Vismaya is a Sanskrit word that means "surprise."
Hasta - A hand gesture (hasta) in Indian dance, sculpture,
and ritual in which the forearm and fingers point upward with the back of the
hand turned toward the spectator.
This hasta is used to express any kind of surprise, such as
amazement and astonishment.
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Prana is
the collective name for the five internal winds that are said to be responsible
for all human physiological functions.
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Nirmala Devi (b. 1923), a contemporary Hindu guru, formed this religious organization to spread her teachings over the globe.
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At the Vishvanath
temple in Benares, the deity Shiva appears in his manifestation as the
"Lord of the Universe." Shiva is represented in Vishvanath with a
linga, a pillar-shaped image that represents Shiva's symbolic form; the
Vishvanath linga is one of Shiva's twelve jyotirlingas, a network of locations
thought extremely important to Shiva and where Shiva is uniquely present.
Benares, also known as Varanasi, is one of India's most holy
towns; it is especially dedicated to Shiva, with Vishvanath being the most
significant of all the Shiva temples there.
The original temple was destroyed by the Moghul emperor
Aurangzeb, who built a mosque on the site, and the only part of the original
temple that has survived is the Gyan Vapi ("well of knowledge"), into
which the original Shiva linga was reportedly cast (to prevent it from being
desecrated by Aurangzeb's soldiers).
The original temple was established in 1776 on a location
next to the pre-sent temple by the Maratha queen Ahalya Bai Holkar.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore eventually covered the
temple in gold, earning it the moniker "Golden Temple." Even in
previous centuries, the closeness of the Vishvanath temple and Aurangzeb's mosque
made for tense relations between the Hindu and Muslim populations, and Benares,
like many other northern Indian towns, has seen its share of bloodshed.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu activist group
pushing for the "return" of this and other northern Indian landmarks
by force if necessary, has recently taken up the demolition of the old
Vishvanath temple as a political issue.
The existence and activities of the VHP have heightened
tensions between Hindus and Muslims in general.
Given the political benefits that these confrontational
techniques have yielded, it is probable that they will continue in the future,
and that the Vishvanath temple will remain a focus of strife.
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Based on the literal
meaning of the word ("all the gods"), this name might be interpreted
as referring to all gods, or it can refer to a group of deities known as the
sons of Vishva, the celestial sage Daksha's daughter.
The number of sons varies across manuscripts and is either
10 or thirteen.
Although the Manu Smrti, one of the most important
scriptures in the dharma literature, requires daily gifts to the Vishvedevas,
they are especially venerated during memorial services for the deceased known
as shraddhas.
They are claimed to have received these daily offerings as a
reward for performing exceptionally severe asceticism.
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The vishuddha chakra is one of the six psychic centers
(chakras) thought to exist in the subtle body, according to several schools of
yoga and tantra, a hidden, ritually oriented religious practice.
The subtle body is a separate physiological system that is
thought to exist on a different level than coarse matter yet has some
similarities to it.
It's depicted as a group of six mental centers joined by
three vertical channels and shaped like multipetaled lotus flowers flowing
approximately along the spine's route.
Each of these chakras has significant symbolic associations,
including varying human capacities, subtle components (tanmatras), and seed
syllables (bijaksharas) constructed from Sanskrit alphabet letters, embracing
all holy sound.
Shiva (consciousness) and Shakti (power), the two divine
principles through which the whole cosmos came into existence, have physical
abodes above and below these centers.
The homology of macrocosm and microcosm, a key Hindu notion
from the time of the mystical scriptures known as the Upanishads, is therefore
the basic premise underpinning this concept of the subtle body.
The vishuddha chakra is the fifth of the six chakras, which are
generally numbered from the bottom up.
It resembles a sixteen-petaled lotus and is found in the
neck area.
Each of the petals has a seed phrase made up of a letter
from the Sanskrit alphabet, in this instance all sixteen Sanskrit vowels, which
are necessary linking factors in any meaningful speech.
