Glossary
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1264 words
Table of Contents
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AHIḾSÁ | One of the points of morality: to refrain from purposefully inflicting pain or hurt on anybody by thought, word or action. |
| AVADHÚTA or AVADHÚTIKÁ | “one who is thoroughly cleansed mentally and spiritually”; a monk or nun of an order close to the tradition of SHAEVA TANTRA |
| AVIDYÁ | Ignorance; centrifugal, or extroversial, force; force of repulsion from the Nucleus Consciousness; aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the subtle to the crude. |
| ÁCÁRYA | Spiritual teacher qualified to teach all lessons of meditation. |
| ÁRYYÁVARTTA | Lit., “Land of the Aryans”; northern India, which the Aryans at one point occupied. |
| BAULS | A psychology based on Jain TANTRA (which is another name for SHAEVA Tantra) gave rise to the Baul psychology. The Bauls were devotional singers whose devotion seemed to onlookers almost like madness. |
| DÁYABHÁGA | A system of inheritance in which the heirs’ right of inheritance is subject to the discretion of the father, who has the right to disinherit any of the children. Another feature of this system is the rights of inheritance for women. |
| DEVII | A goddess, a female deity. |
| DHARMA | Characteristic property; spirituality; the path of righteousness in social affairs. |
| DHARMA | Characteristic property; spirituality; the path of righteousness in social affairs. |
| DHÁRAŃÁ | Restriction of the flow of mind, conception; e.g., Tattva Dhárańá means restricting the flow of mind to, or conception of, the fundamental factors. |
| DHYÁNA MANTRA | A Sanskrit verse listing the attributes of a deity, to be used for visualizing that deity in meditation. |
| DHYÁNA | Meditation in which the psyche is directed towards Consciousness. |
| DIDI | Literally, “elder sister”; may refer to an ÁCÁRYÁ of ANANDA MARGA. |
| DIGAMBARA, NIRGRANTHA | Unclothed. |
| GAOŔIIYA VAEŚŃAVA DHARMA | The Bengalee Vaishnavite religion. |
| GURU MANTRA | “Important” mantra, learned as a lesson of Ananda Marga SÁDHANÁ. |
| INDRIYA | One of the five sensory organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) or five motor organs (hands, feet, vocal cord, genital organ and excretory organ). The eye indriya (for example) comprises the eye itself, the optical nerve, the fluid in the nerve, and the location in the brain at which the visual stimulus is transmitted to the ectoplasm, or mind-stuff. |
| JIIVA | An individual being. |
| JIIVÁTMÁ | See ÁTMÁ. |
| JIṊÁNA | Knowledge; understanding. |
| JIṊÁNII | A SÁDHAKA who follows the path of knowledge or discrimination. |
| KARMA | Action |
| KARMII | A SÁDHAKA who follows the path of action or work. |
| Karnika | Seed Vessel of the chakra, holder of the pollen in a flower, within the petals |
| KAYASTHA | A caste |
| KIIRTANA | Collective singing of the name of the Lord, sometimes combined with a dance that expresses the spirit of surrender. |
| KIIRTANA | Collective singing of the name of the Lord, sometimes combined with a dance that expresses the spirit of surrender. Some types of kiirtana may involve descriptions of the features of the Lord. |
| KŚATRIYA | Written as kśatriya, a person whose mentality is to dominate over matter; written as “Ks’atriya”, a member of the second-highest caste in India |
| KULIINA | Of noble descent. |
| LINGA | A cylindrical, aniconic image of Lord SHIVA tracing its origins to phallus worship. |
| MANTRA | A sound or collection of sounds which, when meditated upon, will lead to spiritual liberation. A mantra is incantative, pulsative, and ideative. |
| MARGI | A member of Ananda Marga. |
| MAUṊGALKÁVYA | Poetic works by different thirteenth- and fourteenth-century poets, aimed at establishing the glory of certain gods and goddesses |
| MÁYÁ | Creative Principle, PRAKRTI in Her phase of creation. One aspect of Máyá is the power to cause the illusion that the finite created objects are the ultimate truth. |
| MELBANDHAN | The creation of groups made up of persons having similar defects and virtues. Within such a group, no one could be discriminated against |
| MITÁKSARÁ | Mitákśará entails the heirs’ equal rights of inheritance, not subject to the father’s discretion. |
| MOKŚA | Spiritual emancipation, non-qualified liberation. |
| MUKTI | Spiritual liberation. |
| OṊM | The sound of the first vibration of creation; the biija mantra (acoustic root) of the expressed universe. Oṋḿkára literally means “the sound oṋm”. |
