The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2
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Sudarshana Sampraday<br />
668<br />
<strong>of</strong> the sun with his divine tools, removing<br />
enough <strong>of</strong> his radiance that Sanjna<br />
can bear to be with him. He then fashions<br />
the trimmed-<strong>of</strong>f portions into<br />
Vishnu’s Sudarshana chakra, Shiva’s trident,<br />
and various other divine weapons,<br />
as well as the Pushpak Viman, an aerial<br />
car. Sudarshana’s divine source makes it<br />
a fearful weapon, and it is thus able to<br />
decimate any enemy.<br />
Sudarshana Sampraday<br />
Another name for the Nimbarki religious<br />
community, since their founder<br />
Nimbarka was believed to be an incarnation<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sudarshana, Vishnu’s weapon.<br />
Sugriva<br />
In the Ramayana, the earlier <strong>of</strong> the<br />
two great Indian epics, a monkey king<br />
and an ally <strong>of</strong> the god Rama in his<br />
struggle to regain his kidnapped wife<br />
Sita. Sugriva and his brother Bali<br />
jointly rule the kingdom <strong>of</strong> Kishkindha<br />
but become enemies because<br />
<strong>of</strong> a misunderstanding. On one occasion<br />
the two are fighting a magician<br />
who has taken refuge in a cave. Bali<br />
goes in, after instructing Sugriva on<br />
certain signs that will indicate which<br />
<strong>of</strong> them has been killed. Sugriva waits<br />
outside the cave for a year, and then<br />
sees the sign indicating his brother’s<br />
death, which the cunning magician<br />
has engineered during his own death.<br />
Thinking that his brother is dead,<br />
Sugriva rolls a stone over the mouth <strong>of</strong><br />
the cave to trap the magician, and<br />
returns home. Bali eventually manages<br />
to get out <strong>of</strong> the cave and, thinking that<br />
his brother has used this opportunity<br />
to get rid <strong>of</strong> him, forces Sugriva into<br />
exile and keeps Sugriva’s wife as his<br />
own. Sugriva lives in exile until he<br />
makes an alliance with Rama, who kills<br />
Bali by shooting him while Bali fights<br />
with Sugriva. After regaining his kingdom,<br />
Sugriva is a faithful ally to Rama,<br />
and with his monkey armies aids in the<br />
conquest <strong>of</strong> Lanka.<br />
Suicide<br />
An act whose permissibility and consequences<br />
have elicited varying opinions<br />
over time. In medieval times commentators<br />
distinguished between several<br />
types <strong>of</strong> suicide, depending on the circumstances<br />
surrounding the act. Any<br />
suicide prompted by an overpowering<br />
emotional impulse such as rage or grief<br />
was always strictly forbidden, and those<br />
who did this were said to reap dire<br />
karmic consequences. Another case<br />
entirely was suicide performed as an<br />
expiation (prayashchitta) for one’s sins,<br />
which was <strong>of</strong>ten prescribed to expiate<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the Four Great Crimes. A third<br />
type was suicide by people suffering<br />
from a terminal disease, or who were in<br />
chronic pain. This sort <strong>of</strong> suicide was<br />
performed according to a well-defined<br />
ritual, intended to put the performer in<br />
the proper frame <strong>of</strong> mind. This third<br />
category was one <strong>of</strong> the rites designated<br />
as “forbidden in the Kali [Age]”<br />
(Kalivarjya), although it had been permitted<br />
in earlier times. <strong>The</strong> most<br />
fascinating sort <strong>of</strong> suicide was at pilgrimage<br />
places (tirtha), particularly at<br />
Allahabad. This was also done according<br />
to a very specific ritual, and part <strong>of</strong><br />
the ritual required the performer to<br />
name the benefit for which the rite was<br />
being performed—in some cases liberation<br />
<strong>of</strong> the soul (moksha), in other cases<br />
life in heaven for many eons. This practice<br />
is well documented up to the seventeenth<br />
century, although it is no longer<br />
done in contemporary times.<br />
Sulfur<br />
A pivotal substance in Indian alchemy,<br />
the conceptual foundation for which is<br />
its analysis <strong>of</strong> the world as a series <strong>of</strong><br />
bipolar opposites in tension with one<br />
another, and the conviction that unifying<br />
these opposing forces brings spiritual<br />
progress and the end <strong>of</strong> reincarnation<br />
(samsara). Hindu alchemy shares this<br />
model <strong>of</strong> uniting or transcending<br />
opposing forces with Hindu tantra, a<br />
secret, ritually based system <strong>of</strong> religious<br />
practice, and with hatha yoga, which is