GLOSSARY
- Ahimsa:
- Non-violence.
- Asana:
- Lit. Seat. A physical posture. One of the eight "limbs"
of Patanjali's yoga.
- Ashrama:
- A spiritual retreat.
- Atma:
- Lit. The self. The interior self as distinguished from the
empirical self which one experiences in everyday life. In the
Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, Atman is believed to be non-different
from Brahman, the ultimate reality of the universe.
- Avatara:
- Sanskrit term for a savior or sage.
- Bhagavan:
- Lit. God. Also a form of addressing a liberated person, as
such persons are believed to attained divinity.
- Chakras:
- The nerve plexuses or centers along the spine and in the
head through which the Kundalini (see below) energy is
led.
- Guru:
- A teacher, particularly of the spiritual kind.
- Japa:
- Lit. Muttering or whispering. A muttered prayer consisting
of reciting (and repeating) passages from scriptures, spells
or names of a deity.
- Jivanmukti:
- Liberation during one's lifetime.
- Karma:
- The effects of a person's past actions on his or her present
and future state.
- Kundalini:
- A form of yoga practiced in India, primarily in the school
of Tantra. The term means "serpent power", the energy
which is believed to lie dormant in the human being and which
through breath control and other means is made to travel through
various chakras (see above) along the spine to be ultimately
united with universal energy or Godhead in the Sahasrara chakra
(the thousand-petaled lotus) located in the top of the head.
- Lokasamgraha:
- Lit. Welfare of the world. Also the act of saving the world.
- Mahatma:
- Lit. A great soul. The title of a spiritually enlightened
person.
- Moksha:
- Sanskrit term for liberation.
- Mukti:
- Lit. Release. Liberation.
- Murti:
- Lit. Form, shape. An idol in a temple. Also a suffix for
some given names in the South of India.
- Nirvana:
- Lit. Blown out. Buddhist term for explosion in consciousness
leading to enlightenment.
- Pranayama:
- Breath control. One of the eight "limbs" of Patanjali's
yoga. Consists of controlled inhalation, retention, and exhalation
of air.
- Puja:
- Devotional ritual and prayer.
- Pundit:
- A learned man. Also used as an honorary title.
- Ram nam:
- A mantra ("the name of Rama") the repetition of
which is used as part of meditation.
- Sadhana:
- Spiritual practice.
- Samadhi:
- Deep meditative trance state.
- Samskara:
- Psychological conditioning or memory.
- Sanskrit:
- The classical language of India in which most religious and
spiritual literature was composed.
- Savasana:
- The "corpse" posture--one of the asanas (see
above) consisting of lying on the back and relaxing all limbs.
- Swami:
- Lit. Master or lord. A form of addressing spiritual teachers
or one's favorite deity.
- Vedanta:
- A system of Hindu monistic or pantheistic philosophy based
on the Vedas.
- Yoga:
- Lit. Joining or union. In general, a path of liberation.
More specifically, the system of physical and mental discipline
propounded by Patanjali, the practice of which is believed to
lead to "isolation" or liberation.