?" "Oh, no!" said M. "Don't be anxious about it.
  Nothing about you will be offensive. You don't have to button your shirt." He accepted the assurance simply, like a child.
   Vidyasagar was about sixty-two years old, sixteen or seventeen years older than the Master. He lived in a two-storey house built in the English fashion, with lawns on all sides and surrounded by a high wall. After climbing the stairs to the second floor, Sri Ramakrishna and his devotees entered a room at the far end of which Vidyasagar was seated facing them, with a table in front of him. To the right of the table was a bench.
  Some friends of their host occupied chairs on the other two sides.
   Vidyasagar rose to receive the Master. Sri Ramakrishna stood in front of the bench, with one hand resting on the table. He gazed at Vidyasagar, as if they had known each other before, and smiled in an ecstatic mood. In that mood he remained standing a few minutes. Now and then, to bring his mind back to normal consciousness, he said, "I shall have a drink of water."
  In the mean time the young members of the household and a few friends and relatives of Vidyasagar had gathered around. Sri Ramakrishna, still in an ecstatic mood, sat on the bench. A young man, seventeen or eighteen years old, who had come to Vidyasagar to seek financial help for his education, was seated there. The Master sat down at a little distance from the boy, saying in an abstracted mood: "Mother, this boy is very much attached to the world. He belongs to Thy realm of ignorance."
   Vidyasagar told someone to bring water and asked M. whether the Master would like some sweetmeats also. Since M. did not object, Vidyasagar himself went eagerly to the inner apartments and brought the sweets. They were placed before the Master.
  Bhavanath and Hazra also received their share. When they were offered to M., Vidyasagar said: "Oh, he is like one of the family. We needn't worry about him."
  Referring to a young devotee, the Master said to Vidyasagar: "He is a nice young man and is sound at the core. He is like the river Phalgu. The surface is covered with sand; but if you dig a little you will find water flowing underneath."
  After taking some of the sweets, the Master, with a smile, began to speak to Vidyasagar. Meanwhile the room had become filled with people; some were standing and others were seated.
  MASTER: "Ah! Today, at last, I have come to the ocean. Up till now I have seen only canals, marshes, or a river at the most. But today I am face to face with the sagar, the ocean."(All laugh.)
   VidyaSAGAR (smiling): "Then please take home some salt water." (Laughter.) MASTER: "Oh, no! Why salt water? You aren't the ocean of ignorance. You are the ocean of vidy, knowledge. You are the ocean of condensed milk." (All laugh.) VidyaSAGAR: "Well, you may put it that way."
  The pundit became silent. Sri Ramakrishna said: "Your activities are inspired by sattva.
  --
   Vidyasagar was very reticent about giving religious instruction to others. He had studied Hindu philosophy. Once, when M. had asked him his opinion of it, Vidyasagar had said, "I think the philosophers have failed to explain what was in their minds." But in his daily life he followed all the rituals of Hindu religion and wore the sacred thread of a brahmin.
  About God he had once declared: "It is indeed impossible to know Him. What, then, should be our duty? It seems to me that we should live in such a way that, if others followed our example, this very earth would be heaven. Everyone should try to do good to the world."
  --
  (To Vidyasagar, with a smile) "Well, what is your attitude?"
   VidyaSAGAR (smiling): "Some day I shall confide it to you."(All laugh) MASTER (laughing): "God cannot be realized through mere scholarly reasoning."
  --
  While singing, the Master went into samdhi. He was seated on the bench, facing west, the palms of his hands joined together, his body erect and motionless. Everyone watched him expectantly. Vidyasagar, too, was speechless and could not take his eyes from the Master.
  Brahman and akti are identical
  --
  (To Vidyasagar) "The activities that you are engaged in are good. It is very good if you can perform them in a selfless spirit, renouncing egotism, giving up the idea that you are the doer. Through such action one develops love and devotion to God, and ultimately realizes Him.
  "The more you come to love God, the less you will be inclined to perform action. When the daughter-in-law is with child, her mother-in-law gives her less work to do. As time goes by she is given less and less work. When the time of delivery nears, she is not allowed to do any work at all, lest it should hurt the child or cause difficulty at the time of birth.
  --
  In silent wonder they all sat listening to the Master's words. It seemed to them that the Goddess of Wisdom Herself, seated on Sri Ramakrishna's tongue was addressing these words not merely to Vidyasagar, but to all humanity for its good.
  It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening. The Master was about to leave.
  Master (to Vidyasagar, with a smile): "The words I have spoken are really superfluous.
  You know all this; you simply aren't conscious of it. There are countless gems in the coffers of Varuna. But he himself isn't aware of them."
  --
  Everybody was delighted with the Master's conversation. Again addressing Vidyasagar, he said with a smile: "Please visit the temple garden some time - I mean the garden of Rasmani. It's a charming place."
   VidyaSAGAR: "Oh, of course I shall go. You have so kindly come here to see me, and shall I not return your visit?"
  --
  Sri Ramakrishna then took leave of Vidyasagar, who with his friends escorted the Master to the main gate, leading the way with a lighted candle in his hand. Before leaving the room, the Master prayed for the family's welfare, going into an ecstatic mood as he did so.
  As soon as the Master and the devotees reached the gate, they saw an unexpected sight and stood still. In front of them was a bearded gentleman of fair complexion, aged about thirty-six. He wore his clothes like a Bengali, but on his head was a white turban tied after the fashion of the Sikhs. No sooner did he see the Master than he fell prostrate before him, turban and all.
  --
   Vidyasagar and his friends bowed to Sri Ramakrishna, and the carriage started for Dakshineswar. But the little group, with the venerable Vidyasagar at their head holding the lighted candle, stood at the gate and gazed after the Master until he was out of sight.
  --------------------

1.04 - ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Spiritual disciplines necessary at the beginning MASTER: "I should like to visit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar a few times more. The painter first draws the general outlines and then puts in the details and colours at his leisure.
  The moulder first makes the image out of clay, then plasters it, then gives it a coat of whitewash, and last of all paints it with a brush. All these steps must be taken successively. Vidyasagar is fully ready, but his inner stuff is covered with a thin layer.
  He is now engaged in doing good works; but he doesn't know what is within himself.
  --
  MASTER: "Perform your duties in an unselfish spirit. The work that Vidyasagar is engaged in is very good. Always try to perform your duties without desiring any result."
  M: "Yes, sir. But may I know if one can realize God while performing one's duties? Can 'Rama' and 'desire' coexist? The other day I read in a Hindi couplet: 'Where Rama is, there desire cannot be; where desire is, there Rama cannot be.' "

1.053 - A Very Important Sadhana, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  Nehbhikramanosti pratyavyo na Vidyate (B.G.II.40), says the Bhagavadgita. Even a little good that we do in this direction has its own effect. Even if we credit one paisa (one-hundredth of an Indian rupee) to our account in the bank, it is a credit, though it is very little. It is only one paisa that we have put there, but still it is there. We cannot say it is not there. Likewise, even a little bit of sincere effort that is put forth in the direction of sense control and devotion to God is a great credit indeed accumulated by the soul. There should not be a doubt whether it will yield fruit. We should not expect fruit in the way we would dream in our mind, because the nature of the response that is generated by the practice depends upon the extent of obstacles that are already present and not eliminated. The peculiar impressions created inside by frustrated feelings will also act as an obstacle. The frustrated feelings are the subtle longings of the mind, deeper than the level of conscious activity, which create a sense of disquiet and displeasure in the mind.
  We are always in a mood of unhappiness. We cannot know what has happened to us. We are not satisfied neither with people, nor with our sadhana, nor with anything in this world. This disquiet, peacelessness and displeasure which can manifest as a sustained mood in spiritual seekers is due to the presence of the impressions left by frustrated desires. We have not withdrawn our senses from objects wantonly or deliberately, but we have withdrawn them due a pressure from scriptures, Guru, atmosphere, monastery, or other conditions.

1.05 - The Destiny of the Individual, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  4:So strongly was this truth perceived in the ancient times that the Vedantic Seers, even after they had arrived at the crowning idea, the convincing experience of Sachchidananda as the highest positive expression of the Reality to our consciousness, erected in their speculations or went on in their perceptions to an Asat, a Non-Being beyond, which is not the ultimate existence, the pure consciousness, the infinite bliss of which all our experiences are the expression or the deformation. If at all an existence, a consciousness, a bliss, it is beyond the highest and purest positive form of these things that here we can possess and other therefore than what here we know by these names. Buddhism, somewhat arbitrarily declared by the theologians to be an un-Vedic doctrine because it rejected the authority of the Scriptures, yet goes back to this essentially Vedantic conception. Only, the positive and synthetic teaching of the Upanishads beheld Sat and Asat not as opposites destructive of each other, but as the last antinomy through which we look up to the Unknowable. And in the transactions of our positive consciousness, even Unity has to make its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman. It is by Vidya, the Knowledge of the Oneness, that we know God; without it A Vidya, the relative and multiple consciousness, is a night of darkness and a disorder of Ignorance. Yet if we exclude the field of that Ignorance, if we get rid of A Vidya as if it were a thing non-existent and unreal, then Knowledge itself becomes a sort of obscurity and a source of imperfection. We become as men blinded by a light so that we can no longer see the field which that light illumines.
  5:Such is the teaching, calm, wise and clear, of our most ancient sages. They had the patience and the strength to find and to know; they had also the clarity and humility to admit the limitation of our knowledge. They perceived the borders where it has to pass into something beyond itself. It was a later impatience of heart and mind, vehement attraction to an ultimate bliss or high masterfulness of pure experience and trenchant intelligence which sought the One to deny the Many and because it had received the breath of the heights scorned or recoiled from the secret of the depths. But the steady eye of the ancient wisdom perceived that to know God really, it must know Him everywhere equally and without distinction, considering and valuing but not mastered by the oppositions through which He shines.
  --
  13:It is so that ascetic philosophy tends to conceive it. But individual salvation can have no real sense if existence in the cosmos is itself an illusion. In the Monistic view the individual soul is one with the Supreme, its sense of separateness an ignorance, escape from the sense of separateness and identity with the Supreme its salvation. But who then profits by this escape? Not the supreme Self, for it is supposed to be always and inalienably free, still, silent, pure. Not the world, for that remains constantly in the bondage and is not freed by the escape of any individual soul from the universal Illusion. It is the individual soul itself which effects its supreme good by escaping from the sorrow and the division into the peace and the bliss. There would seem then to be some kind of reality of the individual soul as distinct from the world and from the Supreme even in the event of freedom and illumination. But for the Illusionist the individual soul is an illusion and non-existent except in the inexplicable mystery of Maya. Therefore we arrive at the escape of an illusory nonexistent soul from an illusory non-existent bondage in an illusory non-existent world as the supreme good which that non-existent soul has to pursue! For this is the last word of the Knowledge, "There is none bound, none freed, none seeking to be free." Vidya turns out to be as much a part of the Phenomenal as A Vidya; Maya meets us even in our escape and laughs at the triumphant logic which seemed to cut the knot of her mystery.
  14:These things, it is said, cannot be explained; they are the initial and insoluble miracle. They are for us a practical fact and have to be accepted. We have to escape by a confusion out of a confusion. The individual soul can only cut the knot of ego by a supreme act of egoism, an exclusive attachment to its own individual salvation which amounts to an absolute assertion of its separate existence in Maya. We are led to regard other souls as if they were figments of our mind and their salvation unimportant, our soul alone as if it were entirely real and its salvation the one thing that matters. I come to regard my personal escape from bondage as real while other souls who are equally myself remain behind in the bondage!
  --
  19:Through A Vidya, the Multiplicity, lies our path out of the transitional egoistic self-expression in which death and suffering predominate; through Vidya consenting with A Vidya by the perfect sense of oneness even in that multiplicity, we enjoy integrally the immortality and the beatitude. By attaining to the Unborn beyond all becoming we are liberated from this lower birth and death; by accepting the Becoming freely as the Divine, we invade mortality with the immortal beatitude and become luminous centres of its conscious self-expression in humanity.

1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  M: "Once Vidyasagar said in a mood of pique: 'What is the use of calling on God? Just think of this incident: At one time Chenghiz Khan plundered a country and imprisoned many people. The number of prisoners rose to about a hundred thousand. The commander of his army said to him: "Your Majesty, who will feed them? It is risky to keep them with us. It will be equally dangerous to release them. What shall I do?"
  Chenghiz Khan said: "That's true. What can be done? Well, have them killed." The order was accordingly given to cut them to pieces. Now, God saw this slaughter, didn't He?
  --
  If you see anywhere an instance of compassion, as in Vidyasagar, know that it is due to the grace of God. Through compassion one serves all beings. Maya also comes from God. Through maya God makes one serve one's relatives. But one thing should be remembered: maya keeps us in ignorance and entangles us in the world, whereas daya makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds.
  "God cannot be realized without purity of heart. One receives the grace of God by subduing the passions-lust, anger, and greed. Then one sees God. I tried many things in order to conquer lust.

