Laghima, Laghimā: 16 definitions
Introduction:
Laghima means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit, Jainism, Prakrit, Buddhism, Pali, Marathi, Hindi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
In Hinduism
Yoga (school of philosophy)
Source: Wisdom Library: YogaLaghimā (लघिमा) is a Sanskrit word referring to the “ability to become very light”, as described in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali.
Source: ORA: Amanaska (king of all yogas): A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation by Jason BirchLaghimā (लघिमा) refers to “(the supernatural power of) becoming extremely light”, and as one of the “eight common Yogic paranormal powers”, represents one of the various signs and paranormal powers (siddhi) experienced by the Yoga practicioner, according to the Amanaska Yoga treatise.—The last fifty-two verses of the Amanaska’s first chapter describe a temporal sequence of psychosomatic signs and paranormal powers (siddhi) brought about by absorption (laya). In the Amanaska, The 8 common yogic paranormal powers are, [e.g., the power to be extremely light (laghimā)], [...] This list is similar to that given in Pātañjalayogaśāstra 3.45.
Yoga is originally considered a branch of Hindu philosophy (astika), but both ancient and modern Yoga combine the physical, mental and spiritual. Yoga teaches various physical techniques also known as āsanas (postures), used for various purposes (eg., meditation, contemplation, relaxation).
Purana and Itihasa (epic history)
Source: archive.org: Shiva Purana - English TranslationLaghimā (लघिमा) refers to the “power of lightness”, representing the achievements of the southern petal of the Aṣṭadala (mystical diagram of the lotus of eight petals), according to the Śivapurāṇa 2.1.11, while explaining the mode of worshipping Śiva:—“[...] the Liṅga shall be purified and installed with various mantras beginning with Praṇava and ending with Namaḥ (obeisance). The pedestal in the form of Svastika or lotus shall be assigned with Praṇava. In the eight petals, in the eight quarters, the eight achievements are identified [viz., the southern is Laghimā (lightness)]”.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: The Purana Index1a) Laghimā (लघिमा).—A devī.*
- * Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa IV. 19. 4; 36. 51.
1b) One of the eight yogaiśvaryas; this second step of the yoga consists of lambanam, plavana, and śighraga.*
- * Vāyu-purāṇa 13. 3, 12.
The Purana (पुराण, purāṇas) refers to Sanskrit literature preserving ancient India’s vast cultural history, including historical legends, religious ceremonies, various arts and sciences. The eighteen mahapuranas total over 400,000 shlokas (metrical couplets) and date to at least several centuries BCE.
Vaishnavism (Vaishava dharma)
Source: Pure Bhakti: Bhajana-rahasya - 2nd EditionLaghimā (लघिमा) refers to:—The mystic perfection of making oneself lighter than a soft feather. (cf. Glossary page from Bhajana-Rahasya).
Vaishnava (वैष्णव, vaiṣṇava) or vaishnavism (vaiṣṇavism) represents a tradition of Hinduism worshipping Vishnu as the supreme Lord. Similar to the Shaktism and Shaivism traditions, Vaishnavism also developed as an individual movement, famous for its exposition of the dashavatara (‘ten avatars of Vishnu’).
Shaktism (Shakta philosophy)
Source: Shodhganga: Saudarya Lahari of Sri Sankara A StudyLaghimā (लघिमा) refers to one of the ten Siddhadevīs and part of the twenty-eight Goddesses residing in the Trailokyamohanacakra which represents one of the nine Āvaraṇa-Cakras of Śrīcakra (the nucleus of Tantric philosophy) which are related to the fifteen-lettered chant called Śrīvidyā, according to Śaṅkarācārya’s Saudaryalaharī.—By the worship on Śrīcakra, the Goddess (whose presence is represented is Śrīcakra) will get awakened. This is the beginning of the spiritual consciousness in man. The nine Cakras in the Śrīcakra are called āvaraṇacakras.—Bhūpuratraya having four openings is called Trailokyamohanacakra with white (outermost), light red (middle) the and yellow (innermost) colours. Tripurādevī controls the twenty-eight goddesses [e.g., Laghimā] who exist here.
Shakta (शाक्त, śākta) or Shaktism (śāktism) represents a tradition of Hinduism where the Goddess (Devi) is revered and worshipped. Shakta literature includes a range of scriptures, including various Agamas and Tantras, although its roots may be traced back to the Vedas.
In Jainism
General definition (in Jainism)
Source: archive.org: TrisastisalakapurusacaritraLaghimā (लघिमा) is the name of a vidyā subdued by Rāvaṇa, according to the Jain Ramayana and chapter 7.1 [origin of the rākṣasavaṃśa and vānaravaṃśa] of Hemacandra’s 11th century Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra: an ancient Sanskrit epic poem narrating the history and legends of sixty-three illustrious persons in Jainism.
Accordingly, “[...] Rāvaṇa, knowing the highest good, not considering it worthless, remained motionless like a high mountain, absorbed in preeminent meditation. ‘Well done! Well done!’ was the cry of gods in the sky, and the Yakṣa-servants departed quickly, terrified. One thousand vidyās, the sky being lighted up by them, came to Daśāsya (=Rāvaṇa), saying aloud, ‘We are subject to you.’ [e.g., Laghimā, ...] great vidyās beginning with these were subdued by noble Daśāsya in just a few days because of his former good acts. [...]”.
