Deities and sacred beings
Deities, sages, kings, places and principles compiled from the Puranas. Search, filter and open each profile.
45 beings · page 1 of 3
Samsara
संसारSamsara (samsriti) is a foundational conception of Hindu philosophy: the beginningless cycle of birth and death through which the jiva wande…
Dharma
धर्मDharma is the master-concept of Indian thought: the ordering law and sense of rightness that sustains the person, society and cosmos — used …
Bhakti
भक्तिBhakti is loving self-surrender to the Supreme: the crown of all dharmas in the Bhagavata. In SB 1.5: even falling immature in bhakti causes…
Vairagya
वैराग्यVairagya is dispassion — freedom of the heart from attachment and aversion toward the non-self — a cornerstone of Indian spiritual disciplin…
Jnana
ज्ञानJnana is knowledge of reality — in Vedanta, the direct realization of the self as Brahman that destroys ignorance and grants liberation; it …
Artha
अर्थArtha is the third of the four purusharthas (dharma, artha, kama, moksha): material well-being, wealth and orderly prosperity, with which th…
Kama
कामKama is desire and enjoyment — the third purushartha — also famed as the Vedic love-god Kama-deva. The processed verses define its disciplin…
Jiva (the living being)
जीवThe jiva is the soul as wanderer in transmigration: the conscious witness that, bound by karma, cycles through birth and death until self-re…
Moksha
मोक्षMoksha (apavarga) is the fourth and supreme purushartha: eternal release from the bondage of samsara, reckoned by the Indian schools as life…
Brahman
ब्रह्मBrahman is the supreme Reality of the Upanishads and Vedanta — 'satyam jnanam anantam': the one attributeless existence-consciousness-bliss …
Paramatman
परमात्माParamatman is the supreme Self indwelling all: in Vedanta, the Lord's form present within every heart and atom as witness (the saguna face o…
Varnashrama-dharma
वर्णाश्रम धर्मVarnashrama-dharma is the Vedic social order: the four varnas and four ashramas, each with its own duty, as codified in the smriti literatur…
Karma
कर्मKarma is the central Indian conception of action and its consequence, binding the soul to rebirth; the term covers both Vedic ritualism and …
Prakriti
प्रकृतिPrakriti is primordial nature of the Sankhya-Vedanta tradition: the insentient, three-mode matrix from whose evolution the subtle and gross …
Sattva-guna
सत्त्वगुणSattva-guna is the first and best of prakriti's three modes: luminosity, purity, balance and the inclination to knowledge, rendering the min…
Rajas-guna
रजोगुणRajas-guna is prakriti's second mode: energy, passion and striving, breeding in the mind lust, greed and anger. In the processed verses it c…
Tamas-guna
तमोगुणTamas-guna is prakriti's third mode: darkness, inertia, heedlessness and the propensity to ignorance. In the processed verses rajas arises f…
Maya
मायाMaya is the Lord's own potency (atma-maya): the creative, three-mode power that projects the world as the saguna display of the modeless Bra…
Mahat-tattva
महत्तत्त्वMahat-tattva is the first manifest principle of the Sankhya-Vedanta cosmology: the 'great' intellect-stuff from which ego and the entire mat…
Yoga-nidra (the Lord's mystic slumber)
योगनिद्राYoga-nidra is the Lord's mystic slumber: the yogic trance spread by the purusha-avatara reclining on the causal waters (SB 1.3.2), during wh…