Daily Theosophy Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
List of abbreviations of book names <
U
Un
[from Latin undina water spirit from unda wave, water] The class of nature sprites, elementals, or elemental beings inhabiting and forming water, generally but wrongly described as always being female.
Universal brotherhood as understood in the esoteric philosophy, and which is a sublime natural fact of universal nature, does not signify merely sentimental unity, or a simple political or social cooperation. Its meaning is incomparably wider and profounder than this. The sense inherent in the words in their widest tenor or purport is the spiritual brotherhood of all beings; particularly, the doctrine implies that all human beings are inseparably linked together, not merely by the bonds of emotional thought or feeling, but by the very fabric of the universe itself, all men — as well as all beings, both high and low and intermediate — springing forth from the inner and spiritual sun of the universe as its hosts of spiritual rays. We all come from this one source, that spiritual sun, and are all builded of the same life-atoms on all the various planes.
It is this interior unity of being and of consciousness, as well as the exterior union of us all, which enables us to grasp intellectually and spiritually the mysteries of the universe; because not merely ourselves and our own fellow human beings, but also all other beings and things that are, are children of the same kosmic parent, great Mother Nature, in all her seven (and ten) planes or worlds of being. We are all rooted in the same kosmic essence, whence we all proceeded in the beginning of the primordial periods of world evolution, and towards which we are all journeying back. This interlocking and interblending of the numberless hierarchies of beings forming the universe itself extends everywhere, in the invisible worlds as well as in the worlds which are visible.
Finally, it is upon this fact of the spiritual unity of all beings and things that reposes the basis and foundation of human ethics when these last are properly understood. In the esoteric philosophy ethics are no mere human convention or rules of action convenient and suitable for the amelioration of the asperities of human intercourse, but are fundamental in the very structure and inextricably coordinated operations of the universe itself.
The universal self is the heart of the universe, for these two phrases are but two manners of expressing the same thing. It is the source of our being; it is also the goal whither we are all marching, we and the hierarchies above us as well as the hierarchies and the entities which compose them inferior to us. All come from the same ineffable source, the heart of being, the universal self. All pass at one period of their evolutionary journey through the stage of humanity, gaining thereby self-consciousness or the ego-self, the “I am I,” and they find this ego-self or consciousness, as they advance along this evolutionary path, expanding gradually into universal consciousness — an expansion, however, which never has an end, because the universal consciousness is endless, limitless, boundless, and without any frontiers whatsoever. (See also Paramatman; Self)
The theosophical philosophy divides the universe into two general functional portions — one the consciousness side, the abode or dwelling place, and at the same time the aggregate, of all the self-conscious, thinking entities that the boundless universe contains; and the other, the material side of nature, which is their schoolhouse, their home, and their playground too. This so-called material side is a practically infinite aggregate of monads or consciousness centers passing through that particular phase of their evolutionary journey.
This universe, therefore, is a vast aggregate of consciousness centers in both the two functional portions of it; and these consciousness centers theosophists call monads. They are entities conscious in differing degrees, stretching along the boundless scale of the universal life; but in that particular phase which passes through what we humans call matter, those monads belonging to and forming that side of the universe, in the course of their long, long, evolutionary journey have not yet attained self-conscious powers or faculties. And furthermore, what we call matter, in its last analysis is actually an aggregate of these monads manifesting in their physical expressions as life-atoms.
The consciousness side of universal nature, which also consists of countless hosts of self-conscious entities, works in and through this other or material side; for these hosts of consciousnesses self-express themselves through this other or material function or side, through these other countless hosts of younger and inferior and embryo entities, which are the life-atoms — embryo gods. The universe is therefore actually and literally imbodied consciousnesses.
Ur
[from Greek ouraios of the tail] Refers to the sacred serpent of Egypt (aar, aart, aartu in Egyptian); usually only the head and neck of the serpent are represented by the ancient Egyptians in the headdress of many divinities, and in the headdress of royal persons as a symbol of power, both occult and temporal. Egyptologists state that the physical basis of the symbol is supposed to be the Egyptian asp or cobra — Naja haje, naja being closely akin to the Sanskrit nāga: “Occultism explains that the uraeus is the symbol of initiation and also of hidden wisdom, as the serpent always is” (TG 355). Generally, the representation of the sacred uraeus in headdresses — before the symbol became degraded into a mere ritualistic, formalistic emblem — meant that the individual wearing it had become an initiate and bore the badge of wisdom. Two deities in particular were always represented with the uraeus, Isis and Nephthys (Neith), therefore they were termed by the Egyptians snake goddesses (aarti). The uraeus crown itself was named tept.
Sometimes the uraeus is represented with a circle over its head, and again with the winged solar disk, a variant of the serpent and egg symbol met with in so many forms among ancient peoples. Egyptologists interpret the uraeus placed on either side of the winged solar disk as emblematic of the supremacy of the sun, of good over evil, or of Horus over Set; but also the uraeus is associated with the immortal human principles, for one of its identities in The Book of the Dead is the flame. In Aanroo or Aaru — one of the divisions of the underworld — the soul of the spirit is devoured after death by the uraeus (ch 99). Blavatsky in explaining this verse speaks of the uraeus as “the Serpent, Son of the earth (in another sense the primordial vital principles in the sun),” and says further that “the Astral body of the deceased or the ‘Elementary’ fades out and disappears in the ‘Son of the earth,’ limited time. The soul quits the fields of Aanroo and goes on earth under any shape it likes to assume” (SD 1:674n).
