1.
Arjuna
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Arjuna along with Krishna is the protagonist of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata and plays a key role in the Bhagavad Gita alongside Krishna. He was an archer and a warrior accompanied by Lord Krishna, Arjuna was the son of Indra- the king of celestials, born in Kunti - the first wife of King Pandu in Kuru kingdom. In previous birth he was a saint named Nara who was the companion of another saint Narayana an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Lord Krishna was the rebirth of Narayana and he was the third of the Pandava brothers and was married to Draupadi, Ulupi, Chitrangada and Subhadra at different times. His children included Srutakarma, Iravan, Babruvahana, and Abhimanyu, Karna was an archer equivalent to Arjuna in the Mahabharata, who was his lifetime opponent. The name Arjuna has among its meanings white/clear and silver, cognates of Arjuna are Latin regens meaning ruler, Hindi raj meaning king, and English regal. The Mahabharata refers to Arjuna by twelve different names, in the story, these names are given when Prince Uttara of Matsya asks Arjuna to prove his identity. Along with his brothers, Arjuna was trained in religion, science, administration, one day, when the princes were playing a game, they lost their ball in a well. When the rest of the gave up the ball as being lost. A stranger came by and extracted the ball for him by making a chain of sarkanda, when an astonished Arjuna related the story to Bhishma, Bhishma realised that the stranger was none other than Drona. Bhishma asked Drona to become the Kuru princes teacher, seeking refuge from Panchala, Drona agreed. Under Dronas tutelage, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, along with the princes of Hastinapuras allies and vassals, Arjuna became Dronas favorite and most accomplished pupil, specifically, he became a master in using the bow and the arrow. In a famous incident, Drona deemed that out of all his students, even his own son Ashwatthama, none but Arjuna had the steadfast focus to shoot the eye of a bird on a tree, he was proven right. Still in hiding, the Pandavas disguise themselves as brahmins and attend the Swayamvara of Panchala princess Draupadi, out of all of the great kings and other Kaurava princes, only Karna and Arjuna are able to do the established challenge. The test is to lift, string, and fire Pinakin to pierce the eye of a golden fish whilst only looking at its reflection, Drupada had designed this test with Arjuna in mind. At first Karna is able to lift and string the bow, afterwards, the disguised Arjuna accomplished the stringing and shooting of the bow. In some versions of the story, Arjuna is the prince to have interacted with Draupadi before. In some versions of the Swayamvara, Arjuna is forbidden by Kunti to attend the Swayamvara, kuntis reasoning is that only Yudhishthira and Duryodhana would be acceptable candidates for Draupadis hand, anyone else, not set to inherit the throne, would be an insult to Panchal
2.
Sanskrit language
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
3.
Loka
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Loka is a Sanskrit word for world. In Jain texts, universe is referred to as Loka, Jain Cosmology postulates an eternal and ever-existing loka which works on universal natural laws, there being no creator & destroyer deity. The scholar Deborah Soifer describes the development of the concept of lokas as follows, the most common cosmological conception of lokas in the Veda was that of the trailokya or triple world, three worlds consisting of earth, atmosphere or sky, and heaven, making up the universe. In the Tibetan and Tantric schools, Six Lokas refers to a Bönpo and Nyingmapa spiritual practice or discipline that works with chakras, and in Buddhist Cosmology Kama-Loka, Rupa-Loka, Arupa-Loka has interpreted. The concept of Lokas was adopted by Theosophy, and can be found in the writings of Blavatsky, there is also reference to kamaloka as a sort of astral plane or temporary after-life state, according to the teachings of Blavatsky, Leadbeater, and Steiner. The Abrahamic religions refer to seven heavens and seven earths, a concept that may be akin to the 14 planetary systems of the Vedas, paatala loka Seven Logas Jainism and non-creationism Urthva lokas
4.
