Dictionary of common Sanskrit spiritual words
jaDa - kANDa

Note that words appear in order of the Roman alphabet, not the Sanskrit alphabet.

jada

inert, lifeless.

jagat

the world (earth), mankind etc.

jagrat

the waking state of consciousness. The “waker ego” is called vishva. See also, sushupti, svapna, turiya.

jalpa

talk, speech, discourse; disputation with ‘overbearing and disputed rejoinder’; arguing for the sake of winning, irrespective of who is right. (Three types of disputation: jalpa, vitaNDa, vAda.)

janma

birth.

japa

the simple repetition of a mantra; usually associated with the initial stage of meditation. See mantra.

jati

birth, the form of existence (as man, animal etc.); genus or species.

jijnasu

one who desires to know oneself; a seeker.

jiva

the identification of the Atman with a body and mind; sometimes spoken of as “the embodied Atman.” See atman.

jivanmukti

(mukta is the adjective – liberated; mukti is the noun – liberation) the emotional benefits of Self-knowledge; the ‘secondary’ gain of enlightenment (dependent upon whether the seeker was fully qualifies according to sAdhana chatuShTaya sampatti. A jIvanmukta is one is both enlightened and who lives with these benefits, which manifest in outward love and compassion.

jivatman

another word for Atman, to emphasise that we are referring to the Atman in this 'embodied state', as opposed to the paramAtman, the “supreme Self.” See atman.

jnana (yoga) (note that jnana is often written gyana)

yoga based on the acquisition of true knowledge (j~nAna means “knowledge”) i.e. knowledge of the Self as opposed to mere information about the world of appearances (vidyA). See also bhakti, karma.

jnana kanda

those sections of the Vedas concerned with knowledge, i.e. the Upanishads.

jnana nishta

the full and final knowledge that this Self is all that there is.

jnanendriya

an organ of perception (eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin), plural j~nAnendryAni.

jnani or jnanin

literally, one who is endowed with knowledge or intelligence; a sage; often used to refer to one who is enlightened. (j~nAnin is the prAtipadika j~nAnI is the nominative singular pada.) See jnana (yoga).

jnatri

one who knows or understands; also sometimes used interchangeably with sAkShin (witness).

jneya

heart, seat of feelings and sensations; heart or essence of something; true or divine knowledge.

jyotis

light (of sun, dawn, lightning etc.); fire; light as the divine principle of life, intelligence.

Kailssa

fabled paradise of Shiva in the Himalayas.

kaivalya

absolute unity, detachment of the soul from further transmigration, leading to eternal happiness or emancipation.

Kali yuga

the present and final age (Iron age) in a cycle of creation (followed by dissolution - pralaya -and start again). See kalpa.

kalpa

one day in the life of Brahma, the Creator; equal to 994 cycles of ages and 4,320,000,000 years.

kama

desire, longing; one of the four puruShArtha-s. Shankara differentiates this from rAga: rAga is attachment to something one already has whereas kAma is wanting something one doesn’t have. (Not to be confused with karma.) See purushartha.

kamya

desirable, agreeable; more usually encountered in the context of 'action' - kAmya karma means actions prompted by desire or the wish for personal benefit, as opposed to nitya karma, done out of a sense of duty.

kanda

part or section, division of a work or book, especially relating to the Vedas.