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A
Abhaya: fearlessness.
Abhayam: fearless.
Abheda-Bodha-Vakya: aphorism on the knowledge
of the identity of the individual with the Absolute.
Abhimana: egoism, identification with the
body.
Abhinivesha: clinging to earthly life.
Abhyasa: spiritual practice.
Achala: fixed.
Adhikari: a qualified person.
Adhishthana: substratum, support.
Adhyaropa: superimposition.
Adhyasa: superimposition or false attribution
of properties of one thing on another thing.
Adhyatmic: spiritual.
Adhyayana: study.
Advaita: non-duality.
Adwaya: without a second.
Adwitiya: without a second.
Agami (karma): karma now produced to be
enjoyed after.
Agrahya: unknowable.
Aham: I; the ego.
Ahamkara: egoism or self-conceit; the
self-arrogating principle 'I', 'I am'-ness; self-consciousness.
Ahankara: see Ahamkara.
Ahimsa: non-injury in thought, word and deed.
Aikya-bhava: feeling of oneness.
Aisvarya: divine powers.
Ajaram: without old age.
Ajativada: the theory of non-evolution.
Ajnana: ignorance.
Akhanda: indivisible.
Akhandaikarasa: the one undivided essence.
Alabdhabhumikatva: the feeling that it is
impossible to see reality.
Alasya: laziness.
Amara: immortal.
Amara-purusha: immortal being.
Amritam: immortal.
Anadi: beginningless.
Anahata: mystic sound heard by yogis.
Ananda: bliss, happiness, joy.
Anandaghana: mass of bliss.
Anandamaya: full of bliss.
Anandamaya-Kosha: blissful sheath or Karana
Sarira; the seed body which contains Mula-Ajnana or the
potentialities.
Ananda-svarupa: of the form of bliss.
Ananta: infinite.
Anantam: infinity.
Anirvachaniya: indescribable; neither
existence nor non-existence.
Annamaya (Kosha): food sheath; gross physical
body.
Antahkarana: internal instrument; fourfold
mind; mind, intellect, ego and subconscious mind.
Antaratman: inner self.
Antaryamin: inner witness.
Anubhava: direct perception; personal
spiritual experience.
Anusandhana: enquiry or investigation.
Apavada: negation.
Apta: competent person; a sage or an adept.
Ardhamatra: half a short syllable.
Arhata: a perfected soul.
Asamprajnata: highest superconscious state
where the mind is completely annihilated and reality experienced.
Asana: a bodily pose or posture.
Asat: that which is not; non-existent;
non-being as opposed to sat or being or existence or reality;
unreal.
Ashram: a hermitage; monastery.
Ashta: eight.
Ashtanga: eight limbs.
Asmi: I am; I exist.
Asmita: egoism; I-ness; "am"-ness.
Asti: exists; is; Brahman.
Asti-Bhati-Priya: Sat-Chid-Ananda; the eternal
qualities inherent in Brahman.
Asuric: demoniacal.
Atma: the self.
Atma-jnana: knowledge of the self.
Atman: the self.
Atma-svarup: the essential nature of the self.
Avadhuta: a naked sage.
Avangmanogochara: beyond the reach of speech
and mind; Brahman or the self.
Avarana: veil of ignorance.
Avidya: ignorance; nescience; a Sakti or
illusive power in Brahman which is sometimes regarded as one with
Maya and sometimes as different from it. It forms the condition of
the individual soul and is otherwise called Ajnana or Asuddha-Maya.
It forms the Karana Sarira of Jiva. It is Malina or impure Sattva.
Ayurveda: the ancient Indian science of
medicine.
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B
Benares: a holy pilgrimage centre of Hindus,
now called Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Bhagavad-Gita: a scripture containing lord
Krishna’s teachings.
Bhagavan: the Lord; Narayana or Hari.
Bhagavata: name of a purana (sacred work
dealing with the doctrines of creation, etc.)
Bhajan: devotional song
Bhakta: devotee of god
Bhakti: devotion.
Bharatavarsha: India.
