Aether (classical element)
According to ancient and medieval science, aether spelled æther or ether and called quintessence, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere. The concept of aether was used in several theories to explain several natural phenomena, such as the traveling of light and gravity. In the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated all throughout space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum, but evidence for the presence of such a medium was not found in the Michelson–Morley experiment, this result has been interpreted as meaning that no such luminiferous aether exists; the word αἰθήρ in Homeric Greek means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky". In Greek mythology, it was thought to be the pure essence that the gods breathed, filling the space where they lived, analogous to the air breathed by mortals, it is personified as a deity, the son of Erebus and Nyx in traditional Greek mythology. Aether is related to αἴθω "to incinerate", intransitive "to burn, to shine".
In Plato's Timaeus speaking about air, Plato mentions that "there is the most translucent kind, called by the name of aether". But otherwise he adopted the classical system of four elements. Aristotle, Plato's student at the Akademia, agreed on this point with his former mentor, emphasizing additionally that fire sometimes has been mistaken for aether. However, in his Book On the Heavens he introduced a new "first" element to the system of the classical elements of Ionian philosophy, he noted that the four terrestrial classical elements were subject to change and moved linearly. The first element however, located in the celestial regions and heavenly bodies, moved circularly and had none of the qualities the terrestrial classical elements had, it was neither neither wet nor dry. With this addition the system of elements was extended to five and commentators started referring to the new first one as the fifth and called it aether, a word that Aristotle had not used. Aether did not follow Aristotelian physics either.
Aether was incapable of motion of quality or motion of quantity. Aether was only capable of local motion. Aether moved in circles, had no contrary, or unnatural, motion. Aristotle noted that crystalline spheres made of aether held the celestial bodies; the idea of crystalline spheres and natural circular motion of aether led to Aristotle's explanation of the observed orbits of stars and planets in circular motion in crystalline aether. Medieval scholastic philosophers granted aether changes of density, in which the bodies of the planets were considered to be more dense than the medium which filled the rest of the universe. Robert Fludd stated that the aether was of the character that it was "subtler than light". Fludd cites the 3rd-century view of Plotinus, concerning the aether as non-material. See Arche. Quintessence is the Latinate name of the fifth element used by medieval alchemists for a medium similar or identical to that thought to make up the heavenly bodies, it was noted that there was little presence of quintessence within the terrestrial sphere.
Due to the low presence of quintessence, earth could be affected by what takes place within the heavenly bodies. This theory was developed in the 14th century text The testament of Lullius, attributed to Ramon Llull; the use of quintessence became popular within medieval alchemy. Quintessence stemmed from the medieval elemental system, which consisted of the four classical elements, aether, or quintessence, in addition to two chemical elements representing metals: sulphur, "the stone which burns", which characterized the principle of combustibility, mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties; this elemental system spread throughout all of Europe and became popular with alchemists in medicinal alchemy. Medicinal alchemy sought to isolate quintessence and incorporate it within medicine and elixirs. Due to quintessence's pure and heavenly quality, it was thought that through consumption one may rid oneself of any impurities or illnesses. In The book of Quintessence, a 15th-century English translation of a continental text, quintessence was used as a medicine for many of man's illnesses.
A process given for the creation of quintessence is distillation of alcohol seven times. Over the years, the term quintessence has become synonymous with elixirs, medicinal alchemy, the philosopher's stone itself. With the 18th century physics developments, physical models known as "aether theories" made use of a similar concept for the explanation of the propagation of electromagnetic and gravitational forces; as early as the 1670s, Newton used the idea of aether to help match observations to strict mechanical rules of his physics. However, the early modern aether had little in common with the aether of classical elements from which the name was borrowed; these aether theories are considered to be scientifically obsolete, as the development of special relativity showed that Maxwell's equations do not require the aether for the transmission of these forces. However, Einstein himself noted that his own model which replaced these theories could itself be thought of as an aether, as it implied that the empty space between objects had its own physical properties.
