Sanskrit Word of the Month
May 2010
raga:
One of the words in Sanskrit for “desire” is raga (which, in the yogic texts, is often contrasted with dvesha or “hatred,” “aversion”). The word comes from the root ranj- meaning primarily “to color, dye, or redden,” and by extension “to impassion, excite, charm.” Raga is related to other Sanskrit terms like rakta (”red”), ranga (”color, paint”), and rajas (”passion” and also the “red element” or woman’s menses). A rajaka is a washerman who whitens clothes that have been “stained” or “colored.”
The term enters English through the Greek rhezein (”to dye”) as “rage,” “enrage,” and “orange.” It seems also to be related via the Latin rabere (”to rage”) to the English words “rabies,” “rabid,” and the term for an ecstatic dance, “rave.”
A raga is also the Sanskrit name for a type of classical and improvisational Indian music that impassions those who hear it, and maybe the root of the English terms “rag” and “ragtime” for a kind of improvisational jazz. It seems possible also that the word “reggae” (a word invented by Toots and the Maytals in 1968 in their “Do the Reggay”) ultimately comes from this section of the verbal universe (perhaps related to “rege-rege” meaning “a quarrel, protest,” which is itself a variant of “raga-raga,” an alteration and reduplication of English “rag” and thus back to raga).
March 2010
dyaus:
One of the words for both “sky” and “heaven” in Sanskrit is dyaus, connected also to the words diva (”heaven, sky” but also “day”), divya (”divine, heavenly”), deva (”god”), and devi (”goddess”). In India and other Indo-European cultures, heaven and its divine inhabitants are located up in the sky, a place aglow with the sun- and moonlight. The divine, heavenly world is imagined to be “up in the sky” and also a place of light, as opposed to hell which is regarded as “down below” and a region of darkness.
All the Sanskrit words above are derived from the Indo-European root dyeu-, “to shine,” The related Indo-European noun (deiwos, “god”) brings us not only the Sanskrit deva but English words such as “diva,” “divine,” “divinity,” “deity,” and the French “adieu.”
The movement of the celestial orbs that cause the sky to shine determine and delimit the “day.” And so just as the same word in Sanskrit can mean both “heaven, sky” and “day,” so too are the words “daily,” “diurnal,” “diary,” “journal,” and “quotidian,” are also all semantically related.
Interesting. Maybe even linguistically one could accurately say that the “divine” is not only special and “heavenly” but also potentially “quotidian” and mundane.
January 2010
bodhi:
As I think many people know, the Sanskrit word for “enlightenment” (bodhi) and for the “Enlightened One” (buddha) both derive from the root budh- which means “to awaken”. “Enlightenment” is thus an “awakening” to reality; the Western neologism “Buddhism” could be accurately represented as “Awakenism”.
The English verb “to bid” (in the sense of “to utter, to command”) is a cognate by way of the Old English beodan, “to proclaim”, as is the negative version, “forbid”(to command someone not to do something). The English “bode” (”to be an omen”, as in “it does not bode well for the future”) is also related through the Old English bodian, “to announce”, and so too is the term “ombudsman” (via the Old Norse bodh, “to command”). The word “bud” (”to spring forth”) may also be linked.
All these words are ultimately traced back to an Indo-European root bheudh- which means “to be aware” or “to make aware”. Enlightenment or bodhi thus implies merely becoming aware or conscious of reality as it is. When we become aware of the way things actual are — when we awaken from our hallucinations, misperceptions, and fantasies — we will have achieved the goal of Buddhism.
November 2009
sarva:
Sarva means “whole”, “entire”, “all”, or “everything”. It appears in compound in words like “sarvajna” or “omniscience” – one of the qualities of a Buddha – to convey the full completion of something.
The word comes into English via the Latin salvus (”whole”, “safe”, “healthy”) in terms like “safe”, “salvage”, “save”, and “salvation”. We also see it in the words “salutary” and “salubrious” (”promoting health”) as well as in the French “salut” (”health”) and the English “salute” (”to wish someone good health”).
To “be saved” is thus “to become whole” as well as “to be safe” and “to become healthy”,” with the implication being that we are presently incomplete, at risk, and sick. Our spiritual practice moves us from this sense of deficiency to the realization of “wholeness” (and “holiness”) or “completeness” that the word sarva connotes.
September 2009
shraddha:
Shraddha is usually rendered as “faith”, “trust”, or “confidence”. It is derived from the combination of the word shrad- (a derivative of hrid, “heart”) with the verbal root dha-, “to put, place”. The combination thus literally means “putting your heart into it”, i.e., having a heart-felt belief that something is true.
Hrid is traced back to the Indo-European kerd-, both meaning “heart” which is itself a cognate. Other related English words include “cardiac and “cardio-” (from the Greek kardia) and “cordial”, “courage”, and “accord” (from the Latin cord-). More English terms come to us through the Latin cognate credere, “to believe”: “credence”, “credible”, “credo”, “credit”, and “credulous”.
