The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Sudarshana Sampraday
668
of the sun with his divine tools, removing
enough of his radiance that Sanjna
can bear to be with him. He then fashions
the trimmed-off portions into
Vishnu’s Sudarshana chakra, Shiva’s trident,
and various other divine weapons,
as well as the Pushpak Viman, an aerial
car. Sudarshana’s divine source makes it
a fearful weapon, and it is thus able to
decimate any enemy.
Sudarshana Sampraday
Another name for the Nimbarki religious
community, since their founder
Nimbarka was believed to be an incarnation
of Sudarshana, Vishnu’s weapon.
Sugriva
In the Ramayana, the earlier of the
two great Indian epics, a monkey king
and an ally of the god Rama in his
struggle to regain his kidnapped wife
Sita. Sugriva and his brother Bali
jointly rule the kingdom of Kishkindha
but become enemies because
of a misunderstanding. On one occasion
the two are fighting a magician
who has taken refuge in a cave. Bali
goes in, after instructing Sugriva on
certain signs that will indicate which
of them has been killed. Sugriva waits
outside the cave for a year, and then
sees the sign indicating his brother’s
death, which the cunning magician
has engineered during his own death.
Thinking that his brother is dead,
Sugriva rolls a stone over the mouth of
the cave to trap the magician, and
returns home. Bali eventually manages
to get out of the cave and, thinking that
his brother has used this opportunity
to get rid of him, forces Sugriva into
exile and keeps Sugriva’s wife as his
own. Sugriva lives in exile until he
makes an alliance with Rama, who kills
Bali by shooting him while Bali fights
with Sugriva. After regaining his kingdom,
Sugriva is a faithful ally to Rama,
and with his monkey armies aids in the
conquest of Lanka.
Suicide
An act whose permissibility and consequences
have elicited varying opinions
over time. In medieval times commentators
distinguished between several
types of suicide, depending on the circumstances
surrounding the act. Any
suicide prompted by an overpowering
emotional impulse such as rage or grief
was always strictly forbidden, and those
who did this were said to reap dire
karmic consequences. Another case
entirely was suicide performed as an
expiation (prayashchitta) for one’s sins,
which was often prescribed to expiate
one of the Four Great Crimes. A third
type was suicide by people suffering
from a terminal disease, or who were in
chronic pain. This sort of suicide was
performed according to a well-defined
ritual, intended to put the performer in
the proper frame of mind. This third
category was one of the rites designated
as “forbidden in the Kali [Age]”
(Kalivarjya), although it had been permitted
in earlier times. The most
fascinating sort of suicide was at pilgrimage
places (tirtha), particularly at
Allahabad. This was also done according
to a very specific ritual, and part of
the ritual required the performer to
name the benefit for which the rite was
being performed—in some cases liberation
of the soul (moksha), in other cases
life in heaven for many eons. This practice
is well documented up to the seventeenth
century, although it is no longer
done in contemporary times.
Sulfur
A pivotal substance in Indian alchemy,
the conceptual foundation for which is
its analysis of the world as a series of
bipolar opposites in tension with one
another, and the conviction that unifying
these opposing forces brings spiritual
progress and the end of reincarnation
(samsara). Hindu alchemy shares this
model of uniting or transcending
opposing forces with Hindu tantra, a
secret, ritually based system of religious
practice, and with hatha yoga, which is