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D

 

Dākinīs: female attendants of Kāli, flesh-eating associates of lord S'iva.

Dāksāyanī: Daksha 's daughter, Satī, who consciously self-ignited after returning to her father who had disrespected her husband Lord S'iva (see Satī).

Dāl: thick lentil soup. Belongs to each vedic (feast-)meal as an extra to the rice (plus the vegetables, fruits and dairy) to combine thus the needed vegetable protein so that no meat needs to be consumed. In combination with dairy products taken for the vitamin B12, one can also consume soy beans (tofu) or brown beans as a meat-replacement, provided one sufficiently feeds on bread and/or rice.

Dāmodara: (bound belly) name for toddler Krishna who stole the butter.

Dāna: non-desiring, charity (see niyama). Dhana means welfare or riches.

- 1: donating, giving gifts.
- 2. sharing or communicating.
- 3. purification (see
sauca).

Dānavas: giants, a class of demons, sons of Dānu, another wife of Kas'yapa; often mentioned next to the Daityas, the evil sons of Diti.

Dāsa: (servant) instrument of the will of God, Krishna.

Dāsya: a rasa, the servant-Lord-relationship.

Daityas: the evil sons of Diti. (zie Hiranyakas'ipu and Hiranyāksha).

Daksha ('the expert'): founding father or prajāpati. Son of Brahmā who was cursed by Lord S'iva because he had lost his respect for him. Got from S'iva the head of a goat when he arose from the death to which he was condemned (see S.B. 4.5-7.) Daksha on his turn cursed Nārada because he would bind his sons too much to the celibate because of which the dynasty was threatened with extinction. Because of that curse is Nārada, and thus also the pure devotees outside the ās'rama, not capable of staying in one place for more than three days S.B.: 6.4-5).

Danda: stick, staff, discipline, control (see also tri-danda).

- Period of about thirty minutes also called a nādikā (3.11: 8).

Dandavat: stretched on the ground paying obeisances before the mūrti s and/or spiritual teacher.

Dantavakra: demonic family member of Krishna (zie 9.24: 27) who in his rage about the death of his mates S'alva and S'is'upāla turned against Krishna and was killed (see 10.78).

Darbha: type of grass different from the flat Kus'a grass, also used for mats to sit on. Name: Saccharum cylindricum.

Daridra-nārāyana: false teaching saying that people are 'poor' manifestations of God (Nārāyana).

Darshanas: ('perspectives, ways of seeing, visions') The six systems of indian philosophy. syncretically considered to be complimentary rather than contradictory, despite of the diverging and sometimes contradictory nature in formulating their tenets with the concepts of ātmā and brahma (see also 12.13: 11-12). These orthodox visions share, together with the heterodox religiosity of Buddhism, Jainism and S'ankarism against which they rose at the time Christianity was founded a.) the upanishadic notion of cyclic time in yugas and rebirths and b.) the concept of moksha or liberation from that rebirth by means of emancipation and transcendence. The six are often organized in three dualities of philosophy: the unitarian/methodic (scientific), the analytic/connective (spiritual) and the ritual/exegetic (religious) approaches. There is also a suggestion of progress in emancipation from low to high in this order.

A: Scientific.
- 1
Vais'eshika, the atomistic view of reality.
- 2 The
Nyāya vision of the methodic approach.
B: Spiritual.
- 3 the
Sankhya vision of analysis in tattvas as opposed to the purusha.
- 4 The
Yoga vison of transcendence by meditation in eight 'limbs' or angas.
C: Religious.
- 5 The
Mīmāmsā notion of regulated rituals and service and
- 6 The
Vedānta view of the concluding and to time and place adaptive transcendental commentaries upon the purāna, itihāsa and upanishad literatures.

- The Nyāya and Vais'eshika perspectives are part of science, the karma-mīmāmsā one can recognize in the vision of the civil Hindu with his mandirs and pundits, the Yoga is the popular version of the spiritual discipline of connecting with the Absolute and the analytic of the Sankhya vision was assimilated by the vedāntic  uttara-mīmāmsā approach we know in the West as the Hare Krishna s (see also Kapila and yoga).

Darshan: ('the seeing') the presence of the guru; the favor of saints and great sages to their followers to enjoy their presence.

Das'ārha: ('worthy of service') a common ancestor of the Vrishnis, Krishna's familyname, described in 9.24: 3-4 (see also Yādavas).

