Dear friends,
Sanskrit is considered the language of the Gods. I know it is one of the toughest languages to learn. But our stotras and puranas are in Sanskrit and when people well versed in the language use some sanskrit words many find it difficult to understand.
With a view for members unfamiliar with the language to understand and may be learn a few words a day,I desired to put up a Glossary of Sanskrit terms with English meanings in alphabetical order.
Let me start with the Alphabet "A".
Wherever there are too many words under an alphabet it may be split in more than one part.
Hope this will be found useful by many.
Varadarajan
ALPHABET---'A'
ABHANGA: A devotional poetic composition.*
ABHASA: Reflection.
ABHAYAM: Fearless.
ABHIMANA: Egoism, identification with the body.
ABHYASA: Spiritual practice.
ACHARYA: Teacher; Preceptor.
ACHYUTA: Immutable-Lord Vishnu.
ADESA: Command.
ADHIKARI: A qualified person, Fit aspirant (Uttama: Good, Madhyama: medium, Adhama: inferior)
ADHISHTHANA: Substratum, support.
ADHYASA: Mutual identification or superimposition.
ADHYASA: Superimposition or false attribution of properties of one thing on another thing.
ADHYATMIC: Spiritual.
ADHYAYANA: Study.
ADRISYA: Unperceived by the eye.
ADVAITA: Non-dual; Non-duality.
AGANDHA: Without smell.
AGASTYA MUNI: Name of a sage.
AGNI: Fire.
AGRAHYA: Unknowable.
AHAM BRAHMA ASMI: ‘I am Brahman.'
AHAM: ‘I' or ego.
AHAMGRAHA: A kind of meditation in which the aspirant identifies himself with Brahman.
AHAMKARA: Ego; Pure Ego.
AHIMSA: Non-injury in thought, Non-violence, word and deed. Click here for a more detailed explanation.
AISVARYA: Divine attributes like wisdom, renunciation, power, etc.
AISVARYA: Material or spiritual wealth
AITAREYA: Name of an Upanishad.
AJAPA: Repetition of "Soham" Mantra.
AJARAM: Without old age.
AJNA: Chakra: Cavernous plexus
AJNA: Spiritual centre between the two eyebrows.
AJNANA: Ignorance.
AKASA: Ether, space, sky
AKHANDA: Indivisible.
AKHOW: Name of a sage.
ALABDHABHUMIKATVA: The feeling that it is impossible to see reality.
ALAMBANA: Support.
ALASYA: Lethargy, inertia, Laziness.
ALPA: Little; Small.
AMALAKA: The Indian gooseberry.
AMANA: Mindless; Thoughtless.
AMARA-PURUSHA: Immortal being.
AMATRA: Having no measure; Transcendental.
AMRITAM: Immortal.
AMRITATVA: Immortality.
ANADI: Beginningless.
ANAHATA CHAKRA: One of the Yogic centres (heart).
ANAHATA CHAKRA-Cardiac plexus, lotus of the heart.
ANAHATA SOUND-Mystical inner sound.
ANAHATA: Mystic sound heard by Yogis.
ANANDA: Bliss, happiness, joy.
ANANDA-GHANA: Cloud of bliss.
ANANDAGHANA: Mass of Bliss.
ANANDAMAYA: Full of great happiness.
ANANDA-SVARUPA: Of the form of bliss.
ANANTA: Endless.
ANANTAM: Infinity.
ANANTANAG: Name of a place.
ANARTHA: Evil; Wrong; Calamity.
ANATMA: Not-Self.
ANGA: Subordinate step, A limb, A part.
ANGA-Limb, step.
ANIMA: Subtlety, reducing body in size
ANTAHKARANA: Internal instrument such as mind, intellect, ego and the subconscious mind.
ANTAHKARANA-The fourfold internal organs, Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara.
ANTARANGA: Internal.
ANTARATMAN: Inner Self.
ANTARJYOTIS: Inner light.
ANTARMUKHA: Introspective; Gaze turned inwards.
ANTARYAMIN: Inner ruler, Inner witness.
ANUBHAVA: Experience.
APANA VAYU: Down-going breath; The nerve-current which governs abdominal region and does excretory function.
APANA: Vital energy functioning in excretion
APAROKSHA: Immediate.
APAS: Water
APRANA: Without Prana (life-breath).
APTA: Realized.
APTA-KAMA: One whose desires have been fulfilled; a realised sage.
ARAMBHA: A state reached in Pranayama
ARANI: A sacrificial wood.
ARCHANA: Offering of flowers etc., at the time of worship.
ARHATA: A perfected Soul.
ARJAVA: Straightforwardness.
ARJUNA: Name of a great devotee of Krishna, who was taught the Gita; one of the Pandava brothers.
