Glossary of Terms in Hinduism
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artha• wealth; motive; cause. It refers to the material objectives and accomplishments of a person.One of the fourpuruṣārthas.
ātman• soul; spirit; the inner, higher Self of an individual.
āśrama• the four stages of human life. Human life is divided into brahmacarya, gṛhasta, vānaprastha, and sanyāsa– each stage aims at the development of the individual. (Āśrama can also refer to a physical place where a guru imparts spiritual education.)
avatāra• incarnation; usually refers to incarnation of the Supreme. History has shown that during a great crisis, someone rises to the occasion, assumes leadership, and brings about change.
bhakti• devotion; love; dedication to the Supreme. In Hinduism, devotees worship many gods and in many ways. Traditionally there are nine ways in which one expresses his/her bhakti.
brahman • the imperishable, supreme being. Brahmanis the source and sustainer of the entire universe; there is nothing beyond brahman. (Not to be confused with ‘brāhmaṇa,’ one of the four varṇas.)
brahmacarya • following the path of brahman; leading a life of purity and not letting the mind wander around trivial things. One of the fourāśramas.
brāhmaṇa • a person with natural aptitude for learning, analyzing, researching, teaching, and probing into nature’s mysteries. One of the fourvarṇas.
dāna• charity; philanthropy.
dharma• that which sustains everything; harmony in the universe that sustains greater good. By definition, dharma protects one who protects it.Depending on the context, dharma can mean one or more of: virtue, moral principle, law, righteousness, duty, path, state, etc. One of the fourpuruṣārthas.
dharmaśāstras• treatises on dharma; includes works like Manusmṛti, Yājñavalkyasmṛti, Āpastamba Dharma Sūtra, and Gautama Dharma Sūtra.
guṇa• inherent tendency of a human being; innate nature of a person.
guru• remover of darkness and ignorance; spiritual guide; teacher.
gṛhasta • engaged in building a home; leading the life of a householder and raising a family. One of the fourāśramas.
itihāsa• history, historical events; traditionally this term applies to the epics: Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata
jīva• living being; animate; that which breathes; an individual. It includes not just the physical body but also the soul.
jīvanmukti • attaining mokṣa during one’s lifetime. To escape the vicious cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is one of the ultimate goals of an individual. Typically one attains mokṣa after death but a jīvanmukta attains this while alive.
jñāna • knowledge; wisdom. It refers to an understanding by practice and not just a theoretical or conceptual understanding.
karma • action; includes all spheres of work. It refers to all the activities associated with origin, sustenance, and destruction. Karma also refers to the consequences of our actions.
karma yoga• path of selfless action.
kāma• desire; pleasure; passion.It refers to the emotional objectives and accomplishments of a person.One of the fourpuruṣārthas.
kṣatriya • a person with natural aptitude for warfare, governance, politics, administration, and management. One of the four varṇas.
mantra•sacred utterance with spiritual power; that which protects the mind; hymn; prayer.
māya• divine power of illusion.
mokṣa• liberation; salvation. Toescape the vicious cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Mokṣa is one of the loftiest goals of human life. One of the fourpuruṣārthas.
om• the most sacred sound in Hinduism; this single syllable word represents god and the universe. ‘Om’ has four parts: ‘a’, ‘u’, ‘m’, and silence. The ‘a’ represents birth, ‘u’ represents growth, ‘m’ represents letting go, and the silence represents immortality.
prakṛti• material nature; surrounding environment; the source of the five elements and the body, including the five senses, mind, ego, intellect, guṇa, and prāṇa.
prāṇa• The ‘vital force’ or ‘life energy’ of an organism. It is also known as the ‘vital breath’, for without breathing, there is no life. Prāṇa is distributed all over the body as it energizes all the cells.
purāṇa • old episodes, stories, legends. There are eighteen purāṇas.
puruṣa• supreme spirit; primordial being; soul. It is the basis of one’sfeeling of being alive and the associated experiences of pleasures and pains.
puruṣārtha • the four goals or objectives of life: dharma(duty, principle, law), artha (wealth, motive, cause),kāma (desire, pleasure, passion), and mokṣa (liberation, salvation, release).
rajas• state of relentless activity; excessive indulgence in luxury. One of the three gunas.