Dasendriya: the ten sense organs consisting of the five senses of perception (jńānendriya's) and the five of action (karmendriyas) resp.: ear, eye, tongue, nose, skin, and the hands, legs, speech organ, arse and genitals.

Dattātreya: ('the given one') the son of Atri, a mighty yogī of Lord Vishnu, considered a partial incarnation of Him (4.1: 15 & 33). Prayed to for the protection against disloyal union (non-yoga, see 6.8: 16).

- The paramparā maintains the position that the brahmin that Krishna speaks of mentioning the twenty-four gurus of the avadhūta (in 11.7,8&9) would have been Dattātreya.

- He, also known as Datta, is said to contain the essence of Brahmā, Vishnu and S'iva. He grew up to be a mystic mendicant, roaming the world with his cow and four dogs. He mastered the Vedas and the Tantras; many sādhus, sannyāsīs, ascetics, yogīs, hermits and sages like Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath became his disciples. He also became the great leader of the kanphota-nathpanthi, the mystics with 'split-ears' who follow the antinomian way of opposing the fixed meaning or universal applicability of the moral law.

Dayā: compassion as an indirect rasa.

- One of the four basic values of religiosity (see dharma).

Deha: the physical body.

Demigod: divine, godly, godconscious, devoted person (see bhakta, deva, adhikāri)

- Living being in goodness, servant of God.

- Being endowed by God with the power to rule over a certain portion of the cosmic household, like the sun, rain, fire, and also to see to it that all beings suffer no want for anything.

- Inhabitant of the heavenly planets.

Demons: see rākshasa and a sura.

Desire Tree (kalpa vriksha): tree, one can find on Goloka Vrindāvana, it fulfills all one's wishes.

- Also a name for the vaishnava s who fulfill each righteous wish (see also the vaishnava pranāma).

Deva: demigod; great personality in devotion unto Krishna, selfrealized to independent management.

- Living being, empowered by the Lord with the might to rule over a certain section of the universe, like the sun, the rain, fire etc., and also to watch over the well-being of all living beings.

- Pious being, servant of God. Godly person, demigod. Godconscious person.

- In three kinds: Adityas or sons of Aditi (see 8.16 & 17), the Vasus and the Rudras. The virtuous, the good and the purifiers.

- The Brihadaranyak Upanishad says that there are mainly thirty-three gods who are important in the celestial world in terms of the performance of Vedic rituals and the yajńas. Other celestial gods are affiliates to them. They are: eight Vasus, eleven Rudras, twelve Adityas (forms of sun god), Indra and Prajāpati (hindu encycl.).

- In 11.24: 8 there is mention of eleven gods presiding over the working and perceiving senses and the mind. They are: one: the deities presiding over the quarters, two Vāyu, three Surya, four Varuna, five the As'vini Kumāras, six Agni, seven I ndra, eight Vishnu, nine Mitra, ten Prajāpati and eleven Candra.

- In 3.6: 12-23 there is mention of: Agni & the Veda (to the spoken word), Varuna, the As'vins, Sūrya,Candra, Anila (to the air, touch), Brahmā (as the first Prajāpati), Mitra, Indra, S'iva, Vishnu and the rulers of the directions (according to the ears).

Devahūti: the mother of the incarnation of the Lord as Kapila (S.B. 3.33).

Devakī: the mother of Lord Krishna. When Krishna appears in the material world, does he send ahead some devotees, to serve Him as father, mother etc. (see also Yas'odā).

Devakī-nandana: Krishna, the child of Devakī.

Devala: an ancient authority on the Vedas. His name is related to the story of Gajendra, the elephant that was captured by a crocodile. That crocodile was Hūhū, a singer of heaven who by a curse of sage Devala, had turned into one (see 8.4: 3-4).

Devarshi: great sage, wise among the gods, honorary title (of Nārada Muni e.g.).

Devī: goddess, honorary title of female devotees alike mataji, mother, or prabhu, master, for the males.

Devotee: see Bhakta.

Devotee, Pure -: someone who, apart from all the attachments to the fruit of his actions (karma) to speculative thought, with body and soul surrenders to the service of the Lord and thus achieves the perfections of devotion unto God and the pinnacle of spiritual realization. (see also bhakta, bhagavata, sadhu, sadhaka, paramahamsa, ācārya, gosvāmī)

Devotional service: see Bhakti.

Dhāranā: concentration, retention, understanding, firmness, holding, bearing, collecting, supporting.

- Part of ashthānga yoga that comes before the meditation and wherein one concentrates on the object to meditate with; usually a mantra.

