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V

 

Vāda: argument; to speak of or about. End of words to clarify the argument like with m ayavad a.

Vālakhilyas: the sixty thousand sages surrounding the sungod (see 4.1: 39 and 5.21: 17).

Vālmīki: the sage that harbored Sītā after her exile. Writer of the Ramāyana, the epic of Lord Rāma defeating the demon Rāvana.

Vāmana (-deva): the Lord who incarnated in the form of a dwarf, a brahmin boy (see also Bali Mahārāja, and chapter 18, canto 8) (see also Upendra).

- A V ishnu-avatāra who in asking for a few steps of land seized the whole world (see also Urukrama).

Vānaprastha: the withdrawn position, normally the third phase of life between 40 and 60. Third ās'rama of the v arnās'rama - system: the system of classes (vocations of servitude) and spiritual departments (forms of civil status). The term is often reserved for pure devotees (initiates) who reside no longer in the temple and already had their offspring or have lost interest in having children. Phase of life of contemplation and preparation for the renounced state (see s annyāsa, 7.12: 17-31 and 11.18).

- Period of purification, pilgrimage, study, remorse and transference of knowledge and power to the next generation.

- The detaching from one's family-life.

- Someone who lives according the rules of this ās'rama.

Vānaras: half-apes led by Hanumān, who helped Lord Rāma with the liberation of Sītā, His wife (see also kimpurushas).

Vānī: words, speech, messages, association with Krishna at the acoustic level. Preferred by the vaishnavas before vapu.

Vāntās'ī: 'one who eats his own vomit'. A renounced person again giving priority to the civil values and materialistic activities of household life, is considered a shameless person who as it were eats his own vomit (see 7.15: 36 and 11.18: 12).

Vārunī: kind of spirit prepared from hogweed mixed with the juice of the date or palm and distilled; according the paramparā is it mixed with honey. Flowed as ordained by Varuna from the hollow of a tree when Balarāma once visited the Yamunā with the gopīs at night (see 10.65, 10.67: 9-10 and maireya).

- Daughter of Varuna, a goddess.

Vāsādi, S'rī: P ańca-tattva-incarnation of Nārada Muni. First devotee, leader in devotional service.

Vāsanā: one's propensity, one's aptitude, based on one's karma. Hindrance in one's own conditioning and experience of possibly also previous lives. Also the actual consciousness of previous realizations. Thus also traumas, memories etc. (see also l i nga and samskāra and 10.51:60 and 12.7: 12).

Vāsudeva: (vāsu means supreme being of Vishnu dwelling in each, literally: 'God of the Spirit, the Soul or the consciousness', see 4.3: 23) name for Krishna as the son of Vasudeva (his foster father was called Nanda, see also Devakī).

- Name for Krishna in His manifestation as the cosmic time (see S'is'umāra-cakra).

- Vāsudeva: the level at which one understands what is God and how one has to act according His different energies.

- Name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original proprietor, material and spiritual.

- One of the four basic forms of the Lord (see Vyūha).

Vāsuki: the snake used as a rope with which in the ocean of milk the mountain Mandara was churned (see 8.7).

Vāyu: (air, vital energy) movement of the air in the control of the breathing process (see prānāyāma). In five types: going up (udana), going down (apāna) expanding (vyāna) balanced (samāna) and higher (prānavāyu).

- The demigod ruling the wind.

Vaibhāsikas: a group of philosophers related to the Buddhists, who were there at the time when Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gītā. They accept that life originates from a certain ripening of a mixture of material elements.

Vaibhava-prakās'a: the perfection of the Lord to expand Himself in more than one form and act simultaneously as happens in 10.33: 20 10.69: 41, 10.13: 18, and 10.86: 26.

Vaidarbhī: the daughter of the king of Vidarbha or Bhīshmaka: Rukminī, the first wife of Krishna.

Vaidhi-bhakti: devotion on the level of strictly following of rules on worship of the mūrti. Devotion in obedience. Beginning phase of bhakti (see also rāgānuga- and sādhana-bhakti).

Vaidūrya: ('cat-eye' gemstone); a gem often mentioned in the descriptions of the vedic architecture of opulently decorated buildings and palaces.

Vaijayantī: 'of the victory' the name of Krishna's garland consisting of flowers in five different colors.