Plane (esotericism)
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In esoteric cosmology, a plane other than the physical plane is conceived as a subtle state of consciousness that transcends the known physical universe. The concept may be found in religious and esoteric teachings—e. g, alternatively, it states that this dynamic force is being sent forth, through the ages, framing all things that constitute and inhabit the universe. However the original source of the plane in this context is the late Neoplatonist Proclus, who refers to to platos, breadth. An example is the phrase en to psychiko platei, directly equivalent concepts in Indian thought are lokas and bhuvanas. In Hindu cosmology, there are many lokas or worlds, that are identified with both traditional cosmology and states of meditation, Planes of existence may have been referred to by the use of the term corresponding to the word egg in English. For example, the Sanskrit term Brahmanda translates to The entire creation as opposed to the lazy inference The Egg of Creation. Certain Puranic accounts posit that the Brahmanda is the superset of a set of fractal smaller Eggs, as is seen in the assertion of the equivalence of the Brahmanda and the Pinda. When heat and cold entered into space which was occupied by Chaos or Ginnungagap, in the medieval West and Middle East, one finds reference to four worlds in Kabbalah, or five in Sufism, and also in Lurianic Kabbalah. In Kabbalah, each of the four or five worlds are divided into ten sefirot. In his Physica, the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote and this hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas. Further on in the work he says, This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of. Later on, similar ideas would evolve around the idea of aether, in the late 19th century, the metaphysical term planes was popularised by the theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky, who in The Secret Doctrine and other writings propounded a complex consisting of seven planes and subplanes. From theosophy the term made its way to later systems such as that of Alice Bailey. The teachings of Surat Shabd Yoga also include several planes of the creation within both the macrocosm and microcosm, including the Bramanda egg contained within the Sach Khand egg. Max Theon used the word States rather than Planes, in his cosmic philosophy, the planes in Theosophy were further systematized in the writings of C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant. Most cosmologists today believe that the universe exploded into being some 13, according to Rosicrucians, another difference is that there is no such thing as empty or void space. The space is Spirit in its form, while matter is crystallized space or Spirit
5.
Brahmaloka
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In Hinduism, Brahmapura is the abode of Brahma, one of the three Trimurti. It is located on Mount Meru and it is also referred to as Brahmaloka or Satyaloka in all of the puranas. Brahmapura is the topmost loka within this material universe, during each pralaya, the lower ten realms are destroyed while the higher four realms, including Satya-loka, Tapa-loka, Jana-loka, and Mahar-loka are preserved. During each Mahapralaya, all 14 realms are destroyed, the Chāndogya Upaniṣad says in 8,1,1 that within the Brahmapura is an abode, a small lotus-flower within which is a small space. What is within that, should be searched out, that, further there are Hiranyapura and Siddhapura or White Island. Brahma loka, Vaikuntha loka, Shiva loka are seen as the same, satya loka is at their top and can be looked at as the lowest plane of Para Brahman. Narayana is also venerated as Para Brahman and therefore to all the 14 lokas. Lord Vishnu who is said to live in Vaikuntha is a form of the infinite Narayana. Here is Brahmaloka the highest of the worlds, the abode of the Brahmas. It consists of twenty heavens, the nine ordinary Brahma-worlds, the five Suddhāvāsā, the four Arūpa worlds, the Asaññasatta, abhinav Publications,1 edition chhandogya upanishad as PDF Twitchell, Paul The Far Country. ISBN 0-914766-91-0 Twitchell, The Far Country as PDF Brahmapura
6.