Jainism is an Indian religion of Dharma whose doctrine revolves around harmlessness (ahimsa) towards every living being. The two major branches (Digambara and Svetambara) of Jainism stimulate self-control (or, shramana, ‘self-reliance’) and spiritual development through a path of peace for the soul to progess to the ultimate goal.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
Source: Sutta: The Pali Text Society's Pali-English DictionaryLaghima, (laṅghima) in phrase aṇima-laghim’ādikaṃ is doubtful in reading & meaning at KhA 108=Vism. 211 (spelt laṅgh° here). (Page 579)
Source: Sutta: Pali Word Grammar from Pali Myanmar Dictionarylaghima (လဃိမ) [(thī,pu) (ထီ၊ပု)]—
[aghu+ima．u-khye．laghuno bhāvo laghimā．,4,62．nirutti．493．lahu+ima．u-khye,ha- gha-pru．nīti,sutta．1277．laghi-saṃ．(thī,pu) laghima-prā． sakkataapumādiç pu．nīti,sutta-a itthi-ç kaññādi．]
[လဃု+ဣမ။ ဥ-ကိုချေ။ လဃုနော ဘာဝေါ လဃိမာ။ မောဂ်၊ ၄၊ ၆၂။ နိရုတ္တိ။ ၄၉၃။ လဟု+ဣမ။ ဥ-ကိုချေ၊ ဟ-ကို ဃ-ပြု။ နီတိ၊ သုတ္တ။ ၁၂၇၇။ လဃိမန်-သံ။ (ထီ၊ပု) လဃိမ-ပြာ။ မောဂ်နှင့် သက္ကတတို့အလိုပုမာဒိဂိုဏ်း,ပုလ္လိင်။ နီတိ၊ သုတ္တ-အလို ဣတ္ထိ-လိင်,ကညာဒိဂိုဏ်း။]
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Marathi-English dictionary
Source: DDSA: The Molesworth Marathi and English Dictionarylaghimā (लघिमा).—m S Lightness. 2 One of the Siddhi or attributes of Deity,--excessive and preternatural levity.
Source: DDSA: The Aryabhusan school dictionary, Marathi-Englishlaghimā (लघिमा).—m Human lightness.
Marathi is an Indo-European language having over 70 million native speakers people in (predominantly) Maharashtra India. Marathi, like many other Indo-Aryan languages, evolved from early forms of Prakrit, which itself is a subset of Sanskrit, one of the most ancient languages of the world.
Hindi dictionary
Source: DDSA: A practical Hindi-English dictionaryLaghimā (लघिमा):—(nf) smallness, littleness; lightness; one of the eight siddhis which enables a man to assume as tiny a form as he likes.
...
Prakrit-English dictionary
Source: DDSA: Paia-sadda-mahannavo; a comprehensive Prakrit Hindi dictionaryLaghima (लघिम) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Laghiman.
Prakrit is an ancient language closely associated with both Pali and Sanskrit. Jain literature is often composed in this language or sub-dialects, such as the Agamas and their commentaries which are written in Ardhamagadhi and Maharashtri Prakrit. The earliest extant texts can be dated to as early as the 4th century BCE although core portions might be older.
Kannada-English dictionary
Source: Alar: Kannada-English corpusLaghima (ಲಘಿಮ):—
1) [noun] the quality or fact of being light or lighter.
2) [noun] small-mindedness; meanness; pettiness.
3) [noun] the quality of having or showing little or no sense, judgement.
4) [noun] a foolish, stupid person.
5) [noun] a mystical accomplishment of making one’s body very light or weightless.
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
Nepali dictionary
Source: unoes: Nepali-English DictionaryLaghimā (लघिमा):—n. 1. lightness; 2. the supernatural power to be light; 3. one of the eight siddhis;
Nepali is the primary language of the Nepalese people counting almost 20 million native speakers. The country of Nepal is situated in the Himalaya mountain range to the north of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Ima.
Starts with: Laghiman, Laghimasiddhi, Laghimata.
Full-text (+10): Laghimasiddhi, Laghiman, Siddhartha, Lagima, Ashtasiddhi, Aishvarya, Laghime, Manushata, Ashtsiddhi, Manushatva, Animan, Akulikri, Vibhuti, Ashtamahasiddhaya, Pashupatayoga, Vimshati, Sulabha, Atom, Anima, Abhinnatman.
Relevant text
Search found 52 books and stories containing Laghima, Aghu-ima, Laghimā; (plurals include: Laghimas, imas, Laghimās). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
Page 290 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 2]
Page 131 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 1]
Page 201 < [Bengali-Hindi-English, Volume 1]
Devala-smriti (critical study) (by Mukund Lalji Wadekar)
4.5. The eight supernatural powers < [Chapter 10 - Philosophical aspect of the Devalasmriti]
Chaitanya Bhagavata (by Bhumipati Dāsa)
Verse 2.9.189 < [Chapter 9 - The Lord’s Twenty-One Hour Ecstasy and Descriptions of Śrīdhara and Other Devotees’ Characteristics]
Verse 1.8.180 < [Chapter 8 - The Disappearance of Jagannātha Miśra]
Tirumantiram by Tirumular (English translation)
Verse 675: Vision in Laghima < [Tantra Three (munran tantiram) (verses 549-883)]
Verse 674: Laghima < [Tantra Three (munran tantiram) (verses 549-883)]
Verse 676: Mahima < [Tantra Three (munran tantiram) (verses 549-883)]
Yoga-sutra with Bhashya Vivarana (study) (by Susmi Sabu)
Attainment of the perfections < [Chapter 4 - Textual Examination of the Text]
Garga Samhita (English) (by Danavir Goswami)
Verses 1.7.24-26 < [Chapter 7 - Description of the Conquest of All Directions]
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