The vishuddha chakra is linked to the human ability to speak
and breathe on a symbolic level.
It is also said to be the physical seat of the subtle
element of space (akasha), through which hearing is thought to occur.
See Arthur Avalon's (Sir John Woodroffe's) Shakti and Shakta
(1978) and Philip S. Rawson's The Art of Tantra (1973) for further details.
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Vishva Hindu Parishad is a Hindu religious organization based in India.
(VHP) Modern Hindu religious group connected with the
Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a conservative Hindu organization whose
avowed mission is to produce the leadership cadre for a rejuvenated Hindu
India.
When RSS leader Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar met with a group
of Hindu religious leaders in Bombay in 1964, the VHP was created.
Their immediate concern was Pope Paul VI's planned visit to
India, which they saw as a covert effort to convert Hindus to Christianity,
which they intended to combat by founding an organization committed to Hinduism
propagation.
With little fanfare and little influence on public
perception, the VHP concentrated its concentration for the next fifteen years
on opposing Christian missionary operations in northeastern India.
The conversion of some untouchables to Islam in the Tamil
Nadu hamlet of Minakshipuram in 1982 was a watershed moment in the VHP's public
image.
The VHP seized on this widely reported incident as proof
that Hindu identity was in jeopardy, and responded by undertaking a series of inventive
public activities, first in Tamil Nadu and then throughout the country.
The VHP's resurgence coincided with the RSS's shift toward
activism, as well as the BJP's decision to adopt a more militantly Hindu
character.
Many of the VHP's national campaigns coincided with national
or state elections, and many of them were concentrated on the effort to erect a
temple to the deity Rama in the city of Ayodhya, at the alleged birthplace of
Rama.
The intended temple location was occupied by the Babri Masjid,
a Muslim mosque erected after the ancient Rama temple was demolished, according
to the VHP.
As a result, the temple campaign evoked strong memories of
historical persecution as well as the boldness of a resurgent Hindu identity.
The VHP's political involvement has helped the BJP become
the dominant political party in most of northern India.
Throughout India, the VHP's advocacy has evoked a wide range
of feelings.
Proponents refer to the organization's long history of
charitable work and its role in strengthening and defining modern Hindu
identity.
Detractors object to the RSS's disdain for legal
formalities, as was shown by the destruction of the Babri Masjid in December
1992, as well as its sometimes caustic anti-Muslim rhetoric and, despite its
unique institutional identity, its ultimate control by the RSS.
Others have chastised the VHP for seeking to define and
regulate the character of "Hinduism" by declaring some
"necessary" Hindu practices as antithetical to Hindu heritage.
Other opponents reject the VHP's claim to speak for all
Hindus, pointing out that its genuine authority resides in the hands of
brahmins and other privileged castes; these critics perceive the VHP as an
organization meant to hide its true objective, which is to maintain upper-class
power and privilege.
For more information, see Walter K. Andersen and Shridhar D. Damle's The Brotherhood in Saffron (1987); James Warner Björkman's Fundamentalism, Revivalists, and Violence in South Asia (1988); Tapan Basu et alKhaki .'s Shorts and Saffron Flags (1993); Lise McKean's Divine Enterprise (1996); and Christophe Jaffrelot's The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (1996).
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Vishvakarma is a Sanskrit term that literally refers to a cycle of good and bad deeds ("doing everything") is a phrase that is used to describe a person who does everything.
It also variably refers to a Universal Worker or Builder capable of various constructions or creations.
Vishvakarma is more significantly the name of a minor Vedic and Hindu deity who is the architect of the gods, the
designer of many handicrafts, decorations, and weapons, the best sculptor, and
the inventor of the gods' airborne chariots.
He is the patron and model for all skilled trades involving
the shaping and shaping of materials, and he is credited with establishing the
canons for carving godly pictures.
Sanjna, Vishvakarma's daughter, is married to Surya, the
sun, but she cannot stand to be with him because of the sun's splendor,
according to one account.