1.070 - The Seven Stages of Perfection, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  This is the meaning in substance of these sutras: tad abhvt sayogbhva hna tadde kaivalyam (II.25); vivekakhyti aviplav hnopya (II.26); tasya saptadh prntabhmi praj (II.27). What is the way to this attainment? Discriminative knowledge is the way, which has to be attained by the practice of the limbs of yoga and there is no other alternative. Nanya panth Vidyate ayanya (R.V. X.90.16), says the Rig Veda. We cannot have any other, simpler method here. There is only one method. This is a single-track approach, and everyone has to proceed along the same road which others have trodden from ancient times. This is the viveka khyati that is referred to here. The enlightenment that follows understanding of the true nature of things this is viveka khyati. This understanding should be perpetual; it should be second nature to us.
  The understanding in respect of the true nature of things, which we are trying to entertain in ourselves as the faculty of correct perception, is to be the only way of looking at things. That is the only method we can adopt in seeing, and this is the only way we can think. There is no other way of thinking. Our life should be a continuous process, aviplava, of the manifestation of this understanding, so that even in our day-to-day life, in our working hours also, our mind should think only in this manner and there should be no other way of thinking just as even when we are intensely busy we cannot forget our identity of personality, and even the heaviest business cannot obliterate the consciousness of the world that is in front of us or that we are awake to at this time. A thing that is in front of us is visible to us, even if we are intensely busy with any amount of enterprise, because that kind of awareness has become part of our very existence; so should become this aviplava viveka khyati. The moment we open our eyes, the moment we think, the moment we feel, the moment we act or react, this should be the attitude. This is the continuous operation of viveka khyati, which is the only way to salvation. No other way is there.

1.08 - Worship of Substitutes and Images, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  But where Brahman Himself is the object of worship, and the Pratika stands only as a substitute or a suggestion thereof, that is to say, where, through the Pratika the omnipresent Brahman is worshipped the Pratika itself being idealised into the cause of all, Brahman the worship is positively beneficial; nay, it is absolutely necessary for all mankind until they have all got beyond the primary or preparatory state of the mind in regard to worship. When, therefore, any gods or other beings are worshipped in and for themselves, such worship is only a ritualistic Karma; and as a Vidy (science) it gives us only the fruit belonging to that particular Vidya; but when the Devas or any other beings are looked upon as Brahman and worshipped, the result obtained is the same as by the worshipping of Ishvara. This explains how, in many cases, both in the Shrutis and the Smritis, a god, or a sage, or some other extraordinary being is taken up and lifted, as it were, out of his own nature and idealised into Brahman, and is then worshipped. Says the Advaitin, "Is not everything Brahman when the name and the form have been removed from it?" "Is not He, the Lord, the innermost Self of every one?" says the Vishishtdvaitin.
   "The fruition of even the worship of Adityas etc. Brahman Himself bestows, because He is the Ruler of all." Says Shankara in his Brahma-Sutra-Bhsya

1.09 - ADVICE TO THE BRAHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER (to Vaidyanath): "All that you see is the manifestation of God's Power. No one can do anything without this Power. But you must remember that there is not an equal manifestation of God's Power in all things. Vidyasagar once asked me whether God endowed some with greater power than others. I said to him: 'If there are no greater and lesser manifestations of His Power, then why have we taken the trouble to visit you?
  Have you grown two horns?' So it stands to reason that God exists in all beings as the All-pervasive Power; but the manifestations of His Power are different in different beings."

1.1.04 - Philosophy, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Both the logician and the philosopher are apt to forget that they are dealing with words and words divorced from experience can be the most terrible misleaders in the world. Precisely because they are capable of giving us so much light, they are also capable of lighting us into impenetrable darkness. Tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u Vidyayam ratah; "Deeper is the darkness into which they enter who are addicted to knowledge alone." This sort of word worship and its resultant luminous darkness is very common in India and nowhere more than in the intellectualities of religion, so that when a man talks to me about the One and
  Maya and the Absolute, I am tempted to ask him, "My friend, how much have you experienced of these things in which you instruct me or how much are you telling me out of a vacuum or merely from intellectual appreciation? If you have merely ideas and no experience, you are no authority for me and your logic is to me but the clashing of cymbals good to deafen an opponent into silence, but of no use for knowledge. If you say you have experienced, then I have to ask you, 'Are you sure you have measured all possible experience?' If you have not, then how can you be sure that my contradictory experience is not equally true? If you say you have, then I know you to be deluded or a pretender, one who has experienced a fragment or nothing; for

1.10 - Mantra Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
  7. Repetition of Subrahmanya Mantra Om Saravanabhavaya Namah will give success in any undertaking and make you glorious. It will drive off the evil influences and evil spirits. Repetition of Sri Hanuman Mantra, Om Hanumanthaya Namah will bestow victory and strength. Repetition of Panchadasakshara and Sodasakshara (Sri Vidya) will give you wealth, power, freedom, etc. It will give you whatever you want. You must learn this Vidya from a Guru alone.
  8. Repetition of Gayatri or Pranava or Om Namah Sivaya, Om Namo Narayanaya, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, one and a quarter lakh of times with Bhava, faith and devotion will confer on you Mantra Siddhi.

1.10 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "As there are women endowed with Vidyaakti, so also there are women with a Vidyaakti. A woman endowed with spiritual attributes leads a man to God, but a woman who is the embodiment of delusion makes him forget God and drowns him in the ocean of worldliness.
  "This universe is created by the Mahamaya of God. Mahamaya contains both Vidy-
  --
  "Once I said to Vidyasagar, 'Everything else but Brahman has been polluted, as it were, like food touched by the tongue.' In other words, no one has been able to describe what Brahman is. A thing once uttered by the tongue becomes polluted. Vidyasagar, great pundit though he was, was highly pleased with my remarks.
  "It is said that there are places near Kedr that are covered with eternal snow; he who climbs too high cannot come back. Those who have tried to find out what there is in the higher regions, or what one feels there, have not come back to tell us about it.

1.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "God has given to some greater power than to others. In one man you see it as the light of a lamp, in another, as the light of a torch. One word of Vidyasagar's revealed to me the utmost limit of his intelligence. When I told him of the different manifestations of God's Power in different beings, he said to me, 'Sir, has God then given greater power to some than to others?' At once I said: 'Yes, certainly He has; If there are not different degrees of manifestation of His Power, then why should your name be known far and wide? You see, we have come to you after hearing of your knowledge and compassion.
  You haven't grown two horns, have you?' With all his fame and erudition, Vidyasagar said such a childish thing as 'Has God given greater power to some than to others?' The truth is that when the fisherman draws his net, he first catches big fish like trout and carp; then he stirs up the mud with his feet, and small fish come out-minnows, mudfish, and so on. So also, unless a man knows God, 'minnows' and the like gradually come out from within him. What can one achieve through mere scholarship?"
  Sunday, June 17, 1883

1.12 - THE FESTIVAL AT PNIHTI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  A DEVOTEE: "Sir, you met Pundit Vidyasagar. What did you think of him?"
  MASTER: " Vidyasagar has both scholarship and charity, but he lacks inner vision. Gold lies hidden within him. Had he but found it out, his activities would have been reduced; finally they would have stopped altogether. Had he but known that God resides in his heart, his mind would have been directed to God in thought and meditation. Some persons must perform selfless work a long time before they can practise dispassion and direct their minds to the spiritual ideal and at last be absorbed in God.
  --
  "The activities that Vidyasagar is engaged in are good. Charity is very noble. There is a great deal of difference between daya, compassion, and maya, attachment. Daya is good, but not maya. Maya is love for one's relatives-one's wife, children, brother, sister, nephew, father, and mother. But daya is the same love for all created beings without any distinction."
  M: "Is daya also a bondage?"

1.14 - INSTRUCTION TO VAISHNAVS AND BRHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "Why doesn't Vidyasagar keep his word? 'If one who holds to truth and looks on woman as his mother does not realize God, then Tulsi is a liar.' If a man holds to truth he will certainly realize God. The other day Vidyasagar said he would come here and visit me. But he hasn't kept his word."
  Difference between scholar and holy man "There is a big difference between a scholar and a holy man. The mind of a mere scholar is fixed on 'woman and gold', but the sdhu's mind is on the Lotus Feet of Hari.

1.15 - The Possibility and Purpose of Avatarhood, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Yogamaya. In the ordinary birth Yogamaya is used by the Divine to envelop and conceal itself from the lower consciousness, so it becomes for us the means of the ignorance, a Vidya-maya; but it is by this same Yogamaya that self-knowledge also is made manifest in the return of our consciousness to the Divine, it is the means of the knowledge, Vidya-maya; and in the divine birth it so operates - as the knowledge controlling and enlightening the works which are ordinarily done in the Ignorance.
  The language of the Gita shows therefore that the divine birth is that of the conscious Godhead in our humanity and essentially the opposite of the ordinary birth even though the same means are used, because it is not the birth into the Ignorance, but the birth of the knowledge, not a physical phenomenon, but a soul-birth. It is the Soul's coming into birth as the self-existent

1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "What Brahman is cannot be described in words. Everything has been polluted, like food that has touched the tongue-that is, everything has been described in words. But no one has been able to describe Brahman. It is therefore unpolluted. I said this to Vidyasagar and he was delighted.
  "But the Knowledge of Brahman cannot be realized if the aspirant is worldly-minded even in the slightest degree. He succeeds in acquiring this Knowledge only when his mind is totally free from 'woman and gold'. Parvati once said to Her father, 'Father, seek the company of holy men if you want the Knowledge of Brahman.' "

1.17 - The Transformation, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  Songs of Vidyapati, 1893-1905 (Baroda) 1st ed. 1956
  Rodogune, 1893-1905 (Baroda) 1st ed. 1958

1.18 - Mind and Supermind, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  7:This essential faculty and the essential limitation that accompanies it are the truth of Mind and fix its real nature and action, svabhava and svadharma; here is the mark of the divine fiat assigning it its office in the complete instrumentation of the supreme Maya, - the office determined by that which it is in its very birth from the eternal self-conception of the Self-existent. That office is to translate always infinity into the terms of the finite, to measure off, limit, depiece. Actually it does this in our consciousness to the exclusion of all true sense of the Infinite; therefore Mind is the nodus of the great Ignorance, because it is that which originally divides and distributes, and it has even been mistaken for the cause of the universe and for the whole of the divine Maya. But the divine Maya comprehends Vidya as well as A Vidya, the Knowledge as well as the Ignorance. For it is obvious that since the finite is only an appearance of the Infinite, a result of its action, a play of its conception and cannot exist except by it, in it, with it as a background, itself form of that stuff and action of that force, there must be an original consciousness which contains and views both at the same time and is intimately conscious of all the relations of the one with the other. In that consciousness there is no ignorance, because the infinite is known and the finite is not separated from it as an independent reality; but still there is a subordinate process of delimitation, - otherwise no world could exist, - a process by which the ever dividing and reuniting consciousness of Mind, the ever divergent and convergent action of Life and the infinitely divided and self-aggregating substance of Matter come, all by one principle and original act, into phenomenal being. This subordinate process of the eternal Seer and Thinker, perfectly luminous, perfectly aware of Himself and all, knowing well what He does, conscious of the infinite in the finite which He is creating, may be called the divine Mind. And it is obvious that it must be a subordinate and not really a separate working of the Real-Idea, of the Supermind, and must operate through what we have described as the apprehending movement of the Truth-consciousness.
  8:That apprehending consciousness, the Prajnana, places, as we have seen, the working of the indivisible All, active and formative, as a process and object of creative knowledge before the consciousness of the same All, originative and cognisant as the possessor and witness of its own working, - somewhat as a poet views the creations of his own consciousness placed before him in it as if they were things other than the creator and his creative force, yet all the time they are really no more than the play of self-formation of his own being in itself and are indivisible there from their creator. Thus Prajnana makes the fundamental division which leads to all the rest, the division of the Purusha, the conscious soul who knows and sees and by his vision creates and ordains, and the Prakriti, the Force-Soul or Nature-Soul which is his knowledge and his vision, his creation and his allordaining power. Both are one Being, one existence, and the forms seen and created are multiple forms of that Being which are placed by Him as knowledge before Himself as knower, by Himself as Force before Himself as Creator. The last action of this apprehending consciousness takes place when the Purusha pervading the conscious extension of his being, present at every point of himself as well as in his totality, inhabiting every form, regards the whole as if separately, from each of the standpoints he has taken; he views and governs the relations of each soulform of himself with other soul-forms from the standpoint of will and knowledge appropriate to each particular form.

1.22 - ADVICE TO AN ACTOR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting on the small couch in his room. Rkhl , M., and, several other devotees were present. A special worship of Kli had been performed in the temple the previous night. In connection with the worship a theatrical performance of the Vidyasundar had been staged in the Natmandir. The Master had watched a part of it that morning. The actors came to his room to pay him their respects. The Master, in a happy mood, became engaged in conversation with a fair complexioned young man who had taken the part of Vidy and played his part very well.
  MASTER (to the actor): "Your acting was very good. If a person excels in singing, music, dancing, or any other art, he can also quickly realize God provided he strives sincerely.

1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  [in Sad Vidya Anubandham (Supplement) sloka 36]: "The illiterates are certainly better off than the literates whose egos are not destroyed by the quest of the self." This being so, could Bhagavan advise a school master
  (who feels this to be true) how to carry on education in such a way that the desire for literacy and intellectual knowledge may not obscure the more important search for the Self? Are the two incompatible? If they are not, then from what age, and by what means, can young people best be stimulated towards the search for the Real Truth within?
  --
  (unshaken knowledge). People ask: "How did ignorance (a Vidya) arise at all?" We have to say to them: "Ignorance never arose. It has no real being. That which is, is only Vidya (knowledge)."
  D.: Why then do I not realise it?

