Ashtanga yoga—the intermediate series : mythology, anatomy, and practice

GLOSSARY

ABDUCTOR A muscle that draws a bone away from the midline of the body.

ACHARYA Teacher; one who has studied the texts, has practiced the methods, has achieved the results, and is capable of communicating them.

ADDUCTOR A muscle that draws a bone toward the midline of the body.

ADHIKARA Fitness; a set of criteria that determines whether a student is fit to follow the methods of a particular school of yoga, determined by the student’s current level of spiritual growth.

ADI PARVA The first chapter of the Mahabharata.

ADVAITA VEDANTA Upanishadic philosophy founded by Acharya Gaudapada and developed by Acharya Shankara that propounds unqualified monism, holding that the individual self (atman) and the deep reality (Brahman) are identical.

AGNI Fire.

AHAMKARA Egoity; the source of identification as “I” or as the one who owns a perception; not to be mistaken with the Freudian term ego.

AJNA CHAKRA The sixth chakra, the third-eye energy center.

AKASHA Space, ether.

AKSHARA Syllable.

AMRITA The nectar of immortality.

ANAHATTA CHAKRA The fourth chakra, the heart energy center.

ANANDA Ecstasy, bliss.

ANANTA Infinity; a name of the serpent of infinity.

ANTERIOR Forward, in front of; opposite of posterior.

ANTEVERSION Angle or degree to which the head of the femur points forward when seen from above.

APANA Vital downward energy current.

APSARAS A celestial nymph and dancer whose duty is to use her eroticism to distract rishis from their ascetic practices, thus restoring the balance of the universe.

ARJUNA Hero of the Mahabharata who metaphorically represents the lower or phenomenal self.

ARTHAVEDA The Upaveda (ancillary Veda) pertaining to economy.

ASAMPRAJNATA Objectless samadhi, supercognitive samadhi.

ASANA Posture; the third limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

ASHRAMA The hermitage of an ascetic; also, the four stages of life, that is, brahmacharyagrhastavanaprashta, and sannyasin.

ASHTADHYAYI The treatise on Sanskrit grammar authored by Panini.

ASHTANGA VINYASA YOGA Ancient mode of Ashtanga Yoga that was revived in modern days by Shri T. Krishnamacharya.

ASIS Anterior superior iliac spine of the ilium.

ASMITA Literally, I-am-ness; egoism, one of the five forms of suffering; also, the form of objective samadhi that arises when pure I-am-ness is witnessed.

ASTRA A missile, an arrow released with a magical incantation.

ASURA A demon or anti-god; a powerful being overcome by the tamas guna.

ATHARVAVEDA One of the four Vedas.

ATMAN The true self, consciousness; the term Vedanta uses instead of purusha.

AVATARA Divine manifestation.

AVIDYA Ignorance.

AYURVEDA Ancient Indian medicine, one of the four subsidiary Vedas (Upavedas).

BANDHA Bond, energetic lock.

BEDA ABEDA Identity-in-difference doctrine; a doctrine held by Ramanuja that states that the individual soul is identical with the Supreme Being in the fact that it is pure consciousness, yet different in that the Supreme Being is omnipotent and the soul is not.

BHAGAVAD GITA Song of the Lord; the most influential of all shastras, in which the Supreme Being in the form of Lord Krishna amalgamates the teachings of Samkhya, Yoga, and Vedanta.

BHAGAVATA PURANA Also called Shrimad Bhagavatam, a Purana that deals with devotion to the Supreme Being in the form of Lord Vishnu and describes some of the avataras of Vishnu, including Krishna.

BHAKTI Devotion; from bhaj, “to divide,” the belief that there is an eternal divide between the Supreme Being and the world that cannot be overcome through knowledge, and hence the Supreme Being must be met with an attitude of devotion.

BHAKTI YOGA Yoga of love, the practice of devotion to the Supreme Being.

BHARADVAJA A Vedic rishi.

BHOGA Consummation, experience, bondage.

BHUMIKA Stage; the stage of evolution of a practitioner, which determines his fitness (adhikara) for a particular practice.