Vaikunthha (-loka): literally the place where there is no laziness, indolence, stupidity, foolishness or - rethorically - fear. The heavenly abode of Lord Nārāyana. The ideal planet, the spiritual world. There are many vaikunthhalokas: depending on the form of the Lord worshiped there.

- The spiritual kingdom, where everything is sat-cit-ānanda, eternal, full of wisdom and bliss (see also 3.15).

Vairāgya: detachment (see also Vidhya).

- Withdrawal from the material world and attaching of the spirit to the transcendence.

Vais'eshika (special, peculiar, specific, characteristic, distinguished, excellent, pre-eminent) one of the six darshanas relating or belonging to or based on or dealing with the Vais'eshika doctrine. Name of the later of the two great divisions of the Nyāya school of philosophy (it was founded by Kanāda, and differs from the, Nyāya 'proper' founded by Gautama, in propounding only seven categories or topics instead of sixteen; and more especially in its doctrine of vis'esha, or eternally distinct nature of the nine substances of air, fire, water, earth, mind, ether, time, space, and soul, of which the first five, including mind, are held to be atomic.

Vaishnavas: devotees of Lord Vishnu - persons following the vidhi: no meat, fish, eggs, intoxication, illicit sex, gambling, and daily rounds of chanting japa (see also Caitanya).

- A person who gave up his material life and lives in full surrender to Vishnu, Krishna as the Supreme One and His representative, the spiritual teacher (see also bhakta and ācārya).

- Anyone who dedicates his life to Krishna and recognizes in Him the Godhead of Maintenance, Lord Vishnu (see also āryan).

- Another name for bhakta or devotee.

- Used as an adjective: proper for, to the nature of the vaishnava.

Vaishnavism: the vaishnava-teaching, that considers everything related to Vishnu, God, and requires that one operates from this relation.

Vais'ya: farmers and traders. They provide to the needs of society and wake over the well-being of the animals, especially of the cows.

- One of the varnas (see varnās'rama)

Vaivasvata Manu: see Manu.

False Ego: (or ahankāra); see under F.

Vams'a: dynasty; Lord Rāma appeared in the sūrya-vams'a of Ikshvāku or the sun-dynasty and Lord Krishna appeared in the candra-vams'a or the moon-dynasty.

Vapu: the body, association with Krishna at the physical level (see vani).

Varāha: incarnation of Lord Krishna, as a gigantic boar (see S'rīmad Bhāgavatam, 3-13, 18 & 19).

- a Vishnu-avatāra.

Varna: each of the four departments of society divided to the natural service of function of her members.

- Vocational interests, professions, vocations, classes.

- Color.

- In four:

- Brāhmanas: brahmins, spiritual and intellectual.

- Kshatriyas: officials, administrators, the military.

- Vais'yas: traders and farmers.

- S'ūdras: laborers and artisans (see also varnās'rama).

Honoring this system gives harmony and balance in the society. As a caste-system though subdued by Lord Caitanya who put the love for Krishna before all (see also B.G. 4:13).

- See also verse 11.23: 43 where Krishna connects these classes to the diffent modes and colors.

- Important is 7.11: 35: 'if with a person the symptoms indicating a certain class other than his own are observed, should one for sure also designate him by that (: who behaves like a brahmin e.g. must be considered so).'

Varna-s'ankara: 'class-confusion'.

- Unwanted offspring, begotten when one is no longer following the religious principles.

- Mixed marriage of different castes.

- Confusion of identity, e.g. emancipation on material values.

Varsha: area, dominion, land marked out by mountain ranges. There is a - galactic, universal, supernatural, holistic - central area named Ilāvrita-varsha where Lord Brahmā sits on the mountain Meru and where Lord S'iva as the only man is there to the happiness of the Supreme Personality. Next to that there are eight varshas stretching to all sides of which Bharata-varsha also is the name of India (see also dvīpa, 5.16 and 17).

