GLOSSARY OF SPIRITUAL TERMS

(This is a humble attempt to help those of my brothers and sisters who are following this path but are not aware of Hindi and Sanskrit. There is no claim of 100% accuracy. But every effort has been made to explain things as accurately as possible in  the light of what is available in RSM Literature. In  case any term is not covered hereinafter, please email at  alok_krn@yahoo.com so that the same can be added)

SL NO	TERM	MEANING
	Adhyatm	Is the study of Atma. Adhy comes from the word ‘Adhyayan’ i.e. ‘to study’. Atm comes from Atma. Hence it means to study the subject of Atma. It means to  study oneself as one is considered as atma.
	Adwaitvadi	This word is composed of A+dwait+vadi. A stands for ‘not’, dwait means ‘two’ and vadi means people who follow / believe. Some people believe that the creation is the result of two forces – one is Atma or Purush and the other is Prakriti (Nature). These people are known as Dwaitvadi. Those who believe that creation is the result of only one force – Atma are known as Adwaitvadi.
	Arya samaji	Swami Dayanand Saraswati was a great Spiritual Master who started a religious denomination in India known as Arya Samaj. Followers of Arya Samaj are known as Arya Samaji.
	Asan	Asan means to sit in a comfortable position in which one can sit without the need to make any movement for 15-30 minutes when on e is meditating. If Asan is not proper, one will move his hands, legs/body parts and that will distributes the concentration. Asan also denotes the various sitting postures when one does Pranayam exercises or Yoga exercises.
	Ashtang Yog	Maharishi (Maha-great, Rishi-Sage, i.e. Great Sage) Patanjali is known as the father of Yoga. After experiencing things adequately, he laid down that to achieve Yog i.e. union of Jeevatma with Parmatma, one must fulfill all the eight parts of Yoga. (Asht – means eight, anga- means part i.e. Ashtanga Yog means Yog comprising eight parts) These are Yam, Niyam, Asan, Pranayama, Dharna, Pratyahar, Dhyan, and Samadhi. Yam means to give up bad thoughts and bad actions. Niyam means to inculcate good thoughts and good Karmas.  Details of Yam and Niyam are given under those headings.
	Atma	According to certain Indian Spiritual Philosophies, the supreme power is conscious energy, million times sublime than air. Everything springs from it. This conscious energy is present in the entire creation. This cosmic form of this supreme consciousness is called Paramatma. (Param means Supreme). Every living being is ‘powered’ by a tiny part of this Paramatma. Such tiny parts are known as ATMA/Jeevatma (Jeev means living beings). Liberation means merging the tiny Atma into the infinite Parmatma. Like merging of a drop of water into the ocean.
	Atmabal	Bal means strength. Atmabal means strength or power of the Atma
	Atmadesh	Please see Bhavsagar
	Atmagyani	Gyan means knowledge. Gyani means one who posseses knowledge. Atmagyani means one who possesses the knowledge of the Atma.
	Atmashakti	Shakti means strength or power. Atmashakti means power or strength of the Atma.
	Avaran	There are three layers covering the Atma and stopping the light from coming outside and filling the heart -- Mal, Vikshep and Avaran. First Mal, then Vikshep and finally Avaran is removed. Then the light of the Atma comes out and fills the heart of the sadhak.
	Avataar	When a great powerful soul descends upon this earthly plane with powers of the Almighty God, and with the express purpose of reforming mankind such a person is known as Avataar. He has the powers of punishing people, which Sant and ParamSant do not have. The latter aim at bringing about reform through love, compassion, persuasion and benevolent exercise of their own spiritual powers to lift people spiritually.
	Bade	Elder
	Bhajan	To remember; To sing songs/poems to God.
	Bhakti	To love God selflessly
	Bhandara	Bhandar means store. Bhandara is a 3 day spiritual congregation when  Guru opens his Bhandar or store of spiritual wealth for his disciples.