BHUTA SHUDDHI Elemental purification; the traditional way of involuting by dissolving each element (bhuta) into the next higher element, thus climbing up the ladder of the chakras.

BIJA AKSHARA Root syllable; a mantra related to a particular chakra and element.

BONDAGE Erroneous identification with the transitory.

BRAHMA A five-headed deity; the creator, the first being that appears at the beginning of each universe and forms the universe based on its beings’ subconscious conditioning — the Brahma of the current universe is called Prajapati (progenitor), the grandsire of humankind.

BRAHMACHARYA Recognition of Brahman in everything; also, celibacy.

BRAHMA, LORD A deity, the creator; the first being that arises at the beginning of each universe due to its subconscious desire and conditioning.

BRAHMAN Infinite consciousness, deep reality, the reality that cannot be reduced to a deeper layer.

BRAHMARANDHRA Gate of Brahman; the upper end of sushumna.

BRAHMA SHIRSHA ASTRA Brahma’s head missile, the most destructive of all missiles.

BRAHMA SUTRA Principal treatise of the Vedanta, authored by Rishi Vyasa.

BRAHMA VIDYA An alternative name for Jnana Yoga; a Jnanin aims to recognize the identity between his self (atman) and the infinite consciousness (Brahman).

BRAHMIN One who serves God through his spirit; also, a member of the priest caste.

BRHAD ARANYAKA UPANISHAD Literally, “forest-dweller Upanishad”; the oldest and most revered Upanishad.

BUDDHI Intellect, seat of intelligence.

BUDDHI YOGA Yoga of intellect; a term generally applied to Samkhya.

CERVICAL SPINE The vertebrae of the neck.

CHAKRA Subtle energy center in the body.

CHARAKA SAMHITA Treatise on Ayurveda; the author, Charaka, is said to be an incarnation of Patanjali.

CHANDAS The Vedanga (Vedic limb) pertaining to meter.

CHIT Consciousness.

CHITTA The mind; the aggregate of intellect (buddhi), egoity (ahamkara), and thinking agent (manas).

COGNITION The effort of the mind to identify and interpret data supplied by the senses.

COGNITIVE SAMADHI Objective samadhisamadhi whose arising depends on cognition of an object.

CONSCIOUSNESS That which is conscious, the observer, awareness; this definition is opposed to that of modern psychology, which sees consciousness as that which we are conscious of.

COUNTER-NUTATION Annulling of a forward-bowing movement of the sacrum.

DARSHANA View, system of philosophy. The darshanas are divided into orthodox and heterodox, depending on whether they accept or reject the authority of the Vedas. The orthodox darshanas are Samkhya(rational inquiry), Yoga (science of the mind), Mimamsa (science of action), Nyaya (logic), Vaiseshika (cosmology), and Vedanta (analysis of the Upanishads). These darshanas ideally do not compete with each other but solve different problems. The Yoga master T. Krishnamacharya had degrees in all six systems. The heterodox darshanas are Jaina (Jainism), Baudha (Buddhism), and Charvaka(materialism). A special case is Tantra, which is neither accepted as orthodox nor seen as heterodox. Shankara was probably the last human being to have mastered all ten systems of philosophy.

DEVA Celestial being, divine image, or divine form; often translated as “god.”

DEVANAGARI City of the Gods; the script used to write Sanskrit.

DEVI SARASVATI The goddess of learning, art, and speech. DHANURVEDA The Upaveda (ancillary Veda) pertaining to military science.

DHARANA Concentration; the sixth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

DHARMA Characteristic, attribute; righteousness, virtue.

DHARMA SHASTRA Scripture dealing with right action.

DHYANA Generally translated as “meditation,” an ongoing stream of awareness from the meditator toward the object of meditation and of information from the object toward the meditator; the seventh limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

DHYANA YOGA Yoga of meditation.

DOSHAS In Ayurveda, the three constitution types of the body, that is, vatapitta, and kapha.

DRISHTI Focal point.

EIGHT LIMBS The eight constituents of Patanjali’s yoga: yamaniyamaasanapranayamapratyaharadharanadhyana, and samadhi.

EKAGRA CHITTA Single-pointed mind, the mind fit to practice higher yoga.

