ABHYASI: Aspirant; one who practices yoga in order to achieve union with God.
ADI GURU: Original Guru; Lalaji, in Sahaj Marg.
ADI TATTVA: Original element.
ADWAITA: State of unity (Non-duality).
AGYA CHAKRA: See AJNA CHAKRA.
AHAM: I.
AHAM BRAHMASMI: I am Brahma.
AHAMKARA (or AHAMKAR): Egotism.
AJAPA: Meditation without utterance of any mantra.
AJNA CHAKRA (or AGYA CHAKRA): The fire point located between the eyebrows Trikuti.
AKASHA: Space, sky.
ANANDA (or ANANDAM): Bliss.
ANANT: Infinity or endlessness.
ANANT-KI-OR: Towards Infinity
ANAR: Firework.
ANORANIYAN: Smaller than the smallest.
ANDA: Egg; Macrocosm.
ANGAS: Limbs.
ANAHAD: That which is not audible.
ANUBHAVA: Intuitional perception or personal experience in the realm of Nature or God.
ANUBHAVA SHAKTI: Intuitive capacity, capacity acquired by experience.
APARA BRAHMAN: Determinate Absolute (see Saguna Brahman).
ARJUNA: To whom Krishna gave the Gita in the Mahabharata.
ASAN (or ASANA): Posture.
ASHRAM (or ASHRAMA): "Ashram" comes from the Sanskrit "Shreyas" which applies, in the spiritual sense, to the growth of benefits which are connected to the higher level. An ashram is also a kind of refuge, a place of retreat from today's life. Ashrams in Sahaj Marg are dedicated to meditation only, all other activities are normally not allowed in the Ashram. An Ashram is usually charged by the Master, who creates a special atmosphere of spirituality in which we meditate.
ASHTANGA-YOGA (or ASHTANG-YOGA): Patanjali described yoga as having eight limbs: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
ATMAN: Soul
AVADHUTA (or AVADHOOTA): Generally revered as elevated souls, but are really persons with spiritual aspirations who have become "fixed" at a certain level because their development has been arrested.
AVAKASHA: Time.
AVARANA (or AVARAN): Layers of grossness; coverings.
AVATAR: Incarnation of a Divine soul.
AVYAKTA GATI: Indifferent state. State where man is completely liberated from Maya limitations.
AVIDYA: Ignorance.
AYODHYA: Birth place of Lord Rama.
BASANT PANCHAMI: Fifth day of spring in the lunar calendar. It is also Lalaji's birthday.
BHAKTA: Devotee.
BHAKTI: Devotion.
BHARAT (or BHARATA): Lord Rama's brother.
BHAVAS: Expression of an inner condition, attitudes of the mind.
BHISHMA PITAMAH: Grand uncle of Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata.
BHOG (or BHOGA, or BHOGAM): Process of undergoing effects, impressions, experience, enjoyment.
BHUH: One of the states of consciousness.
BHUMA (or BHOOMA): Absolute; Ultimate; Base.
BHUMIKA: Stage in spiritual evolution.
BHUVAH: One of the states of consciousness.
BISMIL: Auspicious beginning.
BODH: Wisdom.
BRAHM: Center; God; Ultimate.
BRAHMA LOKA: World of the Divine.
BRAHMAGATI: Divine state, State of Brahman.
BRAHMAN (or BRAHM): Creator, God.
BRAHMANDA (or BRAHMAND): Astral world. Cosmos.
BRAHMANDA MANDAL (or BRAHMANDA DESH): Mental sphere, supra-material sphere, cosmic region; sphere where everything manifests under a subtle shape before taking place in the material world.
BUDDHI: Intellect.
CAKRA: See CHAKRA.
CHAITANYATA (or CHETANYATA): Consciousness, including a subtle activity.
CHAKRA: Center of super-vital forces located in different parts of the body; figuratively called lotus.
CHIT: Consciousness.
DAM: Control of senses and indriyas.
DARSHAN: Vision of someone's inner Reality.
DEVA VANI: Divine voice.
DEVATA: A god; Cosmic personality.
DHARANA (or DHARNA): Mental focus (6th limb of Patanjali's yoga).
DHRUVA: Highly evolved soul. First or lowest level of cosmic functionary.
DHRUVADHIPATI: Godly functionary of great calibre who directs the work of the Dhruvas.
DHYANA (or DHYAN): Meditation (7th limb of Patanjali's yoga).
DURYODHANA: Eldest of the Kaurava brothers.
