Liberation by Swami Sivananda - HTML preview

Glossary

abhiman(a): egoism, identification with the body

abhyasa: repetition, practice

abhisheka: holy bath

acharya: preceptor

ades(a): spiritual instruction, divine command

adhikari: qualified person

adhyasa: superimposition or false attribution of properties of one thing on another thing

adhyatma: spirituality

advaita: non-dual

advaita Vedanta: non-dualistic philosophy

aham: I

ahamkara: egoism

ahimsa: non-injury in thought, word and deed

ajna: order

ajnana: spiritual ignorance

amala: without impurity

amritasya putrah: children of Immortality

amsa: part

ananda: bliss, happiness, joy

ananya: where there is no other

anasakti: non-attachment, dispassion

anatma(n): non-Self, insentient

anga: limb

anitya: non-eternal, impermanent, evanescent

annamaya kosa: gross body

antahkarana: inner instrument, organ, being, fourfold mind: mind, intellect, ego and subconscious mind

antaratma: the Indweller

antarmukhi pratyahara: introspection, gaze turned inwards, withdrawal of the mind

apara vidya: lower knowledge, intellectual knowledge

aparoksha’nubhuti: direct, actual experience

apramatta: careful, watchful, vigilant

apurna: imperfect, not-full, incomplete

arati: waving of light before the Lord

aradhana: worship of God, adoration

artha: an object of desire, wealth

asana: posture, seat

asanti: restlessness, absence of peace of mind, distraction

asat: that which is not, non-existent, unreal

asatya: untruth

ashram: hermitage

ashtanga yoga: the eight-limbed Raja Yoga of Maharshi Patanjali

asuddha: impure

asura: demon, evil tendency in man

asuri sampada: demoniacal qualities

Atma(n): the Self

atma-jnana: knowledge of the Self

atma-nivedanam: total self-surrender

atma’nubhava: experience of the Self

atma-svarupa: the essential nature of the Self

atmaupamya: likeness of the Self

avarana: a covering, veil of ignorance

avastha: state

avatara: incarnation

avichara: lack of enquiry

avidya: ignorance, nescience

avinasi: indestructible

aviveka: lack of discrimination

bandhana: binding

bandhas: a class of hatha yoga exercises

Bhagavan: the Lord

Bhagavad Gita: 700 verses from the great Hindu epic Mahabharata recording the discourse between Lord Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, prior to the commencement of the great war and giving in clear and concise form the highest teachings and truths

bhajan: devotional singing, worship, praise of the Lord

bhakta: devotee

bhakti: devotion, love of God

bhaktisvarupa: essence of devotion

bhakti yoga: path of devotion

bhav(a): mental attitude, feeling, purity of thought

bhava roga: disease of transmigration

bhoga: enjoyment

bhranti: delusion

bhumi: plane, land

bodhi: enlightenment

Brahman: the Absolute Reality, Existence-Conscious- ness-Bliss Absolute, it is not only all-powerful but all-power itself, it is not only all-knowing and blissful but all-knowledge and bliss itself

brahmacharya: purity, celibacy

brahma-jnana: direct knowledge of Brahman

brahmakara vritti: thought of Brahman alone

brahmamuhurta: the period of an hour and a half before sunrise

brahmatva: the principle of Brahman

brahma-vidya: science of Brahman, knowledge of Brahman, learning pertaining to Brahman or the Absolute Reality

buddhi: the discriminating faculty, intellect, understanding

buddha: one who is awakened

chaitanya: the consciousness that knows itself and knows others; Absolute Consciousness

chanchalatva: restlessness

chintan(a): thinking, reflecting

chit: absolute consciousness or intelligence

chitta: subconscious mind

daivi: divine

daivi sampad: divine wealth, divine qualities

dakshata: expertise

dama: control of senses

dan(a): charity, giving

darsan: vision, making visible, sight

daya: compassion, mercy

dehadhyasa: identification with the body

dharana: concentration

dharma: righteous way of living as enjoined by the sacred scriptures, virtue

dhyana: meditation

divya: divine

duhkha: sorrow, pain, misery, grief

durbuddhi: evil mind

dvaita: dualism

dvandvas: pairs of opposites such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain, etc.

