Chapter 23  ·  Contents  ·  Appendix

GLOSSARY

Aarati
Waving burning camphor before a Deity as a conclusion of worship, asking that ignorance about Truth be removed.

Aham Brahmasmi
"I am Brahman." This is one of the great Vedic Dicta (Mahaa Vaakyaas).

Ananda
Divine bliss. The Self is unalloyed, eternal bliss. Pleasures are but its faint and impermanent shadows.

Arjuna
The recipient of Krishna's teachings in the Bhagavad Geetha.

Atma
Self; Soul. Self, with limitations, is jeeva (the individual soul). Self, with no limitations, is Brahman (the Supreme Reality).

Bhagavan
Lord. God.

Bhagavad Geetha
A portion of the Mahabharata in which Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, gives instructions to Arjuna.

Bhajans
Devotional songs. Congregational chant group worship by devotees with devotional music in which repetition of holy names predominates.

Bhakti
Devotion to God; intense selfless love for God.

Brahman
The Supreme Being; the Absolute Reality; Impersonal God with no form or attributes. The uncaused cause of the Universe; Existence-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute (Sath-Chith-Anandha), The Eternal Changeless Reality, not conditioned by time, space and causation.

Brahmarishi
An adept, a special teacher and a preserver of yoga who has perfect control over senses and mind and is devoid of aharnkara (ego); one who has attained a far higher level that a rajarishi.

Buddhi
Intellect; intelligence; faculty of discrimination.

Chakras
Psychic centres in the body.

Chit
Consciousness.

Dharma
Righteousness; religion; code of duties; essential nature of a being or thing. It holds together the entire Universe. Man is exhorted to practise Dharma to achieve material and spiritual welfare. The Vedas contain the roots of Dharma. God is naturally interested in the reign of Dharma.

Eashwara
The Supreme Ruler; the Personal God; He is Brahman associated with Maya but has it under His control unlike the jeeva who is Maya's slave. He has a lovely form, auspicious attributes and infinite power to create, sustain and destroy. He dwells in the heart of every being, controlling it from within. He responds positively to true devotion and sincere prayer.

Gopis
The women of the village of Gokul. Supreme devotees of Krishna.

Japam
Pious repetition of holy name or sacred manthra, practised as a spiritual discipline.

Japa
Literally, 'muttering', but as an abbreviated form of nama-japa it means repetition of the name of God.

Jnana
Sacred knowledge; knowledge of the spirit, pursued as a means to Self-realisation. It is direct experience of God, as the Soul of the souls. Jnanam makes a man omniscient, free, fearless and immortal.

Kailasa
A sacred mountain in the Himalayas where Siva is supposed to reside.

Karma
Action; deed; work; religious rite; the totality of innate tendencies formed as a consequence of acts done in previous lives. Every karma produces a lasting impression on the mind of the doer, apart from affecting others. Repetition of a particular karma produces a tendency (vasana) in the mind. Karma is of three kinds: (i) Prarabda: which is being exhausted in the present life, (ii) Aagami: which is being accumulated in the present life, and (iii) samchitha: which is stored to be experienced in the future. Karma in other words is action, consequence of actions and destiny.

Kauravas
A family in the Mahabharata who were the chief antagonists of the Pandavas; Arjuna was one of the Pandavas and with Krishna's assistance the Kauravas were destroyed.

Krishna
An incarnation (avatar) of Vishnu.

Lakshmana
Brother of Rama.

Lanka
Island of Ceylon, Sri Lanka.

Lingam
Sign; symbol of that from which everything has emerged and that into which everything merges.

Mahabharata
The Hindu epic composed by Sage Vyasa which deals with the deeds and fortunes of the cousins (the Kauravas and Pandavas) of the Lunar race, with Lord Krishna playing a significant and decisive role in shaping the events. The Bhagavad Geetha and Vishnu Sahasranama occur in this great epic. It is considered to be the Fifth Veda by the devout Hindus. Of this great epic, it is claimed that "what is not in it is nowhere."

Mahavakyas
Literally it means 'great sayings'; more specifically it refers to four Upanishadic quotations which affirm the reality of the Self:
(1) 'That thou art',
(2) 'I am Brahman',
(3) 'This Self is Brahman',
(4) 'Prajnana (consciousness) is Brahman'.

Manas
Mind, the inner organ which has four aspects: (i) Manas, (Mind) which deliberates, desires and feels; (ii) Buddhi, (intellect) that understands, reasons and decides; (iii) Ahamkara, (I sense) and (iv) Chitta, (memory). The Mind with all its desires and their broods, conceals the Divinity within man. Purification of the mind is essential for realisation of the Self.