Vishvakarma brings the sun to his studio and reduces his
radiance to a level that Sanjna can tolerate.
He then carves the sun's cut-off fragments into Vishnu's
discus (Sudarshana), Shiva's trident (trishul), numerous heavenly weapons, and
the Pushpak Viman, the most renowned of the airborne chariots.
In the Vedas, the earliest Hindu sacred books, Vishvakarma
is frequently mistaken for Tvashtr, the god's workman.
Despite this, it seems that they are two distinct gods who
have been homologized by their same role.
Tvashtr's name means "maker of carriages," and it
seems that this was his major duty, but he is also known for manufacturing
godly weapons, including the mace with which the storm-god Indra slays the
snake Vrtra.
Nonetheless, his name seems to imply that his primary role
is the construction of carriages, which is seen to be quite crucial in a Vedic
religious literature, since numerous Vedic songs reference the usage of war
chariots.
Vishvakarma, on the other hand, has a considerably broader
set of abilities, implying that the two deities are not the same.
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One of the Seven
Sages in Hindu mythology, whose names denote exogamous clan
"lineages" (gotra; exogamous clans allow members to marry outside
their own clan); the others are Gautama, Bharadvaja, Kashyapa, Bhrgu, Atri, and
Vasishtha.
All brahmins are said to be descended from these seven
sages, with each family receiving their progenitor's name as their gotra name.
Marriage inside the gotra is outlawed in contemporary times,
thus these gotra divides are still crucial.
The new bride takes on her husband's gotra as part of her
new identity after their marriage.
Vishvamitra is most well-known for his long-running quarrel
with the sage Vasishtha, which has resulted in several battles.
The rivalry arises because of the kshatriyas and brahmins'
differing social position.
Vishvamitra is a king who visits the woodland ashram of the
brahmin Vasishtha with a contingent of retainers.
Vishvamitra is astounded by Vasishtha's cow, the Kama dhenu's
capacity to feed everyone when he requests food.
Vishvamitra attempts to purchase the Kamadhenu first, then
tries to seize it by force, but Vasishtha's tapas defeats his henchmen (ascetic
practices).
Vishvamitra acknowledges defeat and undertakes ascetic
activities in order to generate his own strength.
Two of their most famous fights are over King Trishanku and
his son, Harishchandra; in both cases, the actual problem is the sages' mutual
hatred.
Marriage bans may also be referred to in this context.
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Vishnu meaning the “all-pervasive” in Sanskrit, is one among the three most powerful deities in the Hindu pantheon, with Brahma, Shiva and the Goddess.
All three are significant for being largely unmentioned in
the Vedas, the oldest Hindu religious books, and their rise, as well as the
progressive eclipse of the Vedic gods, indicates a marked change in Hindu
religious life.
Vishnu is the one who appears most often in the Vedas among
the three.
Many hymns that mention him refer to him as a helper to
Indra, the major Vedic deity, and one of Vishnu's epithets is Upendra
("junior Indra").
He also appears as an autonomous actor in certain late
hymns, linked with wonderful works for the benefit of the cosmos, such as
measuring out the universe in three steps.
Vishnu is also linked to the sun, both in terms of his
ability to travel through the skies and his ability to fall on (and therefore
"observe") everything.
Vishnu is the sustainer or maintainer of the universe,
according to the holy trinity of Brahma Vishnu-Shiva.
Vishnu is pictured reclining on the back of his serpent
couch, Shesha, in the primordial ocean at the moment of cosmic disintegration
in one of the most prominent creation myths (pralaya).
Vishnu's navel produces a lotus, which opens to reveal
Brahma, the creator, who starts the creation process.
When the time comes for disintegration, the whole process
reverses, and the cosmos is pulled back into Vishnu, who is therefore
considered as the source of everything.
The cosmos is also sustained by Vishnu's avatars or
incarnations, who come into the world to restore balance to a universe that has
been dangerously out of balance, generally as a result of an out of proportionally
powerful demon.