ṛta• cosmic order in the universe; divine law governing the universe; gnostic order inherent in the universe.
ṛṣi• seer; poet-sage; visionary. The Vedas were composed by ṛṣis (masc.) and ṛṣikās (fem.) who were seers as well as poets/singers.
samsāra• the vicious cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that repeats until one attains mokṣa. (Samsāra can also refer to the world, the family, etc.)
samskāra• putting together; making perfect; sacred ceremony; purification ritual; disposition; behavior influenced by past lives. The saṃskāras are the various rituals performed to mark important events in a person’s life.
sanātanadharma • timeless dharma, eternal principle, Hinduism, the Indian way of life.
sanyāsa • letting go; renunciation; complete detachment with worldly life. One of the fourāśramas.
sattva • state of saintly goodness; mindful and balanced mode of existence. One of the three gunas.
satya• truth; integrity; honesty in thought, speech, and deed; authenticity; virtue; objectivity.
smṛti• literally ‘that which is remembered’; refers to post-Vedic scriptures, typically composed by a single author and later memorized by generations. Among others, smṛti includes itihāsa, purāṇa, dharmaśāstra, arthaśāstra, and gṛhyasūtra.
śūdra • a person with natural aptitude for service and physical work. One of the four varṇas.
tamas• state of deluded lethargy; an extreme form of laziness and obstinacy. One of the three gunas.
tapas • austerity, penance, and single-minded focus on work.
vaiśya • a person with natural aptitude for managing money, trading, farming, and skilled labor. One of the four varṇas.
varṇa • basic traits of individuals that influence the roles they play in a society. The four categories according to the principle of varna are brāhmaṇas (scholars/teachers), kṣatriyas (warriors/administrators), vaiśyas (traders/artisans), and śūdras (workers).
vānaprastha • departure to the forest; retirement from active life and spending time in contemplation.One of the fourāśramas.
vāsana• residual impact of actions; consequences of one’s karma. The soul carries experiences from previous births, which to some extent influence the present life – for better or for worse, depending on the experiences.
veda• foremost revealed scriptures in Hinduism. There are four Vedas: Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda and Atharvaveda. Every Hindu ceremony from birth to death and beyond is drawn from the Vedas. The word veda literally means ‘to know,’ so the term can apply to any branch of knowledge.
vedānta• (also known as upaniṣad) concluding portion of the Vedas; focuses on the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of learning. One of the six schools of Indian philosophy.
yajña• the Vedic fire ritual. In general, it refers to worship of any form. Metaphorically, yajña can also refer to ‘an act of self-dedication,’‘service above self,’ or ‘respecting the divine presence.’
yoga• form of physical and mental discipline. In abroader sense, yoga can mean ‘union with the Supreme’,‘contemplation’, ‘oneness of body and mind’, ‘path’, or‘the path of action’. It is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy.
yuga • age; epoch. There are four yugas – Satya yuga, Tretayuga, Dvaparayuga, and Kali yuga. Together these four yugas make a mahayuga (Great Age) that spans 4,320,000 human years.
(This piece is co-authored by Hari Ravikumar)
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My earlier comment is missing.
Atma is not same as Soul. Soul is a Abhramic religious construct, has a beginning and an end. Atma is Anathi, no beginning and no end. It is eternal and all prevading unlike Soul. Loose translation can cause digestion of our Dharmic faith.
By the word ‘ Soul ‘ they are referring to what we Hindus call ‘Sukshma Ssareeram’ / Mind-Body Complex.
Atma means Consciousness. And many Westerners who started as sceptics have come to accept Consciousness as REAL. That which cannot be subjected to any study / experiments.