ARTHA: Wealth.
ARUDHA: Ascended; in a state of culmination; established.
ARUNDHATI: Name of a star.
ARUPA: Formless.
ASABDA: Soundless.
ASAMPRAJNATA: Highest superconscious state where the mind is completely annihilated and Reality experienced.
ASANA JAYA: Mastery over Asana.
ASANA: A bodily pose or posture.
ASANGOHAM: ‘I am unassociated'; a formula for meditation.
ASHRAM: A hermitage; monastery.
ASHTANGA: Eight limbs (of Patanjali's Raja Yoga)
ASHTANGA: Eight limbs. Click here for a discourse on Raja Yoga / Ashtanga Yoga.
ASMITA: Pure ego; self-consciousness.
ASPARSA: Touchless.
ASTIKA: Believer of God or the Vedas
ASURA: Demon, evil tendency in man
ASURA: Demon.
ASURI: Devilish
ASURIC: Demoniacal.
ASURIC-Devilish.
ASUYA: Jealousy.
ASVATTHA: The sacred peepal tree.
ASVINI MUDRA: A kind of Hatha Yoga practice.
ATHARVANA: Name of a Veda; name of a sage.
ATINDRIYA: Beyond the reach of the senses.
ATMADROHA: Enmity with the Self.
ATMAHANA: Killer of the Self.
ATMA-JNANA: Knowledge of the Self.
ATMAN: Divine soul in man, the Supreme Self
ATMAN: The Self.
ATMA-SVARUP: The essential nature of the Self.
ATMIC-TRIVENI: The Soul compared to Triveni (Triveni is a sacred confluence of three rivers).
ATRI: Name of a sage.
AUM: Sacred monosyllable; symbol of Brahman.
AUROBINDO: Name of the famous sage of Pondicherry.
AVADHANA: Attention.
AVADHANI: Attentive, concentrated
AVADHUTA GITA: A book containing the teachings of sage Dattatreya.
AVADHUTA: A naked sage.
AVARANA: Veil of ignorance.
AVASTHA: State
AVATARA: Incarnation of God.
AVIDYA: Ignorance.
AVIRATI: Non-dispassion; sensual indulgence.
AVYAKTA: Unmanifest-three Gunas (qualities born of nature) in a state of equilibrium.
AVYAYA: Inexhaustible.
AYURVEDA: The ancient Indian science of medicine.
Sanskrit is considered the language of the Gods. I know it is one of the toughest languages to learn. But our stotras and puranas are in Sanskrit and when people well versed in the language use some sanskrit words many find it difficult to understand.
With a view for members unfamiliar with the language to understand and may be learn a few words a day,I desired to put up a Glossary of Sanskrit terms with English meanings in alphabetical order.
Let me start with the Alphabet "A".
Wherever there are too many words under an alphabet it may be split in more than one part.
Hope this will be found useful by many.
Varadarajan
ALPHABET---'A'
ABHANGA: A devotional poetic composition.*
ABHASA: Reflection.
ABHAYAM: Fearless.
ABHIMANA: Egoism, identification with the body.
ABHYASA: Spiritual practice.
ACHARYA: Teacher; Preceptor.
ACHYUTA: Immutable-Lord Vishnu.
ADESA: Command.
ADHIKARI: A qualified person, Fit aspirant (Uttama: Good, Madhyama: medium, Adhama: inferior)
ADHISHTHANA: Substratum, support.
ADHYASA: Mutual identification or superimposition.
ADHYASA: Superimposition or false attribution of properties of one thing on another thing.
ADHYATMIC: Spiritual.
ADHYAYANA: Study.
ADRISYA: Unperceived by the eye.
ADVAITA: Non-dual; Non-duality.
AGANDHA: Without smell.
AGASTYA MUNI: Name of a sage.
AGNI: Fire.
AGRAHYA: Unknowable.
AHAM BRAHMA ASMI: ‘I am Brahman.'
AHAM: ‘I' or ego.
AHAMGRAHA: A kind of meditation in which the aspirant identifies himself with Brahman.
AHAMKARA: Ego; Pure Ego.
AHIMSA: Non-injury in thought, Non-violence, word and deed. Click here for a more detailed explanation.
AISVARYA: Divine attributes like wisdom, renunciation, power, etc.
AISVARYA: Material or spiritual wealth
AITAREYA: Name of an Upanishad.
AJAPA: Repetition of "Soham" Mantra.
AJARAM: Without old age.
AJNA: Chakra: Cavernous plexus
AJNA: Spiritual centre between the two eyebrows.
AJNANA: Ignorance.
AKASA: Ether, space, sky
AKHANDA: Indivisible.
AKHOW: Name of a sage.
ALABDHABHUMIKATVA: The feeling that it is impossible to see reality.
