Dictionary of common Sanskrit spiritual words
a - aham

a

as a prefix to another word, it changes it into the negative. e.g. vidya - knowledge, avidya - ignorance.

abhava

non-existence, absence. See anupalabdhi.

abhasa

semblance, phantom, fallacious appearance.

Shankara’s teaching metaphor of the white crystal taking on the color of adjacent objects is called AbhAsa vAda – the argument of appearance.

abhimana

self-conceit, pride; conception (esp. an erroneous one regarding one’s self).

abhyasa

exercise, discipline; in Raja Yoga, this refers to “the effort of the mind to remain in its unmodified condition of purity (sattva).” Ramana Maharshi sometimes refers to a spiritual aspirant as an abhyAsI – i.e. one who practices.

acharya

a spiritual guide or teacher. See shankaracharya.

achintya

inconceivable or beyond thought.

adhama

lowest, vilest, worst.

adhibhautika

(resulting) from such things as wars, disagreements, natural disasters. adhi means from, from the presence; bhautika means anything elemental or material.

adhidaivika

(resulting) from the presence of divine or supernatural forces. adhi means from, from the presence; daivika is the adjective from deva (god) meaning coming from the gods, divine.

adhikari

a seeker who is mentally prepared (see chatuShTaya sampatti) and therefore ready to receive the final teaching from the guru; literally “possessing authority, entitled to, fit for.” adhikAra effectively means ‘eligibility’.

adhisthana

substratum; literally basis, support, that upon which something rests.

adhyaropa

erroneously attributing one thing to another.

adhyaropa-apavada

One of the principal methods of teaching Advaita, whereby an attribute is applied to brahman initially (and erroneously – hence adhyAropa) but is later taken back, once the point has been understood. apavAda means denial or contradiction. An example would be the teaching of the kosha-s.

adhyasa

used to refer to the “mistake” that we make when we “superimpose” a false appearance upon the reality or mix up the real and the unreal. The classical example is when we see a snake instead of a rope, which is used as a metaphor for seeing the world of objects instead of the reality of the Self. This concept is fundamental to Advaita and Shankara devotes a separate section to it at the beginning of his commentary on the Brahmasutra.

adhyaya

lesson, lecture or chapter.

adhyatmika

resulting from self, i.e. problems such as pain and mental suffering. adhi means from, from the presence; Atmika means relating to self.

adrishta

unseen, imperceptible, unforeseen, invisible, unobserved, unknown.

Advaita

not (a) two (dvaita); non-dual philosophy. (Adjective – advitIya – unique, without a second.)

agama

acquisition of knowledge, science; traditional doctrine; anything handed down and fixed by tradition; also used as equivalent to shabda, the pramANa of the scriptures.

agamin

That type of sanskara which is generated in reaction to current situations and which will not bear fruit until sometime in the future. It literally means 'impending', 'approaching' or 'coming'. Also called kriyamANa, which means 'being done'. See prarabdha, sanchita, sanskara.

agocara

(literally) imperceptible by the senses but treated as anything that is unavailable to any pramANa other than shabda (i.e. scriptures).

agrahya

inconceivable, inadmissible.

aham

I.