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A Sanskrit compound with ''Brahma'' meaning “The ultimate reality” and ''Vidyā'' “wisdom”; thus it means “Divine wisdom.”  Helena P. BLAVATSKY says in ''The Key to Theosophy'' (p. 2), that “Theosophy is the equivalent of the Sanskrit Brahma-vidyā, divine knowledge.” Elsewhere she writes, “The word ‘Veda’ is derived from the root ''vid'', ‘to know’ or ‘to cognize.’  One of the names of the ''Veda'' is ''brahma-vidyā'', meaning literally ‘cognition of,’ or ‘wisdom concerning Brahma,’ as the ''Ṛig-Veda'' is ascribed to the pen of that god himself, and the other three ''Vedas'' to his own direct revelation. ''Brahma-vidyā'' translated means ‘theosophy’” (''CW'' XII:344 fn).





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