There are 10 avatars as far as we know.
The Fish avatar, Tortoise avatar, Boar avatar, and Man-Lion
avatar are the first four in nonhuman forms.
The other six are in human form, frequently as sages or
heroes: Vamana avatar, Parashuram avatar, Rama avatar, Krishna avatar, Buddha
avatar, and Kalki avatar.
In each of these instances, Vishnu takes on a physical form
in order to avoid tragedy and preserve the cosmos' purity.
The theory of the avatars served as a means of assimilating
existing deities into the broader pantheon while still granting them distinct
status.
Although most of the avatars are no longer objects of
devotion (the Boar and Man-Lion avatars each had a significant following early
in the common period), Rama and Krishna's adoration has entirely exceeded that
of Vishnu himself in most of northern India.
Vishnu is still revered throughout southern India,
especially among Shrivaishnavas.
Apart from the avatar idea, notable local deities like as
Jagannath, Venkateshvara, and Vithoba have all been absorbed into the pantheon
as manifestations of Vishnu.
Vaishnavas and Shaivas established sectarian rivalry in
medieval Hinduism, both claiming supremacy over their own deities (Vishnu and
Shiva).
Despite the fact that Vaishnavas see Vishnu as the
universe's highest force, his legendary persona and activities are vastly
different from Shiva's.
Vishnu's headgear is a crown, and his persona is that of an
all-ruling monarch, but Shiva is linked with ascetic life and practices (tapas)
and hence with the religious force created by such acts.
Vishnu frequently succeeds by guile, ingenuity, and deceit,
but Shiva eliminates his mythological enemies with sheer might, which is devoid
of any finesse.
Each deity's followers recognize their divinity as the
supreme force in the cosmos, from which all other gods get their power, and
both are portrayed as kind and caring to their worshippers (bhakta).
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Vishnu Periyalvar, an Alvar poet and saint, was given this
appellation.
Between the seventh and tenth centuries, the Alvars were a
group of twelve poet-saints living in southern India.
All of the Alvars were worshippers of the deity Vishnu, and
their emphasis on emotional devotion (bhakti) to a personal god, expressed via
hymns sung in Tamil, revolutionized Hindu religious life.
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Vishnu Purana is a Hindu epic that tells the story of Lord
Vishnu and his One of the eighteen traditional puranas, which comprised an
important genre of smrti texts and housed much of traditional Indian mythology.
The smrtis, or "remembered" texts, were considered
less authoritative than the shrutis, or "heard" texts, despite being
considered important.
In a nutshell, the shrutis referred to the Vedas, the oldest
and most authoritative Hindu religious texts, whereas the smrtis referred to
the Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as dharma literature, the Bhagavad Gita,
and the puranas.
The puranas contain a wide range of sacred lore, ranging
from mythic tales to ritual instruction to the exaltation of various sacred
sites (tirthas) and actions.
The majority of the puranas are sectarian, and this one is
focused on Vishnu's warship, as its name implies.
It includes instructions for how, where, and when Vishnu
should be worshiped, as well as an exhaustive list of Vishnu's mythic
deeds—many of which have become the common mythic currency for many traditional
Hindus.
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Vishnuswami is a Sanskrit word that means "Vishnu Swami." ("Vishnu is [his] Lord")
The Vaishnava ascetics' Rudra Sampraday is said to have been founded by a Guru named Vishnuswami.
(The Rudra Sampraday is one of the four "sampraday"
branches of the Bairagi Naga ascetics, who are devotees of the god Vishnu;
vaishnava refers to Vishnu devotees.)
According to some sources, Vishnuswami was the guru of both
Jnaneshvar and Namdev.
Vishnuswami was a Vaishnava, as his name implies, but
nothing is known about him other than that.