eka: one

ekagrata: one-pointedness of mind: concentration

ekameva’dvitiyam: One alone, without a second, Brahman

Gayatri: one of the most sacred Vedic mantras

Gita: see the Bhagavad Gita

Gopis: milkmaids

grihastha: householder

grahanasilata: willingness and readiness to receive

gudhah: hidden

guna: quality born of Nature: sattva, rajas and tamas

gunatita: beyond the three gunas

guru: teacher, spiritual preceptor

guru kripa: preceptor’s grace or blessings

guru stotra: hymn to the Guru

gurutva: nature of the guru

hatha yoga: a system of Yoga for gaining control over the physical body and vital energy

hatha yogi: one who practices hatha yoga

iccha: desire

ishta devata: chosen Deity

ishta mantra: mantra of one’s chosen Deity

isvaramaya: God-filled

isvarapranidhana: devotion to the Lord

jada: inert, insentient, non-intelligent

jagat: world, changing

janma: birth

jara: old age

japa: repetition of the Lord’s Name, repetition of a mantra

jagrat: wakeful condition

jijnasa: desire to know

jijnasu: one who aspires after knowledge, spiritual aspirant

jiva: individual soul with ego

jiva-karunya: compassion towards creatures

jivan-mukti: liberated in this life while still living

jivatma(n): individual soul

jivatva: individuality

jnana: knowledge, wisdom of the Reality or Brahman

jyoti: light

kaivalya samrajya: kingdom of final liberation

kali purusha: spirit of the Iron Age

kama: desire, passion, lust, legitimate desires

karma: actions operating through the law of cause and effect

karma-phala-bhoga: enjoyment of fruit of actions

karma yoga: the yoga of selfless service

karma yogi: one who practises karma yoga

kartritva: sense of doership

kartritva abhimana: pride of doership

karuna: compassion

kasmalam: dejection

kirtan: singing the name and glory of God

kosa: sheath

kripa: grace, mercy, blessing

kriya: physical action, hatha yoga exercise

krodha: anger

kshetra: field, holy place, physical body in the philosophical sense

kundalini: the primordial cosmic energy located in the individual

kutastha atma svarupa: changeless nature of the Self

lakshya: goal

linga: symbol, sign

lobha: greed

loka: world of names and forms

mada: pride

mahapurusha: a great person, a great soul, a sage, the Supreme Lord

mahatma: great soul, saint, sage

mahavakya: great sentence

mala: impurity

mama: mine

manana: reflection, constant thinking, meditation on the eternal verities

manava: man

mantra: sacred syllable or word or set of words through the repetition and reflection of which one attains perfection or realisation of the Self

marga: path

matsarya: jealousy

maya: the illusory power of Brahman, the veiling and projecting power

mithya: unreal, false, illusory

moha: delusion caused by wrong thinking, false identification and deluded attachment

moksha: liberation, Absolute Experience

mrityu: death

mudras: a certain class of exercises in hatha yoga, symbols shown with hands during worship

mumukshu: one who aspires after moksha or liberation

mumukshutva: intense aspiration for liberation

murti: idol

nada: primal mystic sound or first vibration from which all creation has emanated, the first manifestation of the unmanifested Absolute, Omkara or Sabda-Brahman

nam(a): Name

nam(a) sankirtan: singing of the Lord’s Name

nami: the named

navavidha bhakti: nine modes of devotion

nididhyasana: profound and deep meditation

nija svarupa: one’s own true nature

nirabhimana: without ego

nirakara: formless

niranjana: spotless

nirdvandva: beyond the pairs of opposites

nirguna: without attribute

nirmala: purity

nirvana: liberation; final emancipation

nirvikalpa samadhi: state of superconsciousness without modification of the mind

nishkam(a): without desire

nishkam(a)-karma-yoga: selfless service

nishtha: steadfastness, establishment in a certain state

nitya: eternal, permanent

nivritti: renunciation, stepping back from worldly activity

niyama: observances, the second step in raja yoga

padmasana: the lotus pose, a meditative posture

parabrahman: the Supreme Absolute, the transcendental Reality

paramananda: supreme bliss

paramatma(n): the Supreme Self

Para-Sakti: the Supreme Power or Energy

para vidya: higher knowledge, direct knowledge of Brahman

paripurna: all-full

paropakara: selfless service

prajnana: awareness, consciousness

prajnanam brahma: Consciousness is Brahman

prakriti: Nature, causal matter

pramada: heedlessness

prana: vital energy, life-force, life-breath

prana sakti: subtle vital power arising from the conservation of prana

pranava: the sacred monosyllable “OM”

