Acyuta, name of Viṣṇu/Kṛṣṇa (one who never falls down; the infallible Lord).
Adhokṣaja, name of Viṣṇu/Kṛṣṇa.
advaita, philosophy of nondualism.
aho!, an exclamation in Sanskrit, with various meanings from alarm and despair to surprise or appreciation, depending on context.
aṁśa, partial incarnation of Viṣṇu or Kṛṣṇa.
ānanda, bliss.
Antaryāmī, form of Viṣṇu who pervades the ātman and all reality.
anuccheda (anu), a section of a Sandarbha.
apsarā, a type of celestial being.
artha, prosperity; one of the traditional four goals of human life (puruṣārthas).
Ārya, a follower of civilized Vedic culture.
asamprajñāta, final stage of samādhi; consciousness absorbed in its own nature.
āsana, bodily poses; third of the eight limbs of yoga.
āśrama, one of the progressive stages of life (student, householder, religious retiree, solitary ascetic); also, an ascetic’s hermitage, usually in the forest.
asura, demoniac being; enemy of the celestials.
ātman, the soul, also known as puruṣa.
avatāras, divine descents of Viṣṇu into the world.
avidyā, ignorance of the ātman.
Balarāma, Kṛṣṇa’s brother (often simply referred to as Rāma).
Bhagavad Gītā, episode of the Mahābhārata epic that has become a quintessential Sanskrit scripture; Kṛṣṇa’s discourse to Arjuna.
Bhagavān, name for God.
bhāgavata, devotee of Bhagavān; bhakta.
Bhāgavata (Purāṇa), the primary scripture for the Kṛṣṇa traditions.
bhakti, devotion to Bhagavān.
Bhārata, traditional term for India; named after Bharata, a great devotee who retired to the forest.
bhāva, devotional state of mind in a specific relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
Brahmā, the secondary creator, functions like an engineer, manipulating the prakṛtic stuff to create the specific forms of the universe.
brahmacārya, the period up to the age of twenty-five, when students would study Vedic knowledge systems under the tutelage of the teacher.
Brahman, name for the Absolute Truth in the Upaniṣads.
brāhmaṇa, teaching/priestly caste.
Caitanya, sixteenth-century Kṛṣṇa ecstatic, considered an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa by his followers.
cakra, Viṣṇu’s discus weapon.
cāraṇa, type of celestial being.
citta-vṛtti-nirodha, stilling of all states of mind; definition of yoga in the Yoga Sūtras.
daitya, demoniac being; synonymous with asura.
dāsya, one of the five bhāvas, servitorship.
deva, celestial being.
dharma, used variously; in Vedic culture, the variegated duties incumbent on embodied beings; one of the traditional four goals of human life.
dīkṣā, initiation into a Vedic or yogic lineage.
dveṣa, aversion; one of the five kleśas, obstacles to yoga in the Yoga Sūtras.
Gajendra, the elephant bhakta.
gandharva, celestial being, renowned for musical as well as martial skills.
Garuḍa, Viṣṇu’s eagle carrier.
Gītā, see Bhagavad Gītā.
Goloka, divine brahman abode of Kṛṣṇa.
Govinda, name of Kṛṣṇa, “Lord of the cows.”
gṛhastha, householder.
guṇa, one of the three metaphysical strands formative of prakṛti.
guru, teacher.
Hari, name of Kṛṣṇa.
Hiraṇyakaśipu, demon father of Prahlāda.
Indra, warrior chief of the celestials.
Īśvara, term for God.
jīva, embodied soul.
Jīva Gosvāmī, one of the six principal followers of Caitanya in the sixteenth century; wrote the Sandarbhas.
jñāna, knowledge; sometimes used as a synonym for consciousness.
jñānendriyas, instruments for attaining knowledge: hearing (ears), touching (skin), tasting (tongue), smelling (nose), seeing (eyes).
kaivalya, liberation; the autonomy of the ātman from saṁsāra.
Kali yuga, last and most degraded of the four ages; the current age.
kāma, material enjoyment; one of the traditional four goals of human life (puruṣārthas).