In its universal aspect the uraeus is the serpent emblem of the cosmic fire — thus, in its universal aspect, being a symbol either of kosmic mahat (kosmic mind) or of fohat (kosmic vital-electrical fire).
The mythological aspect stresses the dutiful mother and faithful wife. Her sorrow upon the death of her husband, Osiris, as well as her wanderings in search of his body, are very similar to those of the Greek nature goddess Demeter searching for her daughter Persephone. To Isis is also attributed the knowledge of the potency of mantras, with which she revivifies her poisoned son, Horus.
Up
(Sanskrit)[from upa-ādā to receive] The act to taking or appropriating for oneself: in philosophy, the act of withdrawal, or receiving into the inner being, of the organs of sense from the outer world. In Buddhist literature the term is enlarged to signify the grasping at or clinging to existence caused by tṛṣṇā (desire, thirst) causing bhava (new births); likewise the fourth of the twelve nidānas (bond, causes of existence), the chain of causation. In Vedāntic philosophy, a cause, motive, or material cause of any kind; thus, when analyzed, the meaning is the same in Vedāntic and Buddhist philosophies.
(Sanskrit) [from upādāna material cause + kāraṇa causative action] Causes arising into action because of upādāna; in Vedāntic philosophy, a proximate or a close cause.
Limitation, peculiarity, disguise, vehicle; in theosophy, “ ‘that which stands forth following a model or pattern,’ as a canvas, so to say, upon which the light from a projecting lantern plays. An ‘upādhi’ therefore, mystically speaking, is like a play of shadow and form, when compared with the ultimate Reality, which is the cause of this play of shadow and form. Man may be considered as being composed of three (or even four) essential upādhis or bases” (OG 178).
According to the classification of the Tāraka-rāja-yoga philosophy, man is divided into three upādhis which are synthesized by, and are the vehicle of, the highest principle or atman. These three upādhis are: kāraṇopādhi , the upādhi of the causal or spiritual mind; sūkṣmopādhi , the upādhi of the higher and lower manas plus the astral vehicle and the life-essence combined with kāma; and the sthūlopādhi, the physical body, which thus is the general vehicle or upādhi of the six principles composing the human constitution.
Mūlaprakṛti (primordial physical matter) in Hindu philosophy is the upadhi or vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, mental, or psychic. “Matter is Eternal. It is the Upādhi (the physical basis) for the One infinite Universal Mind to build thereon its ideations” (SD 1:280). An upādhi, then, is the vehicle, carrier, or means by which a higher or superior energy of whatever plane is enabled to manifest its characteristics and qualities on the lower plane, out of the substance of which lower plane the upādhi is built.
Sometimes upādhi is interchangeable with vāhana (vehicle); thus manas is spoken of as the upādhi or vāhana of buddhi. But the more frequent use of upādhi is as a foundation or base. For instance, Blavatsky speaks of hydrogen as the upādhi of both air and water; and of ākāśa as the upādhi of divine thought. “Cosmic Ideation focused in a principle or upādhi (basis) results as the consciousness of the individual Ego. Its manifestation varies with the degree of upādhi, e.g., through that known as Manas it wells up as Mind-Consciousness; through the more finely differentiated fabric (sixth state of matter) of the Buddhi resting on the experience of Manas as its basis — as a stream of spiritual intuition” (SD 1:329n).
[Sanskrit, from upa according to + ni down + the verbal root sad to sit] Following or according to the teachings which were received when sitting down. The figure here is that of pupils sitting in the Oriental style at the feet of the teacher, who taught them the secret wisdom or rahāsya, in private and in forms and manners of expression that later were written and promulgated according to those teachings and after that style; esoteric doctrine. “Literary works in which the rahāsya — a Sanskrit word meaning esoteric doctrine or mystery — is embodied. The Upaniṣads belong to the Vedic cycle and are regarded by orthodox Brahmans as a portion of the Śruti or ‘Revelation.’ It was from these wonderful quasi-esoteric and very mystical works that was later developed the highly philosophical and profound system called the Vedānta” (OG 179).
The Upaniṣads belong to the third division of the Vedas and are appended to the Brahmanas. The number of Upanishads hitherto known is about 170, though probably only a score are now complete without evident marks of excision or interpolation. These Upaniṣads belong to different periods of antiquity, some being of a much later date than others. Although the Upaniṣads are usually considered by modern scholars to be as a whole of later date than the Brahmanas, the original Upaniṣads were composed in an antiquity which anteceded that of the Brahmanas, and are probably coeval with the composition of the Vedas themselves.