	Bhavsagar	Is comprised of two words Bhav+Sagar. Sagar means Ocean. Bhav means this physical world, the world of desires, of wants, of thoughts, of ego, of untrue- knowledge of worldly love and attractions in which we exist -- whether in this physical world or in the non-physical, spirit world. We can divide the entire creation into two parts. One is the realm of the ATMA or PARMATMA where there is no ego, no birth, no death, no sorrow, no pain, but eternal bliss, eternal life, and complete knowledge of entire creation and ATMA. This realm is known as ATM-DESH. We were there once. But now we have fallen into this creation which offers life and death, pain and sorrow, etc. We have become trapped in an unending cycle of births and deaths-- travelling from one body to another, from one realm to another within the boundaries of creation. We do not get eternal bliss but happiness. Bliss is eternal. Happiness is transient and before long gives way to unhappiness. We do not get full knowledge of self, atma, parmatma and creation. We hardly know anything. We have fallen to extremely low levels. We die again and again. So one world is Atmdesh -- of eternal bliss, eternal life and complete knowledge while the other one in which we exist is just the opposite. This world where we are caught/trapped is known as ‘Bhav’. It has been compared to an ocean (Sagar in Hindi) where people are drowned to death. We pray to the Guru with tears in our eyes to rescue us from this vast fathomless and dangerous ocean and take us to the Atm-desh. Satsang is the ship and Guru is the Captain. We only need to sit in this ship, with full faith and belief in the Guru, if we want to cross this ocean and reach Atmdesh.
	Brahma	The omnipotent Parmatma has been called by various names. Brahma meaning very big is one of His names.
	Brahmaa	Is one of the three Gods in the Trinity of Gods  of Hindus. Brahmaa is the creator,  Vishnu is the Keeper or Sustainer and Mahesh is the Destroyer.
	Brahmagyani	Same as Atmagyani. One who knows the Brahma, i.e. the Supreme Power or God.
	Brahmaleen	A person who on leaving the mortal body merges himself into the ‘Brahma’ or ‘God’ is known as Brahmaleen. The word Brahma has been explained earlier. ‘Leen’ means ‘merged’.
	Buddhi	the sublime immaterial instrument residing inside our hearts which is capable of considering facts and rendering advice to Mun is know as Buddhi
	Chhote	Younger; smaller
	Concept of 33 crore Gods	It is said that there are 33 crores of Gods in Hindu belief system. Actually the word used in the texts is 33 ‘koti’. The word ‘koti’ means crores (Ten million) as well as ‘types’ or ‘categories'. Therefore what the authors meant could be either way -- 33 types of Gods or 33 crore gods. There is no finality in the matter. But what is final and undisputed in Hindu belief system is that there is one supreme power, the almighty God. Actually Gods represent the unseen, unnoticed, unfelt forces that do exist and run the Universe. According to the nature and characteristic of the forces, names and descriptions have been given. There can be no discussion without naming things All these subordinate powers are expressions of the ONE SUPREME POWER. If you look at this world in which we exist, you will see that the President is ALL POWERFUL but does not do all the work of the entire Govt machinery himself. He permits various subordinate authorities to exercise powers in terms of rules laid down by the President. Similar is the case in the spirit world. That Supreme Power is carrying out several functions at the same time for running this Universe. At different places it is acting differently. These different powers have been explained in Hindu belief system as Gods. Goddesses - The difference between Gods and Goddesses being male and female is a superficial one. The real difference is that God represents the ‘entity that is powerful’ and Goddess represents the ‘power’. You can understand this easily through an example. You become the ‘President' of your country and get ‘Powers of the President’. Now ‘You’ are the ‘entity’ that is powerful. But on demitting office you become the ‘entity’ that is no longer powerful. In worldly matters people who are ‘powerful’ keep changing. But that is not so in the spirit world. The same powers continue each time ‘Creation’ is ‘Created’. The concept of God and Goddess has only been given to us by our wise ancestors to explain the concept of ‘Powerful’ and ‘Power’.