ALAMBANA: Support.
ALASYA: Lethargy, inertia, Laziness.
ALPA: Little; Small.
AMALAKA: The Indian gooseberry.
AMANA: Mindless; Thoughtless.
AMARA-PURUSHA: Immortal being.
AMATRA: Having no measure; Transcendental.
AMRITAM: Immortal.
AMRITATVA: Immortality.
ANADI: Beginningless.
ANAHATA CHAKRA: One of the Yogic centres (heart).
ANAHATA CHAKRA-Cardiac plexus, lotus of the heart.
ANAHATA SOUND-Mystical inner sound.
ANAHATA: Mystic sound heard by Yogis.
ANANDA: Bliss, happiness, joy.
ANANDA-GHANA: Cloud of bliss.
ANANDAGHANA: Mass of Bliss.
ANANDAMAYA: Full of great happiness.
ANANDA-SVARUPA: Of the form of bliss.
ANANTA: Endless.
ANANTAM: Infinity.
ANANTANAG: Name of a place.
ANARTHA: Evil; Wrong; Calamity.
ANATMA: Not-Self.
ANGA: Subordinate step, A limb, A part.
ANGA-Limb, step.
ANIMA: Subtlety, reducing body in size
ANTAHKARANA: Internal instrument such as mind, intellect, ego and the subconscious mind.
ANTAHKARANA-The fourfold internal organs, Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara.
ANTARANGA: Internal.
ANTARATMAN: Inner Self.
ANTARJYOTIS: Inner light.
ANTARMUKHA: Introspective; Gaze turned inwards.
ANTARYAMIN: Inner ruler, Inner witness.
ANUBHAVA: Experience.
APANA VAYU: Down-going breath; The nerve-current which governs abdominal region and does excretory function.
APANA: Vital energy functioning in excretion
APAROKSHA: Immediate.
APAS: Water
APRANA: Without Prana (life-breath).
APTA: Realized.
APTA-KAMA: One whose desires have been fulfilled; a realised sage.
ARAMBHA: A state reached in Pranayama
ARANI: A sacrificial wood.
ARCHANA: Offering of flowers etc., at the time of worship.
ARHATA: A perfected Soul.
ARJAVA: Straightforwardness.
ARJUNA: Name of a great devotee of Krishna, who was taught the Gita; one of the Pandava brothers.
ARTHA: Wealth.
ARUDHA: Ascended; in a state of culmination; established.
ARUNDHATI: Name of a star.
ARUPA: Formless.
ASABDA: Soundless.
ASAMPRAJNATA: Highest superconscious state where the mind is completely annihilated and Reality experienced.
ASANA JAYA: Mastery over Asana.
ASANA: A bodily pose or posture.
ASANGOHAM: ‘I am unassociated'; a formula for meditation.
ASHRAM: A hermitage; monastery.
ASHTANGA: Eight limbs (of Patanjali's Raja Yoga)
ASHTANGA: Eight limbs. Click here for a discourse on Raja Yoga / Ashtanga Yoga.
ASMITA: Pure ego; self-consciousness.
ASPARSA: Touchless.
ASTIKA: Believer of God or the Vedas
ASURA: Demon, evil tendency in man
ASURA: Demon.
ASURI: Devilish
ASURIC: Demoniacal.
ASURIC-Devilish.
ASUYA: Jealousy.
ASVATTHA: The sacred peepal tree.
ASVINI MUDRA: A kind of Hatha Yoga practice.
ATHARVANA: Name of a Veda; name of a sage.
ATINDRIYA: Beyond the reach of the senses.
ATMADROHA: Enmity with the Self.
ATMAHANA: Killer of the Self.
ATMA-JNANA: Knowledge of the Self.
ATMAN: Divine soul in man, the Supreme Self
ATMAN: The Self.
ATMA-SVARUP: The essential nature of the Self.
ATMIC-TRIVENI: The Soul compared to Triveni (Triveni is a sacred confluence of three rivers).
ATRI: Name of a sage.
AUM: Sacred monosyllable; symbol of Brahman.
AUROBINDO: Name of the famous sage of Pondicherry.
AVADHANA: Attention.
AVADHANI: Attentive, concentrated
AVADHUTA GITA: A book containing the teachings of sage Dattatreya.
AVADHUTA: A naked sage.
AVARANA: Veil of ignorance.
AVASTHA: State
AVATARA: Incarnation of God.
AVIDYA: Ignorance.
AVIRATI: Non-dispassion; sensual indulgence.
AVYAKTA: Unmanifest-three Gunas (qualities born of nature) in a state of equilibrium.
AVYAYA: Inexhaustible.
AYURVEDA: The ancient Indian science of medicine.
Comment