Varnās'rama: system of the four statusoriėntations of the varna s, social divisions, individual professional oriėntations or classes, and ās'rama s spiritual orders or statusses of life together that before Lord Caitanya descended was preached as the proper approach of serving Krishna, but thereafter for the bhakti was no longer valid as the final criterion of distinction since also transcendence in devotional service (see ashthānga and bhāgavata  dharma) and quality (experience, see guna) do count (see also B.G. 3: 35, 4: 13 and the basis 7.11-14; 11.17 & 18, the relative 7.11: 35 and the critical about it: S B 1.2: 8, 10.60.52).

Varnās'rama-dharma: each his fulfillment of duty to birth, the class or one's vocation (varna), and spiritual emancipation, the spiritual department of a civil status- or age-group (ās'rama). .

Varuna: the demigod ruling the waters (see 3.17: 25-31).

Vasishthha Muni: one of the ten or seven great and famous sages, a brāhmana. He figured in the Ramāyana as the sage who entertained a discussion with Lord Rāma as his pupil over the meaning of God, soul and world as being one. This sage wrote a book about it known as the Yogavasishthha. Also appears in other eras as one of the greatest wise who takes birth again and again (see also rishi).

Vasu: name ulitized for Uddhava or anyone who is wealthy (see S.B. 3.4: 11).

- One son, not mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, of Uttānapāda, the father of Dhruva (4.8: 8).

- Name of a wife of Yamarāja who gave birth to the eight Vasus (6.6: 10-11).

- Of Dhrishtha, a son of Manu, (or Shrishtha) came a caste of kshatriyas about who in the world, having achieved the position of brahmins, received the name Dhārshtha. Of Nriga was there in succession first Sumati, then Bhūtajyoti and after him Vasu. From Vasu there was a son named Pratīka (9.2: 17-18).

- One of the six sons that Vasudeva, Krishna's father had with S'rīdevā (see 9.24: 51).

- A son Krishna had with Nāgnajitī, or Satyā (see 10.61: 13).

- Name of a companion of Bhaumāsura (see 10.59: 12).

- A son of king Vatsara (4.13: 12).

- Name of the mother-in-law of Parās'ara, the father of Vyāsadeva (see 1.4: 14).

- Son of Kus'a, one of the scions of Puru (9.15: 4).

- A son of Hiranyaretā, a son of Mahārāja Priyavrata (5.20: 14).

Vasudeva: the father of Lord Krishna.

- Son of grandfather S'ūra (see 9.24: 27-31).

- Is also called Ānakadundubhi.

Vasus: literally: 'the good of clarity'. Certain gods, notably the Ādityas, Maruts, Asvins, Indra, Rudra, Vāyu, Vishnu, S'iva, and Kuvera (see B.G. 10.23; as also 7.8: 37-56).

- Name of a particular class of gods, whose number is usually eight, and whose chief is Indra, later Agni and Vishnu; they form one of the nine Ganas or classes enumerated under gana-devatā (de Ādityas, Vis'vas, Vasus, Tushitas , Ābhāsvaras, Anilas, Mahārājikas, Sādhyas, and Rudras).

The eight Vasus were originally personifications, like other vedic deities, of natural phenomena. According the Vishnu  Purāna they are the following eight: 1. Āpa, 'water'; 2. Dhruva, 'the Pole-star'; 3. Soma, 'the Moon'; 4. Dhara, 'Earth'; 5. Anila, 'Wind'; 6. Anala or Pāvaka, 'Fire'; 7. Pratyusha, 'the Dawn'; 8. Prabhāsa, 'Splendor' (M.W.-dictionary).

- The eight Vasus according the Brihadaranyak Upanishad 3.9: 2. are: Agni (god of fire), Prithivi (goddess of the earth), Vāyu (god of the wind), Antariksh (god of the space), Aditya (sun god), Dyo (god of the luminous sky), Chandrama (moon god) and Nakshatra (god of the nakshatras, asterism. Nakshatras are 27, called Magha, Rohini etc.)

Vatsalya: one of the five direct, main or primary rasas or manifestations of love: the parental.

Veda: (knowledge) spiritual knowledge, see s'ruti (see further under: Vedas).

- The original Veda, divided in four (see Vedas and 12.6. 48-80).

Vedāngas: certain works or classes of works regarded as auxiliary to and even in some sense as part of the Vedas. There are six angas, explanatory limbs or divisions of explanations, to the Vedas:

A Two for correct reading and reciting.
1. S'iksha, the science of correct articulation and pronunciation.
2. Chandas: metres (as represented by Pingalanāga or Pingalācārya).