Bhava(na): feeling; mental attitude, mostly
expressing a particular relationship with god.
Bhayanaka-sabda: a fear inducing sound.
Bhogi: enjoyer.
Bhoktritva: the state of being an experiencer
or enjoyer.
Bhramara-Kita-Nyaya: the analogy of the wasp
and the caterpillar, which states how the caterpillar gets
transformed into a wasp by intense thinking of the latter. Even so,
the jiva becomes Brahman itself by meditating intensely on the
latter.
Bhuma: the unconditioned; infinite; Brahman.
Bhumika: step or stage; state; degree.
Bhuta-siddhi: a psychic power by which mastery
is gained over the elements.
Bindu: point; dot; seed; source; the basis
from which emanated the first principle, Mahat-Tattva, according to
the Tantra-Sastra.
Bodhisattva: a being who, having developed the
awakening mind (a mind infused with the aspiration to attain the
state of Buddhahood), devotes his life to the task of achieving
Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
Brahmabhava: feeling of identity with Brahman,
as well as of everything as Brahman.
Brahmabhyasa: meditation on Brahman;
Nididhyasana; reflection on Brahman; conversing on Brahman;
discussing about Brahman; etc., that is calculated to the
realisation of Brahman.
Brahmacharya: celibate; one who belongs to the
first of the four Asramas or orders of life; one who lives in purity
and studies the Veda.
Brahmacharya: practice of celibacy. Purity in
thought, word and deed.
Brahma-chintana: constant thinking of Brahman.
Brahmajnana: direct knowledge of Brahman.
Brahma-jnana: direct knowledge of Brahman.
Brahmakara-vritti: the sole ultimate thought
of Brahman alone to the exclusion of all other thoughts that is
arrived at through intense vedantic meditation.
Brahmamuhurta: period from 4 a.m. To 6 a.m.
Brahman: the Absolute reality; god.
Brahmanda: Brahma's egg; the macrocosm.
Brahmanishtha: one who is established in the
direct knowledge of Brahman.
Brahma-Srotri: one who has knowledge of the
Vedas and the Upanishads.
Brahma-Srotriya: he who has knowledge of the
Vedas and the Upanishads.
Brahmasutras: text dealing with the science of
the soul, classical Vedantic scripture.
Brahma-tejas: spiritual halo.
Brahmavichara: enquiry into Brahman.
Brahmavidya: science of Brahman; knowledge of
Brahman; learning pertaining to Brahman or the Absolute reality.
Brihadaranyaka: name of an Upanishad.
Buddha: one who is totally purified from all
defilements and who has realized all that can be known.
Buddhi: intellect; understanding; reason.
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C
Chaitanya: pure consciousness.
Chakras: centres of energy in the human
system.
Chandogya: name of an Upanishad.
Chela: disciple.
Chidabhasa: reflected consciousness; the
reflection of intelligence. (Jiva).
Chidghana: mass of consciousness.
Chinmatra: mere consciousness; consciousness
alone.
Chiranjivi: one who has gained eternal life.
Chitta: mind-stuff; subconscious mind.
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D
Daivic: divine.
Dama: control of the outer senses; one of the
six-fold virtues of the Niyama of Raja Yoga.
Darshan: vision.
Daya: mercy.
Deergha: long; prolonged.
Deha: body.
Devas: celestial beings.
Dharana: concentration.
Dharma: righteous way of living as enjoined by
the sacred scriptures, virtue, duty.
Dhyana: meditation; contemplation.
Divya-drishti: divine perception.
Dwesha: repulsion; hatred; dislike.
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E
Ekadasi: eleventh day of the Hindu lunar
fortnight.
Ekam: one.
Ekarasa: homogeneous; uniform; one essence;
Brahman.
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G
Gandha: smell.
Ganga: river Ganges.
Gayatri: one of the most sacred Vedic mantras;
goddess.
Gita: song; conventionally refers to the
renowned sacred text "Bhagavad Gita"; a philosophical
text.
Guna: quality born of nature.
