Darshan (Indian religions)
In
The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hindu philosophy and their literature on spirituality and soteriology.[3]
Etymology
The word darshana, also in the forms of darśana or darshanam, comes from the Sanskrit root of दर्शन dṛś 'to look at', 'to view', vision, apparition or glimpse.[1]
Definition
Darshana is described as an "auspicious sight" of a holy person, which bestows merit on the viewer.[2]
It is most commonly used for theophany, meaning a manifestation or vision of the divine.[4]
In Hinduism
In
The term darshana also refers to the six systems of thought, called darshanam, that comprise classical Hindu philosophy.[6][7] The term therein implies how each of these six systems distinctively look at things and the scriptures in Indian philosophies.[7][4] The six Hindu darshana are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta. Buddhism and Jainism are examples of non-Hindu darshans.[4]
Mahayana Buddhism
On the significance of darshana in
The
Indian Mahayana philosophers Vasubandhu and Asanga acknowledged five paths to liberation, of which the third is darshana-marga, the "path of seeing".[10]
Nagarjuna, a prominent philosopher of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, wrote that the wise person perceives tattva-darshana, true reality.[11][12]
Other meanings
Darshana also sometimes has a more mundane meaning. For example, Sivananda Saraswati wrote in his book The Practice of Brahmacharya that one of the eight aspects of brahmacharya (celibacy) is not to look lustfully at women: "You should carefully avoid ... Darshana or looking at women with passionate resolve".[13]
Scholar of religion Richard H. Davis has said that darshana (viewpoint, philosophical school) is one of three terms in classical Indian discourse that could be considered roughly analogous to what today's English-speakers understand as "religion." The other two terms are
Poet Gary Snyder has given a naturalistic meaning to darshana:
It's a gift; it's like there's a moment in which the thing is ready to let you see it. In India, this is called darshan. Darshan means getting a view, and if the clouds blow away, as they did once for me, and you get a view of the Himalayas from the foothills, an Indian person would say, "Ah, the Himalayas are giving you their darshana"; they're letting you have their view. This comfortable, really deep way of getting a sense of something takes time. It doesn't show itself to you right away. It isn't even necessary to know the names of things the way a botanist would. It's more important to be aware of the "
suchness" of the thing; it's a reality. It's also a source of a certain kind of inspiration for creativity. I see it in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe..."[15]
Darshan is also a part of the name of India's public broadcaster Doordarshan combining the word दूर dūra 'far' altogether making दूरदर्शन dūrdarśan 'television'.[citation needed]
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b Monier-Williams, Monier (1981). "दर्श darśá". A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Delhi, Varanasi, Patna: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 470–1.
- ^ a b Flood 2011, p. 194.
- ^ Klostermaier 2008, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d "Darshan - Hinduism". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2015. Archived from the original on 26 August 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2013 – via britannica.com.
- ^ Ray, Himanshu Prabha; Kulshreshtha, Salila; Suvrathan, Uthara (13 October 2022). The Routledge Handbook of Hindu Temples: Materiality, Social History and Practice. Taylor & Francis.
- ^ Nicholson 2013, pp. 2–5.
- ^ a b Perrett 2000, pp. 88, 284.
- ^ Harrison 1992, p. 223.
- ^ Gyatso 1992, p. 288.
- ^ Gethin 1998, p. 194.
- ^ "Chapter 26". Mūlamadhyamakakārikā [Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way]. verse 10.
- ^ Unno 1993, p. 347.
- ^ Sivananda 1988, p. 24.
- ^ Davis 2008, pp. 363–364.
- ^ White 1994, p. 148.
Works cited
- Davis, Richard H. (2008). "Tolerance and hierarchy: accommodating multiple religious paths in Hinduism". In OCLC 174500978.
- Flood, Gavin D. (2011). "Miracles in Hinduism". In Twelftree, Graham H. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Miracles. Cambridge University Press.
- OCLC 38392391.
- Gyatso, Janet, ed. (1992). In the mirror of memory: reflections on mindfulness and remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. OCLC 24068984.
- Harrison, Paul (1992). "Commemoration and identification in Buddhanusmṛti". In Gyatso, Janet (ed.). In the mirror of memory: reflections on mindfulness and remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. OCLC 24068984.
- Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2008). Hinduism: A Beginner's Guide. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1851685387.
- Nicholson, Andrew (2013). Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231149877.
- Perrett, Roy (2000). Indian Philosophy. Routledge. ISBN 978-1135703226.
- ISBN 8170520673.
- OCLC 27432658.
- White, Jonathan, ed. (1994). Talking on the water: conversations about nature and creativity. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. OCLC 27640603.
Further reading
- Coorlawala, Uttara Asha (Spring 1996). "Darshan and abhinaya: an alternative to the male gaze" (PDF). Dance Research Journal. 28 (1): 19–27. JSTOR 1478103. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 April 2015.
- OCLC 526084249.
- DuPertuis, Lucy (1986). "How people recognize charisma: the case of darshan in Radhasoami and Divine Light Mission". Sociology of Religion. 47 (2): 111–124. JSTOR 3711456.
- OCLC 40295673.
- Grimes, John A. (2004). "Darśana". In Mittal, Sushil; Thursby, Gene R. (eds.). The Hindu world. The Routledge worlds. New York: Routledge. pp. 531–552. OCLC 54103829.
- Purdom, C.B., ed. (1955). God to Man and Man to God: the Discourses of Meher Baba. London: Victor Gollancz.
- Sanzaro, Francis (Fall 2007). "Darshan as mode and critique of perception: Hinduism's liberatory model of visuality" (PDF). Axis Mundi: 1–24.