Library: Eastern Religions by Credo Reference: Practices & Beliefs

Holidays & Observances

Caitra Purnima
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
In southern India, Caitra Purnima is a time for Hindus to worship Chitra Gupta, also known as “the scribe of the gods.” Tradition holds that while Brahma was meditating, Chitra Gupta was brought into being.
Dol Purnima
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
The Dol Purnima festival is celebrated throughout India by followers of Krishna.
Durga Puja
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
The festival in Calcutta, India, in the state of West Bengal, honors Durga, who rides a lion and destroys demons. She is one aspect of the Mother Goddess and the personification of energy, and is famous for slaying the buffalo demon, Mahisasura.
Guru Purnima
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
In Hinduism, a guru is a personal teacher or guide who has already attained spiritual insight.
Holi
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
Holi is a colorful and boisterous Hindu spring festival in India, also known as the Festival of Colors.
Kartika Purnima
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
Hindus celebrate Kartika Purnima in honor of the day when God incarnated himself as the Matsya Avatar in fish form.
Kumbh Mela
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
The Kumbh Mela involves mass immersion rituals by Hindus near the city of Allahabad (the ancient holy city of Prayag) in the north-central state of Uttar Pradesh, India.
Magha Purnima
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
Like Kartika Purnima, this is a Hindu bathing festival. Magha is considered to be one of the four most sacred months, and Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges on this day is a great purifying act.
Rama Leela Festival
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
The Hindu festival of Dussehra (see Durga Puja), observed on the 10th day of the waxing half of Asvina, celebrates the victory of the legendary hero Rama over the demon Ravana.

Terms & Concepts

Amrita
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Amrita ('immortal') was the food of the gods. In early Vedic accounts, by the Aryan people who invaded India in the seventeenth century BCE, it was the same thing as soma. But in later, Hindu myth it was created by the gods themselves.
Ashram
From Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought
Ashrams are quite different from Buddhist or western-Christian monasteries. Essentially they are communities which grow up around a religious figure.
Ayurveda
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
Closely connected to the Atharvaveda, the Ayurveda is a work on medicine attributed to the mythical Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods.
Chakra
From Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend
discus, wheel’. A weapon consisting of a steel ring with a sharp edge. In Buddhism and Jainism, the chakra represents the law.
Reincarnation: Topic Page
Belief that after death the human soul or the spirit of a plant or animal may live again.
Samadhi
From The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
Sanskrit term meaning ‘concentration’, ‘absorption’, ‘superconscious state’, ‘altered state of consciousness’. In India’s philosophical tradition this term was made famous by its use in the Yoga system of Patañjali (second century B.C.).
Soma
From Chamber's Dictionary of the Unexplained
An intoxicating plant-juice drink offered to the gods and drunk as a sacrament in Hindu Vedic rituals. The plant and the drink made from it are personified as a god, although the identity of the plant originally used, as described in the Rig-Veda, is unknown.
sūtra
From The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
In Sanskrit, lit. “aphorism,” but in a Buddhist context translated as “discourse,” “sermon,” or “scripture”; a sermon said to be delivered by the Buddha or delivered with his sanction.
Tantra: Topic Page
In both Hinduism and Buddhism, esoteric tradition of ritual and yoga known for elaborate use of mantra, or symbolic speech, and mandala, or symbolic diagrams.
Vedanta: Topic Page
One of the six classical systems of Indian philosophy. The term "Vedanta" has the literal meaning "the end of the Veda" and refers both to the teaching of the Upanishads, which constitute the last section of the Veda, and to the knowledge of its ultimate meaning.
Yoga: Topic Page
[Skt.,=union], general term for spiritual disciplines in Hinduism, Buddhism, and throughout S Asia that are directed toward attaining higher consciousness.

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