Term List Flashcards
Darshan
Literally means “seeing.”
In Hindu rituals it usually refers to “religious seeing” or visual perception of the sacred.
Hindu often go to “see” the image of deity present in the sanctum of the temple.
Hindu goes more when the images are more beautifully adorned with fresh flowers and can be fully visible.
The word Darshan sometimes translates to “auspicious sight” of the divine.
Looking through the eyes is considered to be a blessing of the divine.
Nirguna/Saguna
Nirguna is qualityless.
Saguna is with qualities.
Relates to the tradition and the meaning of one Brahman.
Nama/ Rupa
Nama means Name.
Rupa means form.
“Nama Rupa” is common phrase often describing the visible and changing world of Samsara and multiple world of Gods.
The idea of one reality and that names and forms are different.
Sadhu/ Sannyasin
Sadhu means holy men.
Sannyasin means renouncers.
Swami Karpatri is a well known Sannyasin.
Sadhu and Sannyasin are held esteem in the Hindu culture.
Sadhu gives themselves to be seen by villagers
Mudra
Deities that have multiple arms with each hand having emblem or a weapon, posed in a gesture.
These gestures indicate the various powers that belong to deity.
Mantra
A sacred sound or chant.
An aid to meditation
Kumkum
A type or red powder that is written on stone
Puja
The act of worship ie ringing the bells, offering of oil lamps, presentation of flowers, pouring of water/milk, sipping sanctified liquid offerings and eating of consecrated food.
Devotional worship – worship and honor.
Linga/ Yoni
linga is best known of India’s aniconic images.
Linga often referred to as phallic symbol and for European travelers/missionaries saw it as unmistakable likeness of phallus.
Linga often evoked the strongest feeling of moral outrage.
Linga has 2 parts; a vertical stone shaft (Male counter part Shiva), Circular horizontal base which is Yoni or Pitha (Female Counter part Sakti)
Yantra
literally means a “device” for harnessing the eye and the mind focusing on one point.
Fundamental to meditation
Murti
defined in Sanskrit as anything that has a definite shape and limits.
Can be a form, body, figures, embodiment, incarnation and manifestation.
Deity has taken form
Bhakti
In a way I do I love them or share myself with them ie gestures of humility.
Prasada
Sanctified food offerings.
Avatara
Counterpart of Tirtha.
Comes from a variation of the tirtha verbal root (ava + tr) meaning to cross down from one world to another.
Tirtha
Not only refers to places but may refer to people more specifically holy people who have become crossing – sacred fords or crossing
Pitha
The benches or seats of the divine.
Mandala
symbolic diagram used in the performance of sacred rites and as an instrument of meditation
Orientalism
The seperation of East from the West
Based on ideas of differing existences from colonizers
Vedas
1500BCE, Rituals of Fire
Upanishads
600 BCE, Yogis and Tapas
Puranas
300BCE-1000CE, Stories , Good/Evil
Indra
Ancient Vedic deity in Hinduism. He is the king of Svarga (Heaven) and the Devas (gods). He is associated with lightning, thunder, storms, rains, river flows and war.
Brahma
First God, Creates the world
Karma
The universal causal law by which good or bad actions determine the future modes of an individual’s existence.
Dharma
Duty
Samsara
The concept of rebirth
Moksha
Being release from the cycle of rebirth ie samsara
Mandala
a geometric map of the cosmos.
The 8 directions are guarded by the cosmic regents (Lokapalas).
