SACRED TEXTS

IN ALPHABETIC ORDER

Introduction

Through the vast centuries of humanity's past, various cultures have produced writings considered *sacred. These have survived many attempted to destroy the writings physically, or to obliterate them from the memories of those subject to domination from outside the culture. Even in our modern, skeptical, materialist times, people adhere to beliefs in the systems of their forebearers' religions. Such beliefs have survived even the radical atheism of recent attempts to subject humanity to the 'liberation' of "scientific materialism"

The following is a humble attempt to list some of these texts gathered here on this separate page from Definitions.




*Adi Granth

Sikh scripture.

Bible, the

*Mahabharata

*Puranas

*Qur'an

The scripture of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of *ALLAH, revealed to Muhammad between the years 610 and 632 CE, recited by him, and subsequently recorded in written form.

*Ramayana

(The Exploits of Rama). A Major Hindu epic, attributed to *Valmiki, a legendary 'bard'. The initial core of the epic portrays Rama as a courageous prince following the example of his ancestor Raghu...in the full epic and the *Puranas, Rama is an *Avatara (manifestation) of *Vishnu, the seventh and almost equal in importance to *Krishna. Rama and his wife *Sita are the model spouses for Hindus. The present work tells of Rama's birth and childhood, his life in *Ayodhya and his banishment, his life in the forest and Sita's abduction by *Ravana; Rama's life with his monkey allies; his crossing over the bridge to Sri Lanka; the battle with, and defeat of Ravana, and the rescue of Sita; his life in Ayodhya, Sita's banishment and return, their death and ascent to heaven. To read the epic is to be associated with Rama: 'Whoever reads and recites the holy, life giving Ramayana is freed from sin and attains heaven.' The same is effected by repeating the name of Rama in the ear of a dying person.

*Tanakh

Tanakh is an acronym for *Torah (see below), (*Pentateuch), Nevi'im, (*Prophets), and Ketuvim *Writings, Hagiographa). An English translation was begun in 1955, and completerd in 1982 (revised - 1985) by the Jewish Publication Society, which comes as close as Judaism allows to an `authorized version'.

*Torah

(from Hebrew, 'teaching'). The teachings of the Jewish religion. In the *Pentateuch, the term 'Torah' can mean all the laws on a particular subject (e.g. Leviticus 7. 2) or the summation of all laws (e.g. Deuteronomy 4. 44). It is also used to refer to the Pentateuch in contrast to the *Prophets and *Hagiography...a later distinction was made between the written and the oral law. Although the *Rabbis taught that *Moses received the Torah from *Sinai, they also taught that it was in existence before the *creation of the world, and Rabbi *Akiva declared it to be 'the precious instrument by which the world was created.'

*upanishads

(from the Sanskrit. In Hinduism, the genre of texts which end or complete the Vedic corpus. For this reason they are also called the Vedanta, 'the end of the Veda'. The word 'upanishad' itself is usually understood to mean 'esoteric teaching', the preferred etymology (upa + ni + shad, 'to sit close by') referring to the proximity necessary for the transmission of such teachings. (See the Dictionary for the entire entry.)