EKAGRA VRITTI: Tendency to fix our attention on one thing at a time.
GITA: Divine knowledge given to Arjuna by Lord Krishna in the Mahabharata.
GNANA: See JNANA.
GRANTHI: Knot.
GRIHASTHA (or GRAHASTA): One who leads a worldly life, a householder.
GRIHASTHA ASHRAMA: Conditions of a household life.
GUNAS: The three qualities of nature in Hindu philosophy: SATTVA, RAJAS and TAMAS.
GURU: Master, who transmits light, knowledge; a spiritual teacher.
GURU PASHU: People who become devoted to the Master's physical form.
GURUMAT: Disciples who obey the commands of the Master in all matters and try to submit to his will in all possible ways. Note: Do not confuse with GURU MATA which is the common name given to the Guru's wife.
GYANA: See JNANA.
GYANI: See JNANI.
HANUMAN: Lord Rama's faithful servant in the Ramayana.
HATHA YOGA: The first four stages of Patanjali's ashtanga yoga. The practice of Yoga concerning the body.
HINDI: Language of North India.
HYLEM SHADOW: Spiritual shadow located to the right side of the sternum.
INDRIYAS: Ten senses/organs of Indian philosophy, subdivided as jnana and karma indriyas. The former are five senses pertaining to perception, knowledge or wisdom, while the latter are five senses pertaining mainly to action.
ISHA: God ¾ The Ruler.
ISHWARA (or ISHWAR): Determinate Absolute. God as Existence endowed of all the most subtle attributes.
ISHWARI MANDAL: Determinate Absolute's region.
JAGAT GURU: World teacher.
JAMILA: Actor in a drama.
JANAH: One of the states of consciousness.
JAPA: Repetition of a mantra.
JIVA (or JIVATMA): Individual incarnated soul. Life.
JNANA: Supreme Wisdom or Knowledge leading to Realisation.
JNANA BHUMIKA: Stage or state of knowledge.
JNANA HINATA: Absence of knowledge or unknowledge.
JNANI: Gnostic; one who has Divine knowledge.
KABIR: Ancient Indian Poet
KALAKSHAPAKA: A person who wastes time.
KARANA SHARIR: Causal body.
KARMA: Action.
KAYASTHA: Name of a caste.
KRISHNA (or LORD KRISHNA): Most recent incarnation of Vishnu; divine personality in the Mahabharata.
KRISHNA-CHAKRA: Divine weapon.
KURUKSHETRA: The battlefield in the Mahabharata.
KSHIPTA: Disturbed condition of mind due to sensations such as: hunger, thirst, anger, sorrow, desire of fame and wealth.
KSHOBH (or KSHOBHA): State of disturbance; loss of equilibrium; stir caused by the will of God to effect creation.
KUNDALINI: The power which is coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine.
LAGAN: Attachment.
LAYA: Dissolution.
LAYAVASTHA: The state of merging.
LILA: Divine play.
MAHA KALA CHAKRA (or MAHA KAL CHAKRA): Supreme's wheel (see footnote in Towards Infinity, discussion on Seventh Knot).
MAHA PARSHAD: The highest cosmic functionary; Ruler of the Universe.
MAHAPRALAYA: State of complete dissolution when everything in existence merges with the Center. The complete dissolution of the whole universe.
MAHABHARATA: One of the epic stories of India.
MAHAH: One of the states of consciousness.
MAHAMAYA: Subtle energy used by the Divine ¾ Great Maya or great illusion.
MAHATMA (or MANAMATA): Great soul, saint.
MAHATO MAHIYAN: That which is greater than the greatest.
MAL (or MALA): Impurities.
MANAS: Psyche, mind.
MANMAT: Disciples who approach a guru for worldly, material goals.
MANTRA: A sound repeated over and over again.
MAYA: Phenomenal appearance. It is really a power of God. All manifestation or expansion which seems illusory is the play of Maya. Illusion.
MOKSHA: Liberation or Salvation. But in Sahaj Marg, both are not the same. "Freedom from bondage is Liberation. It is different from Salvation which is not the end of the process of rebirth." (Reality at Dawn, pg. 15, 1979 edition).
MOODHA: Condition of the mind, including the tendencies which cause laziness, indolence and idleness.
MUKTI: Liberation.
MUMUKSHU: A seeker of the spiritual Truth.
MUNI: See RISHI.
NA TATRA SURYO BHAKTI NA SASANKAH: Neither does the sun shine there, nor does the moon.