- See also the different ways of concentrating for the different perfections, or siddhis, of yoga (11.15: 10-30).

- The first part of the process of yogic integration, the restraint and selfcontol called samyama.

Dhana: wealth property, riches, money.

Dhanańjaya: 'conqueror of wealth', name for Arjuna referring to his generosity.

Dhanvantari: ('moving in a curve') avatāra of Vishnu who appeared from the churning of the ocean, standing for the integrity of (ayurvedic) medicine (see 8.8).

Dharma (sanātana-): that religious dutifulness that is bound to Krishna and results in the eternal values of satya, dayā, tapah, sauca (or dāna): truthfulness, compassion, sobriety and purity (bull of dharma, see Kali-yuga and also sva-dharma en vidhi, see 1.17, 3.13: 35 and 11.17: 10, 12.3: 18).

- Dharma-rāja or also Dharma: name of Yudhishthhira.

- Dharma: as a name used for the son of Dharma or the son of Yamarāja, the king of the duties of religion.

- As Nara-Nārā yana, the best of sages perfectly peaceful, was He born from Mūrti, the daughter of Daksha and wife of Dharma (11.4: 6), and according the Matsya  Purāna (3.10), was Dharma, the father of Nara-Nārāyana Rishi, born from the right breast of Brahmā and married he later with thirteen of the daughters of Prajāpati  Daksha.

- Religiosity.

- Universal and absolute religion (see also adharma, bhāgavata-dharma and varnās'rama-dharma).

- The nature of something. Its very character.

- Another name for the different religious, societal and "personal" duties (swa-dharmas) of man.

- That what is defended by the Veda; to live to scriptural precept (see S.B. 6.1).

- In two kinds: dutiful acting in attachment, pravritti dharma; and dutiful acting in detachment, nivritti dharma (see 3.32: 2-5 & 43-36, 4.4: 20 and 11.10: 4).

- What obstructs the original purpose of one's own duty is vidharma, misconceived or strange to one's own is it paradharma, directions that are turned against one's purpose in life are upadharma and one speaks of chala when by an opponent the words of the scripture are twisted and covered with pretense. That what by persons whimsically, as a dim reflection, is done in defiance of the purpose of one's own order of life [one's ās'rama] is ābhāsa; [to all of this one has to pose the question:] in what respect would that what to one's own nature as being the appropriate dharma is arranged not be capable of bringing peace? (S.B. 7.15: 12-13).

- The Lord His seat of dharma is imagined as consisting of the righteousness, wisdom, detachment and supremacy as its legs, its opposites as the sides and the three gunas as the three planks for the base (mentioned in 11.27: 25-26).

Dharma-kshetra: ('field of righteousness') holy place of pilgrimage. Term used for Kurukshetra, the battlefield of the great war.

Dharma megha samādhi: 'seedless' absorption in contemplation of the virtue and justice. Condition of enlightenment (see also kaivaly a).

- Dissolve in the One. A purpose denied by the vaishnava.

Dharmarāja: another name of Yamarāja.

Dharma-vyādha: a nonviolent hunter described in the Varāha Purāna quoted in 11.12: 3-6 to illustrate the importance of association with devotees. In a previous life he somehow became a brahma-rākshasa or brāhmin ghost but was eventually saved since he in a previous Kali-yuga had the association of a vaishnava-king named Vāsu.

Dhīra: unaffected, sober person.

- Someone who is not confounded by the material energy.

Dhoti: long piece of cloth wrapped around the waist. Standard clothing for the male devotees in the temple.

Dhristadyumna: the son of Drupada who arranged the ranks of the Pāndavas on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

Dhritarāshthra: the father of the Kauravas. The Bhagavad-Gītā, as it was spoken on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, was related to him by his secretary Sańjaya.

- The uncle of the Pāndavas, whose efforts to seize their kingdom for his own sons, led to the war of Kurukshetra.

Dhruva Mahārāja: (dhruva means: permanent, eternal, constant) great devotee who in his fifth year of life underwent severe penances and realized the Supreme Personality of Godhead that way (see: S.B. 4.8-13).

Dhyāna: seventh phase of the eight phases of ashthānga-yoga, consisting of the practice of meditation.

- Exercising meditation on the Supreme Lord, who resides in the heart as the Supersoul.

Also: Dhyana: meditation (see ashthānga-yoga).

Digdevatā: (or dikpati) a regent or guardian of a quarter of the sky.