Gunatita: beyond the Gunas; one who has
transcended the three Gunas.
Guru: teacher; preceptor.
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H
Hari: a being who destroys the evil deeds of
those who take refuge in him. A name of lord Narayana or Krishna.
Hathayogins: practitioners of a system of
yoga, for gaining control over the physical body and Prana.
Havan: sacred oblations.
Hiranyagarbha: cosmic intelligence; the
supreme Lord of the universe; also called Brahma, cosmic Prana,
Sutratma, Apara-Brahman, Maha-Brahman, or Karya-Brahman;
Samasti-Sukshma-Sarirabhimani (the sum-total of all the subtle
bodies); the highest created being through whom the supreme being
projects the physical universe; cosmic mind.
Hrasva: short.
Hridaya-Granthi: the knot of the heart, viz.,
Avidya, Kama and Karma.
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I
Iccha: desire.
Idam: this; here.
Indra: the Lord of gods; the ruler of heaven.
Indriyas: the sense of perception;
sense-organ; this is either the physical external karma-indriyas
(organ of action) or the internal jnana-indriya (organ of knowledge,
cognition or perception).
Ishwara: the Lord.
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J
Jada: insentient; non-intelligent.
Japa: repetition of the lord's name.
Jiva: individual soul with ego.
Jivanmukta: one who is liberated in this life.
Jivanmukti: liberated in this life, while yet
living.
Jnana: knowledge; wisdom of the reality or
Brahman, the Absolute.
Jnana-indriyas: organs of knowledge or
perception.
Jnani: (pronounced nyani) a wise person.
Jyotirmaya: full (mass) of light.
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K
Kaivalya: emancipation; state of absolute
independence.
Kala: time.
Kalpana: imagination of the mind; creation.
Kama: desire; passion; lust.
Karana: fire of passion.
Karma: actions operating through the law of
cause and effect.
Karma-indriyas: organs of action - tongue,
hands, feet, genital organ and anus.
Karma-kandi: one who observes strictly the
duties ordained in the scriptures.
Karmasraya: receptacle of actions.
Kartritva: doership; agency of action.
Karuna: compassion
Kashaya: hidden desires.
Kevala: alone; single; independent; the
Absolute.
Kirtan: singing devotional songs.
Koshas: sheath; bag; scabbard; a sheath
enclosing the soul; there are five such concentric sheaths or the
chambers one above the other, namely, the sheaths of bliss,
intellect, mind, life-force and the gross body.
Kripa: mercy; grace; blessing.
Kriya: physical action; particular exercises
in Hatha yoga, such as Basti, Neti, Nauli, etc.
Kriyadvaita: oneness in action or practical
living of oneness.
Kshama: forgiveness.
Kumbhaka: retention of breath; suspension of
breath.
Kundalini: the primordial cosmic energy
located in the individual.
Kutir: a small cottage; hut.
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L
Lakshyartha: indicative meaning (in the
exposition of Tat-Tvam-Asi Mahavakya); the Lakshyartha of Tat is
Brahman and that of Tvam is Kutastha.
Laya: dissolution; merging.
Linga-sarira: the subtle body, the astral
body.
Lobha: greed.
Loka-sangraha: solidarity of the world; uplift
of the world.
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M
Madhyama: a slightly gross form of sound.
Maha: great.
Mahabharata: a Hindu epic.
Mahabhokta: a person whose enjoyments are
universal.
Mahakarta: a person whose actions are
universal.
Mahant: great sage
Mahapurusha: a great soul.
Maharishi: great sage
Mahasamadhi: the departure of a self-realized
saint from his mortal coil.
Mahatma: great soul
Mahatyagi: a person whose renunciation is
universal.
Mahavakya: great sentence. Upanishadic
declarations, four in number, expressing the highest vedantic truths
or the identity between the individual soul and the supreme soul.
Maitri: friendship.
Mala: impurity of the mind; one of the three
defects of the mind.
Malina Sattwa: impure Sattwa; nescience;
Avidya in the individual.