Despite the early modern aether models being superseded by general relativity some physicists have attempted to reintroduce the concept of aether in an attempt to address perceived deficiencies in current physical models. One proposed model of dark energy has been named "quintess
Vahana
Vahana denotes the being an animal or mythical entity, a particular Hindu deity is said to use as a vehicle. In this capacity, the vahana is called the deity's "mount". Upon the partnership between the deity and his vahana is woven much mythology. Deities are depicted riding the vahana. Other times, the vahana is depicted at the deity's side or symbolically represented as a divine attribute; the vahana may be considered an accoutrement of the deity: though the vahana may act independently, they are still functionally emblematic or syntagmatic of their "rider". The deity may be seen standing on the vahana, they may be riding on a saddle or bareback. Vah in Sanskrit means to transport. In Hindu iconography, positive aspects of the vehicle are emblematic of the deity that it carries. Nandi the bull, vehicle of Shiva, represents virility. Dinka the mouse, vehicle of Ganesha, represents sharpness. Parvani the peacock, vehicle of Skanda, represents majesty; the hamsa, vehicle of Saraswati, represents wisdom and beauty.
However, the vehicle animal symbolizes the evil forces over which the deity dominates. Mounted on Parvani, Skanda reins in the peacock's vanity. Seated on Dinka the rat, Ganesh crushes useless thoughts. Shani, protector of property, has a vulture, raven or crow in which he represses thieving tendencies. Under Shani's influence, the vahana can make malevolent events bring hope; the vehicle of a deity can vary according to the source, the time, the place. In popular tradition, the origin of each vehicle is told in thousands of different ways. Three examples: While the god Ganesha was still a child, a giant mouse began to terrorize all his friends. Ganesha made him his mount. Mushika was a gandharva, or celestial musician. After absent mindedly walking over the feet of a rishi named Vamadeva, Mushika was cursed and transformed into a mouse. However, after the rishi recovered his temper, he promised Mushika that one day, the gods themselves would bow down before him; the prophecy was fulfilled. Before becoming the vehicle of Shiva, Nandi was a deity called Nandikeshvara, lord of joy and master of music and dance.
Without warning, his name and his functions were transferred to the aspect of Shiva known as the deity Nataraja. From half-man, half-bull, he became a bull. Since that time, he has watched over each of Shiva's temples. Kartikeya, the war-god known as Murugan in Southern India, is mounted on a peacock; this peacock was a demon called Surapadma, while the rooster was called the angel. After provoking Murugan in combat, the demon repented at the moment, he began to pray. The tree was cut in two. From one half, Murugan pulled a rooster, which he made his emblem, from the other, a peacock, which he made his mount. In another version, Karthikeya was born to kill Tarakasura, he was led the divine armies when he was 6 days old. It is said that after defeating Tarakasura, the god forgave him and transformed him into his ride, the peacock; the vahana and deity to which they support are in a reciprocal relationship. Vahana are served in turn by those who engage them. Many vahana may have divine powers or a divine history of their own.
Case in point, the aforementioned Nataraja story, represents a conflation of Hindu gods with local gods, syncretizing their mythos as their territories began to overlap. According to one source, "they could be a synthesis between Vedic deities and autochthonous Dravidian totemic deities; the animal correspondences of Hindu vehicles are not consistent with Greek and Roman mythology, or other belief systems which may tie a particular animal to a particular deity. For example, the goddess Lakshmi of the Hindus has elephants, or an owl, or the lotus blossom as her vehicle; the goddess Athena of ancient Greece had an owl as her emblematic familiar, but the meanings invested in the owls by the two different belief systems are not the same, nor are the two goddesses themselves similar, despite their mutual identification with owls. Lakshmi is, among other things the goddess of wealth, her owl is a warning against distrust and isolationism selfishness. Athena, though a goddess of prosperity, is the goddess of wisdom, her owl symbolizes secret knowledge and scholarship.
