| A |
| advaita: | non-duality, often incorrectly termed `monism'
|
| agami karma: | actions good and bad, expected to bear fruit in future
births
|
| aham: | I; embodied self; soul
|
| aham sphurana: | the throb of Self-bliss in the Heart
|
| aham svarupa: | one's true nature
|
| ahamkara (or ahankara): | the ego-self
|
| ajnana: | ignorance; knowledge of diversity
|
| ananda: | bliss
|
| anartha: | evil, worthless
|
| antahkarana: | instruments of inner perception
|
| antarmukha drishti: | inward vision
|
| apana: | one of the five vital airs
|
| aprana: | beyond manifest life; devoid of life
|
| asana: | yogic posture
|
| astanga-yoga: | yoga consisting of eight stages of discipline
|
| atman (or atma): | self; principle of life and sensation
|
| atma dhyana: | Contemplation on the Self
|
| atmanusandhana: | - do -
|
| atma vichara: | enquiry into the Self
|
| avidya: | nescience, ignorance
|
| B |
| Bhagavan: | a commonly used name for God; a title used for one like
Sri Ramana who is recognized as having realized his identity with
the Self
|
| bahirmukha drishti: | outward-turned consciousness
|
| bhakta: | a devotee
|
| bhakti: | devotion and love
|
| Bharata: | a form of address used by Sri Krishna towards Arjuna in the
Bhagavad Gita, meaning a shining soul
.page 305
|
| bhavana: | continued meditation; steady concentration of mind
|
| Brahma: | Lord of Creation; God as the Creator
|
| Brahman: | the Absolute
|
| buddhi: | intellect; one of the four aspects of the internal organ
|
| C |
| chakra: | a wheel, a yogic centre of concentration
|
| Chandrayana: | expiatory fast for a full month, commencing from the
full moon, food being diminished every day by one handful during
the dark fortnight, and increased in like manner during the bright
fortnight
|
| chit: | absolute intelligence or consciousness
|
| Chitta: | the mental mode turned towards objects; that aspect of the mind
in which impressions are stored
|
| D |
| dahara vidya: | contemplation of the deity in the cavity of the Heart
|
| deva: | a god or celestial being
|
| devata: | a deity
|
| Devi: | the Divine Mother or a goddess
|
| dharma: | virtuous deeds; harmonious life; a person's natural duty; inherent
qualities
|
| dhyana: | contemplation; the seventh rung in the ladder of eightfold yoga
|
| drik: | subject
|
| drisya: | object
|
| G |
| Ganapati: | the elder son of Lord Siva, the remover of obstacles; the same
as Lord Ganesa, the chief of Lord Siva's hosts
|
| Gudakesa: | an epithet of Arjuna for having conquered sleep; Lord Krishna
uses this term in addressing Arjuna
|
| gunas: | the three fundamental qualities, tendencies, or stresses which
underlie all manifestation; sattva, rajas, and tamas, characterized as
white, red and black respectively
|
| H |
| homa: | sacrifice in fire
.page 306
|
| hridayam: | the Heart (hridi + ayam = centre + this); the seat of
Consciousness at the right side of the chest, as experienced and
expounded by Sri Ramana Maharshi
|
| I |
| Indra: | the Lord of the devas; the first student of Brahma Vidya; the
Divine Mother was his teacher
|
| Isa: | the supreme Lord
|
| Ishvara: | the name of the supreme Lord indicating his lordship of the
worlds
|
| J |
| Jaganmaya: | the mystery of the world
|
| jiva: | the individual soul or ego
|
| jivan mukta: | one who has realized the supreme identity while still in the
body
|
| jivan mukti: | deliverance while yet in this life
|
| jnana: | knowledge of the Absolute transcending form and formlessness
|
| jnana marga: | the path of knowledge
|
| jnani: | a Self-realized person, a sage; one who has attained realization by
the path of knowledge
|
| K |
| Kailas: | a mountain in the Himalayas reputed to be the abode of Lord Siva
|
| kaivalya: | absolute Oneness; final emancipation; one of the 108 Upanishads
|
| kali yuga: | the last of four ages of the world, namely Krita, Treta,
Dwapara, and Kali; Kali is reckoned as having begun in 3102 B.C.
