Question | Answer |
Ahimsa | non-violence, a central Jain principle |
Anekantwad | the Jain principle of open-mindedness |
Archetype | a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated |
Asanas | a yogic posture |
Brahmin | a priest or member of the priestly caste in hinduism |
Dharma (hin) | moral, order, righteousness, religion |
Durga | the great goddesses destroyer of evil, sometimes as sakti or siva |
Mircea Eliade | Romanian scholar and writer, noted for his study of religious symbolism. His works include Patterns of Comparative Religion |
Ganesha | the Hindu deity in a human form but with the head of an elephant -represents the power of the Supreme Being that removes obstacles and ensures success in human endeavors |
Heuristic Device | refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. |
Jainism | Indian religion founded by Mahavira that rejects brahmancis caste and sacrifice and stresses nonviolence |
Kali | destroying and transforming Mother of the World, in hinduism |
Karma (b&h) | our actions and their effects on this lives to come |
Lakshmi | in Hinduism, the consort of vishnu |
Mahavira | the 24th and the last Tirthankara of the Jain religion |
Mantra | a sound or phrase chanted to evoke the sound vibration of one aspect of creation to praise a diety |
Moksha | in hinduism, liberation of the soul from illusion and suffering |
Myth | a symbolic story expressing ideas about reality or spiritual history |
Prasad | in indian traditions, blessed food |
Purusha | the cosmic spirit, soul of the universe in hinduism; in samkhya philosophy the eternal self |
Samadhi | in yogic practice, the blissful state of superconscious union with the Absolute |
Sanatana Dharma | the "eternal religion" of hinduism |
Saraswati | is the Goddess of learning, knowledge, and wisdom."essence of self" |
Siva | the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti |
Tabu | a strong social prohibition |
Totem | a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan |
The Vedas | ancient scriptures revered by hindus |
Joachim Wach | German religious scholar who emphasised a distinction between the history of religion and the philosophy of religion. |
Yoni | abstract hindu representation of the female vulva, cosmic matrix of life |
Androcentrism | is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or the masculine point of view at the center of one's view of the world and its culture and history |
Aparigraha | the Jain principle of non-acquisitiveness |
Aryans | the into-european pastoral invaders of many Europeans and Middle Eastern Agricultural cultures during the second millennium |
Axis Mundi | is a symbol representing the center of the world where the heaven (sky) connects with the earth |
Brahman | the impersonal ultimate principle in Hinduism |
Castes | social class distinction based on |
Darsan | visual contact with the divine through encounters with hindu images or gurus |
Digambaras | a highly ascetic order of jain monks who wear no clothes |
Emile Durkheim | founder of sociology- saw religion as the most fundamental social institution of humankind |
Sigmund Freud | regarded the monotheistic god as an illusion based upon the infantile emotional need for a powerful |
Hermeneutics | the field of theological study that attempts to interpret scripture |
Hinduism | a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils |
Jiva | the soul in Jainism |
Kali Yuga | in Hindu world cycles, an age of chaos and selfishness, including one in which we are now living |
Kevala | the supremely perfected state in Jainism |
Lingam | a cylindrical stone or other similarly shaped natural or sculpted form, representing for Saivite Hindus the unmanifest aspect of Siva |
Mandala | a symmetrical image, with shapes emerging from a center, used as a meditational focus |
Karl Marx | religion is an ideology that justifies a particular set of social/political arrangements that reward some but punish others |
Mudra | religious gestures made with hands during meditation and iconography used in Buddhism and Hinduism |
Parvati | Siva's spouse, sweet daughter of the Himalayas |
Puja | Hindu ritual worship |
Religionswissenschaft | religion scientifically concerned with systematizing and theorizing religious data |
Rites of Passage | ritual events that marks a persons progress from one status to another |
Samsara | the continual round of birth, death, and rebirth in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism |
Sannyasin | in Hinduism and Buddhism, a renunciate spiritual seeker |
Shaman | a "medicine man", a person who has has undergone spiritual ordeals and can communicate with the spirit world to help the people in indigenous traditions |
Svetambaras | Jain order of monks who are less ascetic than the Digambara |
Tirthankaras | the great enlightened teachers in Jainism, of whom Mahavira was the last in the present cosmic cycle |
Upanishads | the philosophical part of the Vedas in Hinduism, intended only for serious seekers |
Vishnu | in Hinduism, the preserving aspect of the Supreme of the Supreme Itself, incarnating again and again to save the world |
Yoga | a systematic approach to spiritual realization, one of the major hindu philosophical systems |
Dharma (bud) | the doctrine or law as revealed by Buddha; also the correct conduct for each person according to his level of awareness |
Karma (jain) | subtle particles that accumulate on the soul as a result of one's thoughts and actions |
Atman | in hinduism, the soul |