pranayama: regulation and restraint of breath

prapancha: worldly life

prapta: attained

prarabdha karma: the portion of karma that determines one’s present life

pratikam: image

prasad: food dedicated to a deity during worship and then eaten by devotees as something sacred

pratyahara: abstraction or withdrawal of the senses from their objects

pratyaksha devata: visible God

prem(a): divine love

premi: lover

priya: pleasant

preyo marga: path leading to the pleasant

puja: worship, adoration

pundit: scholar, learned man

Puranas: Hindu scriptures, eighteen in number, containing the whole body of Hindu mythology

purascharana: an observance consisting of the repetition of a mantra as many hundred thousand times as there are syllables (letters) in the mantra, concluding with fire worship, libations of water and feeding the poor

purusha: the Supreme Being, the Self which abides in the heart of all things

purushartha: human effort, individual exertion

rajas, rajo guna: one of the three aspects of cosmic energy, the principle of dynamism in Nature bringing about all change, activity, passion, restlessness

raja yoga: the royal yoga of meditation; the system of yoga generally taken to be the one propounded by Patanjali Maharshi

raja yogi: one who practises raja yoga

rishi: sage; seer of truth

rudri: a particular group of mantras in the Veda

rupa: form, appearance

sabda: sound, word, omkara (OM)

sad-guru: a Guru of Self-realisation

sadhak(a): spiritual aspirant

sadhana: spiritual practice

sadhana chatushtaya: fourfold means of liberation: discrimination, dispassion, sixfold virtues and burning desire for liberation

sadhu: a pious or righteous person, a sannyasin

sad-vichar(a): right enquiry, enquiry into Truth

sadyo-mukti: instant liberation

saguna: with attributes or qualities

sahaja: natural, true, native

sahaja avastha: natural state, superconscious state that has become natural and continuous

sakshatkara: direct realisation, experience of Absoluteness

sakshi: witnessing principle, witness

sakti: power, energy, force, the Divine Power of becoming, the dynamic aspect of Eternal Being, the Absolute Power or cosmic energy

sakti-pat: descent of power through upasana

sama: control of mind, tranquillity

samadhi: the state of superconsciousness where Absoluteness is experienced, attended with all-knowledge and joy, Oneness

samadhisthana: the place of interment of a holy man

samatva: evenness of mind, equanimity

samsara: life through repeated births and deaths, the process of worldly life

samsari: one who is impelled by desire, attachment, craving

samskara: mental impression, subconscious tendency

samparka: contact

samyam(a): perfect restraint, an all-complete condition of balance and repose, concentration, meditation and samadhi

samyoga: contact

sankalpas: imaginations

sanketa matra: indicators

sankirtan: same as kirtan

santi(h): peace

santi path: peace chant

santosh(a): contentment, joy, happiness

sannyasi(n): a monk, one who has embraced the life of complete renunciation

sarvangasana: shoulder stand of the hatha yogins

sastra: scripture, words of authority

sat: Existence Absolute, Being, Reality, Truth

satchidananda: Existence-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute

satta: Reality

satori: enlightenment

satsang(a): association with the wise (good)

satsangis: those who attend satsanga

satsankalpa: true resolve, pure desire, perfect will

sattva: light, purity, reality

sattvic:

sat-vidya: science of Reality

satya(m): truth

seva: service

shadripu: six enemies—lust, anger, greed, delusion jealousy, pride

shat sampat: sixfold virtues

siddhasana: a meditative pose

siddhanta: established tenet or doctrine

siddha: realised; perfected; a perfected yogi

siddhi: psychic power, perfection

sirasasana: the headstand of