Dīkshā: initiation, introduction, preparation for the spiritual soul, the way to purify (see 12.11: 17).

- The process of acquiringaspiritual identity with Krishna by s'raddha, faith; sādhu-sanga, association with devotees and bhajana kriya: the regular spiritual practice of chanting the names alone and together and reading the scriptures and such, and as a consequence receive a spiritual name after a due period of consolidation (normally about a year, see also adhikār i).

- There are dīkshā gurus and s'ishya-gurus, gurus of initiation and gurus of instruction (see gurus).

Disciplic succession: see paramparā.

Diti: the wife of Kas'yapa  Muni and mother of the demons Hiranyāksha and Hiranyakas'ipu (see S.B. 3.14).

Diviyam s'rotam: in yoga is to listen to ethereal sound of the special abilities acquired by the practice; Patańjali describes it: s'rota ākāsayohsam bandha samyamāt diviyam s'rotam ('from samyama on the relation between space and sound is there the divine power of hearing'), Yoga-sutras III.42, and also Krishna discusses this secondary siddhi (see also s'rota and apaurusha, and 11.15: 19).

Divya-tantri: (divya: godly) a yogī who engages in sexual behavior only for having offspring and brings the rest of the sexuality to a subliminal state of absorption in God (Krishna)-consciousness.

Draupadī: daughter of king Drupada and wife of the Pāndavas.

Dronācārya: the teacher of martial arts of Arjuna and other Pāndavas and chief commander of the Kurus on the battlefield of Kuruksetra.

Drupada: a warrior fighting at the side of the Pāndavas on the battlefield of Kuruksetra.

Duhkha: unhappiness, reactions, misery. Alternates with material happiness or: sukha.

Durgā: goddess. Heartens the struggle for material interests of mahā māyā.

- The impersonation of the material energy and the spouse of Lord S'iva.

- S.B.: 8.12: 40 (see also for a picture) 'Once you're joined with Me in the form of eternal time will that illusory energy consisting of the modes of nature, with all her different elements (the goddess Durgā in sum) no longer be able to bewilder you.'

Durga: difficult to attain, hard to approach, danger, distress.

Durvāsā Muni: mighty, mystical yogī, feared for his terrible curses. Had a conflict with Ambarīsha Mahār ā j a about the order of time and finally had to seek his refuge with Ambarīsha who then pronounced the cakra-prayers to restore the order and the mutual peace (see 9.4 & 5).

Duryodhana: Kaurava, nephew of Arjuna, who as the eldest lead the enemy armies together with his hundred other brothers, the sons of the blind uncle Dhritharāshthra.

Dushkritam: ('of sin') crooks, miscreants, criminals, sinners resisting surrender to Krishna.

Dvāpara-yuga: the third era preceding Kali-yuga, twice as long of duration (see Kali-yuga). Is part of a cycle of four (mahā-yuga); covers 864.000 years (see also 2.1: 8, 11.5: 27-30).

Dvārakā: (many-gates; for all walks of life) The city within the sea to which Krishna together with His loyals retreated after His stay in Mathūra, the capital of His region of birth (see 10: 50).

- The city where Lord Krishna's pastimes as a head of state, wellfaring noble, father and lover took place.

Dvārakādhīsa: name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as Lord over the city of Dvārakā.

Dvaipāyana: see Vyāsa deva.

Dves'a: aversion, unhappiness, hate, connected with the irrationality of material logic. Belongs to the kles'as.

Dvijā (-jana): twice-born: someone who accepted a spiritual life: who accepted a spiritual teacher and got initiated.

- Anyone of the three higher classes in the vedic society (see varna).

- Dvijas: The twice born, the ones of Garuda, the 'great birds'.

Dvīpa: 'separate area, island or continent'. There are seven dvīpas as for the continents of the earth. Also Brahmā's lotus, the galaxy, is described as a dvīpa. The eurasian continent is known as Jambhūdvīpa. (see also varsha and S.B. 5.1:33, S.B. 5.20, and 10.63: 37).

- There is also a divsion of nine dvīpas, nava-dvīpa, named after the sons of Āgnīdhra: Nābhi, Kimpurusha, Harivarsha, Ilāvrita, Ramyaka, Hiranmaya, Kuru, Bhadrās'va and Ketumāla. These constitute the different parts of India or bhārata-varsha later ruled by nine of the hundred sons of Rishabha. Navadvīpa is also the name of the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. (see nava-yogendra s, 5.2: 19-21 and 11.2: 19).

 

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