| OTA YOGA | The association of PURUŚOTTAMA with each unit creation individually in PRATISAIṊCARA. |
| PARAMA PURUŚA | Supreme Consciousness. |
| PARAMA PURUŚA | Supreme Consciousness. |
| PARAMÁTMÁ, PARAMÁTMAN | Supreme Consciousness in the role of witness of His own Macropsychic conation. Paramátman comprises: (1) PURUŚOTTAMA, the Macrocosmic Nucleus; (2) Puruśottama’s association with all creation in His extroversive movement (prota yoga); and (3) Puruśottama’s association with each unit creation individually (ota yoga) and (4) with all collectively (prota yoga) in His introversive movement. |
| Piitha | point |
| PRAKRTI, PARAMÁ PRAKRTI | Cosmic Operative Principle. |
| PROTA YOGA | The association of PURUŚOTTAMA with all creation in His extroversive movement and with all the unit creations collectively in His introversive movement. |
| PURÁŃA | Mythological story with a moral import; educative fiction. |
| PURUŚOTTAMA, PARAMASHIVA | The Nucleus Consciousness, the witness of saiṋcara (extroversion from the Nucleus) and pratisaiṋcara (introversion to the Nucleus) |
| RÁŔH | A land of red (laterite) soil. |
| RŚI | One who, by inventing new things, broadens the path of progress of human society. |
| SAMÁDHI | “Absorption” of the unit mind into the Cosmic Mind (savikalpa samádhi) or into the ÁTMAN (nirvikalpa samádhi). |
| SAḾSKÁRA | Mental reactive momentum, potential mental reaction. |
| SANNYÁSII or SANNYÁSINII | “one who has surrendered one’s everything to the Cosmic will” or “one who ensconces oneself in Sat, the unchangeable entity”; a renunciant. |
| SÁDHAKA | Spiritual practitioner. |
| SÁDHANÁ | Literally, “sustained effort”; spiritual practice; meditation. |
| SÁHITYA | Literature; all those literary manifestations of the popular mind that always move along the path of welfare. |
| SHAEVA DHARMA | Shaivism; the theoretical or philosophical side of spirituality as taught by Lord Shiva. |
| SHAEVA TANTRA | Shiva Tantra; the applied, or practical, side of spirituality as taught by Lord Shiva. |
| SHAEVA, SHAIVITE adj | Following or pertaining to Lord SHIVA and his teachings. |
| SHAKTI | PRAKRTI; energy; a deification of Prakrti. |
| SHÁSTRA | Scripture. |
| SHIVA | A great Tantric guru of 5000 BCE who guided society while His mind was absorbed in Consciousness; hence, Infinite Consciousness,PURUŚA |
| SHIVA, SADÁSHIVA | A great Tantric guru of 5000 BCE who guided society while His mind was absorbed in Consciousness. |
| SHÚDRA | a person with a mentality of physical enjoyment only, a member of the labourer social class; written as “Shúdra”, a member of the lowest caste in India. |
| TANTRA | A spiritual tradition which originated in India in prehistoric times and was first systematized by SHIVA. It emphasizes the development of human vigour, both through meditation and through confrontation of difficult external situations, to overcome all fears and weaknesses. Also, a scripture expounding that tradition. |
| TANTRA | A spiritual tradition which originated in India in prehistoric times and was first systematized by SHIVA. It emphasizes the development of human vigour, both through meditation and through confrontation of difficult external situations, to overcome all fears and weaknesses. Also, a scripture expounding that tradition. |
| VAESHYA | Written as vaeshya, a person of acquisitive mentality, a member of the capitalist social class; written as “Vaeshya”, a member of the second-lowest caste in India. |
| VAEŚŃAVA | Vaishnavite; pertaining to the Viśńu Cult or Religion. |
| VARŃÁSHRAMA | Four-caste social system. |
| VEDA | “knowledge”; hence, a composition imparting spiritual knowledge. Also, a religious or philosophical school which originated among the Aryans and was brought by them to India. It is based on the Vedas and emphasizes the use of ritual to gain the intervention of the gods. |
| VIDYÁ | Centripetal, or introversial, force; force of attraction to the Nucleus Consciousness; aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the crude to the subtle. See also AVIDYÁ. |
| VIPRA | Written as vipra, a person who controls others by his wits, a member of the intellectual social class; written as “Vipra”, a member of the highest caste in India. |
| VIVEKA | Conscience, power of discrimination between good and evil. |
| YOGA | Spiritual practice leading to unification of the unit ÁTMAN with PARAMÁTMAN. |