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Dhi (Hindu thought)


Dhi (Sanskrit: धी), this Sanskrit word means 'understanding', 'reflection', 'religious thought', 'mind', 'design', 'intelligence', 'opinion', 'meditation', 'imagination', 'notion', 'intellect', This word is directly connected with the word, Vāc (Sanskrit: वाच) meaning Speech, derived from Vac (Sanskrit: वच) meaning, 'to speak'. Dhi is the voiced Vāc or 'Speech', it is the thought-mind or intellect. Dhi also means 'to hold' or 'to place', and indicates the activity of the intellect.

The natural meaning of Dhi is 'Thought' which corresponds to the Sanskrit word Buddhi which means 'the activity of mind', 'thought', 'understanding' and 'intelligence'.Vedic Sanskrit employs two words Dhi and Brahman for prayerful or meditative contemplation in which context Dhi means 'visionary insight', 'intense thought and reflection', and the word Brahman is derived from the root brh, meaning 'to grow', 'to expand'.Manu Smriti describes ten essential rules for observance of Dharma (the path of righteousness or the 'Law of Being', which binds the people of this world and the whole creation) – Dhriti ('patience'), Kshama ('forgiveness'), Dama ('self-control'), Asteya ('honesty'), Shauch ('purity'), Indriya-nigrah ('control of senses'), Dhi ('reasoning'), Vidya ('knowledge and learning'), Satya ('truthfulness') and Akrodha ('control of anger').

Dhi, the prefix of Dhimahi and Dhiyo occurring in the Gayatri Mantra (Rig VedaIII.62.10) refers to 'understanding', and its cognate word Buddhi means 'reasoning faculty of the mind', which understanding must be transcended to experience the Ultimate Reality. The word, Dhira, meaning 'calm', denotes the seeker whose intellect is saturated in knowledge which word is the combination of Dhi meaning 'intellect' and ra meaning 'fire' or 'wisdom'. The Non-Atman i.e. the Anatman, which is by its nature disagreeable, is the object of the function of Dhi (=buddhi) which reveals the joy (ananda), the nature of the individual consciousness.Patanjali defines Yoga as neutralization of the alternating waves in consciousness; in the phrase citta vritti nirodha (Yoga Sutra I.2), Citta refers to the 'thinking principle' and includes 'pranic life forces', to Manas ('mind' or 'sense consciousness'), Ahamkara ('egoity') and Buddhi ('intuitive intelligence'), and Vritti refers to the waves of thought and emotion that ceaselessly arise and Nirodha refers to 'neutralization', 'cessation' or 'control'. The root budh and its derivatives appear in the Vedas in the sense of 'kindling' or 'awakening', the word buddhi appears for the first time in Samkhyayana Brahmana Upanishad. Dhi is derived from dhriti and its cognate didhiti, it also refers to flash of intuition which is beyond all purely sensuous perception. The mental organs are manas ('mind') and hrd ('heart'), and the mental faculties are citta ('thought'), dhi ('mental vision') and kratu ('mental power'). Manas is said to perform the processes indicated by the verbal roots 'cit-, dhi- and man-; dhi requires kratu in actualizing visions.


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