Due to their shared geography, the Greco-Roman interpretation is paralleled in Roman Catholic iconography, in which St. Jerome, most famed for editing the New Testament, is depicted with an owl as a symbol of wisdom and scholarship. Depending on the tribe, Native American religious iconography attributes a wide range of attributes to the owl, both positive and negative, as do the Ainu and Russian cultures, but none parallel the Hindu attributes assigned to the owl as Lakshmi's divine vehicle; some hold that similar analyses could be performed cross-culturally for any of the other Hindu divine vehicles, in each case, any parallels with the values assigned to animal totems in other cultures are to be either coincidence, or inevitable, rather than evidence of parallel development. In dialectic, this is countered by the retort that each totem or vahana, as an aspect of ishta-devata, has innumerable ineffable
Prithvi
Prithvi or Prithvi Mata "the Vast One" is the Sanskrit name for the earth as well as the name of a devi in Hinduism and some branches of Buddhism. She is known as Bhūmi, she is Dyaus Pita both. As Pṛthvī Mātā she is complementary to Dyaus Pita. In the Rigveda and Sky are addressed in the dual as Dyavapṛthivi, she is associated with the cow. Prithu, an incarnation of Viṣṇu, milked her in cow's form, she is a national personification in Indonesia. In Buddhist texts and visual representations, Pṛthvī is described as both protecting Gautama Buddha and as being his witness for his enlightenment. Prithvi appears in Early Buddhism in the Pāli Canon, dispelling the temptation figure Mara by attesting to Gautama Buddha's worthiness to attain enlightenment; the Buddha is depicted performing the bhūmisparśa or "earth-touching" mudrā as a symbolic invocation of the goddess. The Pṛthvī Sūkta is a hymn of the Atharvaveda. Vasudhara Phra Mae Thorani Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy, ed.. The Rig Veda: An Anthology: One Hundred and Eight Hymns.
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140449891. Shaw, Miranda Eberle. Buddhist Goddesses of India. Princeton University Press. P. 27. ISBN 978-0-691-12758-3. Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend by Anna Dallapiccola Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Traditions by David Kinsley
Gazelle
A gazelle is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella. This article deals with the six species included in two further genera and Nanger, which were considered subgenera of Gazella. A third former subgenus, includes three living species of Asian gazelles. Gazelles are known as swift animals; some are able to run at a sustained speed of 50 km/h. Gazelles are found in the deserts and savannas of Africa, they tend to live in herds, eat less coarse digestible plants and leaves. Gazelles are small antelopes, most standing 60–110 cm high at the shoulder, are fawn-colored; the gazelle genera are Gazella and Nanger. The taxonomy of these genera is confused, the classification of species and subspecies has been an unsettled issue; the genus Gazella is considered to contain about 10 species. Four further species are extinct: the red gazelle, the Arabian gazelle, the Queen of Sheba's gazelle, the Saudi gazelle. Most surviving gazelle species are considered threatened to varying degrees. Related to the true gazelles are the Tibetan and Mongolian gazelles, the blackbuck of Asia, the African springbok.
One familiar gazelle is the African species Thomson's gazelle, around 60 to 80 cm in height at the shoulder and is coloured brown and white with a distinguishing black stripe. The males have long curved, horns. Like many other prey species and springboks exhibit a distinctive behaviour of stotting when they are threatened by predators, such as cheetahs, African wild dogs, crocodiles and leopards. Gazelle is derived from Arabic: غزال ġazāl, Maghrebi pronunciation ġazēl. To Europe it first came to Old Spanish and Old French, around 1600 the word entered the English language; the Arab people traditionally hunted the gazelle. Appreciated for its grace, it is a symbol most associated in Arabic and Persian literature with female beauty. In many countries in Northwestern Sub-Saharan Africa, the gazelle is referred to as “dangelo,” meaning “swift deer.” The origins of this word date back to somewhere in between 600 and 650 B. C. E. found in roots of the Indo-European language family. One of the traditional themes of Arabic love poetry involves comparing the gazelle with the beloved, linguists theorize ghazal, the word for love poetry in Arabic, is related to the word for gazelle.