His ascetic path and status as one of the four Vaishnava
ascetic sampradays have been seized by Vallabhacharya's Shuddadvaita, or
"Pure Monism," which emphasizes Krishna's adoration with Radha as his
wife.
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Vishakhadatta(6th c.), was a Sanskrit playwright, Mudrarakshasa ("Rakshasa's Ring") is his sole extant work.
The play is historically significant since its central
narrative is the ascent of Chandragupta Maurya (r. 321–297 B.C.E. ), the
founder of the Maurya dynasty, despite the fact that the play attributes his
victory to his crafty brahmin minister, Chanakya.
Although, in respect to the actual monarch, this picture is
wrong, the play portrays the king as a weak character, with the minister as the
true power behind the throne.
The narrative of the drama is convoluted, as is the case
with many Sanskrit plays, but the drama's climax occurs when the main
protagonists are dramatically saved from execution at the last minute.
Michael Coulson translated the play into English and
released it in the collection Three Sanskrit Plays in 1981.
Vishishthadvaita ("Qualified Non-Dualism") is a
Sanskrit word that means "qualified non-dualism." Vedanta One of the
branches of Vedanta, the philosophical school that claims to reveal the Vedas'
ultimate meaning and purpose (anta), the Hindu religious texts' oldest and
most authoritative texts.
The greatest figure in Vishishthadvaita is Ramanuja, an
eleventh-century philosopher who was central to its formulation, despite the
fact that he was building on earlier work.
Ramanuja believed that Brahman, or Supreme Reality, was a
personal god rather than an impersonal abstract concept, and that the most
significant kind of religious activity was devotion (bhakti).
His philosophical viewpoint, Vishishthadvaita Vedanta,
emphasized both of these ideas, and so contrasted with the Advaita Vedanta
school, created by the philosopher Shankaracharya.
The Advaita school adheres to the philosophical position of
monism, or the belief in a single impersonal Ultimate Reality, which they refer
to as Brahman.
Despite the appearance of difference and variety in the
perceivable world, Advaita adherents believe that reality is
"nondual" (advaita), meaning that all things are nothing but the
formless Brahman.
This assumption of diversity, according to Advaitins, is a
fundamental misunderstanding of the ultimate nature of things, as well as a
manifestation of avidya.
Although avidya is often translated as
"ignorance," it is better understood as a lack of genuine
understanding that leads to karmic bonding, rein carnation (samsara), and
suffering.
Because the real issue for Advaitins is a misunderstanding,
realization (jnana) was the best spiritual path to achieve ultimate liberation
(moksha).
The material universe and self have genuine and autonomous
existence, according to Ramanuja's formulation, while their existence is
ultimately anchored in God, whom he names as Vishnu.
The world emerges from God through an evolutionary process
based on the Samkhya model, but because matter is unconscious, it is both
similar to and dissimilar to God.
Human beings are similar to God in that they have God as
their source, but they differ from him in that they are subject to ignorance
and suffering.
God, according to Ramanuja and his followers, is not the
same as ourselves or the world, which are all thought to have real and
independent existence.
In a way that the Advaita proponents will never concede,
this notion of identity and difference makes the perceptible world real.
Ramanuja's stance differs from that of a later thinker,
Madhva, whose Dvaita Vedanta emphasized the enormous chasm between God and all
else.
Because of the disparity in capacities between the god and
the devotee (bhakta), Ramanuja and his followers have emphasized bhakti as the
most effective route of redemption.
Even after freedom, souls maintain enough separation from
God to allow devotion; liberation is seen as a perpetual relationship with God
rather than a loss of individuality.
For further detail, read John Braisted Carman's The Theology
of Ramanuja, published in 1974, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore's
A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, published in 1957.
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Virashaiva means "Victorious Shaivas" in Sanskrit.
The Lingayat religious
community's alternative name, derived from the Lingayat belief that Shiva is
the sole true deity.
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Virata is the monarch
who shelters the five Pandava brothers, the epic's heroes, during the year they
spend incognito after their twelve years of exile in the forest, in the
Mahabharata, the later of the two major Hindu epics.