ENTROPY The amount of disorder in a system; the second law of thermodynamics states that with the progress of time, the amount of entropy (disorder) in each system, such as the universe, increases, until the system breaks down.

EXTENSION Increasing the angle between two bones.

FEMUR Thighbone.

FLEXION Decreasing the angle between two bones.

FULL-VINYASA SYSTEM Asana practice in which one does a vinyasa to standing (the equivalent of performing Surya Namskara A) between sitting postures.

GANDHA Subtle earth element; quantum (tanmatra) of earth; smell.

GANDHARVAVEDA The Upaveda (ancillary Veda) pertaining to music.

GANESHA, LORD The first son of Lord Shiva and the Great Goddess Uma Parvati, the keeper of the gateway to heaven.

GAYATRI The most sacred of all mantras, conceived by the Rishi Vishvamitra.

GHERANDA SAMHITA A Tantric treatise describing Hatha Yoga.

GLENOID FOSSA The cavity of the shoulder joint.

GLENOID LABRUM The cartilage lining of the glenoid fossa.

GOVINDA A cowherd; also, a name of Lord Krishna, who was, when young, hidden in a rural village to escape the murderous wrath of his uncle Kamsa.

GREAT GODDESS The female aspect of the Supreme Being, known under many names, such as Uma, Durga, Parvati, Devi, and Shakti.

GUNAS The qualities or strands of prakrti that form, through their various intertwinings, all phenomena; the three gunas are rajastamas, and sattva.

HALF-VINYASA SYSTEM Practice in which one transits through Chaturanga Dandasana, Upward Dog, and Downward Dog between sitting postures.

HAMSA A swan; a metaphor for the soul; a vehicle of Lord Brahma; the name of the mantra by which prakrti permeates the universe.

HANUMAN, LORD Monkey-god, hero of the Ramayana, egoless superhero, and perfect devotee.

HATHA YOGA A Tantric school of yoga that was founded in approximately 1100 CE by the master Gorakhnath; literally, sun/moon yoga, it emphasizes balancing the solar and lunar energy channels in the body. Hatha Yoga shifted the focus away from the mysticism and philosophy of the older Upanishadic types of yoga toward using the body as a tool.

HATHA YOGA PRADIPIKA A Tantric treatise authored by Svatmarama.

HEART Sanskrit hrdaya, referring to the core of all phenomena, which according to the Vedanta is consciousness; if the term is used in an anatomical instruction, it refers to the core of the rib cage.

HUMERUS Arm bone.

HYPEREXTENSION Extension beyond 180 degrees.

IDA Lunar energy channel, connected to the left nostril.

INDRA, LORD Lord of Thunder, king of the heavens.

INSERTION OF A MUSCLE The end of the muscle that is distant from the center of the body.

INTELLECT Seat of intelligence.

ISHTADEVATA Meditation deity; a personal projection that enables one to establish a devotional relationship to the Supreme Being.

ISHVARA The Supreme Being, Brahman, with form.

ISOMETRIC EXERCISE Exercise in which the targeted muscle does not get shortened.

ISOTONIC EXERCISE Exercise that involves shortening a muscle.

ITIHASAS Scriptures that deal with what once was, history: the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Yoga Vashishta.

JAGAT GURU A world teacher; an ephithet given to teachers such as Shankaracharya or Ramanujacharya.

JIVA Phenomenal self; an image of oneself that is formed through contact with the manifold phenomena of the material and subtle world; not the true self.

JNANA Knowledge; specifically, knowledge of the self. JNANA YOGA Yoga that seeks to teach the identity of the individual self (atman) and the infinite consciousness (Brahman).

JNANIN Knower; specifically, a knower of the self.

JYOTISHA The Vedanga (Vedic limb) pertaining to astrology.

KADGA A sacrificial sword.

KALAKUTA A world poison, which appeared during the churning of the oceans by the devas and asuras and was imbibed by Lord Shiva to save the world from destruction.

KALI YUGA The current age, the age of darkness, which started in 3102 BCE with the death of Lord Krishna.

KALPA The Vedanga (Vedic limb) pertaining to ritual.