B Two for the correct understanding of the vedic texts.

3. Vyākarana: the analysis of language or grammar (represented by the celebrated sūtras of Panini).
4. Nirukta: the explanation of difficult vedic terms (by Yāska).

C Two for correct excecution in sacrificial offerings.

5. Jyotisha: astronomy, or rather the vedic calendar; a small directive for determining the most favorable days for havingasacrifice.
6.
Kalpa: the ceremonial (represented by a great number of sūtra works, the srauta, grihya, dharma and sulba, of the different rishis ).

Vedānta: (knowledge-end): the conclusions of vedic knowledge as laid down in the Bhagavad Gītā, Vedānta-sūtra and the Upanishads and next in the S'rīmad Bhāgavatam, who teach the highest realization of the Absolute Truth: surrender to Krishna; the essence of the vedic philosophy.

- 'Complete knowledge of the Veda', sometimes called uttara-mimāmsa. With the mimamsa part of the third duplet of Vedic darshanas. Teaches the ultimate scope of the Veda or simply what is explained in the Upanishads one finds at the end of the Veda (see also s'ruti).

- During the "scholastic period" (700-1700), there were three main variations developed of the classic vedānta:

1) Advaita vedānta, or pure dualism, represented by S'ankara (788-820); (see also Monism)

2) Vis'ishthadvaita vedānta, or qualified non-dualism: the human spirit is separate and different from the one Supreme Spirit though dependent on it and ultimately to be united with it in its fulness expressed in the vaishnava doctrine of Rāmānuja. (1017-1137);

3) Dvaita vedānta, dualism propagated by the vaishnava saint Madhvā (1197-1278) (see further: systems of yoga philosophy and siddhanta).

In sum one knows six schools founded by:

- Rāmānuja 1017-1127, vis'ishthadvaita the adapted, or qualified Non-dualistic school. Oneness, but the individual souls are different.

- Madhvā 1197-1273, dvaita the dualistic school.

- Nimbārka late 13th century, dvaitadvaita the dualistic non-dualistic school.

- Vallabha 1480-1530, s'udda advaita the pure advaita school.

- Caitanya 1485-1533, acintya bhedabheda tattva: inscrutable oneness in diversity. (this school is the school of Prabhupāda who fathered the translations at this site).

- Baladeva early 18th century, acintya bheda-abheda follower of Caitanya.

Vedānta-sūtra or Brahma-sūtra: philosophical treatise of Vyāsa deva, consisting of aphorisms (sūtras) concerning the nature of the Absolute Truth, by him laid down as the conclusion of the Vedic knowledge.

Vedānta-s'ruti: the Vedic teaching, of which the essence is found in the Vedānta (Vedānta-sūtra) and next in the comment on it of the author himself, the S'rīmad-Bhāgavatam.

Vedas: comprise the four Vedas (the Rik, Yajur, Sāma and Atharva) and the hundred -and-eight Upanishads, containing the philosophical part, and the supplement, the 'fifth Veda' to it: the eighteen Purānas with the S'rīmad  Bhāgavatam as the Bhagavata Purāna, the Mahābhārata (of which the Bhagavad  Gītā is a part), the Vedānta-sūtra.The avatāra Vyāsadeva propounded five thousand years ago in it the spiritual knowledge, which was originally delivered by Krishna Himself handed down by oral tradition (to the vedic scriptures belong all paramparā-literatures, like the Ramāyana, the Bhakti-rasāmrita-sindhu, the Caitanya-caritāmrita etc.).

- Originally by Vyāsa in four divided spiritual inheritance of the vedic culture (see 12.6: 48-49).

- Rik or Rigveda: the prayers; 1028 verses about sacrificing to the gods and the creation of man out of the Purusha;

- Yajur: hymns for oblations; the mantras of the lunar culture,

- Sāma: songs of same prayers and hymns in meters for singing accompanying the sacrifices;

- Atharva-veda: mystical hymns on body/world maintenance and destruction, in order to explain them to civilized society.

Later literature, the purānas (Gītā, Bhāgavatam, Mahābhārat) are considered the fifth Veda.