So “having faith” is also “to believe in”. As Emerson says above, it’s not a matter of whether one has faith or believes; it’s in what one has faith and belief.
June 2009
shauca:
The word this month is shauca, which means “purity”. It is related to an Indo-European verbal root that means “to gleam”, and brings us the English words “shine”, “scintillate”, and “incense”.
Shauca is the first of five precepts (niyamas)in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and refers to both outer and inner cleanlinesss. Outer cleanliness includes being careful about what you put into your body – what you eat and drink – and watching your actions to make sure they too are pure and clean. Inner purity embraces what we put before our minds and how we think. Putting four and half hours of television per day on average before our minds, for example, is NOT shauca. Cluttering up our lives with busyness, or juggling countless shallow relationships, or junking up our homes with unnecessary possessions, is NOT shauca.
Seeing the world as pure and every being in it as an enlightened Angel, on the other hand, is a way to practice shauca at the highest level.
April 2009
saksha:
The word saksha combines the prefix sa-, which means “with,” with the word aksha, meaning “eye,” which finds its way into the English word “ocular.” So saksha- means “with one’s very eyes” or “right before your eyes.”
The word appears in a verse from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika on the importance of the guru, which has been translated by Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally as follows: “Suppose you are granted the teaching on the seals (mudras, advanced physical and meditative yogic practices) in the form of a personal instruction. Then you will know that you’ve found your teacher of shining glory (shri guru), your master (svamin), the god who sits at your side (sakshad ishvara).”
The verse is an important one for understanding the nature and potentiality of the guru – who can be regarded as identical to the divine, to “god” or isvara, and who is also not residing on Alpha Centauri but is rather “right before your eyes.” The divine is potentially imminent, present in the here and now, because the divine is also empty – that is, the guru is not not divine.
But you must first open your eyes, and entertain the possibility that there could be more than sometimes meets the eye, so that the divine can truly be seen with your very own eyes.
February 2009
kAla:
The same word is used in Sanskrit for “time” and “death” – kAla. The term derives from the Sanskrit root kal-, “to calculate, enumerate,” and thus the word encapsulates what we mean when we say that “our days are numbered.” The English word “calendar” is a cognate.
kAla (and also the related name for the goddess, Kali) can also mean “black” and is related to the English words “coal” and “collie.”
November 2008
kshana:
The word kshana is translated in Buddhist texts as “leisure” (as in “leisure and fortune”) and refers to the ways in which we are free from obstacles that would prevent our spiritual practice and development. But kshana also more literally means “a moment, instance; blink of an eye,” which also indicates that the “moment of leisure” or the “vacant time” we now enjoy we could also lose “in a moment.” The word is related to terms deriving from the Sanskrit root ksham-, “to be patient, quiet; to endure,” such as kshama (the third Bodhisattva perfection, “patience” or “forebearance”) and shanti (“peace”). There are lots of English cognates: “coy,” “quiet,” “quit,” “quiescence,” “acquiesce,” “acquit,” etc. And so there’s an etymological overlap between “living in the moment of leisure” we have in the present (kshana) and being content and at peace with that moment (ksama and shanti).
October 2008
smirti:
The word for “mindfulness” or “remembering” in Sankrit is smirti. It is derived from the reconstructed Indo-European verbal root (s)mer-, “to remember.” The word “mourn” (“to remember sorrowfully”) is a cognate, and a whole host of English terms comes from the reduplicated form of this Sanskrit word, me-mor: “memorable,” “memory,” “commemorate,” “memorandum,” and “remember” itself.
September 2008
ahimsA:
The very essence of every moral code is restraint from harming others – in body, speech, or mind. The word in Sanskrit for nonviolence is ahimsa, which derives from the root han- , “to beat,” together with the negative prefix a (which we also find in English words like “atheist” and “apolitical.”). In modern North Indian languages, one sometimes describes new clothes as ahata, “not yet beaten,” meaning not yet given to the dhobi or washerman who will take the item and beat it on rocks in water in order to clean it. In yoga, the heart center or cakra is called anahata, “not struck,” meaning that the heart beats without anyone having to continually reinvigorate it.
The word ahimsa ultimately is traced back to an Indo-European root gwhen-, “to strike, kill.” The English word “bane” (as in, “You are the bane of my existence”), meaning the cause of ruin, derives from this verbal root as does the word “gun” (via the Old Norse gunnr, meaning “war”). The “fend-” in the words “defend” (“to ward off”) or “offend” (“to strike against”), as well as the word “fence” (something that protects from harm) all are related words.
Summer 2008
guru:
The Sanskrit word guru literally means “heavy” or “weighty,” as in “serious” or “momentous.” As the founder of the Sakya Tsar tradition, Tsarchen, explained in his Commentary on [Ashvaghosha’s] “Fifty Stanzas [on the Guru],” gurus are “weighty with qualifications.”