Manthra
A sacred formula, mystic syllable or word symbol uttered during the performance of the rituals or meditation. They represent the spiritual truths directly revealed to the Rishis (seers). The section of the Veda which contains these hymns (manthras) is called the Samhitha.

Maya
An aspect of the Divine. That power of bewilderment which gives the appearance of reality to that which is unreal, and which binders the perception of the real.

Nididhyasana
Concentration on the truth about the Self after hearing it (sravana) from the guru and reflecting on it (manana). It is thus the third step on the Path of Knowledge
(Jnana-Yoga).

Om
he primeval sound by which God sustains the cosmos.

Paramatma
The Atma viewed in its universal aspect. God.

Prakrithi
Nature; the Divine Power of Becoming; also known as Maya, Avidhya and Shakthi; the world of matter and mind as opposed to the Spirit. Prakrithi has three dispositions or gunas (sathwa, rajas, and thamas) that go into the make-up of all living and non-living beings in the Universe, in varying proportions leading to the appearance of infinite multiplicity in form, nature and behaviour.

Prema
Ecstatic love of God; (Divine Love of the most intense kind).

Rajarishi
An adept, a special teacher and a preserver of yoga, who has not attained a level of a Brahmarishi; an example of a Rajarishi is Vishwamitra who had to perform long and ardous tapas to become a Brahmarishi.

Rama
An Avatar of God preceding the Avatar of Krishna. He who confers bliss. That in the heart, which is pure delight.

Ramayana
This sacred Hindu epic composed by Sage Valmeeki deals with the incarnation of Vishnu as Shri Rama who strove all his life to reestablish the reign of Dharma in the world. The Ramayana has played a very important role in influencing and shaping the Hindu ethos over the centuries.

Rajas/Rajo Guna
One of the three gunas (qualities or dispositions) of Maya or Prakrithi. Rajas is the quality of nature.

Raja yoga
The system of yoga formulated by Patanjali: 'raja' literally means 'royal'.

Ravana
Demon king who kidnapped Sita, the consort of Rama.

Rishi
A great saint, fully knowing the omnipresence of God.

Sadhana
The spiritual life practiced in everyday life. Words, thoughts and actions which purify mind and heart of illusion and delusion; Spiritual discipline or effort aimed at God realisation. The sadhaka (aspirant) uses the spiritual discipline to attain the goal of realisation.

Sai
The Divine Mother of all.

Samadi
It is the super-conscious state transcending the body, mind and intellect, attained through rigorous and protracted Sadhana. In that state of consciousness, the objective world and the ego vanish and the Reality is perceived or communed with, in utter peace and bliss. When in this state, the aspirant realises his oneness with God, it is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Sankara
Also called Sankaracharya: an eight-century religious reformer and philosopher. He was the first to popularise the teachings of advaita Vedanta.

Sanyasi
A spiritual aspirant who has abandoned attachment to worldly objects and relationships and who lives apart from others. Often he/she is a homeless wanderer.

Sathwa
One of the three gunas (qualities and dispositions) of Maya or Prakrithi. It is the quality of purity, brightness, peace and harmony. It leads to knowledge. Man is exhorted to overcome thamas by rajas, and rajas by sathwa and finally to go beyond sathwa itself to attain liberation.

Sat
Being.

Sat-Chit-Ananda
Being-Consciousness-Bliss

Shastras
The Hindu scriptures containing the teachings of the rishis. The Vedas, the Upanishads, the lthihasas (epics), the Puranas and the Smrithis (codes of conduct), etc., form the Shastras of the Hindus. They teach us how to live wisely and well with all the tenderness and concern of the Mother.

Shiva
One of the three principal Hindu deities. Sri Ramana also used the word as a synonym for Self.

Swami
A title of respect given to spiritual personages.

Tapas
The practice of austerities designed to weaken the conviction that man is body.

Telugu
The native tongue of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The language of Andhra Pradesh.

Thamas
One of the gunas (qualities and dispositions) of Maya or Prakrithi. It is the quality of dullness, inertia, darkness and tendency to evil. It results in ignorance.

Upanishad
The very sacred portions of the Vedas that deal with God, man and universe, their nature and interrelationships. Spiritual knowledge (jnana) is their content, so they form the Jnana Kanda the Vedas.

Vaikuntha
The heaven of Vishnu.

Vedas
The oldest and the holiest of the Hindu scriptures, dating from 2000 B.C. to 500 B.C., the primary source of authority in Hindu religion and philosophy. They are four in number - the Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajar Veda and Atharva Veda.

Vedanga
Additions to the Veda.

Vishnu
One of the three principal deities of Hinduism. Vishnu periodically reincarnates in a human body.

Yoga
Means union with God, as also the path by which this union of the soul with God is achieved. The four important paths of Yoga are those of knowledge, action, meditation and devotion.

Appendix