Glossary TC "Glossary" \l 1
Absolute Divinity having no name or form, attributeless. The oasis of phenomenal existence.
Asana Posture in the system of Hatha Yoga.
Avatar Incarnation of God.
Bhagavad-Gita The well-known book of Hindu scripture (lit., “Song of God”) comprising 18 chapters of the Mahabharata.
Bhakti Love of God; single-minded devotion to one’s concept of Divinity.
Bhakti-Yoga The path of devotion.
Brahma The creator god, the first person of the Hindu trinity, the other two being Vishnu and Shiva.
Brahmacharya The first of four stages in Hindu life; the life of a celibate student of religion.
Chakra (Lit., wheel) Wheel-like vortices of energy which exist in the subtle body.
Chela Disciple or student of a spiritual teacher.
Cosmic Consciousness Expanded awareness of the mind encompassing the entire universe and its inherent knowledge.
Dharma Righteousness, duty; the inner constitution of a thing which governs its growth.
Gita The same as the Bhagavad-Gita.
Grace The quality of Divinity which empowers everything and every function in the universe; e.g., milk is provided in the mother’s breast even before the baby is born.
Gunas The three forces or substances which constitute the material cause of the universe of mind and matter; usually translated as “qualities known as rajas, tamas and sattva.” Rajas expressing itself as activity or restlessness, tamas as inertia, and sattva as balance and tranquillity.
Guru Spiritual teacher (lit.,—”He that leads one from darkness to light”).
Hatha Yoga A school of yoga that aims chiefly at physical health and well being.
Incarnation The embodiment of the Divine force or deity in an earthly body or form, e.g., Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krishna.
Ishta The chosen Ideal, Spiritual Ideal, or the form of Divinity chosen by the devotee for purposes of personal worship.
Jivatma The embodied soul, the soul, the universal self transformed into an individual self. An individual being—the Self in association with the mind, body, and the senses.
Karma Action in general, duty; ritualistic worship; the effects of action performed, the resulting effect. (Lit. union with God through action). Karma Yoga is the path by which the aspirant seeks to realize God through work without attachment; also the ritualistic worship prescribed in the scriptures for realizing God.
Mantra A sound used in meditation as a focal point; a sacred word by which a spiritual teacher initiates his disciple.
Maya A term in Vedanta philosophy denoting ignorance obscuring the vision of reality, cosmic illusion in which the One appears as many, the Absolute as the relative. It is also used to denote attachment.
Niyama Regular habits of outward and inward purity, contentment, austerity, self-study and surrender to God.
Oneness The lack of separation between God and man.
Prana The vital breath which sustains life in man; the Universal energy which sustains every form of life.
Rajas The principle of activity or restlessness. (see Gunas)
Raja Yoga The yoga of meditation based on Patanjali’s Sutras. The Royal Path to illumination.
Relative Life as we see it from this earthly plane of existence, i.e., the physical world. Forms which are eternally changing.
Shakti Divine power; generally the creative power of Brahman often expressed in the form of the Mother of the Universe.
Samadhi Ecstasy, one-pointed concentration of the mind in meditation where one achieves communion with God.
Samskara The impression created in the mind from an event, or experience from the past. Tendency inherited from this life or previous lives.
Satsang A gathering of students with their teacher for the purpose of learning and expanding awareness.
Sattva The principle of righteousness, purity or balance in nature. (See Gunas)
Sattvic Pertaining to, or possessing the quality of sattva.
Subtle Body One of the three bodies contained in man, or seats of the soul. At death the subtle body accompanies the soul; during the dream state the soul identifies itself with the subtle body.
Tamas The principle of inertia or dullness. (See Gunas)
Vedas The oldest scriptures of the Hindus.
Yama Practice of the moral virtues; harmlessness, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, self-restraint and freedom from greed.
Yoga Union of the individualized soul and the universal Soul; also the method by which one realizes this union.
Yogi One who practices yoga.
The International Emblem TC "The International Emblem" \l 1
The International Emblem expresses the universality and spiritual purpose of the teachings. Its nine disks represent some of the world’s major religions. Starting at the top, and proceeding clockwise, they are as follows: The Vedic tradition, represented by the Aum symbol; Judaism, represented by the menorah; Zoroastrianism, represented by a brazier bearing fire; Confucianism, represented by two tablets of philosophical teachings; Islam, represented by the star and crescent moon. The spiral, or Eternal Circle, represents a symbolic location for all individuals with self-styled belief systems, agnostic, or atheist positions. Taoism is represented by the yin and yang, Buddhism by the eight-fold wheel of life, and, finally, Christianity is represented by the cross.
The nine disks rest on five golden cords, symbolizing a musical staff with its five lines and four spaces. This suggests the idea that all religions and spiritual paths exist in harmony and are various avenues to the same goal. Gururaj, who designed this emblem, has often said that each person is his own individual path to Divinity. The religious traditions are recognized as man-made systems, forms of inspired belief, resting on concentric circles which radiate out from and seek to return their participants back toward the one formless light at the center.
The flame in the center represents a formless reality which has been given many names: the inner light, the light of divinity, the divine truth, the source, the light within each of us—the goal to which all men and women aspire.
The basic idea and feeling portrayed by this emblem is that all paths exist in harmony and are different ways leading to the same goal of Self-realization or God-realization.
The member Societies of the Gururaj Ananda Foundation are spiritually- oriented, non-sectarian organizations made up of individuals from the world’s various religions and persons who simply seek spiritual growth. They are a world-wide network of organizations which support the teachings of Gururaj Ananda Yogi.
For information on the activities of the member Societies, write to any of the following:
American Meditation Society, P.O. Box 45 , Evansville, Illinois 62025
Belgian Meditation Society,
British Meditation Society, P.O. Box 213 Braintree, Essex CM 67 6SP, England
Canadian Meditation Society, 462-248th Street, Aldergrove, B.C. VOX1AO Canada, 604-856-7400
Danish Meditation Society, P.O. Box 103, Soborg 2860, Copenhagen, Denmark
Irish Meditation Society, P.O. Box 1395, Terenure, Dublin 6, Ireland
Israeli Meditation Society,
Spanish Meditation Society,
Additional books from the talks and teachings of Gururaj Ananda Yogi:
The Path of Unfoldment, An Introduction to the Teachings of Gururaj Ananda Yogi, by Savita Taylor
From Darkness to Light, Selected Talks of Gururaj Ananda Yogi, edited by Vidya Anderson and Roopa Morosani