	Dakshina	Denotes the offering by disciple to Guru in lieu of the knowledge he gets. It is also called Guru Dakshina.
	Darshan	Means to behold or to see. In fact philosophy is called Darshan in Hindi. It denotes that branch of knowledge which enables one to behold God. Darshan in spiritualism means to behold God.
	Dharana	is the object or thought on which Sadhak focuses his Mun  during dhyan.
	Dhyan	the state of Mun during which it is able to focus on a particular thought or object is referred to as ‘Dhyan’.
	Diksha	Spiritual initiation.
	Dwaitvadi	Please  see Adwaitvadi
	Dwapar	Please see Satyug
	Faiz	The spiritual shower given by the Guru’s Atma or by any evolved soul. It comes in the form of divine energy which contains power, energy, bliss, knowledge and peace.
	Guna	The universe is being run by two opposing forces. The positive and the negative; the good and the bad. Everything comes in pairs;  day & night; birth & death; man & woman etc. Between these two exists a neutral region. For instance after sunset just before darkness falls, the time is of a neutral character i.e. it is neither day nor night. It is called ‘Sandhi-Kaal’ or period of union between two different times. Therefore we have three things -- the positive, the negative and the neutral. Similarly three gunas – or powers – Sat, Raj and Tam are running the universe. Sat denotes the positive force, Tam denotes the negative force and Raj denotes a mix of Sat and Tam. During Sat and Tam there is no activity. When, however the two mix, Raj is created. All actions take place due to Raj. In Sat there is light, peace, bliss, & knowledge but no action. In Tam there is ignorance, darkness, peace, lack of consciousness and again no action. In Raj there is activity due to a mix of Tam & Sat. The activity would be positive in nature if proportion of Sat is more than Tam. On the other hand the activity would be of negative character if proportion of Tam is more than Sat.             The realm of Parmatma is beyond these three ‘gunas’ or characteristics and is known as Trigunatit. Tri- means three, guna are sat, raj & tam, atit means ‘beyond’ i.e. beyond the three gunas.
	Guru	Spiritual Master
	Gurupad	The status of being a Guru. Pad means post or designation.
	Guru-Purnima	One day in the year is observed as Guru Purnima. The Guru remembers all his followers on this day. Bhandara is held on this occasion in Gwalior city of Madhya Pradesh State in India.
	Gyan	Means knowledge. ‘Brahmgyan’ means knowledge of Brahma
	Jap	When we repeat the same thought/word for a given period of time the activity is known as Jap. It achieves a high level of concentration of Mun on the given thought, leads to dhyan and further to Samadhi. Jap is done by either repeating the thought/name loudly or silently within oneself. Successful Jap leads to a state known as ‘Ajapa Jap’. ‘A’- means no, japa means the action to repeat the thought. It means a state when you do not consciously do the jap, but it keeps on happening all the time unconsciously on its own, inside you.
	Jeev Atma	Please see Atma
	Jigyasu	The person who is inquisitive about the subject ‘God’; who wants to know the ‘absolute truth’ i.e. Parmatma.
	Kaliyug	Please see Satyug
	Karan	Matter exists in various levels or  states. In spiritualism the grossest level is the physical level (called sthool), where things can be touched, felt, seen, tasted, smelt etc. The next level more sublime than physical level is called sukshm. Karan level  is even more sublime than sukshm.
	Karm-	means ‘action’. All that we do with our eyes, hands, legs,  and mouth are ‘action’ or ‘Karmas’. They create reactions which are called the result or fal of Karm or karmfal.
	Karmfal	All actions lead to reactions. The reaction is the result of the action. This result of each action is called ‘Karmfal’. ‘Fal’ means fruit. Good karmas lead to good ‘Karmfal’  Bad Karmas lead to ‘Bad Karmfal’.