Kaṁsa, Kṛṣṇa’s evil uncle, king of Mathurā.
karma, action; every action breeds a corresponding reaction.
karmendriyas, five working senses: speaking (mouth), grasping (hands), locomotion (feet), excreting (anus), procreation (genitals).
kaustubha, gem worn by Kṛṣṇa.
kīrtana, the chanting of the names and deeds of Īśvara.
kleśa, the five obstacles to yoga in the Yoga Sūtras (II.4): ignorance (of the ātman), ego, desire, aversion, clinging to life.
kṣatriya, warrior/administrative cast.
Kuru, royal dynasty of both the Pāṇḍavas and their cousins in the Mahābhārata epic.
līlā, pastimes, particularly used in the Bhāgavata to point to Kṛṣṇa’s loving pastimes with His beloved devotees.
madhura, one of the bhāvas; amorous mood.
Madhva, thirteenth-century theistic philosopher of Vedānta; founder of the dvaita lineage.
Mahābhārata, great epic of the story of the descendants of Bharata; features the strife of the Pāṇḍavas and their cousins and their subsequent saga culminating in the great war between them.
mahābhūtas, the ultimate elements of Sāṅkhya metaphysics: earth, water, fire, air, ether.
mahant, saintly person or great soul.
Maitreya, sage who delivers teachings to Vidura at various places in the Bhāgavata.
māyā, illusion covering the ātman causing it to misidentify with its gross and subtle coverings; a negative function (see also yogamāyā).
Mīmāṁsā, a school of Indian philosophy concerned with Vedic ritualism.
mokṣa, liberation from saṁsāra.
Mokṣadharma, a section of the Mahābhārata that is particularly philosophical in nature.
mukti, liberation from saṁsāra.
Nanda, Kṛṣṇa’s foster father.
Nārada, a traveling sage and preeminent bhakta.
Nārāyaṇa, the supreme Īśvara, Viṣṇu.
nirbīja, contentless awareness absorbed in its own nature; the final state of yoga.
nirodha, cessation; used primarily to refer to meditative states.
Nṛsiṁha, Man-Lion incarnation of Viṣṇu.
Nyāyā, school of Indian philosophy specializing in inferential debate.
Pāṇḍava, five sons of Pāṇḍu.
paramahaṁsa, literally “great swan”; final of the four stages of sannyāsa, the renounced order of life.
pāramārthika, highest reality compared with conventional reality (see vyāvahārika).
Paramātman, form of Viṣṇu pervading the ātman; synonymous with Antaryāmī.
Parīkṣit, king who receives the teachings of the Bhāgavata from Śuka; grandson of Arjuna.
Patañjali, author of the classical text on the practice and goal of yoga.
Prācīnabarhis, king to whom Nārada delivers the allegory of King Purañjana.
Prahlāda, great child bhakta, son of the demon king Hiranyakaśipu.
Prajāgara, the serpent protector in the Purañjana allegory.
prāṇa, life airs.
prāṇāyama, control of the breath in yoga practice; fourth of the eight limbs of yoga.
prema, love; in bhakti, love of God.
pūjā, worship, usually of a deity, involving items such as ghee lamps and incense.
Purāṇa, genre of ancient literature focusing on the forms of Īśvara.
Purañjana, the king in the allegory Nārada delivers to King Prācīnabarhis.
Purañjanī, Purañjana’s wife in the allegory.
puruṣa, synonym for ātman; innermost consciousness.
puruṣa-arthas, the four conventional goals of life: dharma, performance of duty; artha, attainment of prosperity; kāma, fulfillment of desires; mokṣa, liberation from all these.
rāgānuga, a bhakta immersed in rāgānugā bhakti.
rāgānugā, spontaneous form of bhakti.
rāgātmika, eternally perfected and liberated bhakta.
rajas, one of the three guṇas: energy, power, desire, and so forth.
Rāma, incarnation of Īśvara.
Rāmānuja, eleventh- to twelfth-century Vedānta theologian; founder of Śrī Vaiṣṇavism.
rasa, experience of bhakti.
rāsa, Kṛṣṇa’s dance with the gopīs.
Rūpa Gosvāmī, one of the six Gosvāmī followers of Caitanya and prolific author.
sādhu, ascetic.
Śaivite, devotee of Śiva.
sakhya, one of the five bhāvas: friendship.
Śākta, follower of a form of the Goddess.
śakti, power.
samādhi, final stages of yoga culminating in awareness becoming immersed in its own pure nature; the eighth of the eight limbs of yoga.
samprajñāta, penultimate samādhi state.
saṁsāra, cycle of birth and death.
saṁskāra, memory imprint.