Atma translates to self. Consicousness descends into several levels, causal subtle and gross. If we see consciousness study in the west, they have hardly accepted it to be beyond study/experiment but are making “advances” in knowing prakriti mistaking it for purusha 🙂
The grossly materialist people that the westerners are, understanding the nature of self cannot be expected to come into their mainstream knowledge as long as their “world” dominance continues.
Call Atma Self / Consciousness / Brahman -all mean the SAME.
That some Westerners ( I believe scientists) have accepted Consciousness as that which cannot be subjected to objective study was told by our own Hindu Gurus . I do not know the scientists’ names.
You must be aware of the fact many Westerners are avid students of Hindu Gurus teaching Vedanta(m). It is not that the Westerners alone are materialistic ; lot of Indians are also the same.
Consciousness does not undergo any change , does not “descend into several levels”. Consciousness illumines gross , subtle & causal. In the absence of gross , subtle & causal too Consciousness shines by ITSELF.
What we Hindus call rebirths / transmigration of souls happen to Sukshma Sareeram / mind body complex.
Recently in Syria a muslim recalled his earlier birth details including how he died which were verified & found to be true. In India we hear of such cases , one of which was shown on tv.
I do not know what their religions say. But this is the reality. For all.
At one level its all the same per some schools. When terminology is in question (as in the current comment thread) they have their specific meanings and are not the same 🙂
Yes westerners like Hiesenberg, Schrodinger, Fritjof Capra have a take on consciousness but that is a rather general comment and hardly makes it into where consciousness study is in the west. What Hindu gurus quote is also such.
“Consciousness does not undergo any change , does not “descend into several levels””
“descending” does not amount to “undergoing any change”, however we do not have to enter a debate on this 🙂
You are right Rama. Atma is not soul, and it does not refer to Consciousness either. Consciousness is a part of an enlightened self , and a piece of Atma….but Atama is more than that, and it is Anathi for us. It exists at higher dimensions and it exists without our current body. The reason we say it is Anathi is because only by going to higher lokahs can we understand it better…so it may not be Anathi at a higher dimension. We don’t know. Some would say Consciousness can only exist and be realized when we take a body or a form (which occurs up until Swara Lokha…could be different alien bodies). There are those who say higher consciousness can exist in higher dimensions without the body…which means Sukshama sareeram might not be necessary for Consciousness either.
So…Atma is not soul, and it is not Consciousness and it is, from our dimension, Anathi. Very good. Whoever taught you this part of Hinduism has done a good job. May I know your guru?
I hope the authors will write a detailed article on the words “vasana” and “samskara”. It seems to me that these two words are really technical terms in psychology, in the sense that they cover the same ground as the English phrases “Pavlovian reflex”, “pressing your buttons”, “emotional trigger”, “psychological conditioning”, etc. Perhaps I am wrong, but that is how it seems “vasana” and “samskara” are used.
The first definition itself is not completely right…
The word artha literally translates as “meaning, sense, goal, purpose or essence” depending on the context”. Artha has a broader concept in Hinduism. Artha can refer to one of the four aims of human life in Indian philosophy.
“Artha” applies to both an individual purpose and a government values, or values in action. .
At an individual level Artha “includes” wealth, career and activity to make a living. That can further include financial security and economic prosperity. The ethical means, or ways, of pursuing one’s Artha is important in Hinduism. Doing anything for money, such as hurting, harming, lying, cheating, deceiving, manipulating or exploiting for money, is unacceptable.
At the level of governance or public administration Artha encompases social, legal, economic and worldly affairs. Proper Arthashastra, that is proper ways to administer, with values of fairness, inclusion, justice and compassion, is considered an important and necessary objective of government.
In Hinduism Artha as a philosophy is connected to Dharma (virtuous, ethical, decent, moral, honest….), Kama (enjoyment, emotional fulfilment, happiness, pleasure, sensuality…) and Moksha (liberation, release, self-actualization). Together, these mutually non-exclusive aims of life are called PuruSaartha.