This year is crucial because, according to the pact the
Pandavas made with their foe, Duryodhana, if they are found during this year,
the cycle of exile and living in secrecy would begin all over again.
Even though Duryodhana has dispatched armies of spies to
locate the Pandavas, Virata's care and forethought prevents them from being
detected.
He continues to help the Pandavas throughout the Mahabharata
battle and is finally murdered by the archery expert Drona.
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Visarjana means "dismissing" in Sanskrit.
The sixteenth and last upacharas ("offerings")
offered to a god as part of devotion, based on the principle of treating the
deity as a valued guest.
As the last act of devotion, the devotee (bhakta) grants the
god permission to depart.
Although the phrase dismissal seems arrogant in any
conversation with a god, it really relates to the parting remarks that one
would give to a leaving guest.
The fundamental aim here, as with other upacharas, is to
demonstrate one's devotion for the god by ministering to the deity's needs.
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Beschi learned the local language and adopted the local way
of life, as did many other early Jesuits.
He translated parts of the Old and New Testament into
literary Tamil as part of his missionary work, and his command of the language
and poetic conventions makes this work a seminal work in Tamil literature.
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The nibandhas were Hindu lore compendia in which the
compilers culled references on a specific theme from the Vedas, dharma
literature, puranas, and other authoritative religious texts, and then compiled
them into a single volume.
The Viramitrodaya is a massive compendium of Hindu lore,
divided into twenty-two sections, each of which focuses on a different aspect
of Hindu life, such as daily practice, worship, gift-giving (dana), vows,
pilgrimage, penances (prayashchitta), purification, death rites (antyeshthi
samskara), law, and so on, culminating in liberation (moksha).
Mitra Mishra's work became an important source for later
legal interpretation, particularly in eastern India, because he not only cites
relevant scriptural passages but also provides extensive learned commentary.
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In this posture, one foot rests on the ground, beneath the
opposite thigh, while the other foot rests on top of the opposite knee, as
stated in the Yoga Sutras comments.
This pose is defined differently in current yoga texts, as a
sitting posture with the legs folded back outside the body and the feet pushed
against the thighs and buttocks.
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Deleury speculates that the Maharashtrian god Vithoba arose from such a deified hero, who was later assimilated into the pantheon as a form of Vishnu, and that such stones can be found all over the Deccan region.
Whether the separated lovers are two human beings or devotee (bhakta) and deity, the genre focuses on describing the pain that results from the separation of lover and beloved.
Separation is thought to cause specific physical symptoms, which the poets describe in great detail—lack of appetite, insomnia, inability to attend to daily life, or think about anyone but the beloved.
Because love in union is sweetened by the presence of the beloved, whereas the former must stand alone, the type of love felt in such separation is thought to engender an even more intense love for the beloved than love in union.
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Daksha gives his daughter, Sati, to Shiva to marry, but
later feels Shiva has not treated him with respect.
Daksha plans a large sacrifice and invites all the gods
except Shiva to it in order to humble Shiva.
When Sati inquires as to why her father has done so, Daksha
lashes out at Shiva, calling him worthless and despicable.
Sati, humiliated by these public insults, kills herself—in
some versions, by leaping into the sacrificial fire, and in others, by
withdrawing into a yogic trance and giving up her life.
When Shiva learns of Sati's death, he is enraged and tears
two matted locks (jata) from his head and dashes them to the ground, according
to the most popular version of Virabhadra's creation.
One matted lock assumes the form of Virabhadra, while the
other assumes the form of Bhadrakali, the Goddess's most powerful and
terrifying form.
The two demolish Daksha's sacrifice on Shiva's orders,
scattering the guests and destroying the sacred fires, until Daksha repents and
worships Shiva as the supreme deity.
Despite the fact that Virabhadra's actions in this story are
destructive, he is and remains Shiva's servant, carrying out his divine
master's commands, which ultimately uphold the created order.