- One also speaks sometimes of the three Vedas, of which the Rig-veda is considered the most original, not mentioning the by some later said to be added Atharva-veda with the mystical hymns. The threefold division in vedic principles in this context refers to upāsanā: sacrifice, song and prayer; karma: fruitive labor and jńāna: spiritual knowledge.

- Each of the Vedas has two portions both being termed s'ruti, revelation orally communicated by the deity, and heard but not composed or written down by men;

1. Mantra, the words of prayer and adoration often addressed either to fire or to some form of the sun or to some form of the air, sky, wind, and praying for health, wealth, long life, cattle, offspring, victory, and even forgiveness of sins.

2. Brāhmana , consisting of vidhi and artha-vāda: directions for the detail of the ceremonies at which the mantras were to be used and explanations of the legends connected with the mantras (see brāhmana and vidhi).

- The mantras are with the three Vedas in three forms :

1. Rig, which are verses of praise in metre , and intended for loud recitation.

2. Yajur, which are in prose, and intended for recitation in a lower tone at sacrifices.

3. Sāman, which are in metre, and intended for chanting at the Soma or Moon-plant ceremonies.

The Mantras of the fourth or Atharva-veda have no special name. While borrowing largely from the Rig-veda are the Yajur-veda and Sāma-veda in fact not so much collections of prayers and hymns as special prayer- and hymn-books intended as manuals for the Adhvaryu and Udgātri priests respectively (see ritvik). But the atharva mantras borrow little from the Rig-veda being a real collection of original hymns mixed up with incantations; they have no direct relation to sacrifices, but are supposed by mere recitation to produce long life, cure diseases, ruin enemies and such.

- To the brāhmana portion two other departments of Vedic literature grew, sometimes included under the general name Veda:

1) The sūtras; the strings of aphoristic rules
2) The
Upanishads; the mystical treatises on the nature of God and the relation of soul and matter which were appended to the Āranyakas, and became the real Veda of thinking Hindus, leading to the Darshanas or systems of philosophy.

- Veda also means feeling, perception; finding, obtaining, acquisition; property, goods; to weave or bind together a tuft or bunch of strong grass made into a broom or to serve another purpose in vedic sacrifices like mats or fuel for a fire.

Vedic: anything concerning the spiritual knowledge of the Vedas and literature thereafter (see also upanishads, purānas, itihasas).

- Two types of vedic knowledge:

- S'ruti, knowledge straight from Him, the four Vedas and the 108 Upanishads, and:

- Smriti, descriptions of vedic truth by liberated souls like Vyāsa, Patańjali and Vālmīki; the Ramāyana, the Yogasūtra, the S'rīmad  Bhāgavatam and the Bhagavad  Gītā.

Vena: the demoniac son of king Anga and father of king Prithu (see 4.14).

Vetāla: vampire, eviol spirit taking possession of a corpse. Associate of Lord S'iva.

- A form, a name of Durgā.

(Des'a kāla) Vibhāgavit: adaptation to time and circumstances. Quality of Krishna (see paramparā-method and S. B. 4.8: 54).

Vibhrama: confusion by lustmotives, lack of concentration.

Vibhu-ātmā: another name for the Supersoul, paramātmā to indicate His potency as opposed to anu-ātmā, the atomic jīva-ātmā.

Viddhā-bhakti: devotion contaminated with material motives (see also parā-bhakti).

Vidhi: (of vidha, to get in order) regulative principles: no meat eating (see e.g. 10.1: 4), no illicit sex no intoxication or gambling. They are derived from the eternal values of respectively dayā, sauca (or dāna), satya, tapas; compassion, cleanliness or loyalty, truth, and sobriety or penance (see also regulative  principles, Kali-yuga, 1. 17: 24 and 12.3: 18).

Vidura: great devotee, a member of the kuru-dynasty, who heard of the S'rīmad  Bhāgavatam from Maitreya Muni (see cantos 3 & 4). Son of Vyāsa and the maidservant Sūdri, brother of Dhritarāshtra and Pāndu.

Vidya: finding, acquiring, gaining.

Vidyā: any knowledge whether true or false; science, learning, scholarship, philosophy. Spiritually depending on the four principles that lead to the spiritual knowing of jńāna: tapas, sānkhya, vairāgya and yoga: penance, analysis, detachment and unification of the consciousness (see: ūrdhva  retasah).