Goloka
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The scriptural basis for this comes from texts like Narada Pancaratra, Garga Samhita, Brahma Samhita and Brahma vaivarta. Among all 18 puranas, Brahma vaivarta purana explicitly describes about Goloka vrindavan throughout its all contents, while in most of the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna is presented as the cosmic Vishnu, the Supremely Powerful God. He is especially portrayed as the highest person who resides in his abode Goloka according to the interpretation of Jiva Goswami, in the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna states that he shall ascend to his eternal supreme abode, Vaikuṇṭha, after the purpose of his incarnation is accomplished. Also sometimes referred to as Vrindavan, it is described as a land of plenty, one standard Vaishnava description of Goloka is found at verse 5. He is always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds and thousands of devotees resembling goddesses of fortune, similarly, Gaudiya Vaishnava saint-scholar Śrĩla Sanãtana Goswãmĩ declares, Sri Goloka is considered the ultimate destination of spiritual endeavour. In Goloka Krishna resides with Radharani, Krishnas eternal consort, and countless other devotees, wherein he performs his divine play, known as lila. It is believed that mortal or conditoned souls return to the world again and again to perfect themselves before going on to Krishnas abode. However, Goloka Vrndavana is the topmost of all the planets in either the material or spiritual worlds, according to Hindu scriptures, the term Goloka is synonymous with Vaikuntha and Saket Loka. Goloka means the world of cows, the Sankrit word go can refer to either cows or star, and loka is translated as world or planet. In the Vedas and Upanishads there is no mention of Goloka. Nevertheless it does not refutes authenticity of Goloka from the Canon of vedic literatures, in Brahma vaivarta purana, which is one of the 18 major puranas describes Goloka vrindavan to be 500 million yojanas above Vaikuntha loka and it expands till 30 million yojanas. This depiction could be similize with a found in brahma samhita 5.43. However Acharyas of Gaudiya Vaishnavaism explains it to be limitless, further statements declares, Both Vaikuntha and Goloka to be Nitya Dhama or eternal realm of existence. Which are not prone to even after the whole cosmic dissolution. Lord Krishna in his two-armed form eternally reside in the realm of Goloka and in his four-armed form, mention of Goloka is also found in other Puranas, such as Skanda Purana and Markandeya Purana. Evam bahu-vidhai rupais caramiha vasundharam brahmalokam ca kaunteya golokam ca sanatanam, O son of Kuntī, in many different forms I wander in the material world, in the spiritual world, and in the eternal realm of Goloka. In Brihad-bhagavatamrita, Srila Sanatana Goswami explains this verse is quoted from Skanda Purana, in the Markandeya Purana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead declares, Golokam ca parityajya lokanam trana-karanat kalau gauranga-rupena lila-lavanya-vigrahah. In the Kali-Yuga, I will leave Goloka and, to save the people of the world, I will become the handsome, in some temples, such as the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Mumbai, the murtis installed are those of Shri Gaulokvihari and Radhikaji
7.
Mount Meru
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Mount Meru is a sacred mountain with five peaks in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. Meru, also called මහා මේරු පර්වතය Sumeru or Sineru, to which can be added the approbatory prefix su-, many famous Hindu and similar Jain as well as Buddhist temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain. The highest point on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, some researchers identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, northwest of Kashmir. The Suryasiddhanta mentions that Mt. Meru lies in the middle of the Earth in the land of the Jambunad, narpatijayacharyā, a ninth-century text, based on mostly unpublished texts of Yāmal Tantr, mentions Sumeruḥ Prithvī-madhye shrūyate drishyate na tu. Vārāhamihira, in his Pancha-siddhāntikā, claims Mt. Meru to be at the North Pole, suryasiddhānta, however, mentions a Mt. Meru in the middle of Earth, besides a Sumeru and a Kumeru at both the Poles. There exist several versions of Cosmology in existing Hindu texts, the Matsya Purana and the Bhāgvata Purāna along with some other Hindu texts consistently give the height of 84,000 yojanas to Mount Meru which translates into 672,000 miles or 1,082,000 kilometers. Mount Meru was said to be the residence of King Padamja Brahma in antiquity. The Puranas and Hindu epics, often state that Surya, i. e. the Sun God, along all its planets and stars taken together as one unit. Mount Meru is also the abode of Lord Brahma and the Demi-Gods, according to the Epic, Mahabharata, Pandavas and Draupadi climbed this mountain to attain heaven. Draupadi and other four Pandavas were cast down for their sins, only Yudhishthira along with his faithful dog climbed the mountain, making him the only one to reach the Divine door. According to Vasubandhus Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam, Sumeru is 80,000 yojanas tall, the exact measure of one yojana is uncertain, but some accounts put it at about 24,000 feet, or approximately 4.5 miles, but other accounts put it between 7–9 miles. It also descends beneath the surface of the waters to a depth of 80,000 yojanas. Sumeru is often used as a simile for both size and stability in Buddhist texts, Sumeru is said to be shaped like an hourglass, with a top and base of 80,000 yojanas square, but narrowing in the middle to 20,000 yojanas square. Sumeru is the center of a mandala-like complex of seas. There are seven seas and seven surrounding mountain-walls, until one comes to the vast outer sea which forms most of the surface of the world, the known world, which is on the continent of Jambudvipa, is directly south of Sumeru. The next 40,000 yojanas below this heaven consist of a sheer precipice, from this point Sumeru expands again, going down in four terraced ledges, each broader than the one above. The first terrace constitutes the heaven of the Four Great Kings and is divided into four parts, facing north, south, each section is governed by one of the Four Great Kings, who face outward toward the quarter of the world that they supervise. 40,000 yojanas is also the height at which the Sun, half a day later, when the Sun has moved to the south, it is noon in Jambudvīpa, dusk in Pūrvavideha, dawn in Aparagodānīya, and midnight in Uttarakuru
8.