NA VAG GACCHATI NA MANO: Speech does not go there, nor does the mind.
NARADA: A Divine sage.
NIRAKAR: Formless.
NIRGUNA: Without attributes or qualities.
NIRGUNA BRAHMA: Indeterminate Absolute. The Ultimate Cause.
NIRODHA: Tendency which brings the mental to a state of perfect self-control, free of all complexity and perturbation.
NIRVANA: Illuminated state.
NIRVIKALPA SAMADHI: Samadhi in which we are not conscious; ecstasy with the loss of the world consciousness; consciousness of abstract.
NISHKAM: Desireless.
NISHKAM KARMA: Desireless action.
NISHKAM UPASANA: Desireless devotion.
NIYAMA (or NIYAM): Subjected laws which must be followed. They are purity, contentment, austerity, self study, self abandonment, (devotion to God).
OJAS: Splendour.
OM SANTIH (or SHANTI): Invocation of peace.
PANCH AGNI VIDYA: Wisdom of the five fires (see footnote in Towards Infinity, discussion on Fifth Knot).
PANDIT: Learned person, well versed in any subject.
PARA BRAHMAN (or PAR BRAHMA): Indeterminate Absolute ¾ God as the Ultimate Cause of Existence (see Reality at Dawn).
PARA BRAHMANDA: Supra-cosmic consciousness.
PARA BRAHMANDA MANDAL: Supra-cosmic region of the mind.
PARAMANUS: Subtle particles, fine particles.
PATANJALI: Ancient Indian scholar who wrote the Yoga Sutras.
PINDA: Material or gross existence, that which exists in the gross or material state.
PINDA DESH (or PINDA PRADESH): Material sphere; the heart region.
PITRI BHAVA: Paternal feeling.
PRAKRITI: Nature.
PRALAYA: State of dissolution, applied not to the whole universe but only to a part of it.
PRANA: Life, breath.
PRANA PRATISHTA (or PRAN PRATISHTA): Power to infuse a spiritual force into a picture, or idol.
PRANAHUTI: Process of yogic transmission; derived from prana meaning life and ahuti meaning offering. Offering of the life force by the Guru into the disciple's heart.
PRANAYAMA: Derived from prana (life, vital force) and from ayama (to restrain). The regulation of Prana.
PRAPTI-VIRODHIS: Enemies of our attainment.
PRASTHANA TRAYEE: The three orthodox scriptural books of the Hindus, viz. the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras.
PRATYAHARA (or PRATYAHAR): The inner withdrawal of the mind (5th branch of Patanjali's Yoga).
PUJA: Religious traditional practice (in Sahaj Marg the meditation practice).
PURUSHARTHA: The goal of the human effort ¾ applied in the same time to the purely human goals or the supra-human goals.
RAJA YOGA (or RAJ YOGA): Ancient system or science followed by the great rishis and saints which helped them to realise the Self or God. Usually used for meditative practices, as distinguished from hatha yoga.
RAJA DASHARATH: (Surya dynasty) Father of Rama.
RAJA JANAK: Father of Seeta (or Sita).
RAJAS: One of the three Gunas. Leads to activity, egoism and selfishness.
RAM (or LORD RAMA): Husband of Seeta in the Indian epic story Ramayana.
RAMAKRISHNA: Saint who lived in the end of the 19th century and who was Vivekananda's Master.
RAMANUJA: One of the three acharyas; founder of the Vishishtadvaita system of Vedanta Philosophy.
RAMAYANA: One of the epic stories of India.
RAVANA: A Rakshasa king supposed to have ruled Sri Lanka in the era of Ramayana. He is supposed to have had a great knowledge about the Vedas and have possessed enormous powers.
RIG VEDA: One of the Vedas. The others are YAJUR veda, SAMA veda and ARTHARVANA veda.
RISHI: Saint; seer; one who has realized Self.
RISHI DURVASA: Hot-tempered rishi in the Mahabharata.
RUDRA SHAKTI: Destructive power; power possessed by a rudra, of whom Shiva is the personification.
SADGURU: Guru capable of giving the knowledge of Truth.
SADHAK: Disciple who practices a sadhana.
SADHANA: Spiritual practice.
SADHANA CHATUSHTAYA: The four-fold spiritual practice: viveka or discrimination; vairagya or detachment; sampatti, meaning to be engrossed in it, and mumukshutva, to seek liberation.
SAGUNA BRAHMAN (or SAGUNA BRAHMA): God as Existence endowed of all the most subtle attributes. Determinate Absolute (see Reality at Dawn, Chap. 1).
