abhāva
1 (‘non-apprehension’, ‘non-cognition’) Recognized as a means of valid knowledge (pramāṇa) by the Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta darśanas.2 (‘non-existence’, ‘absence’) In the developed Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika system, ...
Advaita
(Sanskrit, non-duality)The doctrine of the Vedantic school associated with Shankara, that asserts the identity of brahman and atman; the empirical world is one of phenomena bene fundata and, like the ...
Advaita Vedānta
One of the major theological cum philosophical schools of the Vedānta darśana, now closely associated with the teachings of Śaṅkara (Śaṅkarācārya). The earliest identifiable Advaita text, the ...
Afterlife
In Islam, one's condition in the afterlife, whether in heaven or hell, is determined by the degree to which one has affirmed the unity and justice of God, acted with mercy and justice toward others, ...
Ānanda
One of the Buddha's chief disciples and his first cousin, his father being a brother of Śuddhodana, the Buddha's father. It appears that he entered the Order (Saṃgha) in the second year of the ...
ānanda
A term used of brahman (neut.), as ultimate reality, from the earliest Upaniṣads onwards. In Advaita Vedānta it is combined with sat (‘being’), and cit (‘awareness, sentience, consciousness’) into ...
antaḥkaraṇa
According to the Sāṃkhya and Vedānta systems, a complex of ‘intellect’ (mahat/buddhi), ‘the sense of I’ (ahaṃkāra), and ‘mind’ (manas), and so the basis of all mental life.
Anubhava
(Skt., ‘experience’).In Vedānta, ‘experience’ or ‘intuition’ as the basis of an individual's knowledge of Brahman, the Absolute. For Śaṅkara brahman-anubhava, the ‘intuition of Brahman’, is the ...
asatkāryavāda
A philosophical doctrine concerning origination or causation, according to which the material effect differs from, or does not pre-exist in the material cause. This position is held by the Nyāya and ...
Aurobindo Ghose
(1872–1950)Indian mystic and spiritual leader. His philosophical writings attempt to synthesize evolutionary science with a mystical view of the supreme reality or Brahman.
avidyā
(Skt.; Pāli, avijjā).Ignorance; in Buddhism it refers specifically to ignorance about the workings of karma.the Four Noble Truths, and the Three Jewels (triratna). Avidyā is the root cause of ...
Bādarāyaṇa
(early centuries ce)The author or redactor to whom the Brahmasūtra (Vedāntasūtra) is attributed.
Baladeva
1 See Balarāma.2 (18th century ce) The founder of a Vedānta sampradāya. His Govindabhāṣya belongs to the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition; it characterizes the relationship between the devotee and Kṛṣṇa as ...
Bhagavadgita
A sacred Hindu poem composed between the 2nd century bc and the 2nd century ad and incorporated into the Mahabharata. Presented as a dialogue between the Kshatriya prince Arjuna and his divine ...
Bhāskara
1 (7th century ce) A Vedānta teacher who was a near contemporary of Śaṅkara, but disagreed with the latter's Advaita, maintaining instead a bhedābheda (identity in difference) stance: the world is ...
Brahman
In the Upanishads the ground of all being; that in virtue of which everything else exists; the ultimate reality, which makes possible time, space, and the natural order. As in Parmenides, this is an ...
Brahmasūtra
(redacted early centuries ce)An aphoristic (sūtra) text attributed to Bādarāyaṇa, but drawing on earlier material, which attempts to synthesize the Upaniṣadic teachings. The first sūtra reads: ‘Now ...
Brahmo Samāj
The first modern Hindu reform movement, the Brāhmo Samāj (initially known as the ‘Brāhmo Sabhā’) was founded in Calcutta in 1828 by the Bengali intellectual Rāmmohun Roy. Reorganized by Debendranāth ...
