A | B | C | D | E | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Y | Z |

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.