Ananda: means bliss or contentment. This bliss is the point achieved at the time when a person’s consciousness evolves to the level of the anandmaya kosha or the sheath of bliss.
Arpan: the act of surrendering to a higher force or offering power/ energy to a higher source of power.
Asana: a yogic posture practiced to stabilize the body and mind.
Asisa: the will of the individual to exist eternally. It is a kind of force that impacts a jivatma to exist in continuity.
Asmita: it is the identification of ourselves with our ego. We create a self-image of ourselves that we believe is us, but it is not us. We become trapped within the projections we have created of our life.
Awhelna: to go against the wish of a spiritual teacher, and make them feel let down and disrespected.
Bhoot: ghosts or spirits that haven’t received gati and passed the barriers; who hang around their family members haunting them.
Buddhi: intellect, higher inteligence. A part of citta.
Citta: the subconscious mind which includes the intellect and the spirit mind.
Citta Vritti Nirodha: the cessation of mental activity or disturbance to the mind.
Dasa: a running period where a particular planet is dominant in the birth chart, and is a ruler of that period.
Dharna: complete concentration.
Dhyan: a state of going into a deeper form of meditation.
Dwesha: it is an aversion towards things that produce unpleasant experiences. If we cannot avoid the things we dislike, we suffer.
Ekagratta: to be one-minded or of single-purpose.
Gurubhai: a spiritual batchmate.
Guru Purnima: a day on which disciples come and offer their obeisance to their guru.
Gunas: the three gunas are the subtle energies through which our mind and deeper consciousness functions.
Gyan: internal knowledge attained through meditative thinking or intuitions.
Jinn: a supervisor or group head of a set of poltergeists; like a spirit chieftain.
Jivatma: the individual soul, regarded as a manifestation of atman plus the individual ego.
Kada: an energized bracelet that becomes a link between the guru and the shishya.
Kanyadaan: during the Hindu marriage ceremony, the parents of the bride gift the bride to the husband and his family, it is also known as the highest form of charity.
Kaarna Sharira: it is the causal body to which the karmashaya is attached. This body is just below the astral body.
Karma: it connotes the action that leads to the entire cycle of cause and effect (samsara). It applies to all action including thought, word, feeling and deed.
Karma Mukta: means a stage at which you stop expecting the fruit of your karma or a person who has reached the stage of detachment from everything.
Karmashaya: the hard disk or storage space where all our short-term and long-term memories (samskaras) are stored until they fructify.
Keelna: to cast a ring of spiritual energy around an object.
Kundali: the birth chart of an individual.
Kundalini: the serpent-shaped energy force that raises the center of gravity of consciousness between the chakras.
Lokas: different dimensions where spirit bodies exist. There are supposed to be 14 lokas.
Mantra Vidya: the science of practicing mantras and the ability to attain their power.
Moksha: disintegration of the self into the whole.
Mahurat: an auspicious moment according to the placement of the planets.
Mukti: freedom from this cycle of life and death.
Nirmaan Kaya: a duplicate body created by advanced yogis to live out their samskaras. It can be an energy body or a physical-looking body which is not as complex as a human one.
Niyamas: these are recommended disciplines and habits for healthy living and spiritual enlightenment.
Paath: to practice mantras while lying down, but with focus.
Pratyahara: removal of attention from sensory objects.
Puja: prayer.
Purusharth: self-effort to try and intensify one’s intent.
Sadhna: discipline undertaken in the pursuit of a goal.
Samadhi: a state of semi-consciousness wherein the consciousness is removed from the senses.
Samskara: the impressions/engrams left on the subconscious mind by experience from the current and previous lifetimes.
Seh Sharir: along with the body. Many saints have been known to leave this world with their bodies disappearing and travelling to the ‘life after death’.
Shakti: energy or electromagnetic force.
Shraap: a curse which can be strengthened with the use of power/ energy.
Shuddhi: cleansing of the body and mind with the help of mantras and spiritual practices.
Siddha Guru: an accomplished guru who is capable of using spiritual power to help people.
Sukshma Sharira: the subtle body; the ghost.
Sthan: unique to Gurudev; a temple in the homes of disciples.
Tantric Kriya: a feat of tantra performed negatively to hurt people by use of energy, or positively, to help them; rituals of worship.
Tapasya: penance undertaken for spiritual realization.
Taveez: an amulet which contains a hand-written mantra to generate energy.
Vardaan: blessing to attain something.
Vichara: positive version of thoughts from the karmashaya.
Vitarka: negative version of vichara.
Vritti: mental activity also known as the state of existence of the mind. The five different states or vrittis of the mind are perception, delusion, sleep, imagination and dream.