V


Valmiki   Valmiki is one of the Homers of ancient India, the legendary author of the Ramayana and the inventor of poetry. When he saw a hunter's arrow kill a mating bird he felt deep sorrow, and out of this sorrow came poetry. A brahman who went astray, he was restored to holiness by the sage Narada. It is said that Valmiki, who may, in fact, have been one of many bards who composed the Ramayana, saw the epic within the sacred texts, the Vedas. Like Homer, Valmiki has a community of followers, in this case known as Balmiki.


Varuna   He is one of the oldest Hindu deities. Unlike Indra, whose birth was described as the product of a union between ‘a vigorous god’ and ‘a heroic female’, Varuna is uncreate. He is the universal encompasser, a personification of the all-investing sky, the source and sustenance of created things. Associated with Mitra, the ruler of the day probably connected with the Persian Mithra, Varuna ruled the sky at night, whose star-like presence was the cause of wonder in early men everywhere. In later times he lost his position as the supreme deity and became a kind of Neptune, a god of the seas and rivers, who rides upon the Makara, a fabulous sea animal, part crocodile, part shark, and part dolphin.

Va'Yikrah
 Va Yikrah  (Hebrew)

The Book of Leviticus, being the first word of the Book "and called" (God)


Veda   Any of the oldest and most authoritative Hindu sacred texts, composed in Sanskrit and gathered into four collections, probably in the period 1500 – 1200 BC. Together they form a body of liturgical literature that grew up around the cult of the soma ritual. They extol the hereditary deities that personified various natural and cosmic phenomena. The entire corpus of Vedic literature, including the Upanishads, was considered the product of divine revelation. The Vedas were handed down orally for many generations before being committed to writing. Even today, several are recited with intonation and rhythm associated with the early days of Vedic religion.

See also Rig Veda, Vedanta


Vedanta   Hinduism

The system of philosophy that further develops the implications in the Upanishads that all reality is a single principle, Brahman, and teaches that the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman.

One of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy and the one that forms the basis of most modern schools of Hinduism. Its three fundamental texts are the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita, and the Brahma Sutras, which are very brief interpretations of the doctrine of the Upanishads. Several schools of Vedanta have developed, differentiated by their conception of the relationship between the self (atman) and the absolute (Brahman). They share beliefs in samsara and the authority of the Vedas as well as the conviction that Brahman is both the material and instrumental cause of the world and that the atman is the agent of its own acts and therefore the recipient of the consequences of action (see karma).


Vedas   One of the traditional criteria for being considered an orthodox Hindu is that one must acknowledge the authority of the four Vedas.

These ancient religious texts (three thousand to four thousand years old, although Hindus regard them as being much older) often express ideas and values at odds with later Hinduism, much as the first five books of the Old Testament express a religious ideology at variance from that of current Christianity. Because of the authority and sacredness of the Vedas, many subsequent religious movements claimed to be Vedic, and certain texts of later Hinduism-texts closer to the worldview of contemporaneous Hindus-were referred to as Vedas. The strand of Indian spirituality represented by the Hare Krishna movement, for example, refers to certain Puranic texts-which are sacred texts dated later than the Vedas-as Vedas.

Among the original four Vedas, the Artharva Veda contains a fair amount of material on dreams. Various dream omens are discussed (e.g., riding on an elephant in a dream is considered auspicious, whereas riding on a donkey is inauspicious). The effects of inauspicious dreams can be counteracted by certain purificatory rites. The Artharva Veda also contains the unique assertion that the impact from an omen dream will take place sooner or later depending on whether it occurred at the beginning of the evening (later) or just prior to awakening (sooner).


Vedic mythology   The first thing that must be said about Vedic mythology (see Vedism) is that it is not an organized corpus of myths moving in a linear path as a “history” of a people. Rather, it is a collection of sometimes confusing and even contradictory fragments in which one deity seems to become another and one action resembles another. The purpose of the brief narratives seems to be more symbolic than historic. Each event suggests many possible interpretations having to do with the centrality of sacrifice and the nature of the Absolute in its multitudinous forms. Still, certain specific figures and events do emerge in fairly clear narrative form from the Vedas, especially the Rg Veda. There is the creation story in its several forms, and there are the developing gods of later Hinduism. Among these are the Adityas, who were perhaps the sun and planets, but who, in the persons of Varuna, Mitra, and Aryaman, were also associated with rulership and social order. Varuna especially was the guardian of essential truth. But the fact that Varu?a also contained a dark asura, or demonic aspect, meant that he had to be dethroned and replaced by Indra as king of the Vedic gods. While not technically an Aditya, Indra is often associated with that group of deities. A somewhat erratic thunder-warrior god, he sometimes goes astray. Indra is famous for his defeat—with help—of the monstrous demon Vrtra. Other Vedic gods include the Maruts and Vayu, the storm and wind gods; Rudra, who will develop later into Siva; an early form of Visnu, who, with Siva and Devi  will eventually dominate Hindu mythology; and the ritually important gods Agni and Soma, who, as fire and the ambrosial and hallucinatory soma, are important to the ritual sacrifices. An interesting aspect of Agni mythology is the god's tendency to hide—as fire hides—and the necessity to find him. As fire he is central to the life of any home and also to the death of any individual, who, on the funeral pyre is a sacrifice that will lead to reincarnation. Soma is also the god of the waters, making him a kind of opposite associate of Agni. Among the female deities of the Vedas, there is Usas who, as Dawn, seduces the creator into materializing the universe by bringing it into the light of day, as it were, through union with her. Less individualized forms of this feminine force are Earth, known as Prthivi, and Nature in the person of Prakrti. These goddesses, as the materializing vehcles of the creative energy of the male force of the creators, are the forerunners of the later concept of Sakti.


