Glossary of Hindu Terms

ahamkara:
The ego; identification with one's ego

ajapājapa:
A devotee who has practiced japa for a long period of time may enjoy ajapājapa. When this happens, recitation of the mantra continues 
within the devotee's heart (being) automatically and ceaselessly. 

apāna:
Vital energy represented by inhaling

Atman:
The Self; the all-pervading soul in every creature, which is divine. The Panenthesit paradigm is known in the Sanskrit language as the Atman or Purusha, the real Self. In the Upanishads and the Gita, we find the one Atman is present within all creatures. 

Bhagavan:
"Lord"; God manifesting Himself as a person; the object of worship of the bhaktas. By worshipping God as a person, devotees are able to assume human-like relationships with God, for example: God as parent, devotee as child; God as 
Lord, devotee as servant; God as the Beloved, devotee as the Lover. This makes a personal relationship with God more easily possible.

Bhairava (Comprehender of Light):
Bhairava is a terrifying aspect of Lord Siva. In is in this fearesome form that He leads us to destroy the false self.Here Lord Siva is an example of the supreme Light of Consciousness that can be attained when the false ego has been overcome.

bhakta:
A follower of the path of bhakti, divine love; a worshipper of the Personal 
God. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 594)

bhakti:
Devotional Love of God; single-minded devotion to one's Iswara, or personal deity. 

brahmajnana:
The Knowledge of Brahman. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 595)

Brahman:
The supreme Godhead, beyond all distinctions or forms; ultimate Reality [from 
brih.: that which expands].


enquiry, self-enquiry, or vicara:
To seek an answer to the question "Who am I?", not by intellectual reasoning, but by beholding oneself. 

Gita:
Song; Short  for the Bhagavad Gita, possibly the most revered of all Hindu scriptures.

householder (grishasta):
A lay person, as opposed to a monk.

incarnation:
Within non-dualistic branches of Hinduism, it is quite common to regard an enlightened individual as an incarnation of God. The name used to refer to God will vary (e.g. Shiva or Vishnu).

japa:
A mantra is usually one of the names of God, or a brief sentiment directed toward God; the act of repeating the mantra over and over again is called japa. 

jiva:
The embodied soul. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 601)

jivanmukta:
A person who is liberated (enlightened) while living.

jivan-mukti:
The state of being liberated (enlightened) while alive.

jnanayoga:
The path of knowledge, consisting of discrimination, renunciation, and other disciplines. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 601)

jnani:
One who follows the path of knowledge and discrimination to realize God; generally used to denote a Non-dualist; wise person. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 602)

Kali:
Kali is a female manifestation of God. Here very name is derived from the word for time. Her physical appearance is most fearsome and symbolizes her boundless power of destruction. She protects those who are devoted to Her, and through Her grace they pass from the realm of time to the realm of timelessness. Kali is often depicted holding a severed head and wearing them as jewelry. The head represents the false ego that must be subdued before enlightenment can be attained.

Krsna:
An incarnation of God. Krsna is considered one of the incarnations of Visnu, the preservative manifestation of God. Krishna's advice to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra was recorded in the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most cherished of Hindu scriptures. 

Kundalini:
Kundalini is spiritual energy. In the vast majority of individuals, it's said to lie dormant at the base of the spine. When activated through one's spiritual practices, it ascends from one spiritual center (chakra) in the body to another. As Kundalini rises through the three upper spiritual centers (beginning with the Brahmarandhra), the practitioners typically report seeing a supernal light.

.
manas:
The empirical mind

maya:
The Illusion of Separatness; That power which creates and maintains the universe's apparent diversity, or to put it in other words, that which causes the One to appear as many.

moksha:
Liberation, enlightenment 

nirvikalpa:
During this state the mystic loses consciousness of his or her surroundings, and is absorbed in concentration on the nondifferentiated aspect of God. 

Non-dualist:
advaitin; monist; panentheist. One who believes that there is no utimate duality between God and Man, that duality is a part of maya. Someone whose ideal is to entirely merge with Brahman, losing all sense of individuality. 


prāna:
Depending on the context: Vital energy in general, or Vital energy that is specifically associated with the out-breath. 

Rama:
An incarnation of Visnu manifestation God. The story of His earthly life is told in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. Lord Rama is the example of the Noble Man (arya)and heroism.

samadhi:
Turning one's attention away from creation toward that which is uncreated. The individual is ecstatically transported and becomes unaware of his surroundings. 

Satchidananda:
Another name for Brahman. It is a combination of the words Sat (being), Chit (consciousness), and Ananda (bliss). It is the union of the observor, the observed and the awareness of observation.

Siva and Shakti:
Broadly speaking God is referred to as Siva while His power is referred to as Shakti. For practitioners of Tantra, hiva is the same as Shakti. God is called Siva when He is conceived as being inactive and unthinkably transcendent. To emphasize the unity between God and His Power, God is sometimes referred to as Shiva-Shakti. Siva may be thought of as Consciousness as Being, while Shakti represents Consciousness as the Power to Become.


siddha:
A perfected being; One who has attained great powers through self-perfection.


Tantra:
A system of religious philosophy in which the Divine Mother, or Power, is the Ultimate Reality; also the scriptures dealing with this philosopy. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 613)


unmilana samadhi:
This samadhi permits the individual to see God everywhere.


vaidhi-bhakti:
Devotion to God associated with rites and ceremonies prescribed in the scriptures. 
(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 613)

vasana:
conditioning, tendencies, or self-limitations;  presdispositions and habits.

videhamukta:
A soul who is liberated, but who is without a body due to its death (See jivanmukta). 

yoga:
According to Jaideva Singh: Unfortunately, no word has been profaned so much in modern times as yoga. Fire-walking, acid-swallowing, stopping the heartbeat, etc. pass for yoga when really speaking they have nothing to do with yoga as such. Even psychic powers are not yoga. Yoga is awareness, transformation of the human consciousness into divine consciousness. (The Yoga of delight, wonder, and astonishment, p. xxix)

yogi:
One who practices yoga.