1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  [in Sad Vidya Anubandham (Supplement) sloka 36]: The illiterates are certainly better off than the literates whose egos are not destroyed by the quest of the self. This being so, could Bhagavan advise a school master
  (who feels this to be true) how to carry on education in such a way that the desire for literacy and intellectual knowledge may not obscure the more important search for the Self? Are the two incompatible? If they are not, then from what age, and by what means, can young people best be stimulated towards the search for the Real Truth within?
  --
  (unshaken knowledge). People ask: How did ignorance (a Vidya) arise at all? We have to say to them: Ignorance never arose. It has no real being. That which is, is only Vidya (knowledge).
  D.: Why then do I not realise it?
  --
  Atma Vidya Vilasa and other works. Are these found in samadhi, or before, or after?
  M.: All these are the symptoms of exceedingly subtle modes of mind
  --
  One Tirumalpad of Nilambur, a Malayali gentleman, asked Sri Bhagavan for an explanation of Atma Vidya. (Knowledge of the Self.)
  M.: Sri Bhagavan explained this short piece of 5 stanzas as follows:
  Chidambaram is the famous place of pilgrimage associated with Nandanar who sang that Atma Vidya is most difficult of attainment. Muruganar (a long-standing devotee of Sri Bhagavan) began however that Atma Vidya is the easiest of attainments. Ayye atisulabham is the burden of the song.
  In explanation of this extraordinary statement, he argued that Atma being the Self is eternally obvious even to the least of men. The original statement and the subsequent reasoning are incompatible because there need be no attainment if the Self is the substratum of all selves and so obvious too. Naturally he could not pursue the theme further and laid the first four lines composed by him before
  --
  M.: So Atma Vidya is the easiest of attainment.
  Talk 380.
  --
  Mr. Bose, the Bengali Engineer, asked the meaning of the last stanza of Atma Vidya (Knowledge of the Self). Sri Bhagavan explained on the following lines:
  There is the world perceived, the perception is only apparent; it requires location for existence and light. Such existence and light are simultaneous with the rise of mind. So the physical existence and illumination are part of mental existence and illumination. The latter is not absolute, for the mind rises and sinks. The mind has its substratum in the Self which is self-evident, i.e. its existence and self-luminosity are obvious. That is absolute being, continuous in sleep, waking and dream states also.

1.24 - PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Still lingering in the state of ecstasy, he said to the Divine Mother: "O Mother, the other day You showed me Pundit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. Then I told You that I should like to see another pundit, and so You have brought me here."
  Looking at the pundit, he said: "My child, add a little more to your strength. Practise spiritual discipline a few days more. You have hardly set your foot on the tree, yet you expect to lay hold of a big cluster of fruit. But, of course, you are doing all this for the welfare of others." With these words he bowed his head before the pundit.

1.25 - ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "One cannot but admit the manifestation of power. Vidyasagar once asked me, 'Has God given more power to some than to others?' I said to him: 'Certainly. Otherwise, how can one man kill a hundred? If there is no special manifestation of power, then why is Queen Victoria so much honoured and respected? Don't you admit it?' He agreed with me."
  The pundit and his friends saluted the Master and were about to take their leave. Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit: "Come again. One hemp-smoker rejoices in the company of another hemp-smoker. They even embrace each other. But they hide at the sight of people not of their own kind. A cow licks the body of her calf; but she threatens a strange cow with her horns." (All laugh.)

1.27 - AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  He had been seeking a job to maintain his mother, brothers, and sisters. He had served a few days as headmaster of the Vidyasagar School at Bowbazar.
  ADHAR: "May I ask if Narendra would accept a job?"

1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  Atma Vidya Vilasa and other works. Are these found in samadhi, or before, or after?
  M.: All these are the symptoms of exceedingly subtle modes of mind
  --
  One Tirumalpad of Nilambur, a Malayali gentleman, asked Sri Bhagavan for an explanation of Atma Vidya. (Knowledge of the Self.)
  M.: Sri Bhagavan explained this short piece of 5 stanzas as follows:
  Chidambaram is the famous place of pilgrimage associated with Nandanar who sang that Atma Vidya is most difficult of attainment. Muruganar (a long-standing devotee of Sri Bhagavan) began however that Atma Vidya is the easiest of attainments. Ayye atisulabham is the burden of the song.
  In explanation of this extraordinary statement, he argued that Atma being the Self is eternally obvious even to the least of men. The original statement and the subsequent reasoning are incompatible because there need be no attainment if the Self is the substratum of all selves and so obvious too. Naturally he could not pursue the theme further and laid the first four lines composed by him before
  --
  M.: So Atma Vidya is the easiest of attainment.
  Talk 380.
  --
  Mr. Bose, the Bengali Engineer, asked the meaning of the last stanza of Atma Vidya (Knowledge of the Self). Sri Bhagavan explained on the following lines:
  There is the world perceived, the perception is only apparent; it requires location for existence and light. Such existence and light are simultaneous with the rise of mind. So the physical existence and illumination are part of mental existence and illumination. The latter is not absolute, for the mind rises and sinks. The mind has its substratum in the Self which is self-evident, i.e. its existence and self-luminosity are obvious. That is absolute being, continuous in sleep, waking and dream states also.

1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  M.: Ya na Vidyate sa a Vidya (What is not, is a Vidya). So it is itself a myth. If it really be, how can it perish? Its being is false and so it disappears.
  D.: Although I understand it intellectually, I cannot realise the Self.
  --
  Explaining the opening stanza of Sad Vidya, Sri Bhagavan said: Sat
  (Being) is Chit (Knowledge Absolute); also Chit is Sat; what is, is only one. Otherwise the knowledge of the world and of ones own being will be impossible. It denotes both being and knowledge. However, both of them are one and the same. On the other hand, be it Sat only and not Chit also, such Sat will only be insentient (jada). In order to know it another Chit will be needed; such Chit being other than
  --
  A man asked Sri Bhagavan: How is it that Atma Vidya is said to be the easiest?
  M.: Any other Vidya requires a knower, knowledge and the object to be known, whereas this does not require any of them. It is the Self.
  Can anything be so obvious as that? Hence it is the easiest. All that you need do is to enquire, Who am I?
  --
  M.: As pointed out in the Atma Vidya being the eye of the mental eye, the ether of the mental ether....., meaning, the Knowledge behind the relative knowledge, the Chit-Ether containing the mental ether, remains as the Only One always shining bright.
  D.: Still I do not understand. How shall I realise it?
  --
  Explaining the opening stanza of the Sad Vidya, Sri Bhagavan
  observed: The world is always apparent to everyone. All must know

1.450 - 1.500 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  M.: Ya na Vidyate sa a Vidya (What is not, is a Vidya). So it is itself a myth. If it really be, how can it perish? Its being is false and so it disappears.
  D.: Although I understand it intellectually, I cannot realise the Self.

1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  A man asked Sri Bhagavan: "How is it that Atma Vidya is said to be the easiest?"
  M.: Any other Vidya requires a knower, knowledge and the object to be known, whereas this does not require any of them. It is the Self.
  Can anything be so obvious as that? Hence it is the easiest. All that you need do is to enquire, "Who am I?"
  --
  M.: As pointed out in the Atma Vidya "being the eye of the mental eye, the ether of the mental ether.....", meaning, the Knowledge behind the relative knowledge, the Chit-Ether containing the mental ether, remains as the Only One always shining bright.
  D.: Still I do not understand. How shall I realise it?

17.11 - A Prayer, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Thus in the path of Tantra, widely extended as it is through the long tradition of its preceptors; the meditative concentration on the image, the repetition of the sacred formulas, Mantra-Japa, and other various methods mentioned in different scriptures are meant to provide easy ways suited to the sadhaks of the different natures. They make no difference to the fundamental Truth and principle which remains always the same. And this is called Sri Vidya which is the essential substance of all the sacred Scriptures, the essence of the four great steps of Tantra (Charya, Kriya, Jnana and Yoga) expounded in all its precepts.
   This High Knowledge ( Vidya) has been very secretly taught by the different branches of Yajurveda in their hymns and their Upanishadic versions. It has been mysteriously revealed by the various branches of Rigveda in their hymns or their Upanishadic versions. It is mystically awakened through a certain subtle duct in the body, evoked by manifold metrical hymns of the Sarna Veda. This Vidya is commonly found in all the Vedas. It is the essence of all Vedic mantras, Brahmanas and Upanishads. It is the Queen of the Shaktichakra, a wave of supremely great light, a form or embodiment of supreme consciousness. This is a mystic truth inherited from a tradition of Gurus.
   The tradition enjoins that to realise this Maha- Vidya a sadhaka should take an initiation and do the ceremonial worship as directed. And when initiated by a true adept he must first meditate on the Holy Feet, Sri Mahapaduka, uttering the sacred words that mean "I adore the Sri Mahapaduka in the eight-petalled white lotus that looks upward, that has twelve extremities and that is established within the womb of the thousand-petalled lotus, spread out like an umbrella and facing downward. The great Holy Feet is possessed of all sciences, embodies the Powers of all deities. It represents the three strides of the holy preceptor in the three centres, the crown (Brahma-randhra), the heart and the lower abdomen, even as it is richly decorated with resplendent ornaments."

18.01 - Padavali, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Vidyapati in dread of the last summons, cries:
   There is no way out for me but Thee alone.
  --
   Vidyapati
   II
  --
   Vidyapati says, of the soul's satisfaction
   not even one in a million possessed it.
   Vidyapati
   III
  --
   Vidyapati says how shall you without the divine comrade
   pass your days and nights!
   Vidyapati
   IV

1.vpt - As the mirror to my hand, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
   English version by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Denise Levertov Original Language Maithili As the mirror to my hand, the flowers to my hair, kohl to my eyes, tambul to my mouth, musk to my breast, necklace to my throat, ecstasy to my flesh, heart to my home -- as wing to bird, water to fish, life to the living -- so you to me. But tell me, Madhava, beloved, who are you? Who are you really? Vidyapati says, they are one another. [2203.jpg] -- from In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali, Translated by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. / Translated by Denise Levertov <
1.vpt - He promised hed return tomorrow, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
   English version by Azfar Hussain Original Language Maithili He promised he'd return tomorrow. And I wrote everywhere on my floor: "Tomorrow." The morning broke, when they all asked: Now tell us, when will your "Tomorrow" come? Tomorrow, Tomorrow, where are you? I cried and cried, but my Tomorrow never returned! Vidyapati says: O listen, dear! Your Tomorrow became a today with other women. <
1.vpt - My friend, I cannot answer when you ask me to explain, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
   English version by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Denise Levertov Original Language Maithili My friend, I cannot answer when you ask me to explain what has befallen me. Love is transformed, renewed, each moment. He has dwelt in my eyes all the days of my life, yet I am not sated with seeing. My ears have heard his sweet voice in eternity, and yet it is always new to them. How many honeyed nights have I passed with him in love's bliss, yet my body wonders at his. Through all the ages he has been clasped to my breast, yet my desire never abates. I have seen subtle people sunk in passion but none came so close to the heart of the fire. Who shall be found to cool your heart, says Vidyapati. [2203.jpg] -- from In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali, Translated by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. / Translated by Denise Levertov <
1.vpt - The moon has shone upon me, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
   English version by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. and Denise Levertov Original Language Maithili The moon has shone upon me, the face of my beloved. O night of joy! Joy permeates all things. My life: joy, my youth: fulfillment. Today my house is again home, today my body is my body. The god of destiny smiled on me. No more doubt. Let the nightingales sing, then, let there be myriad rising moons, let Kama's five arrows become five thousand and the south wind softly, softly blow: for now my body has meaning in the presence of my beloved Vidyapati says, Your luck is great; may this return of love be blessed. [2203.jpg] -- from In Praise of Krishna: Songs from the Bengali, Translated by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. / Translated by Denise Levertov <
2.01 - AT THE STAR THEATRE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Bhakti says to her companions: "Gaurnga is born in Nadia. Therefore the Vidyadharis, the munis, and the rishis have come down to earth in disguise to pay their respects to him."
  She sings:
  --
  Behold the Vidyadharis, coming in chariots toadore him; Behold the munis and rishis, who come, allured by the spell of Love.
  The Vidyadharis, munis, and rishis sing a hymn to Gaurnga and adore him as an Incarnation of God.
  Sri Ramakrishna watched the scene and was overpowered with divine ecstasy. He said to M.: "Look at it! Ah! Ah!"
  --
  As the Vidyadharis sang the lines, Beloved with the arching eyes; And crest with arching peacock feather!, the Master went into deep samdhi. The orchestra played on, but he was not aware of the outer world.
  Another scene: A guest has arrived at the house of Jagannath Misra, Nimai's father. The boy Nimai plays about, singing with his friends, in a happy mood: Tell Me, where is My blessed Vrindvan?

