existence Flashcards
What is prakriti?
Matter, can be seen or touched
- some believe the two realities exist separately and spirit must conquer matter, others believe spirit and matter are needed together for the universe to be complete and creation to be fufilled
- referring to everything that exists in the physical universe.
Prakriti has three qualities or stages, called the three gunas (or trigunas)
What are the trigunas?
‘created’, ‘remaining’ and ‘destroyed’.
Hindus believe that all nature will go through the three gunas, or stages.
Everything is first created, then remains for a time and is then destroyed.
- Hindu understandings of time are cyclical, or not in a straight line, so this universe is seen as one of many.
What is maya?
The illusion of the material world
What are the four cycles of time?
The four yugas, each getting shorter and more corrupt
- gold yuga, longest
- silver yuga
- bronze yuga
- iron yuga
What is Hindu cosmology?
- based on cyclical idea of time
- worlds and new bodies are continually being recreated so that the atman can continue its journey to moksha
creation is seen as a continuous process - universe is one of many bubbles floating in space
- three tiers of the universe, heavenly planets, earthly realm and the lower worlds
What is a loka?
The ancient Hindu word loka means the realms of the universe – all that is real.
- Hindus believe that the material world is not ‘all that is’.
They believe there is a spiritual reality that is bigger or perhaps ‘more real’ than what can be seen, heard and touched:
What is purusha
Some Hindus describe Purusha as the urge or spirit that caused our universe to come into being.
Who is Kalki?
The final avatar of Vishnu, who will ride a white horse and kill off the remaining evil and evil doers in the world and bring the birth of another golden age, so a new cycle of time starts