KAMADHENU A celestial wish-fulfilling cow, a symbol of giving and fertility.

KANDAS Portions; divisions of the Vedas.

KAPHA One of the three ayurvedic constitution types, sometimes translated as “phlegm.”

KAPALIKA A skull carrier; a sect worshipping Lord Shiva.

KAPILA, RISHI Founder of Samkhya, the first systematic philosophy, noted in the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana as a manifestation of the Supreme Being.

KARANA SHARIRA The causal body; the body of knowledge and intelligence.

KARMA Action.

KARMA KANDA OF THE VEDA The portion of the Veda that deals with action.

KARMA, LAW OF Law of cause and effect.

KARMASHAYA Karmic storehouse; place where the effects of our actions are stored.

KARMA YOGA Yoga of action; in its original Vedic sense, Karma Yoga is any yoga that employs ritualistic action, such as asana, meditation, or mantra, to produce spiritual gain. The term excludes Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, which are thought to operate beyond spiritual gain.

KARTIKEYA, LORD The second son of Lord Shiva and the Great Goddess Uma Parvati; a general of the celestial army, also called Murugan, Ayeppa, Subhramaniam, Kumara, or Skanda.

KATHA SARIT SAGARA A collection of Indian folktales and fables, attributed to Somadeva.

KRISHNA, LORD A form of the Supreme Being, avatara of Lord Vishnu, teacher in the Bhagavad Gita; a metaphor for the divine self.

KRISHNAMURTI, JIDDU An outstanding teacher of the twentieth century who placed emphasis on sound reasoning and on the axiom that all initiation is self-initiation.

KRIYA YOGA Preliminary yoga consisting of simplicity (tapas), the reading of sacred texts (svadhyaya), and acceptance of the existence of a Supreme Being (Ishvara pranidhana); also, a Tantric mode of yoga using breath, mantra, and visualization.

KRODHA YOGA Yoga of hatred and aversion.

KSHATRIYA One who serves God through one’s will; also, a member of the warrior caste.

KUMBHAKA Breath retention, an important pranayama method; sometimes used synonymously with pranayama.

KUNDALINI The obstacle that closes the mouth of sushumna; the rising of shakti in the sushumna.

KUNDALINI YOGA A mode of yoga that focuses on the raising of the life force.

KURUKSHETRA Field of action; the location of the battle of the Mahabharata; also, a metaphor for daily life.

KYPHOSIS Forward curvature of the spine.

LATERAL Sideward, away from midline of the body.

LATERAL ROTATION External rotation.

LAYA YOGA Yoga of concentration.

LIBERATION To recognize one’s true nature as the eternal, immutable consciousness.

LORDOSIS Backward curvature of the spine.

LUMBAR SPINE The vertebrae of the low back.

MADHYAMA The third phase of sound; all subtle mantric sounds; the Sanskrit language.

MAHABHARATA The largest piece of literature created by humankind, authored by Rishi Vyasa and containing the Bhagavad Gitadharma shastra (scripture dealing with right action), which comes to the conclusion that however hard you try, you can never be completely right.

MAHABHUTA Gross element, that is, earth, water, and so on.

MAHAPRALAYA A great dissolution of a cycle of world ages (Maha Yuga).

MAHAVRATA A great vow, a form of penance adopted by Lord Shiva after severing the head of Lord Brahma, which led to the rise of the Kapalika order.

MAHA YUGA Great yuga, consisting of the four ages, Satya YugaTreta YugaDvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga.

MALA A garland, often of prayer beads or flowers.

MANANA Contemplating.

MANDALA A circular drawing that exemplifies sacred geometry and serves as a meditation object.

MANIPURAKA The third chakra, the navel chakra, the fire energy center.

MANTRA A mystical syllable designed to create and alter reality by influencing the vibrational patterns that make up creation.

MANTRA YOGA A mode of yoga that focuses on the use of sound waves and incantations.

MATRYOSHKA Nested Russian dolls; a metaphor for the interrelationship of the eight limbs of yoga.

MEDIAL Toward midline of the body.

MEDIAL ROTATION Internal rotation.

MIMAMSA Ritualism.

MOKSHA Liberation from bondage.

