Glossary

Adhikāri — Fit aspirant (Uttama: Good; Madhyama: medium; Adhama: inferior);

Ahaṃkāra — Ego;

Aiśvarya — Material or spiritual wealth;

Ajñā Cakra — Cavernous plexus;

Anāhata — Cardiac plexus;

Aṅga — Subordinate step, limb;

Aṇimā — Subtlety, reducing body in size;

Antaḥkaraṇa — Internal psychic organ, mind;

Apāna — Vital energy functioning in excretion;

Āsana — Bodily position, posture;

Aṣṭāṅga — Eight limbs (of Patañjali’s Raja Yoga);

Āśtika — Believer of God or the Vedas;

Bandha — A lock in Yogic posture;

Bhastrikā — Bellows (a kind of prāṇāyāma);

Bījākṣara — Seed-letter containing latent power of Mantra;

Brahmāṇḍa — Macrocosm, Brahma’s egg;

Brahmarandhra — Head fontanel at the top of head;

Buddhi — Intellect, understanding reason;

Cakra — Wheel, plexus;

Cit — Consciousness;

Citta — Mind-stuff, subconscious mind;

Dama — Control of outer senses;

Dhairya — Heroism, valour;

Dhyāna — Deep meditation;

Dṛḍḥatā — Firmness;

Ghata — A state reached in prāṇāyāma;

Granthi — Knot (of nerves or psychic energy);

Haṃsa — Swan, Divine Self;

Iḍā — Psychic nerve-current flowing through nostril; lunar;

Indriya — Sense of perception whether physical (karma indirya) or internal current (Jñāna indirya);

Iṣṭa — Object of desire, chosen ideal;

Japa — Repetition of a mantra;

Jīvanmukti — Liberation while still in body, the state of Jñāna or Knowledge, Wisdom of Brahman;

Jīvātmān — Individual soul;

Kāla — Ray, part, aspect;

Karma — Action (Sancita: accumulated; Prārabdha: to be worked out in this life; Āgāmi: being freshly formed);

Kevala Kumbhaka — Cessation of breath spontaneously;

Khecari Mudrā — Applying elongated tongue to the posterior palate in Haṭha Yoga;

Kumbhaka — Period between in-and-outgoing breath;

Kuṇḍalinī — Serpent-power coiled up at the Mūlādhāra Cakra;

Liṅga Śarira — Subtle body;

Madhyamā — Prāṇāyāma with 32 mātrās;

Mānas — Mind;

Mātrā — A second, time-measure;

Mitāhāra — Moderate diet;

Mokṣa — Liberation, release;

Mudrā — Symbolic hand-position;

Mumukṣutva — Intense longing for liberation;

Nāḍi — Astral tube carrying Prāṇa;

Nauli — Abdominal churning exercise;

Nirvikalpa — Without modification of the mind;

Niṣkāma — Selfless, unselfish;

Padma — Lotus;

Parā — Super, higher (highest);

Piṅgalā — Psychic nerve-current in right nostril, solar;

Prāṇa — Vital energy, life-breath, life force;

Praṇava — The mystic syllable ‘OM’;

Prāṇāyāma — Breath-control;

Praśvāsa — Expiration of Breath;

Pratyāhāra — Abstraction of senses;

Pūraka — Inhalation;

Sādhaka — Spiritual aspirant;

Sādhanā — Natural, true, native;

Sahasrāra — 1000 petalled lotus at the crown of head;

Sama — Control of mind, tranquility;

Samādhi — State of super consciousness, perfect absorption of mind in Yoga;

Sannyāsa — Renunciation of social ties, 4th state in Hindu life;

Ṣaṭcakras — The six chapters or nerve-plexuses;

Sūkṣma — Fire, subtle, indivisible;

Suṣumnā — Nerve-current in spinal canal from Mūlādhāra to crown of head;

Tamas — Darkness, inertia, dullness;

Udāna — Vital force near the throat;

Vāsanā — Subtle desire;

Virya — Seminal fluid;

Viśuddha — Laryngeal plexus;

Viveka — Discrimination;

Vṛtti — Thought-wave, mental whirlpool;

Vyāna — All-pervading Prāṇa;