Self-Revealing Knowledge
In Indian philosophy, the notion
that certain things, such as knowledge,
are self-revealing and do not need
proof or substantiation to be known.
Whether such knowledge (or things)
exists, and what they would be if
they did, was a source of lively
disagreement among Indian thinkers.
See svaprakasha.
Self-Validating Knowledge
In Indian philosophy, a name denoting
a sort of knowledge believed to carry
its own stamp of truth, which does
not need to be verified by anything
outside itself. See svatahpramanya.
Semen
As with all bodily fluids, semen is consid-
ered to make a person ritually impure
through emission or contact, although it is
obviously necessary for procreation,
which is an auspicious event. Semen is
also considered the concentrated essence
of a man’s vital energy, distilled drop by
drop from his blood; in Hindu mythology
the semen from the gods is portrayed as
having wondrous generative powers, as in
the story of the god Skanda, who sponta-
neously developed when the god Shiva’s
semen fell on the ground. Although a mar-
ried man is obliged to have intercourse
with his wife at certain times during her
menstrual cycle, this is also seen as a
potentially dangerous depletion of his
vital energy. Since in Indian culture
women are seen as having stronger sex
drives than men, men are faced with the
constant demand on their resources,
which must be carefully husbanded to
maintain their vitality. This problem of
depletion is particularly pronounced in
the unusual case when a man is younger
than his wife, for in that case her needs are
believed to be far greater than his capaci-
ty. Because all seminal emission depletes
one’s vital forces, there are strict taboos on
masturbation, which is seen not only as an
abject surrender to one’s baser instincts,
but as posing actual physical danger.
Sen
(15th c.) Poet and saint of the Varkari
Panth, a religious community centered
around the worshipof the Hindu god
Vithoba. According to tradition, Sen was
a barber—a very low-caste occupa-
tion—at the court of the king of Bidar.
Sen renounced this occupation to wan-
der and sing Vithoba’s praises. Little is
known about him, but he is mentioned
as a model of devotion in one of the
hymns by the northern Indian poet-
saint Ravidas, which indicates that he
was well known outside Maharashtra.
For traditional hagiography, see Justin
Abbott and Narhar R. Godbole, Stories of
Indian Saints, 1988.Sen, Keshub Chander
(d. 1884) Reformist Hindu and leader of
the Brahmo Samaj, to which he gave most
of his life. His emphases on the ideal of eth-
ical monotheism and rejection of many rit-
uals were heavily influenced by English
Unitarianism. In 1865, the Samaj split over
Keshub’s insistence that members should
no longer wear the sacred thread. Then in
1878 Keshub had an inexplicable lapse in
principles when he arranged for the mar-
riage of his thirteen year-old daughter.
Most of his followers left him in protest,
and he spent his remaining years creating
what he called the New Dispensation, a
new religion using elements drawn from
various religious traditions. At his death he
had few followers but had been influential
through his earlier efforts to reform Hindu
society, and to look critically at Christian
culture and religion. In his curiosity for reli-
gious ideas, he happened to meet the
Bengali mystic Ramakrishna, and it was
through association with Keshub that
Ramakrishna began to attract disciples
from Calcutta’s middle class, most notably
Narendranath Datta, who became famous
as Swami Vivekananda.Sena Dynasty
(11th–13th c.) Eastern Indian dynasty
whose ancestral homeland was in the
Bengal region but whose territory alsoSelf-Revealing Knowledge