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Glossary: A

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listen Abhay
lit., “fearless.” The name given to Srila Prabhupada at birth.
abhidheya
the stage of performing regulated activities to revive one’s relationship with the Lord.
listen abhijna
self-knowing, or fully cognizant.
listen abhimana
“False identification” with a material body.
listen Abhimanyu
The only son of Arjuna and Subhadra. He was a promising heir to the Kuru dynasty but died in the Battle of Kurukshetra while still in his teens. He left his widow, Uttara, pregnant with Parikshit.
abhiras
A degraded tribe of nomadic cowherds. The gopas of Vraja are sometimes disparagingly called Abhiras even though they are actually proper vaishyas.
listen abhisheka
A ceremonial bath performed in the worship of a Deity or the coronation of a king.
listen accha
a common Hindi expression meaning, “I see,” or “Is that so?”. Can also mean “Good,” as in agreement.
listen achamana
purification by water and mantra.
listen acharya
One who teaches by personal example. Acaryas in the pure Vaishnava line instruct people and initiate them into the Supreme Lord’s devotional service.
listen achintya
inconceivable.
listen achintya-shakti
inconceivable potency.
listen achyuta
Krishna or Vishnu, “who never falls.”
listen adhibautika (-klesha)
miseries caused by other living entities.
listen adhidhaivika (-klesha)
miseries caused by demigods (natural disasters, etc.).
listen adhikari
one who is qualified. (Adhikara, qualification.)
listen adhira
one who is not sober or whose senses are not controlled.
listen adhokshaja
a name of Lord Vishnu, meaning “He who is beyond the reach of the material senses.”
adhyatmic
anglicized derivative of the Sanskrit word adhyatmika, “miseries caused by one’s own body and mind.”
listen adhyatmika (-klesha)
miseries caused by one’s own body and mind.
listen adi-guru
The first spiritual master of a disciplic succession.
listen adi-lila
initial pastimes. Refers specifically here to the first twenty-four years of Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes; the portion of the Chaitanya-charitamrita recounting those pastimes.
listen Aditi
Daksha’s oldest daughter, a wife of Kashyapa. She gave birth to twelve sons, including the eleven principal demigods (such as Surya, Varuna, and Indra) and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Vamana.
listen Adityas
Aditi’s twelve sons: Surya, Aryama, Pusha, Tvashta, Savita, Bhaga, Dhata, Vidhata, Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Lord Vamana. They rule the universe as the principal demigods during the period of the current Manu, Vaivasvata.
listen Advaita-vadis
Proponents of the impersonal philosophy of “oneness,” which claims that the Absolute Truth, one without a second, is ultimately formless and that whatever has name and form is an illusion falsely imposed on that impersonal Absolute Truth. See Mayavadis.
listen Agamas
See tantras.
listen Agha (-asura)
A demon who assumed the form of a huge python, swallowed Krishna and the cowherd boys, but was killed by Krishna.
listen agni
The principal demigod who rules fire.
listen agnihotra
The first and simplest Vedic fire sacrifice, to be performed daily at sunrise and sunset by initiated brahmanas. It is also a subsidiary ritual within each of the more complex sacrifices (yajnas). Often the term agnihotra is used to indicate fire sacrifices in general.
listen aguru
Aquilaia agallocha, a large evergreen tree with fragrant wood. An auspicious fragrance derived from the wood of the aloe tree (not the same as Aloe vera).
listen aham brahmasmi
Sanskrit for “I am spirit.”
listen ahankara
“False ego,” the first and most subtle of the separated elements of material creation. By its infiuence, conditioned souls assume temporary material identities.
listen ahimsa
nonviolence.
listen Airavata
The elephant who carries Lord Indra. Airavata appeared from the churning of the Milk Ocean and has four tusks and seven trunks.
listen aishvarya
majesty, opulence.
listen Ajamila
A brahmana whose attraction to a prostitute led him into sinful life but who was saved by his deathbed cries for his son Narayana, cries that brought the messengers of Lord Narayana to stop those of Yamaraja from dragging him to hell.
