The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2392 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
10.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Svayambh
(Skt., ‘unoriginated’). The capacity of objects to be self-existent, not dependent on the causal agency of another, and thus perhaps to sustain themselves from the idea concealed within them. It also represented an early attempt in Hinduism to recognize an unproduced Producer of all that is, an originator such as
Puru
a
,
Praj
pati
or
Brahm
. In the
Pur
as
, it becomes the principle of indefinite cosmic elaboration, but in
Advaita
and in the
Upani
ads
, it expresses the self-existent nature of
Brahman
.
Vai
avites
and
aivites
apply it to
Vi
u
and
iva
respectively. In Buddhism, it is applied to the
Buddha
as the one who is utterly independent of support in the apparent cosmos, and in Mah
y

Other books

The Tamarind Seed by Evelyn Anthony
Earth Song: Etude to War by Mark Wandrey
Backwoods by Jill Sorenson
Black Coke by James Grenton
Legion Lost by K.C. Finn
Murder by Manicure by Nancy J. Cohen
Thula-thula (afr) by Annelie Botes
Cenotaxis by Sean Williams
Catacombs by Anne McCaffrey
Resplendent by Abraham, M. J.