Sanātana Gosvāmī, one of the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana.
Sandarbha, one of the six treatises by Jīva Gosvāmī establishing the philosophical and theological basis for the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Vedānta tradition.
Śaṅkara, eighth- to ninth-century Vedānta theologian.
Sāṅkhya, school of metaphysics.
sannyāsa, full ascetic renunciant.
sat-cit-ānanda, qualities of brahman: being, consciousness, and bliss.
satsaṅga, association of saints.
sattva, one of the guṇas of prakṛti, characterized by qualities such as wisdom, detachment, lightness, and peacefulness.
Sātvatas, a community devoted to Kṛṣṇa.
siddha, perfected being.
Śiva, a primary form of Īśvara.
smaraṇa, retaining sacred narratives and teachings in mind.
Smṛti, sacred text posterior to the Vedas, but with links thereto.
śravaṇa, hearing from sacred texts.
śrī, an honorific, used as an appellative of respect before a person’s name.
Śrī, the Goddess of Fortune.
Śrīmad Bhāgavata Purāṇa, also referred to as the Śrīmad Bhāgavata, or just Bhāgavata; most important of the Purāṇas and dedicated to Kṛṣṇa bhakti.
śrīvatsa, tuft of hair on Kṛṣṇa’s chest.
Śruti, sacred text; the Vedic corpus.
śūdra, the employed as well as artisan caste.
Śuka, the principal speaker of the Bhāgavata, which he relates to King Parīkṣit.
sūra, celestial; synonymous with deva.
Sūta, attended Śuka’s discourse to Parīkṣit and then repeated the Bhāgavata to the sages at Naimiṣa.
tamas, one of the three guṇas, characterized by ignorance and laziness.
tanmātras, subtle qualities of the great elements, which later spring from them.
tapas, austerity.
tattva, literally “the nature of that-ness,” in Sāṅkhya; refers to all or any of the evolutes from prakṛti.
tulasī, plant sacred to Kṛṣṇa.
Uddhava, survivor of the great war who receives instruction from Kṛṣṇa in the form of the Uddhava Gītā in book 11. Most of book 3 is in the form of sage Maitreya’s instructions to him.
Upaniṣads, ancient late Vedic mystic-philosphical texts.
Uttamaśloka, name of Viṣṇu: “He whose praises are supreme.”
Vaikuṇṭha, the divine Brahman abode of Viṣṇu.
vaiśya, merchant/landowning caste.
Vallabha, sixteenth-century contemporary of Caitanya; a great theologian who founded the school of puṣṭi-mārga.
vānaprastha, third stage of life when husband and wife begin to practice celibacy, detach themselves from the household, and retire to sacred places to pursue yogic practices.
Vasudeva, father of Kṛṣṇa.
Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva.
vātsalya, one of the primary bhāvas; parental relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
Veda, one of the four most ancient texts in Sanskrit.
Vedānta, school of hermeneutics stemming from the Upaniṣads.
Vedānta Sūtra, primary text of the Vedānta tradition.
Vidura, half-brother of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who receives teachings from sage Maitreya at various places in the Bhāgavata.
viśiṣṭādvaita, Vedānta school stemming from Rāmānuja.
Viṣṇu, form of Īśvara; Creator of the universes.
Vraj, area around Vṛndāvana.
Vṛndāvana, the forest where Kṛṣṇa spent his childhood; present-day holy town.
Vyāsa, an incarnation of Viṣṇu and the legendary composer of the Mahābhārata epic, compiler of the Purāṇas, and divider of the one Veda into four.
vyavahārika, conventional reality.
yajña, Vedic rites involving oblations into a fire sacrifice.
Yamunā, river in Vraj, central to Kṛṣṇa’s līlā.
Yaśodā, Kṛṣṇa’s foster mother.
yogamāyā, divine illusion, one of the functions of which is to cover Kṛṣṇa’s majesty such that His devotee can interact with Him as a child, friend, lover, and so forth.
Yoga Sūtras, classical text on the practice and goal of yoga; written by Patañjali.
yojana, distance, considered variously as two, four, five, or nine miles.
Yudhiṣṭhīra, eldest of the five Pāṇḍavas.
yuga, one of the four world ages.