listen akinchana
without material desires.
listen Akrura
A distant relative whom Krishna considered His uncle and who on Kamsa’s order brought Krishna and Balarama from Vraja to Mathura.
listen akshara
lit., “imperishable,” refers to the Supreme Lord.
listen Alabandaru
The Tamil name of Yamunacharya. See Yamuna (-acharya).
listen Amala-purana
lit., “spotless Purana”; refers to Srimad-Bhagavatam.
listen Ambarisha
A saintly Vaishnava king famous for using all his resources and bodily activities in devotional service to the Supreme Lord. Angered by a minor accidental fault of the king’s, the sage Durvasa tried to kill him, but Lord Vishnu sent the Sudarshana disc to attack Durvasa, who finally had to beg the king’s forgiveness.
listen amrita
The “nectar of immortality” that demigods in Svarga drink to give them fabulously long lives.
listen ananda
bliss or happiness.
listen Ananta (Ananta Sesha, Sesha Naga)
1. An expansion of God who appears as a serpent with thousands of heads and who serves as the bed of Lord Vishnu. Ananta Sesha holds all the planets of the universe on His hoods and constantly sings the glories of Vishnu from all His mouths. 2. Unlimited.
listen anartha
unwanted things; material desire.
listen anartha-nivritti
the cleansing of unwanted things from the heart.
listen Andhras
Residents of Andhra Pradesh, the province of southeastern India above Tamil Nadu.
listen Angada
One of the leaders of the monkey army that helped Lord Ramachandra defeat Ravana.
listen anima-siddhi
The yogic perfection of making oneself smaller than an atom.
listen Aniruddha
A son of Pradyumna and grandson of Krishna. Aniruddha’s eternal consort, Usha, sequestered him in the palace of her father, Bana, where Aniruddha was captured and had to be rescued by Krishna, Balarama, and the Yadava army. He appears in Dvaraka and Mathura as the fourth of the original quadruple vyuha expansions of the Supreme Lord, and He again expands from Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha, in the second quadruple, as the ruler of intelligence.
listen annakuta
the ceremony of offering grains; Refers to the ceremony of offering grains to Govardhana Hill.
listen anna-maya
According to the Taittiriya Upanishad, the lowest level of consciousness in embodied life, the level in which one lives just to eat.
listen antya-lila
the last eighteen years of Lord Chaitanya’s manifest pastimes; the portion of the Chaitanya-charitamrita recounting those pastimes.
listen anubhava
the ecstatic symptoms that follow from and increase one’s main relationship with Krishna.
listen anyabhilashita-shunyam
Srila Rupa Goswami’s definition of pure devotional service as being free from any other desire.
listen aparadha
An offense, especially against the Supreme Lord or His devotees.
listen apaurusheya-shabda
knowledge from a divine source.
listen aprakata-lila
Krishna’s “unmanifest pastimes,” which go on eternally in His abodes, all simultaneously, but are invisible except to rare, fortunate souls. In contrast, His prakata, or “manifest,” pastimes are visible to the public but only at specific times in a linear sequence of events.
listen aprakrita
unmanifest.
listen Apsaras
The dancing girls of heaven, wives of Gandharvas, sometimes engaged by Indra to distract yogis from their meditations.
listen Aranyakas
The parts of the original Vedas that give more esoteric explanations than do the Brahmanas. The Aranyakas are meant for renunciants to study in the forest (aranya). The Upanishads are chapters of the Aranyakas that explain the philosophical essence of the Vedas.
listen arati
A standard ceremony of worship with offerings of lamps, fans, incense, fiowers, bathing water, and other items. Its origin is the custom of greeting a guest to one’s home at night (a-ratrikam) with a lamp.
listen aravinda
a species of lotus that blooms during the day and closes at night.
listen archana
the process of Deity worship.
listen archa-vigraha
Deity.
listen arghya
Water mixed with auspicious substances and offered to an honored guest, either sprinkled on their head or offered into their hands.
listen Arishta
A demon who assumed the form of a bull, attacked Vraja, and was killed by Krishna.