MOKSHA SHASTRA Any scripture dealing with liberation.

MOUNT MERU The name of the world axis; the subtle equivalent of Mount Kailasha in Tibet.

MUDHA CHITTA A mind that is infatuated with materialistic concerns and therefore unfit to do yoga.

MUDRA An energetic seal, usually a combination of asanapranayama, and bandha.

MUKHA Free, unbound.

MUKTI Liberation, emancipation.

MULA BANDHA Root lock; contraction of the pubococcygeus.

MULADHARA The first chakra, the base chakra, the earth energy center.

NADI Literally, river; an energy channel in the subtle body.

NADI SHODHANA Purification of the energy channels.

NARADA A rishi, author of the Bhakti Sutra, and attendant of the Lord Vishnu.

NIDHIDHYASANA To be permanently established in self-knowledge.

NIDRA Deep dreamless sleep, the third state listed in the Mandukya Upanishad (the others are waking state [jagrat], dream [shushupti], and consciousness [turiya]; also, the fourth fluctuation of the mind listed by Patanjali in Yoga Sutra I.6 (the others are correct cognition, wrong cognition, perceptualization, and memory).

NIRGUNA Formless, qualityless.

NIRGUNA BRAHMAN Formless Brahman, deep reality, infinite consciousness.

NIRODHA CHITTA A suspended mind; the natural state of mind; the goal of yoga.

NIRUKTA The Vedanga (Vedic limb) pertaining to etymology.

NIYAMA Observances; the second limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

NUTATION A forward-bowing movement of the sacrum or the Earth axis.

NYAYA The Vedic system of logic.

OBJECT Everything that is not the subject (consciousness), including ego, intelligence, and the universe.

OBJECT OF MEDITATION Any object of sattvic quality, such as a mantra, the symbol Om, a yantra or mandala (sacred geometry), a lotus flower, the breath, one’s meditation deity, emptiness, the light or sound in the heart, the intellect, the subtle elements.

OBJECTIVE SAMADHI Samadhi whose arising depends on an object.

OBJECTLESS SAMADHI Samadhi whose arising does not depend on an object and therefore can reveal the subject, pure consciousness.

OM The sacred syllable emitted by the Supreme Being, the sound that produces all other sounds and into which all other sounds return.

ORIGIN OF A MUSCLE The end of the muscle that is closer to the center of the body.

PADA Foot; also, a subdivision of a text.

PANDAVAS The five sons of King Pandu: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Sahadeva, and Nakula.

PANINI Rishi and Sanskrit grammarian.

PARA The first phase of sound; divine intention; shabda Brahman.

PARAVAIRAGYA Supreme surrender or detachment, total letting go.

PASHUPATA Lord of the Beasts; a name of Lord Shiva; an ancient school of Shiva worshipers.

PASHYANTI The second phase of sound; the sacred syllable Om.

PATANJALI The author of the Yoga Sutra and treatises on Sanskrit and Ayurveda; a manifestation of the serpent of infinity.

PINGALA Solar energy channel.

PITTA One of the three ayurvedic constitution types, sometimes translated as “bile.”

POSTERIOR In back of; opposite of anterior.

PRAKRTI Procreatress, procreativeness, nature; the matrix or womb that produces the entire subtle and gross universe apart from consciousness.

PRANA Life force or inner breath; also, sometimes refers to anatomical or outer breath; also, vital upward energy current.

PRANAYAMA Breath extension, breathing exercises to harmonize the flow of life force; the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

PRASHTHANA TRAYI Triple canon of authoritative texts: the UpanishadsBhagavad Gita, and Brahma Sutra.

PRATYAHARA Independence from sensory stimuli; the fifth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

PRITHVI Gross earth element.

PURANA Literally, ancient, pure; the word that gave rise to the English word pure and contains the concept that things are purest at their outset or origin.

PURANAS Sacred texts that relate mysticism and philosophy, in the form of allegories and stories.

PURUSHA Pure consciousness, which is eternal and immutable; term used by Samkhya and yoga instead of atman.

RAJAS Frenzy, energy, dynamics; one of the gunas of prakrti.