Manana: constant thinking; reflection;
meditation on the eternal verities; the second of the three steps on
the path of knowledge.
Manas: mind; the thinking faculty.
Manomaya Kosha: one of the sheaths of the
self, consisting of the mind.
Manonasa: destruction of mind.
Mantra: sacred syllable or word, or set of
words through the repetition and reflection of which one attains
perfection.
Matra: unit; alone; element.
Maya: the illusive power of Brahman; the
veiling and the projecting power of the universe.
Moda: delight.
Moha: infatuation.
Moksha: release; liberation; the term is
particularly applied to the liberation from the bondage of Karma and
the wheel of birth and death; Absolute experience.
Mouna: silence.
Mouni: one who observes silence.
Mukta: the liberated one.
Mukti: same as Moksha.
Mula: origin; root; base; tuber.
Mumukshu: one who aspires after Moksha or
liberation.
Mumukshuttwa: intense longing for liberation.
Muni: an ascetic.
Murti: idol.
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N
Nada: mystic sound.
Nava-riddhis: the nine minor psychic powers.
Neti-neti: "not this: not this"; the
analytical process of progressively negating all names and forms in
order to arrive at the eternal underlying truth.
Nididhyasana: profound and deep meditation;
third step in Vedantic Sadhana, after 'hearing' and 'reflection'.
Nirakara: formless.
Nirguna: without attribute.
Nirodha: control or restraint.
Nirvana: liberation; final emancipation.
Nirvikalpa: without the modifications of the
mind.
Nirvikalpa-samadhi: superconscious state where
there is no modification of the mind or Triputi.
Nirvikari: unchanging; without modifications.
Nitya: eternal; daily; obligatory; permanent.
Nitya-siddha: a liberated soul of marvellous
powers who is ever present on the astral plane.
Nivritti: renunciation.
Niyama: the second step in raja yoga;
observance - purity, contentment, austerities, etc.
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O
Ojas: spiritual energy.
Om: the pranava or the sacred syllable
symbolising Brahman.
Omkara: same as om.
Oordhvareta: a yogi who has stored up the
seminal energy in the brain after sublimating the same into
spiritual energy.
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P
Padma asana: the lotus pose; a meditative
posture.
Paramahamsa: the highest class of sannyasins.
Param-dhama: supreme abode.
Paripoorna: all-full; self-contained.
Parivrajaka: wandering monk.
Pashyanti: the subtle or the second state of
sound which in its grossest form is manifest as the audible sound
upon the physical plane.
Pasu-svabhava: animal nature; bestial nature.
Patanjali: the author of yoga-sutras.
Pindanda: the world of the body; microcosm;
Kshudrabrahmanda as opposed to the macrocosm or cosmos (Brahmanda).
Pluta: elongated accent with three Matras.
Prajna: a name according to Vedanta philosophy
of the individual in the causal state (as in sound sleep); the
supreme reality appears as such through the veil of an individual
causal body.
Prajnana Ghana: mass of consciousness;
Brahman.
Prakriti: causal matter; Shakti.
Prakriti: mother nature, causal matter.
Pramoda: the pleasure which one gets through
the actual enjoyment of an object; the third state of enjoyment of
an object, after Priya and Moda, the attributes of the causal body.
Prana: vital energy; life-breath; life-force.
Pranamaya: one of the sheaths of the self,
consisting of the Pranas and the Karmendriyas.
Pranava: the sacred monosyllable Om.
Pranayama: practice of breath-control.
Pranayama: regulation and restraint of breath;
the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.
Prarabdha: the portion of Sanchita Karma that
determines one's present life.
Pratyahara: abstraction of senses; fifth step
in Raja Yoga.
Pravritti-marga: the path of action or life in
worldly society or according to the nature of the world.
Prema: divine love.
Preyo-Marga: "Preyas" means that
which is pleasant to the senses and the mind. Hence "Preyo-Marga"
means the path that leads in the direction of the pleasing
sensations of body and mind.
Prithvi: earth.
Priya: bliss; joy derived on seeing a beloved
object.