listen Arjuna
The third of the five Pandava brothers. A great bowman, he figured prominently in winning the Kurukshetra battle, with Krishna driving his chariot. It was to Arjuna that Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita just before the battle.
listen arjuna trees
Two trees of the arjuna species that stood in the courtyard of Nanda Maharaja until Krishna uprooted them. Formerly sons of Kuvera, they had been cursed to stand as trees until delivered by Krishna.
listen arka
A large-leafed plant whose leaves are used in sacred rituals.
listen Arshtishena
The chief among the citizens of Kimpurusha-varsha, who have bodies half human and half animal.
listen artha
Economic development, one of the four standard goals of human life.
listen artha-vada
The statements of shruti that praise, encourage, or explain rather than enjoin ritual duties. The term is sometimes used perjoratively to indicate flowery praise that cannot be taken literally.
listen arya
A civilized human being, one who lives according to the standards of the Vedic culture.
listen Aryama
The chief of the departed forefathers residing in Pitaloka. He sometimes stands in for Yamaraja, the judge of the dead.
listen Aryans
Persons living according to the cultured standards of Vedic civilization.
listen Aryavarta
The “home of the Aryans,” comprising the part of India bounded by seas on the west and east, by the Himalaya Mountains on the north, and by the Vindhya Mountains on the south.
listen asanas
Postures assumed in yoga practice to purify the body and mind; a seat.
listen asakti
attachment for Krishna.
listen asat
temporary; without factual existence.
listen ashoka
Saraca indica, blooming in early March, ashoka flowers are crimson and blossom in bunches. It is said to flower upon being touched by a beautiful woman’s feet.
listen ashoka grove
The garden where Ravana kept Sitadevi captive, guarded by Rakshasis.
listen ashrama
1. The hermitage of a sage or teacher. 2. One of the four stages of spiritual development in the varnashrama social system: brahmacharya (celibate student life), grihastha (marriage), vanaprastha (retirement), and sannyasa (the renounced order).
listen ashraya
shelter.
listen ashtanga-yoga
The eight-phase system of yoga practice taught by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga-sutras.
listen ashta-sattvika
the eight-fold bodily transformations of ecstatic love for Krishna.
listen ashvamedha
The elaborate Vedic horse sacrifice.
listen Ashvatthama
The son of Dronacharya who fought against the Pandavas at Kurukshetra. In a desperate act of revenge at the end of the battle, he killed the five young sons of the Pandavas in their sleep and tried to kill the last remaining heir, Parikshit, in his mother’s womb.
listen asura
demon or ungodly person, who oppose the demigods and the service of the Lord.
listen asuric
demoniac.
listen atasi flower
linum usitatissimum, flax, a plant with lance-shaped leaves that produces pretty sky blue or violet-blue flowers each spring and summer.
listen atimukta flowers
a type of jasmine.
listen atma
The individual spirit soul, an eternal fragment of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
listen atmarama
those who find their pleasure in experiencing the self.
listen atma-tattva
knowledge of the self.
listen Atri
A Vedic sage, born of the mind of Brahma. When Atri prayed to the Supreme for a son like Him, but without a clear idea of who the Supreme is, the Lords Vishnu, Brahma, and Siva all agreed to become his sons—as Dattatreya, Soma, and Durvasa.
listen avadhuta
a spiritually advanced person whose activities are not restricted by social convention.
listen Avanti
One of the seven sacred cities that can bestow liberation. Krishna’s spiritual master, Sandipani Muni, resided there, and Krishna and Balarama lived there as students in his ashrama. Avanti has become the modern city of Ujjain, in the western part of Madhya Pradesh.
listen avatara
A “descent” of the Supreme Lord to the material world in one of His many forms.
listen avatari
The original Supreme Lord, from whom all avataras expand.
listen avidya
ignorance.
listen Ayodhya
The capital of the Koshala kingdom, inherited by Lord Ramachandra from His ancestors. It is located in south-central Uttar Pradesh. The original Ayodhya in the eternal kingdom of God lies above the other Vaikuntha worlds and below Goloka Vrindavana.
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