RAJA YOGA Royal yoga; a term generally applied to the three higher limbs of Ashtanga Yoga, that is, dharanadhyana, and samadhi.

RAMA, LORD Sixth avatara of Lord Vishnu; hero of the Ramayana who proves that however great the mess, if you always give your best, you will end up okay.

RAMANA MAHARSHI An important Jnana Yogi of the twentieth century.

RAMANUJA, ACHARYA One of the world teachers; a teacher of Bhakti Yoga, the founder of Visishtadvaita Vedanta, the propounder of the identity-in-difference doctrine, and the author of Shri Bhashya commentary on the Brahma Sutra.

RAMAYANA Literally, Rama’s way; an ancient epic (itihasa) that describes the life of Rama, an avatara of Lord Vishnu.

RIGVEDA One of the four Vedas.

RISHI A Vedic seer, a liberated sage, one who through suspension of the mind can see to the bottom of his heart.

SACRUM The triangular bone that forms the base of the spine, consisting of several fused vertebrae; in ancient Greece, it was thought to contain the soul, hence the name “sacred bone.”

SADHU One who practices a religious sadhana (discipline).

SAGUNA With form, with quality.

SAGUNA BRAHMAN The Supreme Being, Brahman, with form.

SAHASRARA The seventh chakra, the crown chakra, the energy center of consciousness.

SAMADHI Absorption, ecstasy; the eighth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

SAMADHI YOGA Yoga of absorption.

SAMAPATTI The mind’s identity with an object; the state of the mind during objective samadhi.

SAMAVEDA One of the four Vedas.

SAMKHYA The oldest system of philosophy, founded by Rishi Kapila; an analysis of the constituents of creation; a way to achieve liberation by means of intellectual reflection.

SAMKHYA KARIKA The treatise authored by Ishvarakrishna describing the Samkhya system of philosophy. The Karika is of great importance, since it is the oldest surviving text describing the Samkhya on which yoga is based. One needs to keep in mind, however, that this text is younger than the Yoga Sutra and is not representative of older and more original forms of Samkhya.

SAMPRAJNATA Objective samadhi, cognitive samadhi.

SAMSARA Conditioned existence, the endless round of rebirths.

SAMSKARA Subconscious imprint.

SAMYAMA Combined application of dharanadhyana, and objective samadhi.

SANATANA DHARMA Eternal teaching, nowadays mistakenly referred to as Hinduism, the teaching of Hindustan.

SANSKRIT The programming language used to write the operating system of the subtle body; the language of the gods.

SAPTARISHIS The group of the seven most prominent rishis.

SARASVATI The goddess of learning, art, and speech; also, an ancient river.

SAT Truth; according to Indic thought, only what is permanent is true — all else is appearance; the term sat, therefore, applies to pure consciousness only.

SATTVA Light, wisdom, intelligence; one of the gunas of prakrti.

SATYA YUGA The golden age, the age of truth; the first of the four yugas.

SAVITRI Sun god.

SHABDA Sound; the entirety of all vibrational patterns.

SHABDA BRAHMAN Brahmic sound; divine intention.

SHAIVITE A worshiper of Shiva.

SHAKTI The Great Goddess, the consort of Lord Shiva; personification of prakrti; energy, life force, prana.

SHANKARA, ADI World teacher, yoga master, propounder of Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta; author of commentaries on the Brahma Sutra, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and thirty other texts; founder of ten monk orders and four large monasteries whose abbots today still carry the title Shankaracharya. His dates are disputed. Western academics often place him at 800 CE. Tradition places him at 1800 BCE. Also known as Shankaracharya or Shankara Bhagavatpada.

SHASTRA Scriptures, good books; path to truth.

SHATAPATHA BRAHMANA Vedic text describing rituals.

SHATKRIYA Literally, “six actions,” a set of purifying actions used in Hatha Yoga to restore the balance among the three constitution types (doshas) of the body.

SHIKSHA The Vedanga (Vedic limb) pertaining to phonetics.

SHIVA, LORD A name of the Supreme Being, pure consciousness, Brahman with form.

SHLOKA Verse, stanza; also, Sanskrit grammar.

SHOKA Grief, the sentiment that led to the composition of the Ramayana.