2.02 - The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  rushing past, but that the train is still. Vidya, Knowledge tells
  him that this is not so. So that the stir of the Cosmos is really the
  --
   Vidya is bliss; now the state of Vidya is a state of self-realisation,
  the realisation of oneness & universality. The nature of the Self
  --
  Apara Vidya traces for us the course & byelaws of evolution,
  but it is only the Para Vidya that bases it for us, gives us its
  reason, source, law & culmination. This Bliss is the capacity of
  --
  then of Vidya & A Vidya? the Eternal and the Transient? the Is &
  the Seems to Be? If A Vidya is eternal, let us rejoice in her wonders
  & glories & never strive to escape from her bonds. But if Vidya
  alone be eternal, then is A Vidya a curse and a bondage, what have
  --
  One. If Parabrahman therefore were limited either to Vidya or
  A Vidya, obviously A Vidya would cease the moment Vidya began
  and the salvation of one Jivatma would bring about the end of

2.03 - Karmayogin A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  the Knower of Himself, the powers of Vidya and A Vidya, the
  power to know and the power not to know, the faculty of
  --
  Himself as He really is; this is Vidya. He can also imagine
  176
  --
  eternal reality, that is His aspect to Vidya or true Knowledge.
  But there is also the eternal unreality, His aspect to A Vidya
  --
  own single & sufficient existence is using his power of Vidya
  to recover his own constant single reality. But there is one

2.05 - On Poetry, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   Disciple: Can you give an instance of psychic poetry? Is there a psychic element in Vidyapati?
   Sri Aurobindo: Ithink there is some, though it is rare even in Chandidas. As for psychic poetry, take Shelley's lines:

2.07 - The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In the Vedantic thought of the Upanishad we find the original Vedic terms replaced by the familiar antinomy of Vidya and
  A Vidya, and with the change of terms there has come a certain development of significance: for since the nature of the Knowledge is to find the Truth and the fundamental Truth is the One,
  --
  One", - Vidya, Knowledge in its highest spiritual sense, came to mean purely and trenchantly the knowledge of the One, A Vidya,
  Ignorance, purely and trenchantly the knowledge of the divided
  --
  But the development of the separative distinction could not stop here; it had to go to its logical extreme. Since the knowledge of the One is Knowledge and the knowledge of the Many is Ignorance, there can be, in a rigidly analytic and dialectical view, nothing but pure opposition between the things denoted by the two terms; there is no essential unity between them, no reconciliation possible. Therefore Vidya alone is Knowledge,
  A Vidya is pure Ignorance; and, if pure Ignorance takes a positive form, it is because it is not merely a not-knowing of Truth, but a creation of illusions and delusions, of seemingly real unrealities, of temporarily valid falsehoods. Obviously then, the object matter of A Vidya can have no true and abiding existence; the Many are an illusion, the world has no real being. Undoubtedly it has a sort of existence while it lasts, as a dream has or the longcontinued hallucination of a delirious or a demented brain, but no more. The One has not become and can never become Many; the Self has not and cannot become all these existences; Brahman has not manifested and cannot manifest a real world in itself: it is only the Mind or some principle of which Mind is a result that thrusts names and forms upon the featureless unity which is alone real and, being essentially featureless, cannot manifest real feature and variation; or else, if it manifests these things, then that is a temporal and temporary reality which vanishes and is convicted of unreality by the illumination of true knowledge.
  --
  Mind's power for ignorance. Mind has a power also for truth; it opens its thought-chamber to Vidya as well as to A Vidya, and if its starting-point is Ignorance, if its passage is through crooked ways of error, still its goal is always Knowledge: there is in it an impulse of truth-seeking, a power - even though secondary and limited - of truth-finding and truth-creation. Even if it is only images or representations or abstract expressions of truth that it can show us, still these are in their own manner truth-reflections or truth-formations, and the realities of which they are forms are present in their more concrete truth in some deeper depth or on some higher level of power of our consciousness. Matter and life may be the form of realities of which Mind touches only an incomplete figure; Spirit may have secret and supernal realities of which Mind is only a partial and rudimentary receiver, transcriber or transmitter. It would then be only by an examination of other supramental and inframental as well as higher and deeper mental powers of consciousness that we can arrive at the whole reality. And in the end all depends on the truth of the supreme Consciousness - or the superconscience
  - that belongs to the highest Reality and the relation to it of
  --
  14 In the Upanishads Vidya and A Vidya are spoken of as eternal in the supreme Brah-
   man; but this can be accepted in the sense of the consciousness of the multiplicity and the consciousness of the Oneness which by coexistence in the supreme self-awareness became the basis of the Manifestation; they would there be two sides of an eternal self-knowledge.

2.08 - ALICE IN WONDERLAND, #God Exists, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
  Buddha said this. A really perceiving individual cannot exist in this world for three days. He will melt into nothing. But the fact that perception has not arisen is the reason why we are very happy here. So, ignorance is the cause of our very comfortable existence. Now this comparative study of Eastern conclusions with Western discoveries seems to make us feel that all great men are thinking alikewhe ther Plato or Aristotle, Kent or Hegel, Acharya Sankara or Vidyaranya Swami.
  Ideas are therefore not ideas of things which are earlier than the ideas, just as space and time are not subsequent to what we call the objective world, but precedent to the objective world. It is the final conclusion of Sir James Jean, for instance, that God must be a mathematician. It is not a man thinking mathematical point, but mathematics itself. How can you only think mathematics, without a person thinking mathematics? He says it is a mathematical consciousness, highly abstract, purely impersonal, and the universe is nothing but conceptions of mathematical point-events.

2.09 - THE MASTERS BIRTHDAY, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "Householders do not know who is a good wife and who is a bad wife, who is a Vidyaakti and who is an a Vidyaakti. A Vidyaakti, a good wife, has very little lust and anger. She sleeps little. She pushes her husband's head away from her. She is full of affection, kindness, devotion, modesty, and other noble qualities. Such a wife serves all, looking on all men as her children. Further, she helps increase her husband's love of God. She doesn't spend much money lest her husb and should have to work hard and thus not get leisure to think of God.
  "Mannish women have different traits. These are bad traits: squint eyes and hollow eyes, catlike eyes, lantern jaws like a calf's, and pigeon-breast."

2.1.02 - Classification of the Parts of the Being, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Indian systems did not distinguish between two quite different powers and levels of consciousness, one which we can call Overmind and the other the true Supermind or Divine Gnosis. That is the reason why they got confused about Maya (OvermindForce or Vidya-A Vidya) and took it for the supreme creative power. In so stopping short at what was still a half-light they lost the secret of transformation - even though the Vaishnava and Tantra Yogas groped to find it again and were sometimes on the verge of success. For the rest, this, I think, has been the stumbling-block of all attempts at the discovery of the dynamic divine Truth; I know of none that has not imagined, as soon as it felt the Overmind lustres descending, that this was the true illumination, the gnosis, - with the result that they either stopped short there and could get no farther, or else concluded that this too was only Maya or Lila and that the one thing to do was to get beyond it into some immovable and inactive Silence of the Supreme.
  Perhaps, what may be meant by supernals [in a text submitted by the correspondent] is rather the three fundamentals of the present manifestation. In the Indian system, these are

2.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES IN CALCUTTA, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  SRI RAMAKRISHNA (tenderly): "I quite agree with Narendra. God is everywhere. But then you must remember that there are different manifestations of His Power in different beings. At some places there is a manifestation of His a Vidyaakti, at others a manifestation of His Vidyaakti. Through different instruments God's Power is manifest in different degrees, greater and smaller. Therefore all men are not equal."
  RAM: "What is the use of these futile arguments?"

2.12 - THE MASTERS REMINISCENCES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  TRAILOKYA: "But, sir, there are good people in the world as well. Take the case of Pundarika Vidyanidhi, the devotee of Chaitanya. He lived in the world."
  MASTER: "He had drunk wine up to his neck. If he had drunk a little more, he couldn't have led a worldly life."

2.1.2 - The Vital and Other Levels of Being, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Your difficulty in getting rid of the aboriginal in your nature will remain so long as you try to change your vital part by the sole or main strength of your mind and mental will, calling in at most an indefinite and impersonal divine Power to aid you. It is an old difficulty which has never been radically solved in life itself because it has never been met in the true way. In many ways of Yoga it does not so supremely matter because the aim is not a transformed life but withdrawal from life. When that is the object of an endeavour, it may be sufficient to keep the vital down by a mental and moral compulsion, or else it may be stilled and kept lying in a kind of sleep and quiescence. There are some even who allow it to run and exhaust itself if it can while its possessor professes to be untouched and unconcerned by it; for it is only old Nature running on by a past impetus and will drop off with the fall of the body. When none of these solutions can be attained, the sadhaka sometimes simply leads a double inner life, divided between his spiritual experiences and his vital weaknesses to the end, making the most of his better part, making as little as may be of the outer being. But none of these methods will do for our purpose. If you want a true mastery and transformation of the vital movements, it can be done only on condition you allow your psychic being, the soul in you, to awake fully, to establish its rule and, opening all to the permanent touch of the divine Shakti, impose its own way of pure devotion, whole-hearted aspiration and complete uncompromising urge to all that is divine on the mind and heart and vital nature. There is no other way and it is no use hankering after a more comfortable path. Nnya panth Vidyateyanya.
  ***

22.08 - The Golden Chain, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   That is the thing I wanted to tell you In the Upanishads there is a story. Once Narada - I suppose it is Narada - went to a Rishi to get initiation. The Rishi asked him: 'What have you learnt? What have you learnt in your life of a student now that you come to me?' Narada began to narrate all the Vidyas that he had learnt during his education as a brahmachari,- all the shastras, even Dhanur Vidya, all kinds of learnings. Then the Rishi said: 'All that is apara Vidya, the inferior knowledge. Do you know Brahman?' 'No, sir, I do not know.' 'That is the thing to be known. Once that one thing is known, everything else is known.'
   So I tell you, that one thing needful you have acquired, you have not to attempt to get it. You are fortunate, you are lucky, we are all very lucky; Mother called us here and She has given it of Her own Love, infinite Love, unasked, unconditionally. Whatever you are in your outward character and activities, that is not affected at all by the outer nature; it remains as it is, pure, unsullied.

2.21 - 1940, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   Disciple: When Vidyarthi was murdered by a Muslim, Gandhi said he was very sorry he himself was not killed like that. He looks to the day when one man will be cutting his head, another beating him with a lathi, and a third attacking him with something else.
   Disciple: That is not all. When he is beaten like that he must have not only no ill-feeling but love for them.

2.22 - THE MASTER AT COSSIPORE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "Even after attaining jnana, the jnani can live in the world, retaining Vidyamaya, that is to say, bhakti, compassion, renunciation, and such virtues. This serves him two purposes: first, the teaching of men, and second, the enjoyment of divine bliss. If a jnani remains silent, merged in samadhi, then men's hearts will not be illumined. Therefore Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge'. And further, a jnani lives as a devotee, in the company of bhaktas, in order to enjoy and drink deep of the Bliss of God.
  "The 'ego of Knowledge' and the 'ego of Devotion' can do no harm; it is the 'wicked I' that is harmful. After realizing God a man becomes like a child. There is no harm in the 'ego of a child'. It is like the reflection of a face in a mirror: the reflection cannot call names. Or it is like a burnt rope, which appears to be a rope but disappears at the slightest puff. The ego that has been burnt in the fire of Knowledge cannot injure anybody. It is an ego only in name.
  --
  "It is God alone who has kept this Vidyamaya in me, for the good of men, for the welfare of the devotees.
  "But if one retains Vidyamaya one comes back to this world. The Avatars keep this Vidyamaya. So long as a man has even the slightest desire, he must be born again and again. When he gets rid of all desires, then he is liberated. But the bhaktas do not seek liberation.
  "If a person dies in Benares he attains liberation; he is not born again. Liberation is the goal of the jnanis."

2.23 - THE MASTER AND BUDDHA, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  NIRANJAN (to M.): "Is it true that Vidyasagar is going to open a new school? Why don't you try to secure employment there for Naren?"
  NARENDRA: "I have had enough of service under Vidyasagar."
  Narendra had just returned from a visit to Bodh-Gaya, where he had gone with Kali and Tarak. In that sacred place he had been absorbed in deep meditation before the image of Buddha. He had paid his respects to the Bodhi-tree, which is an offshoot of the original tree under which Buddha attained Nirvana.

2.24 - THE MASTERS LOVE FOR HIS DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  NARENDRA: "I don't care for the job at the Vidyasagar School. I have been thinking of going to Gaya. I have been told that a zemindar there needs the services of a manager for his estate. There is no such thing as God."
  M. (smiling): "You may say that now, but later on you will talk differently. Scepticism is a stage in the path of God-realization. One must pass through stages like this and go much farther; only thus can one realize God. That is what the Master says."
  --
  As M. listened to these words, he became speechless with wonder at Sri Ramakrishna's exalted state of mind. Bhavanath and Narendra were sitting at a distance, talking together. Bhavanath had married and was trying to find a job; so he could not visit Sri Ramakrishna frequently at Cossipore. He had said to M.: "I understand that Vidyasagar wants to start a new school. I have to earn my livelihood. Will it be possible for me to secure a job in that school?'' The Master was much worried about Bhavanath's being entangled in worldly life. Bhavanath was twenty-three or twenty-four years old.
  MASTER (to Narendra): "Give him a lot of courage."