|
| kama: | desire; physical love
|
| karma: | action, work, deeds; also fruits of action accumulating in three
ways as sanchita, prarabdha, and agami; destiny
|
| karma marga: | the path of ritual, religious duties, and action
|
| kevala kumbhaka: | retention of breath leading to stilling of the mind,
without inhalation or exhalation
|
| kshetra: | a sacred place of pilgrimage; in yoga, city, or the field of body
|
| kshetrajna: | the conscious principle (known) in the field of the body; the
absolute witness aware of the three states of the self: waking, dream,
and sleep
.page 307
|
| kundalini: | the mystic circle of three-and-a-half coils situated in the
umbilical region; the yogic principle of serpent power; primal maya
|
| L |
| laya: | absorption; in yoga, absorption of breath and mind in the Heart
|
| lingam: | a vertical column of stone with a rounded end, symbol of the
unmanifest Siva
|
| M |
| Maharshi (maha rishi): | great rishi or sage
|
| mahat: | the intellectual principle as source of ahamkara -- from the
Absolute emanates the unmanifest, from it mahat and from mahat
the ahamkara
|
| mahatma: | a lofty soul; highly spiritual person; master in tune with the
infinite
|
| mahavakya: | the four main sentences, proclaiming the truth of Brahman,
one each from the Itareya (Aitareya) Upanishad of Rig Veda,
Brihadaranyaka of Yajur Veda, Chhandogya of Sama Veda and Mandukya
of Atharva Veda; one of the 108 Upanishads explaining the mahavakyas
|
| Maheswara: | one of the five aspects of Lord Siva, as veiling the truth
from souls, till their karma is completely worked out
|
| manana: | contemplation; the second of the three stages of Vedantic
realization
|
| manas: | mind, reason, mentality; also used for the aggregate of Chitta,
buddhi, manas, and ahamkara
|
| mantram (mantra): | cosmic sound forms of the Vedas, used for worship
and prayer; seed letters for meditation on the form of the Lord;
ritualistic incantation
|
| marana: | the art of causing death through supernatural powers
|
| math: | a meeting place and abode of sadhus
|
| maya: | illusion, false appearance; manifestation or illusion personified
|
| mithya: | the false
|
| moksha: | liberation; final emancipation; release from transmigration
|
| mouna: | silence; the inexpressible; truth of Brahman, expressed by the
Brahman-knower by his mere abidance in stillness
|
| mudra: | hand-pose in worship and dance
|
| mukta: | a liberated person
.page 308
|
| mukti: | liberation
|
| mutt: | see math
|
| N |
| nadi: | the 72,000 nerves of the body conveying the life force, of which
ida, pingala and sushumna are the three main ones; in the state of
samadhi all of them are merged in the single para or amrita nadi
|
| nasha: | destruction
|
| nididhyasana: | the last of the three stages of Vedantic realization;
uninterrupted contemplation
|
| nirasa: | desirelessness
|
| nirvikalpa samadhi: | the highest state of concentration, in which the soul
loses all sense of being different from the Universal Self, but a
temporary state from which there is return to ego-consciousness
|
| nischala bhava: | immobility; steadfastness; eternity
|
| nishtha: | abidance in firm meditation
|
| niyama: | discipline; religious duties as ordained for the second of the
eight stages of yoga
|
| P |
| padma: | lotus; a yoga posture in which the right foot is placed on the left
thigh and the left foot on the right thigh
|
| paramapada: | the supreme state
|
| paramarthika: | an epithet of Arjuna, meaning he who destroys his enemy
|
| Paramatman: | the true Self
|
| Partha: | Arjuna, the son of Pritha; another name for Kunti, his mother
|
| prajnana ghana: | Brahman; the Absolute, immutable knowledge
|
| prakriti: | primordial substance out of which all things are created; the
primal nature
|
| pramada: | swerving from abidance in the Absolute
|
| prana: | the first of the five vital airs centred in the Heart
|
| pranava japa: | incantation of Om
|
| pranayama: | breath control
|
| prarabdha karma: | that part of destiny due to past action (karma) which
bears fruit in the present birth
|
| Prasthana Traya: | the triple cannon of Vedanta; the three Vedantic
scriptural authorities: Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, Bhagavad Gita
.page 309
|
| pratyahara: | withdrawal of the senses from objectivity: the fifth rung in
the ladder of yoga
|
| Puranas: | eighteen sacred books ascribed to Vyasa, dealing with primary
and secondary creation, genealogy of kings, etc.