	Karuna-nidhi	God is kind and benevolent, full of compassion Karuna –means compassion, Nidhi means a huge storehouse. God has a huge store house of compassion in HIM.
	Kripa Sindhu	Kripa means Blessings and sindhu means ocean. God is an ocean from which pours out blessings for one and all.
	Kriyaman Karmfal	The result of such karmas which are now being tasted one after another in present birth.
	Mahakaran	A very sublime state of existence Please also see Karan.
	Mahapurus	Maha-great, purush-men i.e. Great Men.
	Mahatma	Is a combination of 2 words Maha+Atma, Maha- means big, great. Hence a great person whose atma has expanded, who has compassion and love for all is known as Mahatma.
	Mahesh	Please see Brahmaa
	Majhle	Second of three.
	Mal	Please see Avaran
	Maya	We see that people die. We see that flowers blossom and wither away. We see that one who was once young and beautiful is now old and ugly. We see powerful people lose their power and become like common men. We see some poor fellow suddenly become rich. We also see a rich man lose his riches. But despite seeing all these changes day in and day out, we behave as if all these changes / turn of fortunes would never happen to us. We behave as if we have come here to live forever, that we shall always be young, handsome / beautiful, rich, and alive. There is some power, unseen, unfelt and unnoticed that make us ‘forget’ the ‘truth’ of life. This power is referred to as Maya. It is comprised of two words Ma+Ya (Ma means 'not' and Ya means 'that exists') and means ‘that which does not exist.’ It collectively refers to everything material all around, which is there today but will not be there after some time. Everything except Atma is Maya.
	Mun	Roughly corresponds to the Mind. It is the sublime,immaterial machine which is unseen, but which thinks, evaluates, calculates, decides, etc. It resides in the hearts of living beings. Heart is not the heart that pumps blood but a sublime location a little below where the blood-pumping sound is heard towards the left.
	Nirakarvadi	Those who believe God is formless. Nir-means  none, aakar means shape, and vadi means those who follow or believe.
	Paramsant	A person who remains immersed  in  Paramatma at all times even when living a normal human life.
	Parmatma	The universe is the result of God’s will to become “many”. He was ‘One’ – all alone Himself. He willed to become “many”. And there was Creation. Therefore God existed prior to creation, he exists during the period creation subsists and he also exists once the creation is destroyed by HIM. God is nothing but unbounded, eternal, unfathomable POWER or ENERGY – that has consciousness. He is not like electric, heat, or solar energy which has no consciousness. He is SUPREME Consciousness. Far far more powerful, Far far more superior Consciousness than the consciousness we possess as human beings. It is the same God which manifests as Human beings, animals, insects, plants, elements, wind, fire, water, air, sky, etc. In a way, we can say that the same consciousness/power/energy is present in everything, everywhere, in this universe. But that is in a lesser form. Less powerful than the original. Smaller than the original- extremely tiny parts of that original WHOLE. That original WHOLE ENERGY/POWER/CONSCIOUSNESS is referred to as PARAMATMA (Param+Atma i. e. Supreme ATMA), while the tiny parts of the same Paramatma present in each unit of creation is referred to as ATMA. All living beings are referred to as Jeev-atma. (Jeev-means livings beings).
	Prakriti	Refers to the creation minus Parmatma (creator, the driving force). The difference between Purush and Prakriti is like the difference between electricity and the computer. The computer is driven by electricity. Without electricity computer is of no use. Similarly without Purush or the ‘Driving force’ or ‘Supreme Consciousness’ or ‘Supreme Power’ or ‘Supreme Energy’ or ‘Parmatma’ the ‘Prakriti’ like the computer is powerless/useless.