2.25 - AFTER THE PASSING AWAY, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Baranagore Monastery — First members — Surendra's magnanimity — Ascetic zeal of the young sannyasis — Renunciation of "woman and gold" — Siva festival at the math — Narendra's reminiscences of the Master — Narendra's foreknowledge of things — Narendra's ego — About Nityagopal — Rakhal's reminiscences of the Master — The Master and Narendra — Master's love for Narendra — Prasanna's austere sadhana — Vidyasagar's reluctance about preaching — About Sashi — Rakhal's yearning for God — Tarak and Prasanna — Narendra asks Prasanna to practise self-surrender — Narendra's longing for God-vision — About Rabindra.
  SRI RAMAKRISHNA passed away on Sunday, August 15, 1886, plunging his devotees and disciples into a sea of grief. They were like men in a shipwreck. But a strong bond of love held them together, and they found assurance and courage in each other's company. They could not enjoy the friendship of worldly people and would talk only of their Master. "Shall we not behold him again?" — this was the one theme of their thought and the one dream of their sleep. Alone, they wept for him; walking in the streets of Calcutta, they were engrossed in the thought of him. The Master had once said to M., "It becomes difficult for me to give up the body, when I realize that after my death you will wander about weeping for me." Some of them thought: "He is no longer in this world. How surprising that we still enjoy living! We could give up our bodies if we liked, but still we do not." Time and again Sri Ramakrishna had told them that God reveals Himself to His devotees if they yearn for Him and call on Him with whole-souled devotion. He had assured them that God listens to the prayer of a sincere heart.
  --
  M: "This is what Vidyasagar says: 'Suppose that after death we all go to God. The emissaries of Death will have sent Keshab Sen there too. Keshab Sen, no doubt, committed sins while he lived on earth. When that is proved, perhaps God will say, "Give him twenty-five stripes." Then suppose I am taken to God. I used to go to Keshab Sen's Brahmo Samaj in my earthly life. I too have committed many sins; so I too am ordered to be caned. Then suppose I say to God that I acted in that sinful way because I listened to Keshab's preaching. Thereupon God will ask His emissaries to bring Keshab back. When he is brought, the Almighty Lord will say to him: "Did you really preach that way? You yourself knew nothing about spiritual matters and yet you had the hardihood to teach others about God! Emissaries! Give him twenty five stripes more."'"
  Everybody laughed.
  M: "Therefore Vidyasagar says: 'I cannot take care of my own self; should I be foolish enough to get an additional caning for misleading others? I myself do not understand God. How shall I lecture to others about Him?'"
  NARENDRA: "How has he — who could not understand God — understood other things?"
  --
  M. (to himself). "Yes, Sri Ramakrishna, too, said that he who knows God knows everything else. Further, he said to Vidyasagar that leading a worldly life, establishing schools, and so on are the outcome of rajas. The Master also said that Vidyasagar's philanthropy was due to the influence of sattva on rajas. Such rajas is not harmful."
  After their meal the brothers of the monastery rested. M. and Chunilal were conversing. Chunilal told M. of his first visit to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. He also told him how at one time he had felt disgusted with the world, had renounced it, and had wandered about in holy places. A few minutes later Narendra came and sat by them. He asked the younger Gopal to prepare a smoke for him. The latter had been meditating. Narendra said to him: "I say! Prepare a smoke. What do you mean by this meditation? First of all prepare yourself for spiritual life by serving God and holy men; then you will be able to meditate. First of all karma, and then meditation." Everybody laughed.

2.3.02 - The Supermind or Supramental, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Lid", or those of the Vedic r.tena r.tam apihitam. Here there is the working of a sort of Vidya-a Vidyamay maya which makes possible the predominance of a Vidya. It is by this primitive divisional principle that the Mind is enabled to regard for example the Impersonal as the Truth and the Personal as only a mask or the personal Divine as the greatest Truth and impersonality as only an aspect; it is so too that all the conflicting philosophies and religions arise, each exalting one aspect or potentiality of
  Truth presented to Mind as the whole sufficient explanation of things or exalting one of the Divine's Godheads above all others as the true God than whom there can be no other or none so high or higher. This divisionary principle pursues man's mental knowledge everywhere and even when he thinks he has arrived at the final unity and harmony, it is only a constructed unity based on an Aspect. It is so that the scientist seeks to found the unity of knowledge on some original physical aspect of things,

2.3.1 - Ego and Its Forms, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Your surprise at your cousin Xs behaviour shows that you do not yet know what kind of thing is the average human nature. Did you never hear of the answer of Vidyasagar when he was told that a certain man was abusing him: Why does he abuse me? I never did him a good turn (upakra). The unregenerate vital is not grateful for a benefit, it resents being under an obligation. So long as the benefit continues, it is effusive and says sweet things, as soon as it expects nothing more it turns round and bites the hand that fed it. Sometimes it does that even before, when it thinks it can do it without the benefactor knowing the origin of the slander, fault-finding or abuse. In all these dealings of your uncles and cousins with you there is nothing unusual, nothing, as you think, peculiar to you. Most have this kind of experience, few escape it altogether. Of course, people with a developed psychic element are by nature grateful and do not behave in this way.
  ***

30.01 - World-Literature, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   In our Bengali literature Vidyapati and Chandidas are the pioneer poets who made an attempt at creating genuine poetry surpassing all plebeian poetry. They had infused the popular literature with a new spirit, and thus formed a basis for real poetic utterance. The joy we derive from the songs of Vidyapati and Chandidas can be called the real poetic pleasure. For example,
   Hearken, O Madhava, Radha is at large.
  --
   It is said that Valmiki is the pioneer poet in Sanskrit literature. In our Bengali literature it is Vidyapati, nay, to be more precise and accurate, it is Chandidas who is the father of poetry. He raised the natural vital experiences to the level of the psychic. He has transformed even colloquial expressions into a deeper rhythm and flow. But even theirs was only the initial stage that required a long time to develop fullness and maturity. In truth, this is the third stage we have already referred to. Throughout the era of the Vaishnava poets, coming down to the time of Bharat Chandra the same line of sadhana, of spiritual practice, continued. The Bengali poets who flourished after Chandidas have hardly made any new contri bution, they have not unveiled another layer of the soul of the poetic genius of Bengali literature. What they have done amounts to an external refinement and orderliness. The literature of this age has tried to transcend the ordinary thoughts, i.e.,the manner of ordinary thinking, and has considerably succeeded too; still the presence of imperfection, the signs of a lower flight loom large there. We do not find there - in the words of Matthew Arnold - 'a humanity variously and fully developed' or a multifarious free scope of the universal life such as we have already mentioned.
   This very achievement of breaking down the limited movements within a narrow compass and spreading it out into the vast has been won by Madhusudan, Bankim and Rabindranath in Bengali literature during the current period of English influence. The day Bankim produced his artistic beauty, 'Kapalkundala', and Madhusudan penned -

30.04 - Intuition and Inspiration in Art, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Now, in the creation nothing can remain itself and unaltered for good. Difference and polarity are the inviolable laws of nature. Therefore it is not that we do not find glimpses of pure intuition here and there among the Bengalees. Chandidas, the pioneer poet of Bengal, represents an unalloyed, pure inspiration and Vidyapati reflects glimpses of intuition. When a feeling of emotion tingled through the blood of Chandidas he turned deep within and sang to himself with his eyes closed, in trance as it were:
   Sister, who has sung first the sweet name of the Lord
  --
   On the other hand, the self-poised Vidyapati with his eyes wide open sang:
   Childhood and youth fuse together.

30.05 - Rhythm in Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   It is this quality of sweetness that has made the fame of Bengali language and literature, from Vidyapati and Chandidas right down to Rabindranath. But the possibilities of this language and literature, not only for sweetness or grace but also for strength and nobility have been brought out by Madhusudan. He has not the power and depth of thought, but there is in his style and manner something reminiscent of that "stepping of the goddess" in Virgil. One hears as if the rumbling of the clouds in the opening lines of Meghnadbadh:
   ...

30.12 - The Obscene and the Ugly - Form and Essence, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   Kalidasa has excelled in depicting the beauties of form. Shakespeare sought not beauty but the wide surge of vital truths. Petrarch abounds in the beauty of form. He created more and yet more beauty of form. But Dante is to be appreciated rather through the poetic truths that stood out as unmoving rocks, the tremendous energy petrified as it were in the form. Our Indian poet Vidyapati was mad after the beauty of form. He expressed the pangs of his heart thus:
   "Since my birth I have been seeing beauty after beauty, yet my eyes are not satiated."

31.01 - The Heart of Bengal, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The nervous system of the Bengalis is not very strong, but it is very sharp. Their vital energy is not solid, but it is pliant. Prompt are they in their actions, but not persevering. They have a subtle sensitivity and a quick sensibility. In addition, they are sentimental and emotional; and consequently, they are thoughtful and imaginative. They are unsteady; therefore they are ever open to the new. They do not want to see the world as it is with calm and plain eyes; they would like to see the world coloured with the collyrium of their heart. They are swayed to and fro by the impulse of their heart, like a pendulum. No others can make the impulses of the heart intense and one-pointed to such a high degree. Chandidas was a typical Bengali poet. Judging from this point of view, Vidyapati does not seem to be a Bengali poet at all. In him we find a play of intellect and reasoning, an attitude of casting side glances, and an alertness. But Chandidas was self-oblivious and beside himself with poetic imagination.
   The Bengalis have the power of thinking, and in it we find flashes of genius, a deep insight and bright glimpses of experience, There the calm, placid and self-absorbed tenure of the reasoning faculty is not to be found. It is hard for the Bengalis to derive pleasure from mere intellectual pursuit, setting aside the feelings of the heart. They have hardly the patience and endurance necessary for carrying on the intellectual process for its own sake; their nerves can hardly put up with the tension of doing so. But in the thought that has once been able to touch their hearts, in the thought that has as its fount their vital emotion, there they have excelled. They have adhered to it steadily and persistently like a leech and have brought forth argument after argument, truth after truth. It would be difficult for a Shankara to see the light ofday on the soil of Bengal; but the birth of someone like Nimai Pundit (Chaitanya) is quite consistent, because there was a vast ocean of vital emotion behind his erudition. The Bengali logician is at his best especially when someone is able to arouse and excite him. But in the field of calm argumentation, perhaps a Bengali cannot be a match for a South Indian scholar. Also, in the field of reasoning, the Bengalis lose all sense of practicality, whereas no one else does the same. There is an ancient saying that if once the French are seized by mania (furia franca),then there is no escape from it. They lose the balance of their consciousness, and are capable of anything. Likewise, the Bengali race tends to be somewhat crazy.
  --
   Vidyapati, also breathing the atmosphere of Bengal, as it were, queried, "Do you ask me about my own experience?" It is the experience of the heart that has mobilized, glorified and widened all other faculties of the Bengalis. .
   Bengal, the wet and fertile land, has the power to appreciate the essence of the supreme Delight more than any other province. The creations of Bengal are but the creations of Delight. We do not know if the Bengalis are the "sons of Immortalily" (amrtasya putrah),but they are undoubtedly the children of Delight. The inspiration of their works does not derive from a dry sense of duty or from stern discipline. There is hardly any place for austerities in the temperament of the Bengalis. They cannot accept from the bottom of their hearts the stoic ideal of Mahatma Gandhi. Rabindranath is the model of a Bengali. The Deccan has produced Shankara; Nanak and Surdas appeared in the North; but in the fertile soil of Bengal were born Sri Chaitanya, Chandidas and Ramprasad. The cult of devotion exists, no doubt, in other parts of India; but the cult of looking upon God as the Lover of the beloved devotee has blossomed only in Bengal. The worship of Kartikeya prevails in some parts; Sri Rama or Sita and Rama are worshipped in some parts. But the full significance of Radha's pining for Krishna has been appreciated only by the Bengalis. Mahadeva (Siva) has taken his abode in many places, but it is the Bengalis who have been mad over his consort, Gauri. The doctrine of Vedanta has spread all over and has absorbed all other doctrines, but the Bengali race has sought for a way of spiritual culture which transcends the injunctions of the Vedas. The worship of the Self is not enough. The worship of man, Sahaja Sadhana,has resulted from the genius of Bengal.

31.10 - East and West, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   No doubt, the East has moral codes and in profusion, but they are not considered to be the last word on spirituality; they all fall under the category of the 'Lesser Knowledge' (Apara Vidya) and therefore the East has not confined itself within the play of the lower - the three gunasof nature. Its gaze is fixed on a still higher region. Europe claims herself to be the follower of the Christ. But how has Christianity developed there? It was the Church martyr in the beginning, it developed into the Church militant which finally turned into the Church political. The Christian church aimed at establishing the kingdom of Heaven on earth, but as a matter of fact, it has succeeded in establishing something of an earthly kingdom only. On the other hand, the religion of the East has quite a different movement. The ideal of the East is represented by Vedic seers like Vasishtha and Viswamitra who sought to realise the great Heavens - the Vast Truth. And their descendants clung to this ideal so firmly that no other thing existed for them. Vasishtha and Viswamitra have been consummated in Buddha and Shankara. The West has brought religion down to the level of the mundane and is about to lose it there, while the East has pushed religion up and is at last on the verge of losing the world in the Brahman or the Void.
   Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon are the ideal men of action in the West, while Krishna, Arjuna and Bhishma are the representatives 'of the ideal of the East. The European heroes display daemoniac restlessness and exuberance. The Indian heroes possess the godly virtues of calmness and poise along with clear insight. Napoleon is a mighty Vibhuti of the Divine Power. But Sri Krishna is the Incarnation of God Himself Leaving aside some solitary exceptions, the West has generally failed to imbibe spirituality; even so the East has failed to assimilate the true spirit of earthly action. As in the West the Christ is practically buried in oblivion, so the East has somehow managed to wipe out the teachings of Sri Krishna. And, in consequence, the people of the East try to avoid action as much as possible in order to attain to union with God. The West moves in the diametrically opposite direction and tries to attain perfection in every sphere of work in the outer world. Typically, Haeckel was enthusiastic enough to devote his entire life to the discovery of the life-history of the cray fish. To plant a banner in the polar region has been the mission of many a youth in the West. The Eastern mind is apt to look upon these things as a mere child's play. The Eastern mind was never content until it could in some way or other associate even the inescapable mundane knowledge with the knowledge of the Self. The motto of the East runs: "Know the Self alone and cast aside all other thoughts."