It is related that the Caliph Abd al-Malik freed a gazelle that he had captured because of her resemblance to his beloved: O likeness of Layla, never fear! For I am your friend, today, O wild deer! I say, after freeing her from her fetters: You are free for the sake of Layla, for ever! The theme is found in the ancient Hebrew Song of Songs. Come away, my beloved, be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains; the gazelles are divided into numerous species. † = extinct Fossils of genus Gazella are found in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of Eurasia and Africa. The tiny Gazella borbonica is one of the earliest European gazelles, characterized by its small size and short legs. Gazelles disappeared from Europe at the start of the Ice Age, but they survived in Africa and Middle East. Genus Gazella Gazella borbonica - European gazelle Gazella thomasi - Thomas's gazelle Gazella harmonae - Pliocene of Ethiopia, unusual spiral horns Gazella praethomsoni Gazella negevensis Gazella triquetrucornis Gazella negevensis Gazella capricornis Subgenus Vetagazella Gazella sinensis Gazella deperdita Gazella pilgrimi - steppe gazelle Gazella leile - Leile's gazelle Gazella praegaudryi - Japanese gazelle Gazella gaudryi Gazella paotehensis Gazella dorcadoides Gazella altidens Gazella mongolica Gazella lydekkeri - Ice Age gazelle Gazella blacki Gazella parasinensis Gazella kueitensis Gazella paragutturosa Subgenus Gazella Gazella janenschi Subgenus Trachelocele Gazella atlantica Gazella tingitana Subgenus Deprezia Gazella psolea Genus Nanger Nanger vanhoepeni Quotations related to Gazelles at Wikiquote
Sanskrit
Sanskrit is a language of ancient India with a history going back about 3,500 years. It is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and the predominant language of most works of Hindu philosophy as well as some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism. Sanskrit, in its variants and numerous dialects, was the lingua franca of ancient and medieval India. In the early 1st millennium CE, along with Buddhism and Hinduism, Sanskrit migrated to Southeast Asia, parts of East Asia and Central Asia, emerging as a language of high culture and of local ruling elites in these regions. Sanskrit is an Old Indo-Aryan language; as one of the oldest documented members of the Indo-European family of languages, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. It is related to Greek and Latin, as well as Hittite, Old Avestan and many other extinct languages with historical significance to Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, it traces its linguistic ancestry to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, Proto-Indo-Iranian and the Proto-Indo-European languages.
Sanskrit is traceable to the 2nd millennium BCE in a form known as the Vedic Sanskrit, with the Rigveda as the earliest known composition. A more refined and standardized grammatical form called the Classical Sanskrit emerged in mid-1st millennium BCE with the Aṣṭādhyāyī treatise of Pāṇini. Sanskrit, though not Classical Sanskrit, is the root language of many Prakrit languages. Examples include numerous modern daughter Northern Indian subcontinental languages such as Hindi, Bengali and Nepali; the body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, drama, scientific and other texts. In the ancient era, Sanskrit compositions were orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity and fidelity; the earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st-century BCE, such as the few discovered in Ayodhya and Ghosundi-Hathibada. Sanskrit texts dated to the 1st millennium CE were written in the Brahmi script, the Nāgarī script, the historic South Indian scripts and their derivative scripts.
Sanskrit is one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. It continues to be used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hinduism and some Buddhist practices such as hymns and chants; the Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sam and krta-. It connotes a work, "well prepared and perfect, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal qualities, rather than semantic. Sound and oral transmission were valued quality in ancient India, its sages refined the alphabet, the structure of words and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold", states Biderman, as an integral language they called Sanskrit. From late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic and religious literature" in India; the sound was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself, the "mysterious magnum" of the Hindu thought.
The search for perfection in thought and of salvation was one of the dimensions of sacred sound, the common thread to weave all ideas and inspirations became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as a language competed with numerous less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages; the term prakrta means "original, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth. The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in the Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patanjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and leads to the problems of interpretation and misunderstanding; the purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Dandin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit but involve "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar".
Dandin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view is found in the writing of the author of the ancient Natyasastra text; the early Jain scholar Namisadhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisadhu stated that the Prakrit language was the purvam and they came to women and children, that Sanskrit was a refinement of the Prakrit through a "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, it is one of the three ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as the Proto-Indo-European language: Vedic Sanskrit. Mycenaean Greek and Ancient Greek. Mycenaean Greek is the older recorded form of Greek, but the limited material that has survived has a ambiguous writing system. More important to Indo-European studies is Ancient Greek, documented extensively beginning with the two Homeric poems. Hittite.
