A Popilar Dictionary of Hinduism Karel Werner

16 A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF HINDUISM
Action (karma), and not divine providence or will, is the force which determines
all events both in an individual’s life and in the world at large, according to the
underlying philosophy of Hinduism. It operates on three levels, in thought, in
speech and in actual deeds, Human life as well as the progress and decline of
civilizations is the result of individual and collective tendencies, drives and
decisions prevailing in the minds of people and consciously taken and acted
upon.
Adam’s bridge, also: Rāma’s bridge the name for the chain of islets and
sandbanks (setubandha) between the islands of Rāmeśvaram off the southern tip
of India and Mannar off the north coast of Sri Lanka which could be crossed on
foot till 1480 when a storm breached it. According to the epic it was
built by Hanumān’s forces helping Rāma to cross over to kingdom in
in order to recover the abducted Sītā. The Islamic tradition maintains that
after the expulsion from paradise Adam crossed by this way to Ceylon (Sri
Lanka).
ignorance; inability to see truth.
adharma lawlessness; state of ‘fall’ into phenomenality; lack of righteousness or
integrity; moral and spiritual decadence.
ādhibhautika concerned with material forces or elements; material; worldly;
phenomenal; one of the three levels of interpretation of the Vedas according to
Yāska’s Nirukta, namely the lowest one.
ādhidaivika concerned with deities; theological; the second of the three levels of
interpretation of the Vedas according to Yāska’s Nirukta.
adhika māsa the thirteenth, intercalary, lunar month inserted in the Hindu
calendar after every thirty lunar months to make up for the approximately eleven
day difference between the lunar and solar years. It is also called mala māsa
(impure month) during which some rites, such as marriage, should not take
place, and those who have neglected their religious duties or vows should make
up for it by increased effort and practice.
adhvaryu the YV brahmin; the officiating priest who builds the altar, prepares
sacrificial vessels and fires and performs the animal sacrifice, while chanting
appropriate texts from the YV, under the guidance of the hotar.
adhyāsa superimposition; false attribution (as in the mistaken perception of a
snake instead of a rope in semi-darkness). It is an Advaitic philosophical term
trying to explain away the reality of the world as illusion veiling the only true
reality, namely brahman, and caused by ignorance.
adhyātman overself; supreme spirit; absolute reality.
ādhyātmika pertaining to the self or to the essence of reality; essential; spiritual;
absolute, nouminal; the highest of the three levels of interpretation of the Vedas
according to Yāska’s Nirukta.
ādi beginning; original, primeval, archetypal.
Ādi Buddha the personalized form of the transcendental principle of
enlightenment in Mahāyāna and Tantric Buddhism.