32.07 - The God of the Scientist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The scientific intellect has thus reached a certain theism and the poet and the artist also have reached similar levels through different ways of approach. The aesthetic taste of the artist, the sense of intense delight in the beauty of the cosmic creation is not born of the intellect but is allied to it, and falls within the category of the mind - it is a thing that belongs to this side of the boundary of consciousness, which we have to cross to attain to the true spiritual world. The twilight consciousness is, as it were, on the border-line; it belongs in its rhythm, gesture, gait and expression still to this shore-land rather than the other, howsoever may the artist aspire for the shore beyond. No doubt, I speak of the creations of artists in general. There are rare artists whose creation embodies genuine spiritual experience and realisation. But that is a different matter - it concerns the purely spiritual art. Ordinary works of art do not belong to that category and derive their inspiration from a different source. With regard to philosophy something similar might be said. Most of the Indian philosophies, such as the philosophies of Shankara, Ramanuja, the sage Kapila and Patanjali are but intellectual expressions of different spiritual visions and realisations. If it be so, then is it not possible for science also to become a vehicle or expression of spiritual realisations? This may not have materialised up till now; generally or to a large degree perhaps an attempt of the kind was made in the line that is known as occultism, and which was called alchemy by the ancients, but the effort ended in a spurious system of rites and ceremonies. No doubt this knowledge, even at its best, falls short of the Higher Knowledge, Para Vidya; still there was a time when the Inferior Knowledge, Apara Vidya, was accepted as a stepping-stone to the Higher. "Exceeding death by A Vidya (Ignorance) one has to enjoy immortality through Vidya (Knowledge)" - "A Vidyaya mrtyum tirtva Vidyaya amrtam asnute."
   But whatever may have been the past, is there any possibility for the most materialistic science of to-day - the ultramundane knowledge - to become directly and integrally united with the supreme spiritual Knowledge? If there is any possibility, then wherein does it lie? We have elsewhere said that it will be possible only when we shall learn to collect data for scientific discoveries and to search after truth not only with our physical senses but also with subtler and inner senses, and those subtler and inner senses will wake up and become a part and parcel of our nature only when the outlook of the scientist will get liberated from its materialistic bias and allow itself to be widened, deepened and heightened and transformed on the way to its being finally established in the pure consciousness of the Soul and the Self.

33.07 - Alipore Jail, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   nanyah pantha Vidyate ayanaya.
   "I know this mighty Person resplendent as the sun, who stands beyond all darkness, by knowing whom alone one crosses beyond death; there is no other road for the great journey."

33.13 - My Professors, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   While speaking of my professors, I must not omit to mention our Pundit. This was a title given by the students to the teacher of Sanskrit in college as in school, no matter how big a professor he might be - as if to show that the feeling of distance created by English was not there in the case of Sanskrit. Our Pundit was Satischandra Vidyabhushan, who later became a Mahamahopadhyaya, an extremely courteous man, entirely modest, one who behaved as if he were an absolute "nobody". In his class the students had no fear or worry, no constraint, sometimes even no sense of propriety either. One day they said in class, "There is not going to be any reading today, sir; you had better tell us a story. You are familiar with the languages and histories and cultures of so many strange lands, please tell us something." Vidyabhushan was particularly learned in Pali and the Buddhist scriptures. Without a murmur he accepted the order of the boys. While talking of Pali and the Buddhists, he told us something about the Tibetans too. "What you call Darjeeling," he said, "is not a distorted version of Durjayalinga. Actually it is a transcription of a Tibetan word." He spelt out the word on the black-board, in the Tibetan script - it looked somewhat like Bengali - something like Dang-Sang-Ling, I cannot now exatly recall. On another occasion we had the chance to hear a conversation in Sanskrit in his class. The class was on, when one of the officials of the college entered the room with a Ceylonese monk. The monk wanted to meet the Pundit. They talked in Sanskrit. I only remember a single sentence of our professor, "ghatika-catustayam eva agacchatu bhavan,"Be pleased to come at four o'clock." The kindness and affection of our Pundit are still fresh in my mind. He was never afflicted by the weight of his learning, nor did it ever afflict us.
   Now to conclude: let me give you the scene of my final. parting with college, the professors and college life.

36.07 - An Introduction To The Vedas, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08, #unset, #Zen
   Besides, in the current commentaries on the Veda we come across explanations which are at places self-contradictory, inconsistent, lacking in clarity, fanciful and arbitrary. The same word has been used at different places to convey different meanings without any justification, and also at times the commentators have been constrained to keep silent or to confess that they could make neither head nor tail of a passage, a sentence or a word. For instance, the word ghrta (clarified butter) has been explained as jala (water) and the word water has been used for antariksa (ether) and the word vyoman (ether) has been interpreted as prthivi (earth). That is why in the interpretations of Sayana or Ramesh Dutta, in spite of their supplying synonyms of words, a passage taken as a whole appears to be quite odd, confusing and utterly meaningless. One is at a loss to know whether one should indulge in laughter or shed tears over such a performance. It may be argued that the Veda was written in a remote antiquity, hence much of its archaic language is not likely to be understood by men of the present age. It is enough on our part to be able to form a general idea of it. But when one has to resort to a makeshift hocus-pocus even for gathering this general idea, then it becomes quite clear that there must have been some serious blunder somewhere. If it were possible to get the general idea of the Veda quite easily, then all the interpreters would necessarily have pursued it. But unfortunately in the present age we find that besides the sacrificial and naturalistic interpretations there are historical (by Abinash Chandra Das), geographical (by Umesh Chandra Vidyaratna), astronomical (by Tilak), scientific (by Paramasiva Aiyar) and even an interpretation based on Chemistry (by Narayan Gaur) and so on and so forth. Many minds, many ways: nowhere else may this oft-quoted adage be so aptly applied as in the case of the multifarious interpretations of the Veda. A few portions of the Veda that had appealed to an interpreter most in accordance with his own bent of mind gave him the impetus to endeavour to interpret the whole of the Veda in that light. The result has been that the same sloka has been interpreted in ever so many ways. But none of these interpreters has even attempted interpreting the whole or the major portion of the Veda. From this we can dare conclude that the key to the proper interpretation of the Vedic mysteries has not hitherto been found. All are but groping in the dark.
   (2)

3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  aparardha or lower part of existence where Vidya is dominated
  by A Vidya; from the ananda to the sat is the parardha or higher
  half in which A Vidya is dominated by Vidya and there is no
  ignorance, pain or limitation.
  --
  utterly to the principle of Vidya, God's power of knowing His
  essential unity, we become subject to the Maya of Knowledge,
  --
  companion and playmate Vidya and at strife with that glorious
  friend and helper stumbles about among the appearances of the
  --
  symbol of Ananda, EvdT is Vidya, the higher knowledge; the
  sacrifice is the offering of the realised Ananda to the gods of
  --
  to the free unity consciousness proper to Vidya, achittim, vr.ijina,
  ditim to the multiple divided consciousness proper to A Vidya.
  --
  & being, the power of Vidya. They are the two dawns, the two
  agencies which prepare the manifestation of God in us, Night
  --
  Knowledge & Ignorance, Chittam & Achittam, Vidya & A Vidya,
  consciousness illumined in the form it has taken as in the seer,

4.22 - The supramental Thought and Knowledge, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The supermind can do all that the mind does, present and combine details and what might be called aspects or subordinate wholes, but it does it in a different way and on another basis. It does not like the mind bring In the element of deviation, false extension and imposed error, but even when it gives a partial knowledge, gives it in a firm and exact light, and always there is behind implied or opened to the consciousness the essential truth on which the details and subordinate wholes or aspects depend. The supermind has also a power of representation, but its representations are not of the intellectual kind, they are filled with the body and substance of light of the truth in its essence, they are its vehicles and not substituted figures. There is such an infinite power of representation of the supermind and that is the divine power of which the mental action is a sort of fallen representative. This representative supermind has a lower action in what I have called the supramental reason, nearest to the mental and into which the mental can most easily be taken up, and a higher action in the integral supermind that sees all things in the unity and infinity of the divine consciousness and self-existence. But on whatever level, it is a different thing from the corresponding mental action, direct, luminous, secure. The whole inferiority of the mind comes from its being the action of the soul after it has fallen into the nescience and the ignorance and is trying to get back to self-knowledge but doing it still on the basis of the nescience and the ignorance. The mind is the ignorance attempting to know or it is the ignorance receiving a derivative knowledge: it is the action of A Vidya. The supermind is always the disclosure of an inherent and self-existent knowledge; it is the action of Vidya.
  A second difference that we experience is a greater and a spontaneous harmony and unity. All consciousness is one, but in action it takes on many movements and each of these fundamental movements has many forms and processes. The forms and processes of the mind consciousness are marked by a disturbing and perplexing division and separateness of the mental energies and movements in which the original unity of the conscious mind does not at all or only distractedly appears. Constantly we find in our mentality a conflict or else a confusion and want of combination between different thoughts or a patched up combination and the same phenomenon applies to the various movements of our will and desire and to our emotions and feelings. Again our thought and our will and our feeling are not in a state of natural harmony and unison with each other, but act in their separate power even when they have to act together and frequently in conflict or to some degree at variance. There is too an unequal development of one at the expense of another. The mind is a thing of discords in which some kind of practical arrangement rather than a satisfying concord is established for the purposes of life. The reason tries to arrive at a better arrangement, aims at a better control, a rational or an ideal harmony, and in this attempt it is a delegate or substitute of the supermind and is trying to do what only the supermind can do in its own right: but actually it is not able wholly to control the rest of the being and there is usually a considerable difference between the rational or ideal harmony we create in our thoughts and the movement of the life. Even at the best the arrangement made by the reason has always in it something of artificiality and imposition, for in the end there are only two spontaneous harmonic movements, that of the life, inconscient or largely subconscient, the harmony that we find in the animal creation and in lower Nature, and that of the spirit. The human condition is a stage of transition, effort and imperfection between the one and the other, between the natural and the ideal or spiritual life and it is full of uncertain seeking and disorder. It is not that the mental being cannot find or rather construct some kind of relative harmony of its own, but that it cannot render it stable because it is under the urge of the spirit. Man is obliged by a Power within him to be the labourer of a more or less conscious self-evolution that shall lead him to self-mastery and self-knowledge.

7.14 - Modesty, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  In 1844 the Sanskrit College of Calcutta needed a teacher of grammar, and the post was offered to Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar.
  At that time he was earning fifty rupees a month, and in this new
  --
  Tarkavachaspati was a better grammar teacher than himself and he said so. So it was decided that his friend should take the post. Vidyasagar was very happy. He walked some distance from Calcutta to find his friend and tell him the news.
  Tarkavachaspati was struck by the noble modesty of the scholar and exclaimed, "You are not a man, Vidyasagar, but a god in human form!"
  * *

9.99 - Glossary, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
    a Vidyamaya: Maya, or illusion causing duality, has two aspects, namely, a Vidyamaya and Vidyamaya. A Vidyamaya, or the "maya of ignorance", consisting of anger, passion, and so on, entangles one in worldliness. Vidyamaya, or the "maya of knowledge", consisting of kindness, purity, unselfishness, and so on, leads one to liberation. Both belong to the relative world. See maya.
    a Vidyasakti: The power of ignorance.
  --
     Vidya: Knowledge leading to liberation, i.e., to the Ultimate Reality.
     Vidyadhari: Demigoddess.
     Vidyamaya: The "maya of knowledge." See a Vidyamaya.
     Vidyasagar, Iswar Chandra: A great educator and philanthropist of Bengal.
     Vidyasakti: Spiritual power.
    vija mantra: The sacred word with which a guru initiates his disciple.

BOOK II. -- PART I. ANTHROPOGENESIS., #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  Pandavas. It is from them that they learnt aeronautics, Viwan Vidya (the "knowledge of flying in airvehicles"), and, therefore, their great arts of meteorography and meteorology. It is from them, again,
  that the Aryans inherited their most valuable science of the hidden virtues of precious and other stones,
  --
  adepts of the Sacred Science and Vidya, are not a whit more doubtful than the so-called ancient history
  of the European nations, now edited, corrected, and amplified by half a century of archaeological

BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  Gupta Vidya (secret knowledge), as will be shown.
  SOMA is the moon astronomically; but in mystical phraseology, it is also the name of the sacred

BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  of a highly philosophical page in the World's Cosmogony. (See Book III., Gupta Vidya and the
  Zohar.) Left in their symbolical disguise, they are a nursery tale, an ugly thorn in the side of science
  --
  opposite paths: the RIGHT- and the LEFT-hand paths of knowledge or of Vidya. "Thus were the
  germs of the White and the Black Magic sown in those days. The seeds lay latent for some time, to
  --
  Kabala and the archaic esoteric Vidya, is very small indeed, being confined to unimportant
  divergences of form and expression. Thus Eastern occultism refers to our earth as the fourth world, the

BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
  with SOUND (or the Logos) at the upper end and the Vidyadharas* (the inferior Pitris) at the lower.
  [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
  --
  On page 405, the closing page, he speaks enthusiastically of the Vidyadharas, "the seven great legions
  of dead men made wise." Now, these " Vidyadharas," whom some Orientalists call "demi-gods," are in
  --
  named by the Atlanteans MASH-MAK, and by the Aryan Rishis in their Ashtar Vidya by a name that
  we do not like to give. It is the vril of Bulwer Lytton's "Coming Race," and of the coming races of our
  --
  balloon, according to the instructions found in Ashtar Vidya, reduced to ashes 100,000 men and
  elephants, as easily as it would a dead rat. It is allegorised in the Vishnu Purana, in the Ramayana and

r1913 11 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   A clear distinction must now be made between the Vidya-a Vidya-siddhi which is constituted by the seven chatusthayas & the higher Amrita in which all limitation is removed & Death, etc entirely cease. Only the first will in this life be entirely accomplished.
   1 & 2 Ch.

r1914 07 12, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   The obscuration of the sunlight is the cause. Always there must be the will for the illumination of the lower consciousness. Otherwise the devatas will persist in trying to perfect the A Vidya apart from the Vidya. They accept, as a lipi yesterday indicated, the light in the intellectuality, but wish to use it in the manner of the intellectuality. Their method of purification is to raise darkness & dissipate it; this can lead to no finality
   Lipi.

Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (text), #Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Krishna Goswamy, Devendra Nath Tagore, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee,
  Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Aswini Kumar Dutt and Girish Chandra Ghosh.
  --
  and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar by the profundity of his wisdom, and he could also bring himself to the
  intellectual level of the ignorant village woman who went to him to get the wounds of her heart healed,
  --
  4. Man is born in this world with two tendencies Vidya, the tendency to pursue the path of liberation,
  and A Vidya, the leaning towards worldliness and bondage. At his birth,
  --
  chooses the Spirit, the scale of Vidya becomes heavier and pulls him towards God.
  5. Know the One, and you will know the all. Ciphers placed after the figure 1 get the value of hundreds
  --
  62. In God there are both Vidya Maya and A Vidya Maya. The Vidya Maya takes man towards God,
  whereas the A Vidya Maya leads him astray. Knowledge, devotion, dispassion, compassionall these are
  expressions of Vidya Maya; only with their help can one reach God.
  36 Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna
  --
  because of it that the world continues. One reaches Him if one takes refuge in Vidya Maya that aspect
  of Divine Power having the preponderance of Sattva which leads one by the' right path. He alone
  --
  good of mankind. They keep the ego of Knowledge (the Aham of Vidya), which is the same as the higher
  Self. But this ego is a mere appearance. It is like a line drawn across water.
  --
  God. Sankaracharya kept the ego of Vidya (knowledge) for the purpose of teaching others.
  135. Hanuman was blessed with the vision of God both with form and without it (Sakara and Nirakara).
  --
  The Divine Sakti has two aspects Vidya and A Vidya. A Vidya deludes and is the mother of KaminiKanchana 'woman and gold'; and it binds. But Vidya is the source of devotion, kindness, knowledge and
  love, and it takes us towards God.
  --
  822. Sri Ramakrishna once said addressing Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, the great philanthropist of India:
  "Your nature is made of the Sattva i.e., the pure element which leads to illumination or true Knowledge.
  --
  certain that it is now composed of Vidya (purely divine elements) and not ignorance or A Vidya.
  918. When the question was raised whether the Buddha was an atheist, the Master said: "He was no
  --
  1004. In God there are both Vidya and A Vidya. The Vidya Maya takes man towards God, whereas the
  A Vidya Maya entices him away from the path of the Lord. Knowledge, devotion, dispassion, compassionall these are the expressions of the Vidya Maya; only with their help can one-reach God.
  But if you ascend one step higher, you attain Brahmajnana. In this state I feel-I actually see-that He has

Talks 500-550, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
  Explaining the opening stanza of Sad Vidya, Sri Bhagavan said: Sat
  (Being) is Chit (Knowledge Absolute); also Chit is Sat; what is, is only one. Otherwise the knowledge of the world and of one's own being will be impossible. It denotes both being and knowledge. However, both of them are one and the same. On the other hand, be it Sat only and not Chit also, such Sat will only be insentient (jada). In order to know it another Chit will be needed; such Chit being other than

Talks 600-652, #unset, #Anonymous, #Various
  Explaining the opening stanza of the Sad Vidya, Sri Bhagavan observed: The world is always apparent to everyone. All must know
  "I and this world exist". On enquiry "do these always exist?" and

Talks With Sri Aurobindo 2, #Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
  one of usunder an Anglo-Indian pundit. He used to teach us Vidyasagar.
  One day we hit upon a sentence of Bankim's and showed it to him. He began

The Riddle of this World, #unknown, #Unknown, #unset
  about Maya (Overmind-Force or Vidya-A Vidya), and took it for the
  supreme creative power. In so stopping short at what was still a halflight they lost the secret of transformation - even though the

