Adhidaiva
Adhidaiva · adhi-daiva, “pertaining to the devatās”
Grammar: neuter noun; the prefix adhi (over, concerning) with daiva (of the devas), from deva: “that which concerns the devatās”. The adjective is ādhidaivika.
Meaning: the devatās who preside over the senses and favour them, such as Sūrya in the eye. With adhyātma and adhibhūta it is one of the three divisions of creation.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa names adhyātma, adhidaiva and adhibhūta together, as the three ways in which the one Paramātmā appears in creation.
Śuka tells Parīkshit, among the ten marks of a Purāṇa: the jīva present as the drashṭā, the one who sees, in the eye and the other indriyas is ādhyātmika; Sūrya and the other devatās who preside over the eye and the other indriyas are ādhidaivika; and the cause of this division within the one consciousness of the ātmā, the gross body made of the five elements, is ādhibhautika. This body made of the essence of food, the upādhi of the purusha, is itself called purusha. The three depend on one another: without the object the indriya that sees it is not established, nor the one who sees; without the indriya its devatā is not established; without the devatā the indriya does not work. If any one of the three is absent, the others are not seen. But the witness-consciousness that sees all three, the Paramātmā, is self-established and the support of all. When Nārāyaṇa rose from yoga-nidrā and resolved to become manifest in many forms, he divided his own creative power into these three parts, adhyātma, adhibhūta and adhidaiva (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10).
Maitreya tells Vidura that the Virāṭ Purusha divided himself in three ways: as the indriyas (sense organs) in all beings, which is adhyātma; as the devatā forms in the sphere of the Sun and the others, which is adhidaiva; and as the objects such as sound in the five elements, which is adhibhūta. In the same way he exists tenfold as the ten movements of the life-breath, and onefold as the heart (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 6).
In his stuti beneath the waters of the Yamunā, Akrūra says to Bhagavān Vishṇu: “Adhyātma, the assemblage of body, senses and mind, adhibhūta, the five bhūtas, and adhidaiva, the devatās, are parts of your svarūpa. You are the Purushottama, the controller of the world,” on whom good men who practise sādhanā meditate as their own ātmā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 40).
Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that his māyā-śakti of three guṇas makes this creation, with its changes of birth and the rest, threefold: adhyātma, the aggregate of body, senses and mind; adhidaiva, the devatās who favour the senses; and adhibhūta, the five elements. Sight is adhyātma, form (rūpa) is adhibhūta, and the portion of Sūrya in the eye is adhidaiva; these establish one another, but Sūrya in the sky shines by himself. So too the Paramātmā is distinct from adhyātma, adhibhūta and adhidaiva and is their cause, the self-luminous ātmā that lights them. He then gives the other triads of organ, object and devatā: skin, touch and Vāyu; ear, sound and the devatā of the directions; tongue, taste and Varuṇa; nose, smell and the Aśvins; citta, the object of memory and Vāsudeva; mind, the object of thought and Candra; buddhi, the thing to be known and Brahmā; ahaṅkāra, its object and Rudra. When the jīva identifies with the body, then in the non-dual Paramātmā arise the difference of waking, dream and deep sleep, the difference of adhyātma, adhibhūta and adhidaiva, and the difference of inside and outside (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 22).
Related terms: Adhyātma · Adhibhūta · Devatā · Indriya · Sūrya
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10; Skandha 3, Chapter 6; Skandha 10, Chapter 40; Skandha 11, Chapter 22