This is the earliest-recorded of all Indo-European languages, distinguishable into Old Hittite, Middle Hittite and Neo-Hittite. I
Tattva (Jainism)
Jain philosophy explains that seven tattvas constitute reality. These are:— jīva- the soul, characterized by consciousness ajīva- the non-soul āsrava - inflow of auspicious and evil karmic matter into the soul. Bandha - mutual intermingling of the soul and karmas. Samvara - obstruction of the inflow of karmic matter into the soul. Nirjara - separation or falling-off of part of karmic matter from the soul. Mokṣha - complete annihilation of all karmic matter; the knowledge of these reals is said to be essential for the liberation of the soul. The first two are the two ontological categories of the soul jīva and the non-soul ajīva, namely the axiom that they exist; the third truth is that through the interaction, called yoga, between the two substances and non-soul, karmic matter flows into the soul, clings to it, becomes converted into karma and the fourth truth acts as a factor of bondage, restricting the manifestation of the consciousness intrinsic to it. The fifth truth states that a stoppage of new karma is possible through asceticism through practice of right conduct and knowledge.
An intensification of asceticism burns up the existing karma – this sixth truth is expressed by the word nirjarā. The final truth is that when the soul is freed from the influence of karma, it reaches the goal of Jaina teaching, liberation or mokṣa. In some texts punya or spiritual merit and papa or spiritual demerit are counted among the fundamental reals, but in major Jain texts like Tattvārthasūtra the number of tattvas is seven because both punya and papa are included in āsrava or bandha. According to the Jain text, Sarvārthasiddhi, translates S. A. Jain: Jainism believes that the souls exist as a reality, having a separate existence from the body that houses it. Jīva is characterised by upayoga. Though the soul experiences both birth and death, it is neither destroyed nor created. Decay and origin refer to the disappearing of one state of soul and appearance of another state, these being the modes of the soul. Ajīva are the five non-living substances, they are: Pudgala –Matter is classified as solid, gaseous, fine Karmic materials and extra-fine matter or ultimate particles.
Paramānu or ultimate particles are considered the basic building block of all matter. One of the qualities of the Paramānu and Pudgala is that of indestructibility, it combines and changes its modes but its basic qualities remain the same. According to Jainism, it destroyed. Dharma-tattva and Adharma-tattva – They are known as Dharmāstikāya and Adharmāstikāya, they are unique to Jain thought depicting the principles of rest. They are said to pervade the entire universe. Dharma-tattva and adharma-tattva are by themselves not motion or rest but mediate motion and rest in other bodies. Without dharmāstikāya motion is not possible and without adharmāstikāya rest is not possible in the universe. Ākāśa – Space is a substance that accommodates souls, the principle of motion, the principle of rest, time. It is all-pervading and made of infinite space-points. Kāla – Time is a real entity according to Jainism and all activities, changes or modifications can be achieved only through time. In Jainism, the time is likened to a wheel with twelve spokes divided into descending and ascending halves with six stages, each of immense duration estimated at billions of sagaropama or ocean years.
According to Jains, sorrow increases at each progressive descending stage and happiness and bliss increase in each progressive ascending stage. Asrava refers to the influence of mind causing the soul to generate karma, it occurs when the karmic particles are attracted to the soul on account of vibrations created by activities of mind and body. The āsrava, that is, the influx of karmic occurs when the karmic particles are attracted to the soul on account of vibrations created by activities of mind and body. Tattvārthasūtra, 6:1–2 states: "The activities of body and mind is called yoga; this three-fold action results in āsrava or influx of karma." The karmic inflow on account of yoga driven by passions and emotions cause a long term inflow of karma prolonging the cycle of reincarnations. On the other hand, the karmic inflows on account of actions that are not driven by passions and emotions have only a transient, short-lived karmic effect; the karmas have effect only. This binding of the karma to the consciousness is called bandha.
However, the yoga or the activities alone do not produce bondage. Out of the many causes of bondage, passion is considered as the main cause of bondage; the karmas are bound on account of the stickiness of the soul due to existence of various passions or mental dispositions. Saṃvara is stoppage of karma; the first step to emancipation or the realization of the self is to see that all channels through which karma has been flowing into the soul have been stopped, so that no additional karma can accumulate. This is referred to as the stoppage of the inflow of karma. There are two kinds of saṃvara: that, concerned with mental life, that which refers to the removal of karmic particles; this stoppage is possible by freedom from attachment. The practice of vows, self-control, observance of ten kinds of dharma and the removal of the various obstacles, such as hunger and passi