SHRAVANA Listening to the instruction of an authentic teacher.

SHRUTI Literally, “that which is heard”; revealed scriptures of divine origin, which are seen or heard by a rishi, that is, the Vedas and Upanishads

SIDDHA A perfected being; a yoga master who has become an immortal, ethereal being.

SIDDHIS Perfections, supernatural powers, proof.

SKANDA, LORD General of the celestial army, Lord of War, second son of Lord Shiva and the Godmother Uma Parvati.

SKANDA PURANA The largest Purana, dedicated to Lord Skanda.

SMRTI Sacred tradition, scriptures conceived by the human mind that explain the revealed shruti; memory, one of the five fluctuations of the mind.

SOMA, LORD Lord of the Moon; lunar deity.

STHULA SHARIRA The gross body, the body visible to the senses.

STUTI Praise, advertising, glorification; the sometimes-confusing tendency of the shastras to exaggerate the effectiveness of the means propounded therein.

SUBTLE Something real but not perceptible to the senses; able to be perceived directly in objective samadhi.

SUPERCOGNITIVE SAMADHI Samadhi beyond cognition of object, objectless samadhisamadhi that reveals the subject, the consciousness.

SUPREME BEING An alternative term for God that is less loaded.

SUSHUMNA The subtle body’s central energy channel; Hatha Yoga’s metaphor for the heart.

SUTRA A short aphorism.

SVADHISHTHANA The second chakra, the lower abdominal chakra, the water energy center.

SVADHYAYA Study of sacred texts.

TAPAS The ability to sustain one’s practice in the face of adversity; also, austere practices, an ancient precursor to yoga.

TAMAS Dullness, inertia, mass; one of the gunas of prakrti.

TANMATRA Subtle element or essence; quantum; infra-atomic potential.

TANTRA The system that focuses on the precise performance of actions rather than mystical speculation; also, the treatise in which this system is described.

TANTRA YOGA A category of yoga modes based on Tantric texts, including Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Mantra Yoga, among others.

TEJAS Inner glow, luster.

THORACIC SPINE The vertebrae of the rib cage.

THORACO-DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING Breathing that includes both the thorax and the abdomen without restricting the diaphragm.

TIBIA Shinbone.

TIRTHA A sacred bathing spot, visited for purification.

TIRTHA YATRA A pilgrimage to a sacred bathing spot. TITTIBHA An insect; also, the name of an asura.

TRIPURA The three demon cities that were destroyed by Lord Shiva’s arrow.

UDDIYANA A precursor to Nauli, which is one of the Shatkriyas of Hatha Yoga; sucking of the abdominal contents up into the thoracic cavity during Kumbhaka, not to be confused with Uddiyana Bandha.

UDDIYANA BANDHA Elevating lock, lower abdominal lock; drawing of the lower abdominal contents in against the spine.

UJJAYI PRANAYAMA Literally, “victorious stretching of life force”; a breathing exercise that makes the breath and its subtle equivalent long and smooth.

UMA PARVATI Another name for Shakti; the Godmother; the female form of the Supreme Being.

UPANISHADS Ancient scriptures revealed to the rishis, out of which all systems of Indian philosophy developed. The Upanishads are called shruti, “that which is heard.” As all knowledge and in fact the whole universe, according to the Vedas, consists of sound or vibratory patterns, mystical knowledge needs to be heard. Such knowledge can, of course, be conceived only by the rishis (seers), those who can listen and see to the bottom of their hearts, as that’s where the knowledge is.

UPASANA KANDA OF THE VEDA The portion of the Veda dealing with worship, which gave rise to Bhakti Yoga.

UPAVEDA An ancillary Veda, of which there are four: Ayurveda (medicine), Arthaveda (economy), Dhanurveda (military science), and Gandharvaveda (art/music).

VAHANA A vehicle, a carrier of a celestial being.

VAIKHARI The fourth phase of sound; gross sound, including sounds that are inaudible to the human ear.

VAIKSHESHIKA The Vedic system of cosmology.

VAISHNAVITE A worshiper of Vishnu.

VAJRA Adamantine; a celestial weapon; a thunderbolt.