Purana: Hindu myths and legends.
Purna-Jnani: a full-blown sage.
Purna-Yogi: a full-blown yogi.
Purusha: the supreme being; a being that lies
in the city (of the heart of all beings). The term is applied to the
Lord. The description applies to the Self which abides in the heart
of all things. To distinguish Bhagavan or the Lord from the Jivatma
he is known as Parama (highest) Purusha or the Purushottama (the
best of the Purushas).
Purushottama: the supreme person; the lord of
the universe.
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R
Raga: attachment.
Raja: king.
Rajas: one of the three qualities of Prakriti
which generates passion and restlessness.
Rajasic: passionate; active; restless.
Rajasuya-Yajna: a sacrifice performed by a
monarch as a mark of his subduing all other Kings.
Raja-Yoga: a system of Yoga generally taken to
be the one propounded by Patanjali Maharishi, i.e., Ashtanga Yoga.
Rajoguna: one of the three aspects of
component traits of cosmic energy; the principle of dynamism in
nature bringing about all changes; through this is projected the
relative appearance of the Absolute as the universe; this quality
generates passion and restlessness.
Ramayana: a holy narative of Lord Rama.
Rasa: taste.
Rasasvada: tasting the bliss of lower Samadhi.
Riddhis: highest sensual delight; wealth; nine
varieties of extraordinary exaltation and grandeur that come to a
Yogi as he advances and progresses in Yoga, like the supernatural
powers or Siddhis; Riddhis are, like Siddhis, great obstacles in
yoga.
Rishi: sage.
Rishikesh: a sacred place in the Himalayas.
Rupa: appearance; form; sight; vision.
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S
Sadhaka: (spiritual) aspirant; one who exerts
to attain an object.
Sadhana: spiritual practice.
Sadhana-chatushtaya: the four kinds of
spiritual effort: discrimination, dispassion, sixfold virtues and
desire for liberation.
Sadhu: pious man; Sannyasin.
Sadyo-Mukti: immediate liberation.
Sagara: ocean.
Sahasranama: the thousand names of the Lord.
Sakshatkara: direct realisation; experience of
Absoluteness; Brahmajnana.
Sakshi: witnessing principle; seer; Kutastha
which passively observes the actions of the body and the senses;
witness.
Sakshi-Bhava: the attitude of remaining as a
witness.
Sakti: power; the feminine aspect of divinity.
Sakti-sanchar: transference of power by a
developed yogi.
Sama: serenity; control of mind.
Samadhana: equal fixing; proper concentration.
Samadhi: the state of superconsciousness where
Absoluteness is experienced attended with all-knowledge and joy;
oneness; here the mind becomes identified with the object of
meditation; the meditator and the meditated, thinker and thought
become one in perfect absorption of the mind.
Samata-Drishti: equal vision.
Samsara: life through repeated births and
deaths; the process of worldly life.
Samskara: impression; ceremonial purification;
prenatal tendency.
Samyama: perfect restraint, an all-complete
condition of balance and repose, concentration, meditation and
samadhi.
Sanchita: the sum-total of all actions done by
the jiva during countless previous births, out of which a portion is
allotted for every new birth.
Sankalpa: thought; desire; imagination.
Sankara: the well known teacher of Vedanta
philosophy.
Sankhya: a system of philosophy propounded by
Kapila.
Sankirtan: singing of divine songs.
Sannyasins: those who have embraced the life
of complete renunciation.
Santam: peaceful; calm; tranquil.
Santi: same as Santam.
Sanyasa: renunciation of social ties; the last
stage of Hindu life, viz., the stage of spiritual meditation.
Sarira: body.
Sarvam: all; everything.
Saswata: everlasting.
Sat-Asat-Vilakshana: different from what is
existence and non-existence.
Satchidananda: Existence Absolute(Sat),
Knowledge Absolute(Chid), Bliss Absolute(Ananda).
Satsang: association with the wise.
Satsankalpa: true resolve; pure desire;
perfect will.