WORDNET














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Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, South 24 Parganas -- School in Parganas, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, South Andaman -- School in South Andaman, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, South Garo Hills -- School in Baghmara, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, South Sikkim -- School in Sikkim, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Theog -- School in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Thiruvananthapuram -- School in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Thrissur -- School in Thrissur district, Kerala, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Una -- School in Una district, Himachal Pradesh, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Uttar Dinajpur -- School in Dalkhola, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Wayanad -- School in Wayanad district, Kerala, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, West Sikkim -- School in Sikkim, India
Wikipedia - Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Yanam -- School in Yanam district, India
Wikipedia - Jharkhand Vidhi Mahavidyalaya -- Law college in Jharkhand
Wikipedia - Kendriya Vidyalaya Karaikudi -- Co-aid education school in Tamil Nadu, India
Wikipedia - Kendriya Vidyalaya Pangode -- Secondary school in Thirumala, India
Wikipedia - Kendriya Vidyalaya Sivaganga -- Co-aid education school in Tamil Nadu, India
Wikipedia - Lakhimpur Kendriya Mahavidyalaya -- College in Assam
Wikipedia - List of films directed by Lal Jose featuring Vidyasagar -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Kendriya Vidyalayas -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools -- Indian school society
Wikipedia - Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith -- University in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Wikipedia - Mahavidya -- Group of ten Hindu goddesses
Wikipedia - Mandar Vidyapith Halt railway station -- Railway station in Bihar
Wikipedia - Mathukumalli Vidyasagar
Wikipedia - MET Rishikul Vidyalaya -- Mumbai, India Cambridge International School
Wikipedia - Muzaffar Ahmed Mahavidyalaya -- College in West Bengal
Wikipedia - Nabagram Vidyapith -- High school in Konnagar, India
Wikipedia - Nalanda Maha Vidyalaya, Elpitiya -- school in Elpitiya
Wikipedia - Netaji Mahavidyalaya -- College in West Bengal
Wikipedia - Netaji Satabarshiki Mahavidyalaya -- college in Ashoknagar, India
Wikipedia - Nivedita Vidyapith -- School in Kolkata, India
Wikipedia - Palashipara Mahatma Gandhi Smriti Vidyapith -- School in Nadia, West Bengal
Wikipedia - PaM-CM-1cavidya -- Five classes of knowledge of ancient India
Wikipedia - Panchmura Mahavidyalaya -- College in Panchmura, India
Wikipedia - Pritilata Waddedar Mahavidyalaya -- College in West Bengal
Wikipedia - Puras-Kanpur Haridas Nandi Mahavidyalaya -- College in Munsirhat, West Bengal, India
Wikipedia - Raiganj Surendranath Mahavidyalaya -- College in West Bengal
Wikipedia - Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur
Wikipedia - Ram Chandra Vidyabagish
Wikipedia - Roza Vidyadhar Deshpande -- Indian politician
Wikipedia - R. Vidyasagar Rao -- Indian politician
Wikipedia - Sai Vidya Institute of Technology -- Indian engineering college in Bangalore
Wikipedia - Samantha Vidyaratna -- Sri Lankan politician
Wikipedia - Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya
Wikipedia - Sardar Patel University -- University in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat
Wikipedia - Satish Chandra Vidyabhusan -- Bengali scholar
Wikipedia - Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya -- A High School in Ahmedabad, India
Wikipedia - Shree Agrasen Mahavidyalaya -- College in West Bengal
Wikipedia - Shri Keshavraj Vidyalaya, Latur -- School in Latur, Maharashtra, India
Wikipedia - Shri Ram Janki Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya -- Indian sanskrit post graduate college
Wikipedia - Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya -- Private university in Madhya Pradesh, India
Wikipedia - Srividya -- Indian actress
Wikipedia - Sri Viswa Viznana Vidya Adhyatmika Peetham
Wikipedia - Tara (Mahavidya) -- Hindu goddess, a form of Durga or Parvati
Wikipedia - Thapar Vidya Vihar -- High school located in the Kamalapuram area of Mangapet Mandal, Warangal district, Telangana.
Wikipedia - Ucchusma -- A Vidyaraja in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism
Wikipedia - Udayagiriya Vidyalaya -- Ancient provincial school in Sri Lanka
Wikipedia - Usha Vidyarthi -- Indian politician
Wikipedia - Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya -- Music school in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Wikipedia - Vidya Academy of Science and Technology
Wikipedia - Vidya Arankalle -- Indian virologist
Wikipedia - Vidya Balan -- Indian film actress
Wikipedia - Vidya Bal -- Indian writer (1937-2020)
Wikipedia - Vidya Beniwal -- Indian politician
Wikipedia - Vidyaben Shah -- Indian activist
Wikipedia - Vidya Bharati -- Indian chain of private schools
Wikipedia - Vidya Dehejia
Wikipedia - Vidyadhara
Wikipedia - Vidya Dhar Bajpai -- Indian politician
Wikipedia - Vidya Dhar Mahajan -- Indian historian, political scientist, and advocate
Wikipedia - Vidyadhar Shastri -- Indian poet
Wikipedia - Vidyadhiraja Tirtha -- Indian philosopher and Scholar
Wikipedia - Vidyadhisha Tirtha -- Indian philosopher and scholar
Wikipedia - Vidyakara -- Buddhist scholar
Wikipedia - Vidya (Knowledge)
Wikipedia - Vidyamala Burch -- Mindfulness teacher
Wikipedia - Vidya Malavade -- Indian actress
Wikipedia - Vidya Murthy -- Indian Kannada film and television actress
Wikipedia - Vidyananda (8th-century Jain monk)
Wikipedia - Vidyapati
Wikipedia - Vidya (philosophy) -- Valid knowledge which cannot be contradicted and true knowledge which is the knowledge of the self intuitively gained
Wikipedia - Vidya Pradeep -- Indian actress
Wikipedia - Vidya Rafika Toyyiba -- Indonesian sport shooter
Wikipedia - Vidyarambha
Wikipedia - Vidyaranya
Wikipedia - Vidyardhi -- Indian movie
Wikipedia - Vidyarthi (film) -- 1968 film by J. Sasikumar
Wikipedia - Vidyasagar College -- College in Kolkata, India
Wikipedia - Vidya Sagar Keshri -- Indian politician
Wikipedia - Vidyasagar Setu -- Cable-stayed toll bridge in West Bengal, India
Wikipedia - Vidyasagar University -- Public University in the state of West Bengal, India
Wikipedia - Vidya Sinha -- Indian actress
Wikipedia - Vidyavati
Wikipedia - Vidya Vox -- American YouTuber and singer
Wikipedia - Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya
Wikipedia - Vivekananda Vidya Mandir
Vidya Balan ::: Born: January 1, 1978; Occupation: Film actress;
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15992313-marana-vidyalayam
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79513.The_Eck_Vidya
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15460860.Ismita_Vidyananda_Om_Swami_Tandon
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16481370.Vidya_Krishnamurthi
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7940279.Vidyan_Ravinthiran
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/930069.Srividya_Natarajan
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Vidyadhara
Kheper - avidya -- 27
Kheper - Mahavidyas -- 50
auromere - vidyas-in-the-upanishads
auromere - vidyas-in-the-upanishads
auromere - vidyas-in-the-upanishads-part-2
auromere - vidyas-in-the-upanishads-part-2
auromere - meditation
selforum - savitri and sri vidya
Dharmapedia - Akhil_Bharatiya_Vidyarthi_Parishad
Dharmapedia - Arsha_Vidya_Gurukulam
Dharmapedia - Dayananda_Saraswati_(Arsha_Vidya
Dharmapedia - Ekal_Vidyalaya
Dharmapedia - Vidya_(philosophy
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/DavidYates
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Mahavidyas.jpg
https://allpoetry.com/Vidyapati
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/V/Vidyapati/index.html
https://anarchyonline.fandom.com/wiki/Sho-sa_"Vidyaraja"
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:021_Acala_Vidyaraja_(34343125994).jpg
Abhinava Vidyalaya, Pune
Abhinav Vidya Mandir
Acharya Sukumar Sen Mahavidyalaya
Acharya Vidyasagar
Adarsha Vidyalaya
Adarsha Vidya Mandir
Adarsh Vidya Kendra
Adarsh Vidyalaya Inter College
Adarsh Vidya Mandir
Adarsh Vidya Mandir, Bokaro
Addalaichenai Madhya Maha Vidyalayam
Adhyapak Jyotish Chandra Ghosh Balika Vidyalaya
Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
Aghorekamini Prakashchandra Mahavidyalaya
Ajay Vidyasagar
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
Al Azhar Maha Vidyalayam
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amtala Annadamani Balika Vidyalaya
Andhra Vidyalaya College
Aneesh Vidyashankar
Anula Vidyalaya
Arsha Vidya Gurukulam
Arya Mahila Mahavidyalaya
Ashish Vidyarthi
Assisi Vidyaniketan
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Vishwavidyalaya
Avidyamaya and vidyamaya
Bajkul Milani Mahavidyalaya
Baladeva Vidyabhushana
Balmohan Vidyamandir
Balvantray Mehta Vidya Bhawan ASMA
Balwant Rai Mehta Vidya Bhawan (Lajpat Nagar)
Bamanpukur Humayun Kabir Mahavidyalaya
Banasthali Vidyapith
Banga Mahila Vidyalaya
Barisha Sashibhusan Janakalyan Vidyapith
Bastar Vishwavidyalaya
Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya
Bharathi Vidya Bhavan
Bharati Vidyapeeth
Bharati Vidyapeeth's College of Engineering
Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering
Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Medical College and Hospital
Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute Of Management and Research
Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Technology
Bharati Vidyapeeth University Medical College
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Sri Venkateswara Vidyalaya
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Jubilee Hills
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Taliparamba
Bharat Vidyalaya, Akola
Bhavan's Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir
Bhavan's Lloyds Vidya Niketan
Bhavan's Rajaji Vidyashram
Bhavan's Sri RamaKrishna Vidyalaya
Bhavan's Tripura Vidya Mandir
Bhavan's Varuna Vidyalaya
Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, Eroor
Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, Girinagar
Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, Poochatty
Bhavans Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara
Bhavan Vidyalaya, Chandigarh
Bholanath Vidyapitha
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya
Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya
Birjhora Mahavidyalaya
Birla Balika Vidyapeeth
Birla Vishvakarma Mahavidyalaya
Bishop Moore Vidyapith
Bishop Moore Vidyapith, Cherthala
Bishop Moore Vidyapith, Kayamkulam
Bishop Moore Vidyapith, Mavelikkara
Bokaro Ispat Vidyalaya, Sector 9D
Brahmrishi Bawra Shanti Vidya Peeth, Udhampur
Bratachari Vidyasram
Budhi Ram Dubey Mahila Mahavidyalaya
Chaipat S.P.B. Mahavidyalaya
Chandrakona Vidyasagar Mahavidyalaya
Chandulal Chandrakar Patrakarita Avam Jansanchar Vishwavidyalaya
Charghat Milan Mandir Vidyapith
Chaudhary Charan Singh Mahavidyalaya
Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya
Chennupati Vidya
Cheppadividya
Chhattisgarh Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya
Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Bokaro
Chinmaya Vidyalayas
CVidya
C. Vidyasagar Rao
Davidyan
Dayananda Saraswati (Arsha Vidya)
Debra Thana Sahid Kshudiram Smriti Mahavidyalaya
Deshabandhu Vidyalaya
Deulpota Bhagbat Balika Vidyalaya
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya
Devi Balika Vidyalaya
Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya
Dharmapala Vidyalaya
Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram
Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth
Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Satabarshiki Mahavidyalaya
Dr. Nalli Kuppuswami Vivekananda Vidyalaya Junior College
Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth
Dr. (Sow.) Indirabai Bhaskarrao Pathak Mahila Kala Mahavidyalaya
Dr. Vidya
Durga Mahavidyalaya, Raipur
Ehalape Vidyaraja Maha Vidyalaya
Ekal Vidyalaya
Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan, Banaras Hindu University
Fyodor Vidyayev
Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College
Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering
Ghatal Rabindra Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya
Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya
Gothami Kanishta Vidyalaya
Gour Mahavidyalaya
Gujarat Vidyapith
Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya
Gurukula Vidya Peeth
G. Vidyaraj
Gyanodaya Sarva Mangalam Vidya Mandir
Hamsavahini Vidyalaya
Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya
Hemchand Yadav Vishwavidyalaya
Hindu Vidyapith
Hingalganj Mahavidyalaya
Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya
Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar College
Jagatpur Rukmini Vidyamandir
Jaipuria Vidyalaya
Janajyoti Vidyamandir
Janardan Rai Nagar Rajasthan Vidyapeeth
Jatindra Rajendra Mahavidyalaya
Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya
Jawaharlal Nehru Rajkeeya Mahavidyalaya, Port Blair
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Ahmednagar
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Amroha
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bagudi
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Bahraich
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bankura
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Belpada
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bhogaon
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Canacona
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Chendayadu
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Cooch Behar
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, East Sikkim
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Gajanur
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Jaswantpura
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Jojawar
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Jorhat
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kanpur
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kanpur Dehat
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Karauli
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Khawzawl
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kodagu
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Lahaul and Spiti
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Narla
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Nizamsagar
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Pailapool
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Paota, Jaipur
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Raichur
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Saharanpur
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Theog
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Veleru
Jawahar Vidya Mandir
Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women's University
J.H. Ambani Saraswati Vidyamandir
Kadi Sarva Vishwavidyalaya
Kailash Rai Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Jhumri Telaiya
Kanoria PG Mahila Mahavidyalaya
Karampon Shanmuganatha Maha Vidyalayam
Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya
Kautilya Government Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya
Kegalu Vidyalaya
Kendriya Vidyalaya
Kendriya Vidyalaya Adoor
Kendriya Vidyalaya (AFS)
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballia
Kendriya Vidyalaya Bamrauli
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bantalab
Kendriya Vidyalaya BEML Nagar
Kendriya Vidyalaya Bolarum
Kendriya Vidyalaya Cossipore
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Dewas
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ernakulam
Kendriya Vidyalaya Ganeshkhind
Kendriya Vidyalaya Guna, Madhya Pradesh
Kendriya Vidyalaya Hebbal, Bangalore
Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Powai
Kendriya Vidyalaya Indian Institute of Science
Kendriya Vidyalaya INS Mandovi
Kendriya Vidyalaya Karwar
Kendriya Vidyalaya Maharajganj
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Malappuram
Kendriya Vidyalaya Maligaon
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Malleswaram
Kendriya Vidyalaya Mankhurd
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Mati
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, Bhubaneswar
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, Ishapore
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1, Jalandhar Cantonment
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 Kanchrapara
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 2
Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 2, Vizag
Kendriya Vidyalaya, NTPC Dibiyapur
Kendriya Vidyalaya Pangode
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Raebareli
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Rajgarh
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Rayagada
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sunjuwan
Kendriya Vidyalaya Tehran
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Tenga Valley
Keshav Mahavidyalaya
Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam
Kularathna Maha Vidyalaya
Kundan Vidya Mandir, Ludhiana
Lingaya's Vidyapeeth
List of awards and nominations received by Vidya Balan
List of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas
List of Kendriya Vidyalayas
L. P. Vidyarthi
Madhuban Goenka Vidyalaya
Madhya Vidyalaya
Mahadevananda Mahavidyalaya
Maharishi Panini Sanskrit Evam Vedic Vishwavidyalaya
Maharishi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan
Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya
Mahatma Gandhi Centenary Vidyalaya
Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday Vishwavidyalaya
Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith
Mahavidya
Mahila Maha Vidyalaya
Maliyadeva Adarsha Maha Vidyalaya
Mata Gujri Mahila Mahavidyalaya
Matara Janadipathi Vidyalaya
Meesalai Veerasingam Maha Vidyalayam
Nabagram Vidyapith
Nabarup Jatiya Vidyapith
Nagarjuna Vidyaniketan
Nalanda Maha Vidyalaya
Nandapur Milani Balika Vidyaniketan
National Backward Krushi Vidyapeet Solapur
Navrachna Vidyani
Nelliady Madhya Maha Vidyalayam
Nelson Davidyan
Netaji Mahavidyalaya
Netaji Subhash Vidyaniketan
Nethi Vidya Sagar
Nivedita Vidyapith
Nutan Vidyalaya Education Society
Panchagni Vidya
Parle Tilak Vidyalaya Association
Pingla Thana Mahavidyalaya
Pritilata Waddedar Mahavidyalaya
Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Sanatan Dharma Vidyalaya
Radhadamodar Sanskrit Vidyapeeth
Raghumal Arya Vidyalaya
Rajakeeya Maha Vidyalaya, Telijjawila
Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya
Rajhans Vidyalaya
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya
Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya
Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi
Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Coimbatore
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia
Ram Chandra Saha Balika Vidyalaya
Ramkrishna Mahavidyalaya
Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya
Ranpokunagama Maha Vidyalaya
Rashtriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
Rathnavali Balika Vidyalaya, Gampaha
Roza Vidyadhar Deshpande
R. Vidyasagar Rao
R. Vidyasagar Rao Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme
Sabang Sajanikanta Mahavidyalaya
Sadvidya Pathashala
Sagardighi Kamada Kinkar Smriti Mahavidyalaya
Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya
Samantha Vidyaratna
Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya
Sanghamitta Balika Vidyalaya
Sankrail Anil Biswas Smriti Mahavidyalaya
Santal Bidroha Sardha Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya
Sant Pathik Vidyalaya
Saraswathy Vidyalaya
Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir (Dhurwa)
Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir Telo
Saraswati Vidya Mandir
Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College, Barabanki
Saraswati Vidya Mandir (Rourkela)
Saraswati Vidyardhi
Sardar Patel Mahavidyalaya, Chandrapur
Sardar Patel Vidyalaya
Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya
Seemanta Mahavidyalaya, Jharpokharia
Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya
Shankardev Shishu Vidya Niketan Bhuragaon
Shankarrao Butte Patil Vidyalaya , Junnar
Shashi Kant Singh Mahavidyalaya
Shastar Vidya
Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya
Shiv Ganga Vidya Mandir
Shree Agrasen Mahavidyalaya
Shree Hareshwar Vidyalaya
Shri Bhairavnath Vidya Mandir, Pabal
Shri Dhokeshwar Mahavidyalaya
Shri Keshavraj Vidyalaya, Latur
Shri Nehru Maha Vidyalaya College of Arts & Sciences
Shri Vidya
Sibpur S.S.P.S Vidyalaya
Smt. Ramkuwar Devi Fomra Vivekananda Vidyalaya
Sree Chaitanya Mahavidyalaya
Sree Ramkrishna Silpa Vidyapith
Sree Sankara Vidyapeetam
Sri Aurobindo Vidyamandir, Chandannagar
Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya
Sri Jayawardenepura Maha Vidyalaya
Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam
Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala
Sri Ram Dayal Khemka Vivekananda Vidyalaya Junior College
Sri Ramkrishna Sarada Vidyamahapith
Sri Shariputhra Maha Vidyalaya
Sri Sumangala College - Moratu Maha Vidyalaya Cricket Encounter
Sri Sumedha Maha Vidyalaya, Malimbada
Srividya
St. Agnes Balika Maha Vidyalaya
Subarnarekha Mahavidyalaya
Subhash Chandra Mahavidyalaya
Sujatha Vidyalaya
Sukumar Sengupta Mahavidyalaya
Sumandeep Vidyapeeth
Tagore Vidyaniketan, Taliparamba
Tara (Mahavidya)
Thapar Vidya Vihar
Thuya Joseph Vaz Maha Vidyalayam
Tiljala Brajanath Vidyapith
Tufanganj Mahavidyalaya
Tunga Mahavidyalaya
Urumuththa Almeda Maha Vidyalaya
Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya
Vaitheeswara Vidyalayam
Vallabh Vidyanagar
Vani Vidyalaya
Vasant Kanya Mahavidyalaya
Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth
Vasthuvidya Gurukulam
Velautham Maha Vidyalayam
Vidya
Vidya Academy of Science and Technology Technical Campus
Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur
Vidyaarthi
Vidya Balan
Vidya Bharati
Vidyabhushana
Vidya Charan Shukla
Vidyadhara
Vidya Dhar Bajpai
Vidyadhar Johrapurkar
Vidyadhar Oke
Vidyadhar Shastri
Vidyadhar Vyas
Vidyadhisha Tirtha
Vidyajyoti College of Theology
Vidyakara
Vidyaloka College
Vidya Malavade
Vidyanagar
Vidyananda (8th-century Jain monk)
Vidyananda College
Vidyananthan Ramanadhan
Vidya Niwas Mishra
Vidyapathi
Vidyapati
Vidyapati (film)
Vidya (philosophy)
Vidya Pillai
Vidya Prasarak Mandal's Polytechnic
Vidya Rafika Toyyiba
Vidyaranya
Vidyaranyapura
Vidyaranyapuram
Vidyarthi Bhavan
Vidyarthi (film)
Vidyasagar
Vidyasagar College
Vidyasagar College for Women
Vidyasagar (composer)
Vidyasagar discography
Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neuro and Allied Sciences
Vidyasagar Setu
Vidyasagar Teachers' Training College, Midnapore
Vidyasagar University
Vidya Shah
Vidyashilp Academy
Vidya Subramaniam
Vidya Vardhaka College of Engineering
Vidya Vathi
Vidyavati
Vidyavihar
Vidya Vihar Institute of Technology
Vidya Vikas Academy, Goa
Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering & Technology
Vidya Vox
Vidyayevo
Vikas Vidyalaya
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Savitri -- Savitri extended toc
Savitri Section Map -- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
authors -- Crowley - Peterson - Borges - Wilber - Teresa - Aurobindo - Ramakrishna - Maharshi - Mother
places -- Garden - Inf. Art Gallery - Inf. Building - Inf. Library - Labyrinth - Library - School - Temple - Tower - Tower of MEM
powers -- Aspiration - Beauty - Concentration - Effort - Faith - Force - Grace - inspiration - Presence - Purity - Sincerity - surrender
difficulties -- cowardice - depres. - distract. - distress - dryness - evil - fear - forget - habits - impulse - incapacity - irritation - lost - mistakes - obscur. - problem - resist - sadness - self-deception - shame - sin - suffering
practices -- Lucid Dreaming - meditation - project - programming - Prayer - read Savitri - study
subjects -- CS - Cybernetics - Game Dev - Integral Theory - Integral Yoga - Kabbalah - Language - Philosophy - Poetry - Zen
6.01 books -- KC - ABA - Null - Savitri - SA O TAOC - SICP - The Gospel of SRK - TIC - The Library of Babel - TLD - TSOY - TTYODAS - TSZ - WOTM II
8 unsorted / add here -- Always - Everyday - Verbs


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last updated: 2022-05-01 18:57:36
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