Swami ( ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
is an honorific title given to a male or female
ascetic
Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...
who has chosen the
path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''),
or has been initiated into a religious
monastic order of
Vaishnavas. It is used either before or after the subject's name (usually an adopted religious name).
The meaning of the Sanskrit root of the word ''swami'' is "
e who isone with his
self" ( stands for "self"), and can roughly be translated as "he/she who knows and is master of himself/herself".
The term is often attributed to someone who has achieved mastery of a particular
yogic system or demonstrated profound devotion (''
bhakti
''Bhakti'' ( sa, भक्ति) literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity".See Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit Dictionary'', 1899. It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to d ...
'') to one or more
Hindu gods.
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary'' gives the etymology as:
As a direct form of address, or as a stand-in for a swami's name, it is often rendered ''Swamiji'' (also ''Swami-ji'' or ''Swami Ji'').
In modern
Gaudiya Vaishnavism, ''Swami'' is also one of the 108 names for a
sannyasi given in
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's ''Gaudiya Kanthahara'', along with ''
Goswami'', also traditionally used as an honorific title.
''Swami'' is also the surname of the
Bairagi caste in
Haryana,
Uttar Pradesh, and
Rajasthan. In
Bengali, the word (pronounced ), while carrying its original meaning, also has the meaning of "
husband
A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures, ...
" in another context. The word also means "husband" in
Malay, in which it is spelled ,
and in
Khmer,
Assamese
Assamese may refer to:
* Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India
* People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam
* Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
and
Odiya. The
Thai word for "husband", () or (), and the
Tagalog
Tagalog may refer to:
Language
* Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines
** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language
** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language
* Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...
word for "spouse", , are
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
words.
See also
*
Dashanami Sampradaya
References
Honorifics
Indian culture
Sanskrit words and phrases
Titles and occupations in Hinduism
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