VAMANA, RISHI An ancient seer, the author of the Yoga Korunta and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga; tradition places him at 2000 BCE.

VARUNA Lord of the Ocean.

VASANA Conditioning; an accumulation of subconscious imprints.

VASISHTA, RISHI The author of portions of the Veda and the Yoga Vashishta, the court priest of King Dasharatha, and the father of Lord Rama in the Ramayana epic.

VATA One of the three ayurvedic constitution types, sometimes translated as “wind.”

VAYU Literally, wind, vital air current; also, Wind god.

VEDANGAS Limbs or adjuncts of the Veda. They are Vyakarana (grammar), Jyotisha (astrology), Nirukta (etymology), Shiksha (phonetics), Chandas (meter), and Kalpa (ritual).

VEDANTA Literally, the end of the Veda; analysis of the content of the Upanishads, its main treatise being the Brahma Sutra. Several schools developed (Advaita Vedanta, Visishtadvaita Vedanta, Dvaita Vedanta).

VEDAS The oldest sacred texts of humankind. Rishi Vyasa divided the one Veda into four: the RigvedaYajurvedaSamaveda, and Atharvaveda, all of which are subdivided into Samhita (hymns), Brahmana(ritual), Aranyaka (worship), and Upanishad (mysticism). There are four ancillary Vedas (Upavedas), which are Ayurveda (medicine), Arthaveda (economy), Dhanurveda (military science), andGandharvaveda (art/music). The Veda has six limbs (Vedangas), which are Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar), Jyotisha (astrology), Nirukta (etymology), Shiksha (phonetics), Chandas (meter), and Kalpa(ritual, duty). Early hymns of the Rigveda are in excess of eight thousand years old. According to tradition, the Vedas are eternal and are seen at the beginning of each world age by the rishis.

VIDYA Correct knowledge; the opposite of ignorance (avidya).

VIDYAS Sciences.

VIKSHIPTA CHITTA The oscillating or confused mind; it has glimpses of true knowledge and is therefore the mind fit to commence practice of yoga.

VINYASA Sequential movement that links postures together to form a continuous flow. It creates a movement meditation that reveals all forms as being impermanent and for this reason unnecessary to hold on to.

VISHNU, LORD A name of the Supreme Being; Brahman with form.

VISHUDDHA The fifth chakra, the throat chakra, the space (ether) energy center.

VISHVAMITRA, RISHI The seer who saw the Gayatri, the most sacred of all mantras. Vishvamitra never hesitated to take hardship on himself, performing the severest and longest austerities of all the rishis. He could never say no to the downtrodden if they approached him for help; this earned him his name, which means “friend of the world.”

VISHVARUPA Cosmic manifestation of the Lord Vishnu.

VISISHTADVAITA VEDANTA An Upanishadic philosophy developed by the Acharya Ramanuja that propounds qualified monism, holding that the individual self (atman) and the deep reality (Brahman) are identical yet different.

VRTTI Literally, whirls, fluctuations, or modifications of the mind.

VYAKARANA The Vedanga (Vedic limb) pertaining to grammar.

VYASA, RISHI The divider of the Veda and the author of the MahabharataBrahma SutraYoga Commentary, and Puranas.

YAGNA A Vedic sacrifice.

YAJNAVALKYA, RISHI The most prominent of the Upanishadic rishis, he formulated the core doctrine of the Upanishads: that all appearances are nothing but Brahman.

YAJURVEDA One of the four Vedas.

YAMA Restraints; the first limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

YANTRA A sacred drawing that is eventually visualized; a meditation object used in the school of Tantra.

YOGA CHIKITSA Yoga therapy; the fruit of the Primary Series of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.

YOGA KORUNTA The treatise on sequential yoga authored by Rishi Vamana.

YOGA NIDRA Yogic sleep, a state between sleep and samadhi; the state of Lord Vishnu in which he absorbs the universe between Great Dissolution and Big Bang.

YOGA SUTRA The defining ancient text on yoga, authored by Patanjali.

YOGA TARAVALI A text on Hatha Yoga composed by Shankaracharya.

YUGA A world age or epoch.



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