Vedic period    (or Vedic Age)

The Vedic Period is the period in the history of India during which the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, were being composed. Scholars place the Vedic period in the second and first millennia BCE continuing up to the 6th century BCE based on literary evidence.

The associated culture, sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization, was centered in the northern and northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Its early phase saw the formation of various kingdoms of ancient India. In its late phase (from ca. 600 BCE), it saw the rise of the Mahajanapadas, and was succeeded by the Maurya Empire (from ca. 320 BCE), the golden age, classical age of Sanskrit literature, and the Middle kingdoms of India.


Vedic religion 

Vedic religion may refer to

In wider meanings of the term "Vedic"



The historical Vedic religion  The religion of the Vedic period (also known as Vedism or Vedic Brahmanism or, in a context of Indian antiquity, simply Brahmanism) is the historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites that often involved sacrifices. This mode of worship is largely unchanged today within Hinduism; however, only a small fraction of conservative Shrautins continue the tradition of oral recitation of hymns learned solely through the oral tradition.

Ancient religion of India that was contemporary with the composition of the Vedas and was the precursor of Hinduism. The religion of the Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India c. 1500 BCE from the region of present-day Iran, it was a polytheistic system in which Indra was the highest-ranked god. It involved the worship of numerous male divinities connected with the sky and natural phenomena. Ceremonies centred on ritual sacrifice of animals and on the use of soma to achieve trancelike states. These ceremonies, simple in the beginning, grew to be so complex that only trained Brahmans could carry them out correctly. Out of Vedism developed the philosophical concepts of atman and Brahman. The spread (8th – 5th century BCE) of the related concepts of reincarnation, karma, and release from the cycle of rebirth through meditation rather than sacrifice marked the end of the Vedic period and the rise of Hinduism. The Hindu initiation ceremony, upanayana, is a direct survivor of Vedic tradition.


Vedism   Vedism refers to the schools of Indian thought and belief that base their beliefs on sruti, the sacred texts and rituals of the ancient Vedic tradition that is the Veda, that is the particular Vedas and their offspring: the Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and anisads. This pre-Hinduism grows directly out of the religion brought by the Aryan Indo-Europeans who invaded India in the second millennium BCE. As the invaders moved further south into India, Brahmanism developed as an outgrowth of Vedism and became what we think of as classical Hinduism.


Victorian period  The period from about the 1830?s through 1900 (Victoria was Queen of England 1837-1901). A pivotal time for the field of Biblical Studies.


Vinaya Pitaka   Oldest and smallest division of the Tripitaka. It lays out the 227 rules of monastic life for bhiksus, along with an account of the occasion that led the Buddha to formulate the rule. It varies less from school to school than does the Sutta Pitaka or the Abhidhamma Pitaka. It includes an exposition of the rules, which are divided into classes according to the severity of the punishment for breaking them; texts that deal with such matters as admission to and expulsion from the order; and a classified digest of the rules in the other Vinaya texts.


Virgin Birth   Fundamental doctrine of orthodox Christianity that Jesus had no natural father but was conceived by Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit. Based on the infancy narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the doctrine was universally accepted in the Christian church by the 2nd century. It remains a basic article of belief in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, most Protestant churches, and Islam. A corollary of its dogma is the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity, accepted by the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches and by some Lutheran and Anglican theologians.

See also Immaculate Conception


Virgin Mary   See Blessed Virgin Mary


Visnu   The Hindu god Visnu is both the “pervader” and preserver: he pervades all things and preserves the order of the universe. He is known by his four arms, his conch, his powerful flaming discus weapon, and the lotus. He rides on the eagle Garuda and is accompanied by the embodiment of his sakti, his consort Sri or Laksmi. For his worshippers or Vaisnavas, he is the source of the elements of creation—the Supreme god who becomes incarnate when his presence is required, whether as Krsna. Rama or several other avataras. He contains the universe in his being and is the universal Absolute, Brahman. As he is the creator, his consort Laksmi is the creation, the manifestation of Visnu's energy.