Sometimes the word is broken down as gu, short for guna or “good qualities,” and ru, an abbreviation for ruchi, a “collection.” Alternatively, gu stands for guhya or “hidden” and ru for rupa or “body” – the body of qualities that gurus embody are “hidden” in that they far exceed what one can imagine.
The English words “gravity,” “grave,” and “gravitas” are all cognates of guru.
May 2008
mAna:
The Sanskrit word for pride, mana (pronounced “mAHna,” since the first vowel is long), can also mean “honor” or “consideration” or “opinion” (in the sense of having a “high opinion” of oneself, or others having one about you which causes them to honor you or favor you with “special consideration”).
It comes from the Sanskrit root man-, “to think,” from which one of the Sanskrit words for “mind,” manas, also derives. English cognates include “mental,” “mentation,” and “mind” itself.
In his Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, Master Shantideva makes an interesting distinction between “bad” pride and a “good” kind of pride (using the same Sanskrit word, translated below sometimes as “confidence” or “self confidence”) that helps us overcome the “bad” sort. Without the latter, it is implied, it is impossible to overcome the former. We need “confidence” (mana) to defeat the pride that otherwise defeats us:
Those pitiable beings who are defeated by pride
Are not those who possess pride.
Those of confidence (mana) never become
Slaves of the enemy, pride;
Others have turned to slaves. . . .
Those possessing real self confidence,
These real conquering heroes,
Use pride to vanquish the enemy, which is pride. (7.56, 59)
April 2008
klesha:
One of the simple proofs that the Buddha was right when he said that life is suffering is that whenever we stop and check our minds we find that there’s always something wrong. We’re always plagued by some form of unhappiness and discontent. The thoughts that perpetually undermine our happiness are called “mental afflictions” and are defined in scripture as “A kind of thought which disturbs the peace of mind of the person who possesses it.” The Sanskrit word is klesha which comes from a root klish- , meaning “to distress, or bother.” The English cognates are “calamity” and “holly” (because it is something prickly and painful).
March 2008
sukha:
Perhaps the most common Sanskrit word for happiness is sukha. It is formed from the prefix su-(“good”) combined with the word kha, which means “space” or an opening. Sukha is thus traditionally explained as a well-fitting or well-running hub of a wagon wheel. The wheel is “true” due to the “good space” (sukha) of its middle. The su- comes into Greek as eu-, and is found in English words like euphemism (a “better” word for a bad thing); euthanasia (a “good death”); or Eurhythmics (“good beats”). The kha is connected to a root meaning “swollen” in the sense of a blister with a hole inside it. This is found in the English words cave, cavity, and church (a word which originally meant “swollen with power”).
February 2008
vairAgya
There are many words in Sanskrit that could be translated with the English “renunciation.” One of these is vairagya, which also might be rendered as “giving up attachments.”
The prefix “vai-“ or “vi-“ can mean “to split apart from” and comes into English words that being with “di-“ (e.g., “divide”) and “bi“ (e.g., “bicycle,” “bifurcate”). The second part of the word vairagya derives from the verbal root “ranj-“ or raj-“ which means “to color, dye,” and also “to be passionate about.” The Sanskrit word for “red” (rakta) comes from this root, as does the word for a piece of classical Indian music (raga) which is supposed to elicit passion in the listener. Raga can also mean “passionate desire” or “lust” and along with “hatred” (dvesha) and “ignorance” (avidya) is one of the three main “poisons” or mental afflictions. The English word “rage” is a cognate, as are “orange” and “rug” (which has often been dyed a particular color).
So vairagya means that one is splitting away from the mindless desires that entrap us in more and more suffering, more and more discontentment. It is the abandonment of this insatiable ignorant desire that is the precondition to contentment (santosha) and happiness (sukha).
January 2008
yoga
Maybe one of your resolutions this year was to join the estimated 20 million or so North Americans who claim to be regularly doing yoga. But how many of these know what the Sanskrit term “yoga” really means?
The word derives from the Sanskrit verbal root yuj- which means “to join.” The English words “yoke,” “join,” and “jugular” are all cognates of “yoga.” There are many kinds of yoga mentioned in Indian texts, all of which entail some sort of discipline or “joining” of oneself to a practice. In Buddhism, for example, one of the highest and most important of all practices is “guru yoga” where one tries to yoke oneself to, and eventually wholly unite with, one’s Teacher (who is also understood to be an fully Enlightened Being).
Yoga of all sorts often combines an “outer” practice (like putting oneself into a particular posture, or disciplining one’s body to act ethically or devotionally) with an “inner” practice such as meditation or the cultivation of wisdom. Yoga thus joins external and internal methods and harnesses them into a powerful team.
Finally, the ultimate goal of yoga is also a kind of union or yoking – the joining together of a perfect, immortal body of light with an omniscient and all-compassionate mind.