Incarnation
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Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient being who is the manifestation of an entity. In its religious context the word is used to mean the descent from Heaven of a god, or divine being in human/animal form on Earth. In the Baháí Faith, God is not seen to be incarnated into this world and is not seen to be part of creation as he cannot be divided and does not descend to the condition of his creatures. The Manifestations of God are also not seen as an incarnation of God, Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, it denies the concept of a creator god or any incarnation of a creator god. In Tibetan Buddhism, a spiritual teacher is believed to reincarnate. According to Tulku Thondup, there are three types of tulkus. They are the emanations of buddhas, the manifestations of highly accomplished adepts, there are also authentic secondary types as well which include unrecognized tulkus, blessed tulkus, and tulkus fallen from the path. The incarnation of Christ is a central Christian doctrine that God became flesh, assumed a human nature, and became a man in the form of Jesus, the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. This foundational Christian position holds that the nature of the Son of God was perfectly united with human nature in one divine Person, Jesus. The theological term for this is hypostatic union, the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, biblical passages traditionally referenced in connection with the doctrine of the Incarnation include John 3, 1-21, Colossians 2,9, and Philippians 2, 7-8. In Hinduism, incarnation refers to its doctrine, and in its theistic traditions to avatar. Avatar literally means descent, alight, to ones appearance. The word also implies to overcome, to remove, to bring down, an avatar, states Justin Edwards Abbott, is a saguna embodiment of the nirguna Brahman or Atman. Neither the Vedas nor the Principal Upanishads ever mention the word avatar as a noun, the verb roots and form, such as avatarana, do appear in ancient post-Vedic Hindu texts, but as action of descending, but not as an incarnated person. The related verb avatarana is, states Paul Hacker, used with double meaning, one as action of the divine descending, the term is most commonly found in the context of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is in medieval era texts, those composed after the sixth century CE, that the version of avatar appears. The incarnation idea proliferates thereafter, in the Puranic stories for many deities, while Avatars of other deities such as Ganesha and Shiva are also mentioned in medieval Hindu texts, this is minor and occasional
9.
Pralaya
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Pralaya, in Hindu cosmology, is an aeonic term for Dissolution, which specifies different periods of time during which a non-activity situation persists, as per different formats or contexts. The word Mahapralaya stands for Great Dissolution, during each pralaya, the lower ten realms are destroyed, while the higher four realms, including Satya-loka, Tapa-loka, Jana-loka, and Mahar-loka are preserved. During each Mahapralaya, all 14 realms are destroyed, in the Samkhya philosophy, one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy, Pralaya means non-existence, a state of matter achieved when the three gunas are in perfect balance. The word pra-laya comes from Sanskrit meaning dissolution or by extension reabsorption, destruction, annihilation or death, the word pralaya appears in the Cyclops chapter of James Joyces epic novel Ulysses. Pralaya appears in the Persona series of games as an attack, while it can be inherited to other Personae, its original user is Shiva, a Persona based on the Hindu deity of the same name. Pralaya is also the name of an antagonist in the DC Comics series Justice League Dark who appears in the final arc. Pralaya is an alien wizard who is sometimes overshadowed by the Lone Power in Diane Duanes Young Wizards novel