SAGUNA ISHWARA: Determinate Absolute; having the quality of Ishwara.
SAHAJ MARG: Literally: natural path, simple path.
SAHAJ SAMADHI: Conscious state of total inner absorption.
SAHASRA DAL-KAMAL: Lotus of a thousand petals.
SAKAR: Tangible form.
SAKTI DIVINE: Highest energy.
SAKHYA BHAVA: Friendly feeling.
SAMADHAN: State of self-settledness to the Master's will.
SAMADHI: State in which we stay attached to Reality. In Sahaj Marg the return to the original condition, which reigned in the beginning.
SAMARTH GURU (or SAMARTHA GURU): A perfect guru, who possesses all the qualities. A perfectly balanced guru.
SAMAVASTHA: A balanced state.
SAMPATTI: A type of human realisation. In Sahaj Marg it is also the depth of the spiritual realisation.
SAMSKARAS (or SANSKARS): Impressions; grossness.
SANDHI GATI: Merging of two states.
SANDHYA: Meeting point between day and night.
SANG-E-BENAMAK: A lump of salt from which saltishness has been taken away.
SANKIRTANISTS: Those who do sankirtan.
SANKIRTANS: Congregational chants.
SANNYASI (or SANNYASIN): One who has renounced the world and leads a solitary life of celibacy and asceticism.
SANSKRIT: Culture; also name of the ancient language of India.
SRUTI: The basis of each musical note. Also the Vedas, or revealed scripture.
STHULA SHARIR (or STHOOL SHARIR): Gross body.
SUDARSHAN CHAKRA: Lord Krishna's finger wheel.
SUSHUPTI: One of the four states of consciousness. It is described as the consciousness of deep sleep in which a man does not dream. When this state of mind is attained, a man gets in close communion with God, though he remains in a forgetful state.
SVAR: One of the states of consciousness.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: See VIVEKANANDA.
SWAMIJI: Saint.
TAM: The actual state we were in when the world was born. Real state of being.
TAMAS: One of the three gunas. Inertness. It leads to inactivity, sloth or procrastination.
TANUM SWAM VIVERNUTE: Reveals its own form.
TAPAH: One of the states of consciousness.
TARKA: Reasoning.
TITIKSHA: State of fortitude or forbearance.
TRIKUTI: The point above the nose between the two eyebrows; one of the points of concentration.
UPADAN KARAN: Cause which itself results in effect. Thus it may be explained as root cause. See KSHOBH.
UPADESH: Sermon. Instruction.
UPADESHAK: Instructor, advisor.
UPANISHADS: Vedantic part of the Vedas (Jnana Kanda).
UPARATI: Self-withdrawal.
UPASANA (or UPASNA): Devotional practice.
VAIRAGYA: Renunciation, detachment.
VASU: Another name for Krishna. Also refers to an elevated person who performs the lowest level of godly work entrusted to him.
VEDAS: Ancient Indian scriptures, in which a superior knowledge is revealed.
VIDYA: Knowledge; science.
VIKSHEPA (or VIKSHEP): Distraction, confusion.
VIKSHIPTA: Refers to the tendency which drives the mind away from sacred thoughts and brings about the haunting of numerous irrelevant ideas at the time of meditation.
VIRAKTA: Recluse.
VIRAT: Cosmic.
VIRAT DESH: See BRAHMANDA MANDAL.
VIRAT ROOP: Cosmic form.
VISHNU: One of the Hindu trinity, the preserver.
VIVEKA: Discernment.
VIVEKA SHAKTI: Power of discrimination.
VIVEKACHUDAMANI: A text written by Adi Shankaracharya.
VIVEKANANDA (or SWAMI VIVEKANAND): A great saint of India who lived in the early 20th century, and was a disciple of Ramakrishna.
VRITTIS: Outward flow of mind; subtle desires or stimuli coming up in the mind causing action; mental tendencies.
VYAVAHARA: Connection between people ¾ behavior.
YAJNAS: Religious rituals, sacrifices.
YAMA: Self interdiction. Vow of abstinence of violence, falsity, robbery, unchastity, and tendency to acquire.
YOGA: A system of Hindu philosophy showing means of emancipation of the soul from further migration, mainly subdivided as raja yoga and hatha yoga.
YOGAJA: Intuitive perception of all objects. One who is born from the yoga practice.
YOGI: One who practices yoga; one who achieves union with the Absolute.