	Pranayam	‘Pran’ means ‘life-force’. The process of developing this ‘life-force’ and bringing it under one’s control is known as ‘Pranayam’. This life-force is a form of electric current which ‘powers’ the body, mind and intellect. When we concentrate on one point, this current gains momentum and begins to run in the various body parts with tremendous speed. It begins to rise and move towards the head. This life-force is referred variously as ‘Kundalini’ by Yogis and ‘Surati’ by ‘Sants’. When we concentrate, the Mun becomes inactive and quiet. The ‘Pran’ also becomes quiet. The heart beat stops. Pulse disappears. This is called in Yoga language Kewal Kumbhak  or Pranayam. As soon as this is achieved the yogi (person who practices yoga is called yogi) goes in ‘Samadhi’ State. Also refers to ‘breath-exercises’. There are various techniques of breathing and controlling the breath. ‘Pranayama’ is a part of ‘Spiritual Yoga’. This has been explained under the term ‘Ashtanga Yoga’.
	Prarabdh	The Karmfals which are to be tasted in a particular birth form the destiny of that birth. This destiny is known as Prarabdh.
	Prasad	An edible offering to God is converted into Prasad  after God accepts it. The word comes from the word 'Prasid' meaning 'to be pleased'. When pleased, God fills the offering with his pleasure and converts it into Prasad.
	Pratyahar	is the repeated efforts to bring back the focus of Mun to the desired object or thought, from which it keeps on ‘wandering away.’
	Purush	Refers to Parmatma- the creator- that part of creation which is the source, the driving force.
	Sadhak	The person who does sadhana is called sadhak.
	Sadhana	All the various techniques used to train the Mun to concentrate and ultimately merge itself into the Supreme Consciousness are collectively referred    to as ‘Sadhana’. Literally the word means to keep the Mun from falling down away from the ATMA and towards ‘Nature’ or ‘Prakrite.’
	Sahaj	It is comprised of two words Saha+ja. Saha means ‘with’ and ‘ja’ means ‘birth’. It means that which comes ‘with birth’. That which is natural ; for which no special effort need be made.
	Sakarvadi	Those who believe God has a form
	Samadhi	Samadhi- is that deep state of Dhyan wherein the Mun dissolves itself/gets completely absorbed into the object/thought focused upon for a long time. One loses contact with the outside physical world during this period. The Mun no longer does anything. It merges itself into the ‘Buddhi’. Buddhi merges itself into the ego. Finally ego merges itself into ATMA. ATMA establishes contact with all pervading PARMATMA.
	Sanchit Karmfal	The result of such Karmas which are being stored. Whose fal or fruit will be tasted by Jeevatma in some point of time in future.
	Sanskara	Whatever we do, see, hear, taste, feel, say, and experience are stored inside us in a sublime form. Our inside is like the ‘Black box’ of an aircraft. When a plane crashes, the black box is retrieved. It reveals all that happened in the plane till the crash. Similarly all that happens in our life is recorded inside us. All these recordings are collectively referred to as ‘Sanskara’. They are responsible for moulding the character/nature of our future actions.
	Sant	A person who sometimes rises up to merge himself in Parmatma and sometimes comes down to lower levels is called ‘Sant’.
	Satsang	This is a combination of two hindi words – Sat+Sang. Sat- means that which is absolutely true, which is there now, was there earlier and will be there forever; that which can never undergo any change whatsoever under any circumstances. Whatever we see in creation is changeable. Today we are alive. Tomorrow we won’t. This beautiful body of ours will not be seen on this earth after some time. Similar is the case with everything else. Himalayas, the lofty mountains of today was beneath the sea millions of years ago. Therefore the only thing that is ever present, always the same, and never changing is ATMA/PARMATMA. That means only ATMA/PARMATMA is Sat. Sang means to be in company of someone like we are in the company of friends, relatives, etc. So Satsang means to be in the company of ATMA/PARMATMA.
	Satsangi	A person who partakes in satsang.