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Kumarila, a Mimamsa philosopher from the seventh century C.E., proposed a theory of error.
Kumarila, like Prabhakara and the Naiyayikas, believes that the simple judgments "that object is silvery" and "silver is silvery" are both correct and unquestionable.
Kumarila also agrees with the Naiyayika that the error stems from a false discrimination.
The Naiyayikas postulate the inherence-relationship as a connecting sub jects and predicates ("silver color" and "silver").
This is where he differs from them.
As a result, the perception (pratyaksha) of a shell on the beach would include its similitudes and differences from silveriness, as well as silver's similitudes and differences from silveriness.
One can make a false judgment by combining similarities, or one can make a true judgment by combining differences.
The root cause of combining similarities rather than differences, as in the Naiyayika theory of error, is karmic dispositions arising from avidya, specifically the desire for silver, which drives us to seek out such valuable items.
For more information, see Bijayananda Kar's The Theories of Error in Indian Philosophy, published in 1978, and Karl H. Potter's Presuppositions of India's Philosophies, published in 1972.
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The tantric "hero" is said to be someone who not
only consumes the Five Forbidden Things (panchamakara) in their purest form,
but also uses this inversion of normal moral rules to affirm the ultimate unity
of all things in the universe.
Aspirants who adopt a heroic mode frequently worship a
powerful but dangerous deity, with the ultimate affirmation of this unity being
the affirmation of one's identity with that deity.
If one succeeds, various powers are said to be conferred,
but if one fails, illness, insanity, or death are said to result.
This isn't a risk-free path, but it gets the heroes to their
desired destination quickly.
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The vipaksha is a negative example given to show that the
claim made in the initial assertion reflects the action of specific causes.
It is part of the third term, examples.
For instance, in the inference "there is fire on the
mountain because there is smoke on the mountain," the vipaksha could be
"unlike a lake," because lakes do not have fire or smoke, indicating
that these conditions are not universally present (fire is found in mountains,
but not in lakes).
An inference, by convention, had to include a positive
example, the sapaksha, to demonstrate that similar events occurred in similar
circumstances (i.e., that there were other cases in which there was both fire
and smoke).
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The letter's main theme is a plea for deliverance from the
current degenerate age's evils (kali yuga).
The first sixty-odd verses are a series of invocations to various
gods, demonstrating Tulsidas' devotion's ecumenical quality.
The poem's remainder is addressed to Rama and emphasizes
other themes that run throughout Tulsidas' poetry.
Another pervasive theme is the incomparable power of God's
name to rescue the devotee (bhakta).
Finally, the listeners are cautioned not to squander the
gift of human birth.
Much of the poetry has an intensely personal quality to it,
and it seems to reflect both the poet's despair and eventual hope for
salvation.
The Vinaya Patrika is generally thought to have been written
in the poet's later years, though it cannot be precisely dated, based on its
general tone.
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It may refer to a god's vehicles, either mythically, since
each deity has an animal considered to be his or her vehicle, or in a literal
sense, such as the cart used to transport them in procession, or to the human
person who "carries" them via the process of being possessed.
The term vimana is used in architecture to refer to the section of the temple that "carries" the god, i.e. the sanctuary as a whole.
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These two concepts are especially significant in the formation of the world, which is believed to occur when the ultimate Brahman's pure and radiant awareness (prakasha) becomes self-conscious via the reflection (vimarsha) of this original consciousness.
The absolute transforms from a single awareness into a dual
divinity—the deity Shiva and his spouse Shakti—whose ongoing interaction
creates the universe.
This prakasha vimarsha dyad is especially essential in
Kashmiri Shaivism's Trika school.
Jaideva Singh, Pratyabhijnanahrdayam, 1982, is a good source
of knowledge.
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A multi-stringed musical instrument with a long hollow body and a sounding box at the bottom; the top has a huge hollow gourd jutting from the rear, which amplifies the sound even more.
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