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C

 

Cānakya Pandita: the brāhmin counselor of king Candragupta. Possibly another Candragupta than the one responsible for checking Alexander the Great's invasion of India in the fourth century B.C. Famous for his books about politics and morality (see 12.1: 12).

Cāranas: (from carana, 'the feet of') the venerable ones, the ones belonging to a certain vedic school and read the same scripture, the ones of good and moral conduct, those wandering around as singers and actors, those of observance dealing and managing. Also celestial singers or those pasturing and tending.

Cārvāka Muni: the originator of hedonistic philosophy.

Cātuh-hotra: of the four types of sacrifice, see ritvik.

Cāturmāsya: vow of austerity for a certain period (of about half of July to half of November) of four months within one year during the rainy season in India. For that period one is advised to keep to special vows for personal purification.

- Name for the beginning of a season of four months; or the name for the three sacrifices of vais'vadevam, varuna-praghāsāh and sākam-edhāh performed at the beginning of the three seasons of four months.

Caitanya: (life force) name of the incarnation of Krishna as Krishna-bhakta in 1486 in Navadvīpa, West Bengal. Also named Mahāprabhu  Krishna- Caitanya and Gauranga. Spoken as: Tsjétanja.

- An avatāra who ± 500 years ago in India appeared to teach mankind the yuga-dharma (the method of realization valid for a certain era or yuga) of our time, knowing the chanting of the holy names of God, to fight the corrupting influence of kali-yuga. Although He was Krishna Himself, did he play the role of Krshna's devotee, to show us how to awaken our love for Him.

- Reformer of the vedic culture to fight the false authority of dry book wisdom and the caste-system. In de West positioned against impersonalism and voidism.

- The incarnation of the Lord who descended into this world to teach by means of the sankīrtana - movement how to love God.

Caitanya-caritāmrita: the book of Krishna dāsa  Kavirāja  Goswāmī about the life and teachings of Lord Caitanya, the Lord of Vedic Reform. The 'New Testament' of the Caitanya-vaishnava written in the sixteenth century.

Caitanya-vaishnava's: school of devotees of Lord Vishnu that follow Caitanya. Based on the vedic conclusion: Caitanya is the inscrutable unity in the diversity (acinthya-bhedābheda-tattva).

Caittya-guru: (from caitta - belonging to thought, imagined, mental) the internalized guru of the Supersoul within mentioned by Krishna in 11.29: 6 in relation to the ācārya, the guru to the tradition outside.

Cakra: ('wheel, wheel or order of time, cyclic time, circle, totality') term in bhakti used for the totality of the celestial sky, or the disc of stars that is our Milky Way, that as a wheel or disc apparently revolves around the polar star but in fact revolves about the center of the galaxy (see S'is'umāra).

- The cyclic, the cyclic of time to the sun and moon and stars, that together with linear time (clock-time, the week-order) and psychological time; the past, the present and the future makes up the basic tri-kālika, or threefold of time (see also kāla).

- Also disc of Krishna or Sudars'ana, the acute of His presence or supreme vision of Him; time as the weapon of Vishnu. A breach with the order of time or the cakra is a fall-down, a betrayal of niyama, or regulation. Consequence: a punishment of the fire of unbounded energy released from the cakra-order, the broken order is the lust that leads to anger and ultimately madness: the head is cut off by the cakra when one remains in offense with Krishna (see S'is'upala and Kāla, see 6.8: 23 en 9.5, see also the Cakra-order).

- Knots of subtle prānic energies or nādis located on higher and lowel levels in the body. They, divided in seven serve the meditator in progression opening up the way to the higher destination. The lower centers are: the mūlādhāra-cakra, at the base of the spine, the svādhishthhāna-cakra, in the area of the navel, and the manipūra-cakra, in the abdomen or the plexus. The higher centers are that of anāhata-cakra at the heart, the vis'uddhi-cakra in the throat, the ajnā-cakra between the eyebrows and the sahasāra-cakra at the top of the skull (see 10: 87: 18 and B.G. 6: 13-14). (the M.W. dictionary gives a six division asigning the centres somewhat differently).

Cakravākī: popular bird, the female crane.

Cakrī: name of the Lord as the wielder of the cakra, the disc.

Campaka: the Michelia-Campaka, a very fragrant type of magnolia tree with yellow flowers.

Candāla: 'dog-eaters'. Lowest of man, outcast. Vaishnava term for human trash (see also paria).

- Man of the lowest and most despised kind of a mixed birth (born from a s'ūdra and a brāhmana mother).

Candra: the demigod representing the order of the moon (see also Soma).

Candrasekhara Ācārya: a great householder devotee of Lord S'rī  Caitanya  Mahāprabhu.

Canto: derivation from kānda: part or section, chapter, book. A name for the books or twelve sections of this purāna, the Bhāgavatam.

Catuhsana: 'the four sana's'. The līlā-avatāra of the Lord in the form of the four Kumāras.

Catuh-s'loki: the four essential verses in the Bhagavad  Gītā and in the S'rīmad  Bhāgavatam summarizing the teachings. In the Gītā the verses are found in chapter 10: 8 - 11. For the Bhāgavatam these verses are: canto 2.9: 33-36.

Catuh-vidah: the fourfold goals of human life, kāma, artha, dharma, moksha, see purushartha s.

Catuh-vidam: the four kinds of foodstuff; carvya (that what is chewed), lehya (that what one licks), cūshya (that what is sucked up) and peya (that what is drunk).

Catur-vyūha: see vyūha.

Channa-avatāra: name of the covert incarnations of Krishna in Kali-yuga: this as opposed to His tri-yuga status;

- Krishna as His own devotee: Son, Prophet, sannyāsī (see also 7.9: 38).

- Typical example of a channa-incarnation is Dattatreya appearing as the avadhūta in the first chapters of the Uddhava-gītā discussing the different gurus one may learn from (see 11.7-8).

Chaitya-guru: see caittya-guru.

Cintāmani: "touchstone" with mystical power, mentioned in the Vedic scriptures (see also Krishnaloka).

Cit: consciousness. One of the three main characteristics of Krishna (see: sat-cit-ānanda).

Citi-s'akti: (citi - knowledge; sakti - power): The inner or enlightening capacity of the Lord.

Citraketu ('the licht of excellence') a good king, an emperor to all, a king of the vidyādaras living in Sūrasena, of whom there of the earth was all that one could wish for (see 6.14: 10). Received instruction after his lamentation over a deceased son from Nārada and Angirā and was blessed by the Lord (in 6.15), but later came to fall down being cursed to be reborn among the demons because of an impudency with mother Pārvatī (see 6: 17).

Coverings: layers, see kosha.

Cupid (Kandarpa, Kāmadeva): the demigod who incites lusty desires in the hearts of the conditioned living entities.

Cyavana: a sage, a recluse, who was disturbed in his meditation by Sukanyā the daughter of Manus' son S'aryāti, who for propitiation forced her to marry him though he was an old man. The as'vins then gave him youth to be a good husband (see 9.3).

 

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