	Satyug	The  period between Creation  and Destruction is divided in Hindu Philosophy into several Kalpas. Each Kalpa is divided into 4 yug or ages – the first age is called Satyug, second is Treta, third  is Dwapar and last is Kaliyug. Thereafter again Satyug comes. During Satyug the human attributes are Godly. In Treta there is downfall  in values and people come down to the level of human beings.In Dwapar, there is further downfall while in  Kaliyug, the human values are at its lowest points. Human beings are  turned into wild beasts, vultures, and demons.
	Shishya	Disciple
	Sthool	Please see Karan.
	Sukshm	Please see Karan
	Swag/Nark	Swarg means Heaven and Nark means Hell - These are worlds / planes that DO exist in the immaterial spirit world. One cannot go there with physical body. Swarg is the plane where the inhabitant gets instantly whatever he/she desires. He goes there to taste the fruits of a category of good karmas. But when the good karmafals are exhausted, one is sent down to this earthly plane. Nark is the plane where the inhabitant undergoes various sorts of punishment for sins omitted on this earthly plane. There is much darkness in this realm and that is the biggest source of torture for souls travelling to this plane. An unseen force pulls out the Jeevatma from the physical body, and just as prisoners are caught and put in jails, similarly they are placed in such darky and dingy planes.
	Tap	denotes the difficulties – at the physical level, at the level of Mun, at the level of ‘Buddhi’ and at the level of ‘ego’ that one has to go through as part of the process of cleansing and purification.
	The concept of ‘KOSH’	KOSH- The creation was created in circles. One after another circle was created till the ‘physical’ circle was created as the last circle. From the invisible Parmatma there was a flow of energy which created a circle. This first circle was known as ANANDMAY KOSH. KOSH means a circle; an area; a division. ANAND means bliss. It is different from and far far superior to the term happiness. Happiness is ‘worldly’ and Bliss is ‘divine’. ‘May’ means full of, permeating every where. In the first circle, bliss permeates. Hence it is called anandmay kosh. Here the ATMA which was hitherto ego-less, acquired ego i.e. I or Me. It got the first thought ‘I am’/’I exist’. This thought separated it from PARMATMA. It created a sublime wall between Parmatma & ATMA. This ‘I’ began to ‘Savour’ the taste of bliss in ANANDMAY KOSH. While earlier it was in bliss but without ego, now it was in bliss but with an ego. The flow of current moved forward to create the second circle known as ‘Vigyanmay Kosh’. Vigyanmay means permeated by knowledge (Vigyan means special knowledge). Now the ego began to see itself and things all around. It acquired ‘knowledge’ of itself and its surroundings . This current moved ahead again and created a third circle known as Manomay Kosh. The circle permeated by Mun. Mun is that sublime machine created by God which has been bestowed with the power of thought, power of desiring, power of taking decisions, power of evaluating, etc. With this Mun the Jeev-atma now began to think. The energy moved forward again to create another circle -- the 4th circle -- which is known as Pranmay Kosh. Pran means the flow of life in living beings. It roughly corresponds to breath. Thereafter the last circle, the 5th circle known as the ‘Annamay Kosh’ was created. ‘Ann’ means food that we eat to derive energy for existence. This circle is the physical material world we see and live in.
	Treta	Please see Satyug
	Tridev	Tri means three dev means God. The three gods Brahmha, Vishnu and Mahesh represent the forces of creation, Sustenance and Destruction respectively. Anything you see in this universe goes through 3 phases. It is created, it exists for some time and then it is destroyed/ it perishes.
	Vaishnav	Worshippers of Vishnu
	Vidya	A branch of knowledge. Brahma vidya means that branch of knowledge which studies the ‘Brahma’.
	Vikshep	Please see Mal
	Vishnu	Please see Brahmaa
	Yoga	The literal meaning of the word Yoga is to get united. In spiritualism it means - ‘the Union of Jeev-Atma with Parmatma'. In common parlance it refers to ‘breath exercises’ and ‘physical exercises’ aimed at keeping the body healthy and fit.
	Yogiraj	The King of Yogis. Yogi means a person who practices Yoga and raj means raja or King.

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