Aditi
Aditi (devanāgarī: अदिति) is a Sanskrit word that means limitless (from a "without" and diti "bound"). In the Vedas Aditi is mother of the gods (devamatri) from whose cosmic matrix the heavenly bodies were born. Aditi is associated with the primal substance (mulaprakriti) in Vedanta. As celestial mother of every existing form and being, the synthesis of all things, she is associated with space (akasa) and with mystic speech (Vāc). She may be seen as a female aspect of Brahmā.
In Theosophy
H. P. Blavatsky writes that Aditi is the abstract aspect of Parabrahman mulaprakriti, both unmanifested and unknowable,[1] although this principle can be related to space in its different aspects or stages of differentiation and, therefore, to the female aspect of the divine. For example, it is said that Aditi becomes Vâch in its third aspect or differentiation.[2] According to Blavatsky Aditi-Vâch is the female Logos, or the “word,” Verbum.[3] Aditi is also frequently identified with Akasha.[4]
In the Proem of the The Secret Doctrine it is said:
A disc with a point in it [represents] the first differentiation in the periodical manifestations of the ever-eternal nature, sexless and infinite “Aditi in THAT” (Rig Veda), the point in the disc, or potential Space within abstract Space.[5]
In this case, the circle would represent mūlaprakṛti (abstract space, an aspect of the Absolute) and the point within it, Aditi.
In Hinduism Aditi is regarded as the mother of the gods, and of the sun. According to Mme. Blavatsky when regarded in connection with the solar system, Aditi is the female aspect of the highest principle:
Akâsa is Aditi in the allegory, and the mother of Mârttânda (the sun), the Deva-matri—“Mother of the gods.” In the solar system, the sun is her Buddhi and Vahan, the Vehicle, hence the 6th principle; in Kosmos all the suns are the Kama rupa of Akâsa and so is ours. It is only when regarded as an individual Entity in his own Kingdom that Surya (the sun) is the 7th principle of the great body of matter.[6]
Aditi is the ever-equilibrizing mother-nature on the purely spiritual and subjective plane. She is the Sakti, the female power or potency of the fecundating spirit; and it is for her to regulate the behaviour of sons born in her bosom. The Vedic allegory is very suggestive.[7]
In Hinduism
Aditi is a goddess, personification of the infinite and universal expanse. She is the supporter of the sky, the sustainer of existence, and the nourisher of the earth, often represented as a cow.[8] She is called Deva-mātri, the "mother of the gods". Eight sons were born from the body of Aditi; she approached the gods with seven but cast away the eighth, Mārttānda (the sun). These seven were the Ādityas.[9]
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 7.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 430.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 431.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 332.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 4.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 527, fn.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 402.
- ↑ Benjamin Walker, The Hindu World, (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1968), 2.
- ↑ John Dowson, A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, (London, Routedge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1968), 3.
Further reading
- Āditi at Theosopedia