| 释义 |
mahatma|məˈhætmə|
[ad. Skr. mahātman ‘great-souled’, f. mahā great + ātman soul.]
1. In ‘Esoteric Buddhism’, one of a class of persons with preternatural powers, imagined to exist in India and Tibet.
1884Pall Mall G. 19 Aug. 1/1 One of Madame Blavatsky's Mahatmas. 1855Daily News 14 Feb. 5/2 Teacups are found by Mahatmas where no teacups should have been, unless they were either miraculously created or surreptitiously introduced. 1888H. P. Blavatsky Secr. Doctr. II. 173 The Third Race had thus created the so-called Sons of Will and Yoga, or the ‘ancestors’..of all the subsequent and present Arhats, or Mahatmas, in a truly immaculate way. 1909[see higher a. 2]. 1961A. H. Nethercot First Five Lives of Annie Besant v. 295 (heading) The Chela of the Mahatmas.
2. (With capital initial.) A title indicative of love and respect conferred on revered persons in India; applied freq. to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948).
1931Manch. Guardian 11 Aug. 8/2 The great soul in the insignificant-looking body is the distinguishing mark of the Mahatma. 1948C. Leslie Goat to Kali v. 203 His casual mention of great names convinced her that he was an intimate friend of them all: of the Mahatma, of Nehru, of Subhas Bose. 1949H. N. Brailsford in H. S. L. Polak et al. Mahatma Gandhi viii. 96 On 9 January, 1915,..Gandhi landed in Bombay... Soon after..in a published letter, the poet Rabindranath Tagore conferred on him the title of ‘Mahatma’, of which the literal meaning is ‘great soul’. It is the custom among Indians to bestow such distinctions on leaders whom they love and admire. c1949P. Yogananda Autobiogr. Yogi xliv. 352 Mr. Desai led us..to the writing-room where, cross-legged, sat Mahatma Gandhi... He never refers to himself as ‘Mahatma’. He has made some humble, and witty, protests about the title. 1973J. Ferguson Politics of Love iv. 104 This is why Mahatma Gandhi said ‘If you Christians rely on soldiers for your safety, you are denying your own doctrine of the Cross.’ |