Definitions

Question 0

MÁYÁ

Answer 0

Cosmic illusion, endured by man as long as he is blinded by ignorance (avidyá).

Máyá is the mysterious process that engenders and maintains the cosmos and, in so doing, makes possible the “eternal return” of existence”.

Question 1

KARMA

Answer 1

The law of universal causality, which connects man with the cosmos and condemns him to transmigration indefinitely.

Question 2

Átman, Brahman, Nirvána

Pure BEING, the SELF, the ABSOLUTE, the indestructible, unconditioned, immortal, transcendent ….

Answer 2

Absolute reality, somewhere beyond the “cosmic illusion” woven by máyá, and beyond human experience as conditioned by karma

Question 3

YÔGA

Answer 3

The means of attaining BEING, the effectual techniques for gaining liberation. The corpus of means constitutes YÔGA properly speaking.

Any strictly practical methodology which leads to samadhi

Question 4

DARŚANA

Answer 4

View, vision, point of view (not precisely a a system of philosophy in the Western sense)

A system of coherent affirmations, coextensive with human experience which attempts to interpret in its entirety, with its aim as the “liberation of man from ignorance”

Question 5

Srsti

Answer 5

Creation

Question 6

PURUSA, ÁTMAN

Answer 6

Self

Question 7

Shruti

Answer 7

Knowledge passed down by word of mouth, before writing

Question 8

Smriti

Answer 8

Knowledge transmitted in a written text

Question 9

Prakrti

Answer 9

Matter

Question 10

ONTOLOGICAL

Answer 10

adj.

1. Of or relating to ontology.
2. Of or relating to essence or the nature of being.
3. Of or relating to the argument for the existence of God holding that the existence of the concept of God entails the existence of God.

Question 11

TELEOLOGICAL

Answer 11

1. The study of design or purpose in natural phenomena.
2. The use of ultimate purpose or design as a means of explaining phenomena.
3. Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in nature or history.

Question 12

BUDDHI

Answer 12

Intellect or intelligence

Question 13

GUNAS

Answer 13

Modes of being as they relate to Prakrti

Sattva, rajas, tamas

Question 14

SATTVA

Answer 14

Modality of luminosity and intelligence

Question 15

RAJAS

Answer 15

Modality of motor energy and mental activity

Question 16

TANMĀTRAS

Answer 16

sound, touch, form, taste, and odor or smell

The subtle elements

Question 17

PARINĀMA

Answer 17

Development of what exists

Question 18

MAHAT

Answer 18

Total material existence

Question 19

IŚVARAKRSNA

Answer 19

Author of the Sāmkhya-kārikā

Question 20

TAMAS

Answer 20

Modality of static inertia (ovjective) and psychic obscurity -darkness of consciousness (subjective)

Question 21

AHAMKÁRA

Answer 21

Evolution of an initial stage of nature or “ego”