The topics treated of in the Upaniṣads are highly transcendental, recondite, and abstruse, and in order properly to understand the Upaniṣadic teaching one should have constantly in mind the master-keys that theosophy puts into the hand of the student. The origin of the universe, the nature of the divinities, the relations between soul and ego, the connections of spiritual and material beings, the liberation of the evolving entity from the chains of māyā, and kosmological questions, are all dealt with, mostly in a succinct and cryptic form. The Upaniṣads, finally, may be called the exoteric theosophical works of Hindustan, but contain a vast amount of genuine esoteric information.
“The Upaniṣads must be far more ancient than the days of Buddhism, as they show no preference for, nor do they uphold, the superiority of the Brahmans as a caste. On the contrary, it is the (now) second caste, the Kṣattriya, or warrior class, who are exalted in the oldest of them. As stated by Professor Cowell in Elphinstone’s History of India — ‘they breathe a freedom of spirit unknown to any earlier work except the Rig-Veda . . . The great teachers of the higher knowledge and Brahmans are continually represented as going to Kṣattriya Kings to become their pupils.’ The ‘Kṣattriya Kings’ were in the olden times, like the King-Hierophants of Egypt, the receptacles of the highest divine knowledge and wisdom, the Elect and the incarnations of the primordial divine Instructors — the Dhyāni Buddhas or Kumāras. There was a time, aeons before the Brahmans became a caste, or even the Upaniṣads were written, when there was on earth but one ‘lip,’ one religion and one science, namely, the speech of the gods, the Wisdom-Religion and Truth. This was before the fair fields of the latter, overrun by nations of many languages, became overgrown with the weeds of intentional deception, and national creeds invented by ambition, cruelty and selfishness, broke the one sacred Truth into thousands of fragments” (TG 354).
Thirteen of the principal Upaniṣads are: Aitareya, Kauṣītaki, Kena, Taittirīya, Maitri, Kathā, Bṛhad-āraṇyaka, Praśna, Muṇḍaka, Māṇḍūkya, Īśa, Chhāndogya, and Śvetāśvatara.
Ur
[from Greek ouraios of the tail] Refers to the sacred serpent of Egypt (aar, aart, aartu in Egyptian); usually only the head and neck of the serpent are represented by the ancient Egyptians in the headdress of many divinities, and in the headdress of royal persons as a symbol of power, both occult and temporal. Egyptologists state that the physical basis of the symbol is supposed to be the Egyptian asp or cobra — Naja haje, naja being closely akin to the Sanskrit nāga: “Occultism explains that the uraeus is the symbol of initiation and also of hidden wisdom, as the serpent always is” (TG 355). Generally, the representation of the sacred uraeus in headdresses — before the symbol became degraded into a mere ritualistic, formalistic emblem — meant that the individual wearing it had become an initiate and bore the badge of wisdom. Two deities in particular were always represented with the uraeus, Isis and Nephthys (Neith), therefore they were termed by the Egyptians snake goddesses (aarti). The uraeus crown itself was named tept.
Sometimes the uraeus is represented with a circle over its head, and again with the winged solar disk, a variant of the serpent and egg symbol met with in so many forms among ancient peoples. Egyptologists interpret the uraeus placed on either side of the winged solar disk as emblematic of the supremacy of the sun, of good over evil, or of Horus over Set; but also the uraeus is associated with the immortal human principles, for one of its identities in The Book of the Dead is the flame. In Aanroo or Aaru — one of the divisions of the underworld — the soul of the spirit is devoured after death by the uraeus (ch. 99). Blavatsky in explaining this verse speaks of the uraeus as “the Serpent, Son of the earth (in another sense the primordial vital principles in the sun),” and says further that “the Astral body of the deceased or the ‘Elementary’ fades out and disappears in the ‘Son of the earth,’ limited time. The soul quits the fields of Aanroo and goes on earth under any shape it likes to assume” (SD 1:674n).
In its universal aspect the uraeus is the serpent emblem of the cosmic fire — thus, in its universal aspect, being a symbol either of kosmic mahat (kosmic mind) or of fohat (kosmic vital-electrical fire).
The mythological aspect stresses the dutiful mother and faithful wife. Her sorrow upon the death of her husband, Osiris, as well as her wanderings in search of his body, are very similar to those of the Greek nature goddess Demeter searching for her daughter Persephone. To Isis is also attributed the knowledge of the potency of mantras, with which she revivifies her poisoned son, Horus.
Osiris, Isis, and Horus form the Egyptian triad of Father-Mother-Son. Isis is credited with the characteristics of most of the other goddesses of the pantheon, but her chief attribute of producer and giver of life is manifested even in the underworld, where her help sustains the deceased. The symbol of Isis in the heavens was the star Sirius.
(Sanskrit)[from uśanas Venus + śukra bright, resplendent] Venus-Lucifer, Venus as the light-bringer, referring not so much to physical light as to the light of intellect and inner vision. The guardian spirit, with reference to the solar system, of earth and of mankind; for what the buddhi-manas is in the human constitution when compared with the kāma-manas, that same role, mutatis mutandis on the cosmic scale, the regent of Venus plays in the solar system, wherein by comparison the earth is the vehicle for kāma-manas. Also commonly called in Hindu mythology Kavi or Kavya, signifying poet and the feeling that the true poet is intellectually intuitional with reference to “feeling” or “seeing” some, at least, of the mysteries of nature.