- M.W.-dictionary: 'knowledge of soul or of spiritual truth; according to others, Vidyā has fourteen divisions, viz. the four Vedas, the six vedāngas, the purānas, the mīmāmsā, nyāya, and dharma or law; or with the four upa-vedas, eighteen divisions; others reckon thirty-three and even sixty-four sciences'.

- Knowledge is also personified and identified with Durgā; she is even said to have composed prayers and magical formulas.

- A small bell.

- A mystical skill.

Vidyādhara ('possessed of science or spells'): class of lesser demigods standing for the scientists, the ones founded in knowledge. Supposed to dwell in the Himalayas, attending upon S'iva, and possessed of magical power,

- Fairy, magician.

- Name of various scholars.

- The paramount lord of all fairy-like beings (-cakravartin).

- Spelled as vidyādhāra: 'receptacle of knowledge', a great scholar.

- The lord of the Vidyādharas is called Sudars'ana and is discussed in 10: 34.

Vigata-jvara: free from laxity, excitement or cowardice; wakefulness: Krishna's plea against pragmatism (the easygoing, see B.G. 3.30).

Vigraha: form.

- Arcā-vigraha: His deity (see also mūrti).

Vijńāna: wisdom, realized knowledge, the result of jńāna, spiritual knowledge (see 11.19: 15).

Vijńānam-brahman: the spiritual, the spiritual soul.

Vikāra: the transformations or derivatives of material nature in the sense of producers: the seven vikāra tattvas, knowing intelligence, false ego and the five sense-objects or tanmātrās, and their sixteen vikāra products: the five basic elements (mahābhūtas) and the perceiving and acting senses (indryas) plus the mind (manas).

Vikarma: unwanted activities. Cause of fall-down: moving away from Krishna.

Vimāna: (of vi: apart from, order, increasingly, and māna: building, altar, measure, but also: opinion, notion and idea) meaning palace, airplane, high in the sky rising building, elevated abode or means of transport and also temple. Also the idea of vimāna as a separate notion or opinion or a general idea of order standing apart should be considered in understanding this concept often used in the context of going to heaven.

- As a means of transport or heavenly vehicle: see S.B. 4.3: 12, 4.12: 19, 6.2: 44.

- As palace: see S.B. 3.23: 45.

- As high rising building S.B. 2.9: 13.

- Asatemple in 11: 10: 24.

- As a notion of order in 11: 10: 25.

- As a higher spirit in 11.30: 40.

- Some translators speak also of flying palaces and there are even speculators who associate them with flying saucers.

Vimūdha: bewildered, illusioned, confused, unconscious (see also mūdhha).

Vīnā: the stringed instrument of Nārada Muni.

Vetāla: vampire, evil spirit occupying a dead body. Attendant of lord S'iva

- A form, a name of Dūrga.

Vināyakas: (from vinaya: education, distraction, humility, control) demons of education, distracters, humiliaters, control-freaks. Attendants of lord S'iva.

Vipra: learned one of Vedic wisdom.

Vipra-lipsa: propensity to cheat as a human weakness (see also bhrama).

Vira (hero): chivalry as a rasa (indirect).

- Most intimate form of servitude in Krishna - līlā.

- Form of tantra-yoga with which one, under the guidance of a holy man, one after the other can have several partners, as a 'hero' of love. Also can one by detaching from a steady partner spiritually profundity be realized so that ultimately the sex is under control and may be spoken of pure devotion without material motives.

Virāth-purusha: the universe as the original person; the visible person of the Lord as the entirety of all physical manifestation.

Virāth-rūpa: great (cosmic) manifestation of the universal form of Krishna. External manifestation as described in the second canto first chapter of the S'rīmad  Bhāgavatam.

- The form that Krishna revealed to Arjuna on the battlefield, as described in chapter eleven of the Gītā (also: vis'varūpa of virāth-rūpa).

Virińca: the pure one beyond passion, name for lord Brahmā.

Virya: energy, capacity, potency, knowledge, power or effort as a consequence of being convinced in continence (see brahmācarya).

Visarga: the secondary creation, the resultant activities of the interaction to the modes of sarga, or the primary creation, is called the secondary creation (2.10: 3).

