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Classic Yoga Sanskrit Terms

 

adhama — low, degraded, animalistic (According to theories that relate human origins to ancient Sumerians, Biblical "Adam" was a "quickened" animal; both the Sumerian and Hebrew word for animal was Adama)

ādhāra — the containing system composed of the five sheaths of the five principles constituting the physical, vital, mental, supramental and spiritual being.

advaita—non-dual, absolute and indivisible unity.

ahamkāra—the ego-sense, egoism.

sāttvic ahamkāra—egoism as expressed in the sense of goodness and virtue.

rājasic ahamkāra—dynamic egoism.

tdmasic ahamkāra—egoism as expressed in ignorance and inertia. nirahamkāra—egolessness.

ānanda—spiritual delight, the bliss of the spirit.

ānandamaya—full of ananda.

ananta—infinite

ānantya—the condition of infinity.

anirdesyam—indefinable.

annam—matter. 

 

 

nutnati—sanction.

apramatta—without losing oneself.

asana—yogic posture.

asat—non-being, as opposite to sat, being, existence, reality.

asubha—evil.

ātman—the Self or Spirit.

ātmasamarpana—self-consecration.

avatāra—descent or Incarnation of God.

bhakti—devotion.

bhāva—'State of existence, subjective state or feeling, a realisation in heart or mind.

bhoga—enjoyment.

bhrasta—fallen from the way of yoga.

brahman—the Supreme Reality that is one and indivisible and infinite beside which nothing else really exists.

brahma vidyā—the Science of knowing the Brahman.

brāhmi sthiti—the station or dwelling in the Brahman.

sabda brahman—the Brahman as the primal sound-energy.

buddhi—reason, intelligence.

caitanya—consciousness.

cāturvarnya—the four primal divisions or strata of society.

cit—the essential consciousness of the Spirit. 

 

 

citta—the mind or heart consciousness; especially the emotive mind.

darsana—vision, philosophy.

dharma—law of function of the nature: right, moral law.

satya dharma—the Truth-Law.

vedic dharma—the system of Truth

Laws as expounded in the Vedas.

dhīrah—the self-composed.

dhrti—spiritual patience.

dvandva—duality, pair of opposites.

nirdvandva—beyond the dualities.

guna—quality, the three primal qualities that form the nature of things.

sattva—the quality that illumines, clarity.

rajas—the quality that drives, to action, energy.

tamas—the quality that hides or darkens, inertia. guru—spiritual teacher.

jagad guru—the world-teacher.

isvara—lord ; God, as lord of nature.

jāgrata—the waking state, the phenomenal world.

japa—repetition of a mantra.

 

 

jīva—the individual soul.

jyotih—light, illumination.

rāla—time, the time-spirit.

kali—the last of the four ages or cycles when the world decays and evil rages.

kali—the Universal Mother, the Divine Shakti.

karma—action entailing its conseqences.

kartavyam karma—the action that is to be done, duty.

karma—the process of action, practice, rites.

līlā-Play, creation as the play of God. līlāmaya-the divine player.

mangala—the good.

manas—the sense-mind as opposed to the reason.

māyā—illusion, unreality.

māyāvāda—the doctrine that holds that the world is unreal and that it is created by the power of illusion. moksa—liberation from Maya.

mukta—one who is liberated.

nitya-mukta—one who is perpetually in the state of liberation.

mukti—spiritual liberation. 

mumuksutva—desire for spiritual liberation. 

 

 

nihspyha—without any hankering.

pānditya—learning, scholarship.

papa—sin

prakāsa—illumined expression, manifestation.

prakrti (Prakriti),—nature, creative energy. para prakrti—the Higher Nature, as opposed to the Lower Nature of the body, the life-power and the mind.

pramāda—cloudiness.

prāna—vital force generally ; especially, the first of the five pranas, the breath.

Prānāyāma—the Yogic exercise of the control of the vital forces.

purusa (Purusha),—Being or Self as opposed to Prakriti which is Becoming.

parātpara purusa—the Being which is beyond the Supreme Being.

Purushottama—the Supreme Personality.

punya—merit that one acquires through virtue.

rāgadvesa—the duality of attachment and repulsion.

rājasic kartd—the doer who acts with the sense of himself being the sole active agent. 

 

 

sad atman—the Self as being. See asat. sadhaka—one who practises a system of - Yoga.

sādhanā—a method, system, practice of Yoga.

sakti ( Shakti)—force, energy ; the divine or cosmic Energy.

sama—equanimity.

samhata—collected and firmly held together, compact.

samhati—close combination, assemblage,

massiveness. samkalpa—determination, consent of the will.

samskāra—fundamental tendencies, habitual impulsions.  

samyama—control.

rājayogic samyama—the method of self-control as practised in the system of spiritual discipline known as Raja Yoga.

sānta—finite, limited.

sānti—peace, spiritual calm.

sāstra—the scriptures, theory, prescribed rule.

sat—Being, existence, saintly, virtuous, good.

satsanga—the communion with the good. siddha—perfected by Yoga, one perfect in the Yoga.

siddhi—Yogic perfection. 

 

 

siva (Shiva)—name of the third god of the Hindu Trinity, who is entrusted with the work of destruction as Brahma and Vishnu are with the creation and preservation. Siva — impersonal Goodness, Eternal Being.

sloka—verse.

smarana—memory, remembrance.

smrti—traditional and man-made laws as distinguished from sruti or revealed laws.

subha—the good or well-being.

suddha—pure.

suddhi—purification.

ācāra suddhi — purification of the external behaviour or modes of regulating life.

sūnyam—nothingness, void.

susupta—in the state of sleep.

svabhāva—the nature proper to each being.

taccittah—with the soul merged in That, all-concentrated.

tapas—illumined Energy.

trigunatita— beyond the control of the three gunas or elemental qualities of Nature.

utsāha—perseverance, constant alertness— a quality of the vital will. 

 

 

vairāgya—distaste for the world and life; cessation of attraction to the objects *" of the mind's attachment. vijñāna—the higher knowledge, the power above the ordinary logical reason

which gives the direct knowledge.

vyākulatā — eagerness, yearning—a quality of the heart.

yajamāna—one who performs a sacrifice.

yajña—sacrifice.

Purna Yoga.—the integral Yoga; which includes.

Rāja Yoga - The Yoga of Meditation

Hatha Yoga - The first 5 limbs of Patanajali's Astanga Yoga

Trimārga Yoga - the triple path of yoga; the paths of jnana (knowledge), bhakti (devotion) and karma (works).

Yogic Kriyā — a special process or discipline in Yoga.

Yuga— Astronomical cycle or Age, said to be four in number

 - 1 - Satya yuga—the Age of Truth.

- 2 - Tretā yuga—the Age in which three parts belong to the Truth and one to untruth.  

- 3 - Dvāpara Yuga—the Age in which Truth and untruth are equal.

- 4 - Kali Yuga—the Age of Ignorance.

Catur Yuga—the Four Ages.