Left Hand Tantra
A variation of the tantra; the rituals for
this “left hand” variety include con-
sciously violating taboos on nonvegetar-
ian food, intoxicating drinks, and illicit
sexuality. See Vamachara.
Levirate
An ancient practice, long condemned,
in which a childless widowwould have
intercourse with her deceased hus-
band’s brother in an attempt to perpetu-
ate his line. See Niyoga.
Lila
(“play”) A word whose broad literal
meaning denotes any sort of play, game,
or sport, but which in a theological con-
text conveys a fundamental assumption
about how God interacts with the world.
According to this notion, the supreme
deityengages in creationnot from any
sense of need, but for the sheer enjoy-
ment and entertainment gained from
creating and taking part in the world.
This is particularly true for the god
Vishnu, especially in his manifestations
as Ramaand Krishna. In this under-
standing, all divine interactions
between God and his devotees (bhakta)
are undertaken in this spirit of play,
although in their ignorance human
beings may not recognize the true
nature of this encounter. Final liberation
of the soul (moksha) comes when the
devotee recognizes the true nature of
this encounter, since after that moment
of realization one’s entire life is a series
of playful interactions with God himself.
One of the ways that contemporary
devotees strive to enter Rama’s and
Krishna’s divine world is through dra-
mas that are themselves known as lilas.
These lilas can be attended for enter-
tainment, but viewing them can also be
a deeply serious religious act. When
child actors portraying the deities are in
costume and in character, they are con-
sidered manifestations of the deities
themselves. For ardent devotees, view-
ing these lilas is an avenue for gaining
God’s grace, and an entry-point into a
privileged, divine world. For an excellent
consideration of how Krishna’s entire
life is considered as play, see David R.
Kinsley, The Sword and the Flute, 1975;
for a description of the Krishna lilas, see
John Stratton Hawley, At Play with
Krishna, 1981; and Anaradha Kapur,
Actors,Pilgrims,Kings,and Gods, 1990.
See also Ram Lila.Limitationism
Theory explaining diversity used by later
branches of the Advaita Vedantaphilo-
sophical school, one of the “six schools”
of classical Hindu philosophy. This
school of thought upholds monism—
the belief that a single Ultimate Reality
known as Brahman lies behind all
things, and that all things are merely dif-
fering forms of that reality. Proponents
claim that reality is non-dual (advaita),
that is, all things are nothing but the
formless, unqualified Brahman, despite
the appearance of difference and diver-
sity. For the Advaitins, the assumption of
diversity is a fundamental misunder-
standing of the ultimate nature of
things, and therefore is a manifestation
of avidya. Although often translated as
“ignorance,” avidya is better understood
as the lack of genuine understanding,
ultimately causing human beings to be
trapped in karmic bondage, reincarna-
tion (samsara), and suffering.
Theoretically, if avidya is a defect that
resides within an individual, and if
many individuals can be afflicted with
avidya at once, is there one avidya that
afflicts everyone, or are there many sep-
arate avidyas? Limitationism asserts
that there is a single avidya, afflicting
many people at once. The theory pro-
poses that avidya, in a person, is like the
quality of color in an object. The color
blue may be a single property of two
coexisting objects; each instance of the
color blue does not use up a finite “blue-
ness” in the world. In the same way,
many people may possess the single
property of avidya.Limitationism