GLOSSARY OF FOREIGN TERMS AND NAMES


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ABDULLAH: Disciple of Hazrat Mian Mir, a great saint

ACHAR: Personal conduct

AHAR: Diet

AHIMSA: Non-violence; non-injury

AKASHBANI: Heavenly Music; NAAM; Word

ANIMA: The power to become invisible to external eyes; one of the eight sidhis

ARTHA: Economic or material well-being; one of the four spheres of human activity

ASHRAMS: The four stages in life, as envisioned by the ancients

ASHTAVAKRA: A great rishi of old

ATAM GUNAS: Attributes of soul

ATMAN: Spirit

AVTARAS: Incarnations

BABA FARID: (1173-1265) A Muslim Divine

BABER: The first Mughal King of India

BAHISHT: Paradise

BAIKUNTH: Paradise

BANG-I-ASMANI: Heavenly Sound; Word

BHAGWAT: One of the eighteen Hindu Puranas

BHAI BHIKAR:I A devotee of the Sikh Gurus

BHAI MANI SINGH: A devotee of the Sikh Gurus

BHAJAN: Listening to Heavenly Music within

BRAHMAND: A Grand Division of Creation, involving three planes

BRAHMANS: Priests; the highest of the four Hindu castes

BRAHMCHARYA: The practice of celibacy; also, first of the four ashrams, the stage of education

BUDDHA: The Awakened or Enlightened One; Seer of the Inner Light. Title given to Prince Siddhartha Gautama (583-463 B.C.), founder of the Buddhist religion

DARVESH: Muslim term for mystic or God-man

DEVAS: Gods, divine beings

DHARITRASHTRA, KING: Blind ruler of the Mahabharata age

DHARMA: Moral or religious basis upholding and supporting the Universe; life-principle; group karmas of society or nation

DHARMA-KAYA: Essence of the Universe; body pulsating with Life Principle

DHYAN: Meditation; contemplation

DO JANMA: Twice born

ERAF: Purgatory

FANA-FI-SHEIKH: Self-effacement in the Murshid or Master

GANDHARVAS: A class of angels

GARIMA: The power to make the body heavy as one wishes; one of the eight sidhis

GREHASTHA: Householder; one of the four ashrams

GUNAS: The three qualities: Sava (purity), Rajas (activity), and Tamas (inertia)

GURBANI: Writings of the Sikh Masters or Adi Granth; esoterically, Shabd or Word

GURBHAKTA: A devotee of the Guru

GURU: Spiritual teacher or Master; literally, dispeller of darkness or torchbearer

GURU ARJAN (1563-1606): Fifth Guru of the Sikhs

GURU GOBIND SINGH: (1666-1708) Tenth Guru of the Sikhs

GURU NANAK: (1469-1539) First Guru of the Sikhs

HADI: Guide

HAZRAT MIAN MIR: A Muslim mystic, contemporary with Guru Arjan

HAZUR BABA SAWAN SINGH JI (1858-1948): The Supreme Master of the present living Master, Kirpal Singh

HUMAYUN: King Baber's son

ISHTWA: The power to attain all glories for the self

JAGAT GURU: Spiritual Master of the world; universal Master

JAPJI: An epitome of the Sikh Scriptures (online)

JIVA: Soul when encased by any or all of the three bodies: physical, astral, or causal

JIVAN MUKAT: Liberated soul

JIVAN MUKTI: Liberation from the cycle of births and deaths while living in the physical body; true Salvation

KABIR (1398-1518): A great poet-saint, contemporary with Guru Nanak

KALMA or KALM-I-QADIM: Audible Life Stream; Sound Current; Word

KAMA: Passion; desire; one of the four spheres of human activity

KARAM: Kindness, mercy, compassion, grace

KARMA-REHAT: Doing Karma in accordance with the Divine Plan; being actionless in action

KARMAN-SRIRA: Karmic shell or subtle body

KSHATRIYAS: Warriors and rulers; the second of the four Hindu castes

KINNARS: A class of angels

KRISHNA, LORD: A great Hindu Incarnate of ancient times, whose teachings are expounded in the Bhagavad Gita

KRIYAMAN: Karmas one performs freely in present earth life, which will make or mar the future; willful actions

KUKARMAS: Evil deeds

KURVAS: One of the parties in the great battle of Mahabharata

LACHIMA: The power to make one's body as light as one wishes; one of the eight sidhis

MAHATMA: A Great Soul

MAHIMA: The power to extend one's body to any size; one of the eight sidhis

MAULANA RUMI: (1207-1273) A Persian Saint, author of Masnavi

MAYA: Illusion

MOKSHA: Salvation; liberation from the cycle of births and deaths; one of the four spheres of human activity