Vishaya; the senses having each their proper vishaya or object: viz. - 1. s'abda, "sound", for the ear; 2. spars'a, "tangibility", for the skin; 3. rūpa, "form" or "colour", for the eye; 4. rasa, "savour", for the tongue and 5. gandha, "odour" for the nose: These five vishayas are sometimes called the gunas or the "properties" of the five elements, ether, air, fire, water, and earth, respectively (see also tanmātra and indriya).

Vis'eshas: the attributes, the marks of identity, that set things apart from other things, give them their identity (see also svarūpa and vais'esika).

Vishnu: God the maintainer, ruler over the mode of goodness. Divided in three known as purusha - avatāras (see also catur-vyūha).

- Mahā-Vishnu or Kāranodakas'āyī Vishnu from whose pores all universes appear (see Vāsudeva and Nārāyana).

- Garbhodakas'āyī Vishnu: for each universe laying down on a snake bed (see Ādi-s'esha or Sankarshana) and with Lord Brahmā generating the complete diversity (Pradyumna).

- Kshirodaks'āyī Vishnu: for each living entity locally present as the Paramātmā or God in the heart (zie Aniruddha).

- See for a description of the Vishnu-avatāras 2.7 and 11: 5.

Vishnu-jana: another name for Bhakta.

Vishnu-māyā: the special mercy of Vishnu that also took birth in different potencies of relating to Him when Krishna descended. It has two features: unmukha ('looking up to'), the liberated way of relating in the different rāsas and āvaranikā ('the covered way'), the conditioned way of being caught in the clutches of karma (see 10.1: 25).

Vishnupāda: 'Vishnu's Feet', another name for Prabhupāda, the 'Master of the Feet'.

Vishnu Purāna: see Purānas.

Vishnu-tattva: the status or category of Godhead, the reaity of Vishnu (see avatāra).

- All those divine manifestations, the first expansions, the plenary expansions of expansions of plenary expansions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who in no respect differ from Him, as opposed to jīva-tattva (see expansion, plenary -).

Vishnu-tattva-avatāra: all incarnations of Krishna in matter as plenary portion with His full potency (as opposed to jīva-tattva: incomplete expansions with a limited capacity).

Vis'vakarma: the architect of the gods who built a city, Indraprastha, for Krishna serving the Pāndavas (see 10.58: 24).

Vis'vakos'a: an old Sanskrit dictionary (see also a modern Sanskrit dictionary).

Vishvaksena: ('the Lord whose powers are found throughout the universe') a personal associate, a guardian and expansion of the Lord who is known as the personification of the tantra scriptures (see 12.11: 20 en 5.20: 40).

- Brahmadatta, a yogī who in the womb of his wife Sarasvatī created a son called Vishvaksena. By the instruction of the rishi Jaigīshavya was in the past by him a description of yoga (a so-called tantra ) compiled (9.21: 25-26).

Vis'vāmitra: a famous sage in the time of Rāma who with a sacrifice defended His honor of indeed under the supervision of Lakshmāna, having killed the enemy (see 9.10: 5). He was in competition with Vasishthha as two birds; as a kshatriya, he underwent severe austerities to become a brahmin (see also Hariscanda).

- He had one hundred-and-one sons who because of the middle one called Madhucchandā as a group were celebrated as the Madhucchandās. (9.16: 28).

Vis'va-rūpa: (virāth-rūpa) the universal form of Lord Krishna, as described in Chapter eleven of the Bhagavad-Gītā. 

- Name of a great devotee, the son of Tvashthā (5.15: 14-15), who by Indra was killed because he offered for the asuras, which later lead to the battle with Vritāsura (see from 6.7: 25).

Vis'vāvasu: ('all-generating') the name of the Lord among the Ghandarvas (see 11.16: 33).

Vis'vadevas (or vis'vedeva): (vis'wa means: all, everyone; entire, whole, universal, pervading all, that is: Vishnu, the intellect, etc.); all the gods or as a class the All-gods standing for the intellect, the universe (see 2.3: 2-7).

Vis'vanātha Cakravartī Thhākur: Vaishnava-ācārya, sixth in the disciplic succession of Caitanya  Mahāprabhu (see paramparā).