|
| purnam: | fullness, infinite
|
| Purusha: | spirit, soul, the living principle
|
| Purushartha: | human ends; objectives worthy of human pursuit, dharma,
artha, kama and moksha
|
| R |
| Raghava: | an epithet of Sri Rama as belonging to the line of Raghu
|
| raja yoga: | the principal system of yoga as taught by Patanjali
|
| rajas: | one of the three primal qualities, described as red, the principle of
activity (see guna)
|
| rishi: | sage (see also maharshi)I
|
| Rudra: | Lord Siva in one of his five aspects; God as destroyer
|
| S |
| Sada Siva: | the supreme Lord as eternal goodness
|
| sadguru: | the great Master, the true or perfect Guru
|
| sadhana: | a spiritual quest or path towards liberation; the technique of
spiritual effort
|
| sadhu: | an ascetic or one who has renounced the world in quest of
liberation
|
| sahasradala: | the thousand-petalled lotus; the centre of illumination
experienced in the crown of the head on the yogic path
|
| sakshi: | witness
|
| samana: | one of the five vital airs
|
| sanchita karma: | accumulated karma of former births that still remains
to be experienced
|
| sankalpa: | volition, mental activity, thought, tendencies, and attachment
|
| sankhya: | one of the systems of Indian philosophy
|
| sannyasa: | renunciation
|
| sannyasin: | one who has renounced the world
|
| santodanta: | one who is calm and self-controlled
|
| sarvatma bhava: | the state of experiencing the Self as all; abidance in the
oneness of Being
.page 310
|
| sastras: | scriptures
|
| sat: | existence; pure Being
|
| Satchidananda: | Being-Consciousness-Bliss
|
| sattva: | tendency to purity; one of the three gunas
|
| savikalpa samadhi: | a state of consciousness in which the distinction
between knower, knowledge and known is not yet lost
|
| Shakti (or Sakti): | the manifesting energy of a divine aspect, represented
mythologically as the wife of a God
|
| siddha: | one endowed with supernatural powers and capable of performing
miracles; one who has accomplished the end
|
| siddhi: | realization, attainment; also supernatural powers
|
| Siva: | the supreme Lord; one of the Hindu Trinity
|
| Sivoham: | the incantation `I am Siva'
|
| Skanda: | the younger son of Lord Siva; the leader of the divine hosts; the
same as Lord Subrahmanya
|
| Smriti: | authoritative Hindu scriptures other than the Vedas (Sruti)
|
| sraddha: | earnestness, faith; a faithful acquisition of theoretical knowledge
of Truth
|
| sravana: | hearing of the truth, from the Master
|
| Sruti: | Vedas, heard by the sages in their transcendental state and
transmitted to disciples by word of mouth
|
| sushupti: | deep sleep
|
| svarupa nishta: | abidance in the Self
|
| T |
| tamas: | darkness, ignorance; one of the three gunas
|
| tanmaya nishta: | abidance in the Self
|
| tapas: | religious austerities
|
| tat: | That; Brahman
|
| tattva jnana: | knowledge of Brahman or Atman
|
| tat-tvam-asi: | `That thou Art'
|
| turiya: | the fourth state; the witness Consciousness -- ever present and
unchanging as against the changing states of waking, dreaming, and
deep sleep
|
| U |
| udana: | one of the five vital airs, whose seat is in the neck
|
| Upadesa: | the spiritual guidance or teaching given by a Guru
.page 311
|
| Upanishads: | philosophical writings forming part of the Vedas
|
| V |
| Vaikunta: | the heaven of Vishnu
|
| vairagya: | freedom from worldly desires; dispassion
|
| vasanas: | predispositions, tendencies, or propensities of the mind in the
present life due to the experiences of former lives
|
| Vasudeva: | Lord Krishna, as the son of Vasudeva, the Lord whose
manifestation all this world is; one of the 108 Upanishads showing
the path of Vasudeva
|
| Veda: | the sacred books of the Hindus: Rig, Yajur, Sama, and Atharva,
revealed through the rishis
|
| Vedanta: | the absolute Truth as established by the Upanishads, Brahma
Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita as interpreted by Sri Vyasa; the end or
consummation of the Vedas
|
| veena: | a string instrument
|
| vichara: | enquiry into the truth of the Self
|
| videhamukta: | a liberated being after he has left the body
|
| videhamukti: | Self-realization after leaving the body
|
| vijnana: | knowledge; discriminating the real from the unreal
|
| vijnanamarga: | the path of discriminate knowledge
|
| Vishnu: | God as preserver; one of the Hindu Trinity
|
| vishaya vasanas: | predisposition towards sense enjoyments
|
| viveka: | discrimination
|
| viyoga: | separation
|
| vyana: | one of the five vital airs, causing the circulation of blood and pervading all the body
|
| vyavaharika: | the phenomenal or empirical
|
| Y |
| yama: | self-control, the first rung in the ladder of the eightfold yoga: abstention from lying, killing, theft, lust, covetousness
|
Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi 