Sattwa: light; purity-one of the three
qualities of nature; reality.
Satya: truth; Brahman or the Absolute.
Satya-Yuga: the age of truth, the first of the
four Hindu time-cycles.
Savikalpa Samadhi: Samadhi with the triad of
knower, knowledge and known.
Shabda: sound.
Shabda-Brahman: word-Absolute; Omkara or the
Veda.
Shabda-Tanmatra: subtle principle of sound.
Shakti: power; energy; force; the divine power
of becoming; the apparent dynamic aspect of eternal being; the
absolute power or cosmic energy.
Shatsampat: sixfold wealth, viz., Sama (tranquility
of mind), Dama (self-restraint), Uparati (cessation from distracting
activity connected with the world), Titiksha (fortitude), Sraddha
(faith in the scriptures, guru and god) and Samadhana
(one-pointedness of mind).
Shudda: pure; clear; clean; untainted.
Siddha: realised; perfected; a perfected yogi.
Siddhi: perfection; psychic power.
Sishya: disciple.
Siva: Lord Siva - bestower of auspiciousness
on his devotees.
Sivam: all-good.
Sloka: verse.
Sonita: female reproductive seeds.
Sparsa: touch.
Sraddha: faith.
Sravana: hearing of the Srutis or scripture;
ear.
Sreyo-Marga: the way leading to one's ultimate
good and not to an immediate pleasant condition of senses and the
mind.
Sri: auspiciousness-a name is qualified by
putting "Sri" before it as a mark of courtesy and
auspiciousness.
Sruti: the Vedas; the revealed scriptures of
the Hindus; that which has been heard; ear.
Stotra: hymn.
Suddha: pure.
Suddha: same as Shudda.
Sukha: happiness.
Sukla: semen; white.
Sushumna: the chief among astral tubes in the
human body running inside the spinal column.
Sutra: aphorism.
Svadhyaya: study of scriptures.
Svarupa: essential nature; reality.
Swagata Bheda: intrinsic difference as the
difference between waves, eddies, etc., in a mass of water; the
difference between parts like hands, legs, head, feet, etc., in a
person; difference between fruit, flower, twigs, leaves, etc., in a
tree; that by which one part of a substance is discriminated from
another.
Swajatiya bheda: difference by which one
individual of a species is distinguished from another, e.g., the
difference between one man and another man.
Swarat: independent.
Swaroopa: essence; essential nature; the
essential nature of Brahman; reality; Satchidananda; true nature of
being.
Swayam-Prakasha: self-luminous.
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T
Taapas: sufferings or afflictions of three
kinds, to which mortals are subject, viz., (1) those caused by one's
own body (Adhyatmika), (2) those caused by beings around him (Adhibhautika),
and (3) those caused by Devas (Adhidaivika).
Taijasa: a name used in Vedanta philosophy for
an individual in the subtle state (as in dream) when the supreme
reality is veiled and coloured by an individual's subtle body.
Tamas: ignorance; inertia; darkness;
perishability.
Tamas: one of the three qualities of nature
which generates inertia, laziness, dullness and infatuation.
Tanmatra: atom; rudimentary element in an
undifferentiated state before Pancikarana or quintuplication.
Tanmatra: subtle, undifferentiated root
elements of matter.
Tapas: purificatory action; ascetic
self-denial; austerity; penance; mortification.
Tapascharya: practice of austerity.
Tattwa: reality; element; truth; essence;
principle.
Tehsildar: revenue officer.
Titiksha: bearing with equanimity the pairs of
opposites, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, and respectful and
disrespectful treatment; endurance.
Triputi: the triad-seer, sight and seen.
Trishna: sense-hankering.
Tuccha: triffling; mean.
Turiya: superconscious state; the noumenal
self of creatures which transcends all conditions and states;
oneness.
Tyaga: renunciation (of egoism, desires and
the world).
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U
Uddalaka: a great sage of yore.
Upadesa: spiritual advice.