- Vaishnava-spiritual teacher who wrote a comment on the S'rīmad Bhāgavatam in the disciplic succession of Lord S'rī Caitanya  Mahāprabhu.

Vitarka: with vicāra, ānanda-sānanda, asmitā-sāsmita, the stages of samādhi on the level of the five elements earth, water, fire, air, ether explained as the study, the intellect, the happiness taken to enrapture and the I to goodness for liberation (see also mukti).

Vivasvān: the name of the present sungod, to whom the Bhagavad Gītā was explained a 120.400.000 years ago. See also Paramparā.

Viveka: power of discrimination. Through knowledge of the kles'as that disturb the continence, the keeping to the soul, one attains to spiritual sophistication.

Vraja: cow-community, name of the village in the forest of Vrindāvana where Krishna grew up after Gokula.

Vrika, Vrikāsura: ('the tearer, the wolf') a demoniac son of S'akuni (see 9.24: 5), who challenged the grace of lord S' iva by offering the flesh of his own body and consequently pursued him to his great terror, with the blessing obtained that anyone would die whom he put his hand on the head. Mentioned as an example to the problem of the ingrate or unworthy one turning against his own benefactor in 10.88.

Vrindāvana: ('woods of bunches').

- The transdendental abode of Lord Krishna. It is also called Goloka Vrindāvana or Krishnaloka. The town of Vrindāvana in the Mathurā District of Uttar Pradesh, India, where Krishna appeared five thousand years ago, is a manifestation on earth of Krishna's abode in the spiritual world.

- Place of pilgrimage at the spot where Krishna spent His youth.

- Woods rich of Tulsī of Lord Krishna's līlā.

- Where Krishna lived after Vraja or also Gokula.

Vrishni: the name of Krishna's family clan to a common ancestor described in 9.24: 3-4 (see also Das'arha and Yadu).

Vritra (Vritrāsura): great demon that was killed by Indra. In fact was it the devoted Vis'varūpa, his 'brother' as he says himself, that was killed by Indra for his offerings for the asuras (zie S. B. 6.8-12).

Vritti: livelihood, conduct, character, treatment, inclination, functioning, appearing (see e.g.: 10.85: 45 and also the Vedabase on the different use of this word, and 12.7: 13).

- Patańjali, Yogasūtra number one and two: 'atha yogānus'āsanam, yogah citta vritti nirodha; the lesson now about yoga is that the yoga is to stop the (karmic) reasoning about the livelihood, the moves one makes.

Vritti-traya: the three stages of waking, sleep and dreamless sleep (see also avasthātraya).

Vyāna-vāyu: one of the movements of air, vital energies in the body that are controlled by ashthānga-yoga. The vyāna-vāyu concerns the distribution of the energy throughout the body of the increasing and decreasing (see Vāyu).

Vyāsa-deva (lit.: 'the compiler, the godhead who assembled the verses'), Krishna-dvaipāyana: author of the Gītā and S'rīmad  Bhāgavatam, Mahābhārata, and the Vedānta-sūtra. Compressed the Vedic knowledge. Teacher of Sańjaya. Pupil of Nārada Muni, father of S'ukadeva.

- The greatest philosopher from yore, divided the Veda in four. Is considered an expansion of Vishnu, as a bhagavān, empowered to perform literary activities.

Vyāsāsana: elevated seat on which the representative of Vyāsadeva has the right to take place. Vedic stand.

(Catur-)Vyūha: placing apart, distribution, arrangement but also: reasoning, logic (or from vyu: to urge on, incite, animate) the four eternal forms of the Lord: Vāsudeva, the Lord of Consciousness; Sankarshana, the Lord of Ego, the individuality, the jīva; Aniruddha, the Lord of the Mind and Pradyumna, the Lord of Intellligence (see also p ańca-tattva and 12.11: 21).

- Divided to the three (purusha-avatāra) forms of Vishnu: 'The original being is Vāsudeva, the Personality of Godhead. When the Godhead manifests His primeval energies and opulences, He is called Sankarshana. Pradyumna is the basis of the Vishnu expansion who is the soul of the entire universe, and Aniruddha is the basis of the personal manifestation of Vishnu as the Supersoul of every individual entity within the universe' (pp 11, 5: 29-3).

 

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