Visnu is infrequently mentioned in the ancient Vedas, but in the rg Veda it is he who takes the giant steps by which Heaven and Earth are established. Thus, already in the rg Veda, he is the pervasive one, the axis of the cosmos whose ritual pillar—like the linga of Siva in other myths—reaches from the navel of the earth to the highest heavens. Visnu is the essential sacrifice, he who in the Mahabharata raises up the world in the manner of the earlier version of the creator as Prajapati and saves it from overcrowding. As Vaisnavism developed, Visnu assimilated other early creator forms, including the Purusa of the rg Veda and the creator god Brahma as the Brahman within all things or Atman and, therefore, as the personification of creative energy itself or Narayana. Finally, it is Visnu who, as sun, wind, and rain, will absorb the universe at the end of the current age.

The mythology of Visnu is rich. One important myth of the Jayakhya Sa?hita tells how two demons stole the Veda, plunging the world into disorder. Visnu restores the Veda by way of his own knowledge and kills the demons with sacred formulae or mantras that reflect his creative energy or sakati. One creation story tells how Visnu and Laksmi sleep on eternity embodied by the thousand-headed primal serpent sesa or Ananta. During his sleep, the world is “unrealized,” that is, it exists only as Visnu's “thought.” When he awakens he meditates and begins the process of re-creation. When a lotus springs from his navel, Brahma appears from it and becomes the actual creator of the world that Visnu will preserve until the next destruction


voodoo [from the god Vodun], native W African religious beliefs and practices that also has adherents in the New World.

Afro-American religions (also African diasporic religions) are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas among African slaves and their descendants in various countries of the Caribbean Islands and Latin America, as well as parts of the southern United States. They derive from African traditional religions, especially of West and Central Africa, showing similarities to the Yoruba religion in particular.

These religions usually involve ancestor veneration and/or a pantheon of divine spirits, such as the loas of Haitian Vodou, or the orishas of Santería. Similar divine spirits are also found in the Central and West African traditions from which they derive — the orishas of Yoruba cultures, the nkisi of Bantu (Kongo) traditions, and the Vodun of Dahomey (Benin), Togo, southern Ghana, and Burkina Faso. In addition to mixing these various but related African traditions, many Afro-American religions incorporate elements of Christian, indigenous American, Kardecist, Spiritualist and even Islamic traditions. This mixing of traditions is known as religious syncretism.

Voodoo believers are most numerous in Haiti, where voodoo was granted official religious status in 2003, and in Benin, where the religion has had official recognition since 1996. Similar observances are found in Jamaica, under the name pocomania, and in parts of the United States and in the Guianas. A highly developed voodooistic religion known as candomblé is found in Brazil.

Although the magical aspects of voodoo are related to beliefs and practices found throughout the world, the basic features of voodoo were brought by slaves from W Africa, particularly those from what is now Benin, where the beliefs are still widespread (as many as 60% of the people of Benin practice voodoo). Voodoo contends that all of nature is controlled by spiritual forces which must be acknowledged and honored through offerings and animal sacrifice; ecstatic trances (a means of communicating with the gods and spirits) and magical practices play an important role in its ritual. In the New World, Christian elements were introduced, and the African deities became identified with various saints. At various time attempts have been made to suppress voodoo, but voodoo survived and continues to flourish.


Voodoo doll   a doll used in voodoo (Haitian Vodou).

Vodou has come to be associated in the popular mind with the lore about Satanism, zombies and "voodoo dolls." While there is evidence of zombie creation, it is a minor phenomenon within rural Haitian culture and not a part of the Vodou religion as such. Such things fall under the auspices of the bokor or sorcerer rather than the priest of the Loa.

See more on voodoo dolls here


Vulgate  The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of old Latin translations. It became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 13th century it came to be called versio vulgata, which means "common translation". There are 76 books in the Clementine edition of the Vulgate Bible: 46 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, and three in the Apocrypha.

Read More about The Latin Vulgate 


Vyasa   Vyasa was the legendary semidivine dark-skinned sage, or rsi, who transmitted the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. According to the story, lie dictated the epic of the two families of whom he was himself the progenitor, to the elephant-headed god Ganesa, who wrote it down with one of his tusks. Thus, the story of the Bharatas (India) can be said to have flowed literally from the mind and body of Vyasa. Like Valmiki, he was one of the Homers of ancient India. He is said to have been the miraculously conceived son of Satyavati, herself the child of a fish. Vyasa is also the Sanskrit for “collector,” and the word can refer in general to collectors of the Vedas and other sacred works. Sometimes the collectors are condensed into one Vyasa, said to have been an incarnation of Visnu as Narayana and to have been the transmitting vehicle for the Puranas as well as the Mahabharata and the Vedas.

 

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