MUNI: Sage or holy man

MURSHID or MURSHID-I-KAMIL: Muslim term for Spiritual Master or perfect guide

NAAM: Word; Logos; Sound Current; the creative aspect of God; God in action

NADIR SHAH: A King of Persia who massacred Delhi

NASHEDH: Degrading, derogatory karmas

NEH-KARMA: Doing Karma in accordance with the Divine Plan, as a conscious co-worker with the Power of God; actionless in action

NETYA: Required Karmas

NISH-KAMA KARMA: Karma performed without any attachment to or desire for the fruits thereof

PANDIT: One learned in Hindu Scriptures

PIND: Physical universe; physical body; the lowest and least spiritual division

PINDI MANAS: Bodily mind

PRAKAYMA: The ability to fulfill wishes of others; one of the eight sidhis

PRAKRITIS: Twenty-five manifestations of nature

PRALABDHA: Luck, fate, destiny; that Karma which caused our present life, and which has to be worked off before death

PRAPTI: The power to get anything one likes by mere wishing; one of the eight sidhis

PRASHCHIT: Repentance

PURANAS: Hindu Scriptures

RAJA JANAK: A great saintly king of ancient India

RAJA PRIKSHAT: A Hindu king of old

RAJAS GUNA or RAJOGUN: One of the three gunas; the quality of activity; middle course, business-like fashion, give and take

RAJSIC: Pertaining to Rajas guna; as applied to diet, energy-producing

RAMA: God

RAMA, LORD: A great Hindu Incarnate and hero of the Ramayana

RAM CHARITRA MANSA: Hindi Ramayana by Tulsi Das (sixteenth century)

RIDHIS: Supernatural powers

RISHI: Sage or seer; usually refers to God-men of ancient times, such as those who compiled the Hindu Scriptures

SADH or SADHU: Disciplined soul; saint; popularly, wandering ascetic

SADHANS: Spiritual, mental and physical exercise

SAKYA MUNI: One of the titles of Lord Buddha

SANCHIT: Stored Karmas SANT Saint; one who has united with God

SANT SATGURU or SATGURU: Master of the Highest Order; Perfect Master; God-man

SANYAS: One of the four ashrams; the stage of a spiritual pilgrim

SAROOP: Form

SATSANG: Discourse of a perfect Master; congregation presided over by such a Master or His representative; contact with a Master, on the outer or inner planes; literally, association with Truth

SATSANGIS: Disciples of a perfect Master

SATVA GUNA or SATOGUN: One of the three gunas or qualities; pure living with mental equipoise

SATVIC: Pertaining to Satva guna; harmonious, tranquil; as applied to diet, those foods which produce harmony and tranquility, i.e., strictly vegetarian foods

SAUDHYAYA: Reading of scriptural texts

SIDHIS: The eight extraordinary yogic powers

SIMRAN: Remembrance; esoterically, repetition of the Names of God

SUDRAS: The lowest of the four Hindu castes; manual laborers and servants of the upper three

SUKAMA: Good desires

SUKARMAS: Upgrading karmas

SURAT: Attention; the expression of the Soul

SURAT SHABD YOGA: Absorption in Holy Word or Sacred Sound; the esoteric spiritual practice of merging with the Absolute by uniting (Yoga) the expression of the soul (surat) with the expression of God (Shabd, Naam, or Word)

SWADHARM: Action in inaction

SWAMI RAM TIRATH: God-realized person of recent times

SWARAG: Paradise

TAMAS GUNA or TAMOGUN: One of the three gunas or qualities; inertia or dullness; inferior way; living purely for one's selfish ends with no thought of others

TAMSIC: Pertaining to Tamas guna; inert, dull; as applied to diet, those foods which promote inertia and weigh down the soul, such as meat, fish, eggs, liquor

TAPAS: Austerities

TATHA ASTU: "May it be so," Amen; said at close of prayer in India

TATWAS: Creative and component elements; earth, water, fire, air, ether

UND: The second division of Creation, just above the physical; the astral plane

UPAS: Legendary tree of multitudinous desires

VAIRAGYA: Detachment

VAISHYAS: Those engaged in commerce or agriculture; third of the four Hindu castes

VANPRASTHA: Ascetic, hermit; one of the four ashrams

VARNS: Social orders; the four Hindu castes

VASHITWA: The power to bring others under one's influence and control; one of the eight sidhis

VEDAS: The four most holy Hindu Scriptures

VIHAR: Dealings, social conduct

VIKARMAS: Prohibited actions

YAJNAS: Sacrifices

YAKSHAS: A class of angels

YAMA: Angel of Death


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