Upadhi: a superimposed thing or attribute that
veils and gives a coloured view of the substance beneath it;
limiting adjunct; instrument; vehicle; body; a technical term used
in Vedanta philosophy for any superimposition that gives a limited
view of the Absolute and makes it appear as the relative. Jiva's
Upadhi is Avidya; Isvara's Upadhi is Maya.
Upanishads: revelation; text dealing with
ultimate truth and its realization.
Uparati: satiety in the enjoyment of
sense-objects; surfeit; discontinuance of religious ceremonies
following upon renunciation; absolute calmness; tranquillity;
renunciation.
Uttama: best.
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V
Vachana: speech.
Vachyartha: literal meaning.
Vaikhari: articulate form of sound.
Vairagya: indifference towards and disgust for
al worldly things and enjoyments; dispassion.
Vakya: words; sentences.
Varnashrama: related to the four primary
groups and the four stages of Hindu life; the laws of the caste and
stage of life.
Vasana: subtle desire; a tendency created in a
person by the doing of an action or by enjoyment; it induces the
person to repeat the action or to seek a repetition of the
enjoyment; the subtle impression in the mind capable of developing
itself into action; it is the cause of birth and experience in
general; the impression of actions that remains unconsciously in the
mind.
Vasana-kshya: desireless.
Vasanas: subtle desires.
Vastu: article.
Vedanta: (lit.) The end of the Vedas; the
Upanishads; the school of Hindu thoughts (based primarily on the
Upanishads) upholding the doctrine of either pure non-dualism or
conditional non-dualism; (the original text of this school is
Vedanta-Darshana or Uttaramimamsa or the Brahma-sutras compiled by
sage Vyasa.)
Vedantin: one who follows the path of Vedantic
Sadhana.
Vedas: the most ancient authentic scripture of
the Hindus, a revealed scripture and therefore free from
imperfections.
Veerya: seminal energy.
Vetta: knower.
Vichara: enquiry into the nature of the self,
Brahman or truth; ever-present reflection on the why and wherefore
of things; enquiry into the real meaning of the
Mahavakya-Tat-Tvam-Asi; discrimination between the real and the
unreal; enquiry of self.
Vichara: enquiry into the nature of the self,
truth, Absolute, Brahman.
Videha-mukti: disembodied salvation; salvation
attained by the realised soul after shaking off the physical sheath
as opposed to Jivanmukti which is liberation even while living.
Vidya: knowledge (of Brahman); there are two
kinds of knowledge, Paravidya (higher knowledge) and aparavidya
(lower knowledge); a process of meditation or worship.
Vigraha: attack.
Vijatiya Bheda: heterogeneous; distinction
between units of different classes, e.g., the difference between a
tree and a stone.
Vijnana: the principle of pure intelligence;
secular knowledge; knowledge of the self.
Vijnanamaya Kosha: one of the sheaths of the
soul consisting of the principle, intellect or Buddhi.
Vikara: modification or change, generally with
reference to the modification of the mind, individually or
cosmically.
Vikshepa: the tossing of the mind which
obstructs concentration.
Virat: macrocosm; the physical world that we
see; the lord in his form as the manifested universe.
Vishaya: sense-objects.
Vishayakara-vritti: thought of sensual
objects.
Vishwa: cosmos; a name of the Jiva in the
waking state.
Viveka: discrimination between the real and
the unreal, between the self and the non-self, between the permanent
and the impermanent; right intuitive discrimination; ever-present
discrimination between the transient and the permanent.
Viveka: discrimination.
Vritti: a wave in the mind-lake.
Vritti: thought-wave; mental modification;
mental whirlpool.
Vyavahara: (worldly) activity.
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Y
Yajna: a sacrifice.
Yajnavalkya: a great sage of yore.
Yama: first step in raja yoga; eternal vows -
non-violence, truthfulness, etc.
Yoga: union; union with the supreme being -
any course that makes for such union.
Yogavasishtha: a monumental work on Vedanta.
Yogi (n): one who practices yoga; one who is
established in yoga.
Yoni: source; womb.
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Z
Zamindar: a rich landlord.
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