Impersonal spirit, the Absolute, the Eternal; the Universal essence from which all created things emanate.
Brahmin
Member of the highest ranking social class, a class of priests.
Buddha
"One who has awakened" or "the one who has understood," an epithet or title rather than a proper name.
Krishna
A widely revered and popular Indian deity, son of Vasudeva. One of his aspects is Govinda Krishna, lord of cowherds.
Hinduism Vocabulary
Lakshmi
Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune, consort of Vishnu. In one of her incarnations, she bears the name Kamala.
Mara
"Lord of the Senses," a tempter bent on distracting monks and buddhas-to-be during meditation.
Maya
Principle of appearance, displays the unreal as real; brings about the illusory manifestation of the universe.
Nirvana
Liberation from passion, suffering, and rebirth; an overcoming of the wheel of birth and death (Sansara).
Hinduism Vocabulary
Samadhi
Perfect one-pointedness of mind; absorption; the serene, unifying concentration achieved in meditation.
Samana
One of a class of wandering mendicant ascetics of ancient India.
Sansara
The wheel of birth and death, cycle of rebirths; empirical existence.
Upanishads
The concluding portion of the Vedas, containing the teachings of the ancient sages; the Upanishads teach that the Self of a human being is the same as Brahman. There are 10 main Upanishads.
Hinduism Vocabulary
Vedas
Sacred scriptures of the Hindu tradition, consisting of 4 books: Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, and Atharva-Veda.
Vishu
One of the principal Hindu deities, protector and preserver of the world. Krishna is one of his incarnations.
resources for Vocabulary
Both Sacred Quest and Siddhartha (Bernofsky edition) have
glossaries
The concepts of Hindu and Hinduism are problematic for several
reasons.
Hindu and Hinduism are words of Persian origin from the 12th
century C.E.; thus, they are not native to India.
Those who have conceptualized Hinduism have been western European
What do we mean by "religion" (cf. Our definition)
notion of sacred reality
made manifest in human experience
in such a way as to produce long-lasting ways of thinking, feeling &
activity
with respect to problems of ordering & understanding existence
Questions
When you attempt to understand a new religious tradition, what is the
most important thing to learn? Would you focus on its doctrines, the
way it tells stories, its art, its rituals, or its institutions?
Would you focus on something else?
If you were trying to explain your own religious tradition to someone
who knew nothing about it, what would be the most important thing for
that person to learn?
Hinduism
Is / Is not
Hinduism is not just a part or aspect of Indian life or culture; it
is far more encompassing than that.
It structures and influences every aspect of Hindu life, including