Hari (Sanskrit: हरि, IAST: Hari) means He who attracts all things to Himself It refers to the one who removes darkness and illusion, God who removes all obstacles to spiritual progress In the Rigveda’s Purusha Sukta (praise of the supreme cosmic being), Hari is the first and most important name of the supreme Divine Being (whose Sanskrit cognate is Brahman) The second and alternative name of the supreme being is Narayana according to Narayana sukta of the Yajurveda...
Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means “force” and thus alludes to a system of physical techniques In India, haṭha yoga is associated in popular tradition with the Yogis of the Natha Sampradaya through its traditional founder Matsyendranath, who is celebrated as a saint in both Hindu and Buddhist tantric and haṭha yoga schools Almost all hathayogic texts belong to the Nath siddhas, and the important ones are credited to Matsyendranath’s disciple, Gorakhnath or Gorakshanath...
The Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā (Sanskrit: haṭhayogapradīpikā, हठयोगप्रदीपिका or Light on Hatha Yoga) is a classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on haṭha yoga, written by Svātmārāma, who connects the teaching’s lineage to Matsyendranath of the Nathas It is among the most influential surviving texts on haṭha yoga, being one of the three classic texts alongside the Gheranda Samhita and the Shiva Samhita
In the Vedic Hinduism, a homa (Sanskrit: होम) also known as havan, is a fire ritual performed on special occasions by a Hindu priest usually for a homeowner (“grihastha”: one possessing a home) The grihasth keeps different kinds of fire including one to cook food, heat his home, amongst other uses; therefore, a Yajna offering is made directly into the fire A homa is sometimes called a “sacrifice ritual” because the fire destroys the offering, but a homa is more accurately a “votive ritual”...
The Heart Sūtra (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya or Chinese: 心經 Xīnjīng, Tibetan: བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ) is a popular sutra in Mahāyāna Buddhism In Sanskrit, the title Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya translates as “The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom” The Sutra famously states, “Form is emptiness (śūnyatā), emptiness is form " It is a condensed exposé on the Buddhist Mahayana teaching of the Two Truths doctrine, which says that ultimately all phenomena are sunyata It has been called “the most frequently used and recited text in the entire Mahayana Buddhist tradition...
Hindus (Hindustani: [ˈɦɪndu] (listen); ) are persons who regard themselves as culturally, ethnically, or religiously adhering to aspects of Hinduism Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent The term “Hindu” trace back to Old Persian which derived these names from the Sanskrit name Sindhu (सिन्धु ), referring to the river Indus The Greek cognates of the same terms are “Indus” (for the river) and “India” (for the land of the river)...
Hinduism () is an Indian religion and dharma, or way of life It is the world’s third-largest religion, with over 1-2 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्म, lit ‘’the Eternal Dharma’’), which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts...
Hiraṇyagarbha (Sanskrit: हिरण्यगर्भः ; literally the ‘golden womb’, poetically translated as ‘universal womb’) is the source of the creation of universe or the manifested cosmos in Vedic philosophy, as well as an avatar of Vishnu in the Bhagavata Purana It finds mention in one hymn of the Rigveda (RV 10.121), known as the Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta, suggesting a single creator deity (verse 8: yo deveṣv ādhi devā eka āsīt, Griffith: “He is the God of gods, and none beside him...
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is an ancient Vedic deity in Hinduism He is the king of Svarga (Heaven) and the Devas (gods) He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows and war Indra’s mythology and powers are similar to other Indo-European deities such as Jupiter, Perun, Perkūnas, Zalmoxis, Taranis, Zeus, and Thor, showing connections to hypothesized Proto-Indo-European mythology Indra is the most referred deity in the Rigveda...
Indriya (literally “belonging to or agreeable to Indra”) is the Sanskrit and Pali term for physical strength or ability in general, and for the senses more specifically The term literally means “belonging to Indra,” chief deity in the Rig Veda and lord of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven (also known as Śakra or Sakka in Buddhism) hence connoting supremacy, dominance and control, attested in the general meaning of “power, strength” from the Rig Veda...
Ishta-Deva or Ishta Devata (Sanskrit: इष्ट देवता, iṣṭa-deva(tā), literally “cherished divinity” from iṣṭa, “personal, liked, cherished, preferred” and devatā, “godhead, divinity, tutelary deity” or deva, “deity”), is a term used in Hinduism denoting a worshipper’s favourite deity It is especially significant to both the Smarta and Bhakti schools, wherein practitioners choose to worship the form of God that inspires them Within Smartism, one of five chief deities are selected Even in denominations that focus on a singular concept of God, such as Vaishnavism, the Ishta Deva concept exists...
Ishvara (Sanskrit: ईश्वर, ISO-15919: Īśvara) or Eshwara is a concept in Hinduism, with a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism In ancient texts of Hindu philosophy, depending on the context, Ishvara can mean supreme Self, ruler, lord, king, queen or husband In medieval era Hindu texts, depending on the school of Hinduism, Ishvara means God, Supreme Being, personal God, or special Self...
Jagadguru, literally meaning “guru of the universe”, is a title used in Sanātana Dharma Traditionally, it has been bestowed upon or used for ācāryas belonging to the Vedānta school (among the six traditional schools of thought in Hinduism) who have written Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthānatrayī (literally, ’the three sources’) – the Brahma sūtras (the original scripture of Vedānta), the Bhagavad-gītā (part of the Mahābhārata) and the principal Upaniṣads Historically, jagadgurus have established a lineage (paramparā), established an institution to spread dharma, who have been based in Varanasi, the centre of Sanskrit study
In Hindu philosophy, turiya (Sanskrit: तुरीय, meaning “the fourth”) or chaturiya, chaturtha, is pure consciousness Turiya is the background that underlies and pervades the three common states of consciousness The three common states of consciousness are: waking state, dreaming state, and dreamless deep sleep
Jainism () is an ancient Indian religion The three main pillars of Jainism are ahiṃsā (non-violence), anekāntavāda (non-absolutism), and aparigraha (ascetism) Jain monks take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (sexual continence), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness) These principles have affected Jain culture in many ways, such as leading to a predominantly vegetarian lifestyle Parasparopagraho jīvānām (the function of souls is to help one another) is the faith’s motto, and the Ṇamōkāra mantra is its most common and basic prayer...