abhyāsaअभ्यास
Repeated practice
Patient, regular effort — the means Kṛṣṇa gives for steadying the mind (6.35).
Sanskrit made simple
Words such as dharma, karma and mokṣa appear again and again in the Bhagavad-Gītā. Here is what each one means, in plain English, with teachings where you can read more.
67 terms
Repeated practice
Patient, regular effort — the means Kṛṣṇa gives for steadying the mind (6.35).
The sense of 'I' and 'mine'
The ego — identifying the Self with body, mind, possessions and status.
Non-injury
Not harming any being in thought, word or deed.
The inner instrument
The inner equipment as a whole: mind, intellect, ego and memory.
Ignorance
Not lack of learning, but forgetting our true nature and taking the passing for the permanent.
A devotee
One who walks the path of love and devotion.
Devotion, love of the divine
Loving trust in the divine, expressed through prayer, worship and surrender.
The infinite reality
The one limitless reality underlying everything; in Vedānta, identical with the Self.
The intellect
The faculty that reasons, discriminates and decides.
The mind-stuff
The store of memory and impressions where thoughts arise.
Right living; one's duty
What is right to do in a given role or situation — the way of living that upholds harmony in oneself and in the world.
Meditation
Sustained, unbroken attention on one thing.
Aversion
Being pushed away from what displeases us.
Giving
Generosity offered without expectation of return.
Teacher
One who removes darkness — a teacher who has lived what they teach.
A quality of nature
The three qualities — sattva, rajas and tamas — that make up all of nature and colour our moods and actions.
Repetition of a mantra
Repeating a sacred name or mantra, aloud or silently.
Knowledge, wisdom
Not information, but clear understanding of what is real and lasting.
One of knowledge
One who walks the path of understanding.
The individual being
The Self as it appears when identified with a particular body and mind.
Action, and its results
Every deed, word and thought, together with the results it brings. In the Gītā, what we do shapes who we become.
The path of selfless action
Doing one's duty wholeheartedly while letting go of anxiety about the results — the teaching of Gītā 2.47.
Anger
What arises when desire is blocked.
Desire
Longing for what we do not have; also one of the four goals of life, as pleasure.
Greed
The wish for more, which never feels satisfied.
Reflection
The second step: thinking it through until doubts are resolved.
The mind
The faculty of thinking and feeling, which gathers impressions and wavers between them.
Sacred words
Words or sounds repeated to steady and purify the mind.
Delusion
Confusion about what matters, which clouds judgement — Arjuna's state in Chapter 1.
Freedom, liberation
Release from sorrow and from the cycle of birth and death — the highest of life's goals.
Appearance that misleads
The power by which the one reality appears as many, so that the temporary looks permanent.
Deep contemplation
The third step: dwelling on the truth until it becomes one's own.
Nature, matter
The ever-changing material world, including body and mind.
Life breath
The vital energy that sustains the body, steadied through the breath.
The conscious principle
The witnessing consciousness, in contrast to ever-changing prakṛti.
The goals of life
The four aims: dharma (right living), artha (security), kāma (pleasure) and mokṣa (freedom).
Restlessness and drive
The quality of activity, desire and agitation.
Attraction
Being pulled towards what pleases us.
Evenness of mind
Meeting success and failure alike with a settled mind — the Gītā's definition of yoga (2.48).
Absorption
The state in which the mind rests fully in what it contemplates.
Renunciation
Letting go of ownership and doership; for most, an inner rather than outer step.
Keeping good company
Gathering with fellow seekers to study and reflect together, as this group does.
Clarity and calm
The quality of purity, harmony and understanding.
Mental impression
An impression left on the mind by experience, forming habits over time.
The cycle of worldly life
The round of birth, death and rebirth, and the restlessness of chasing one thing after another.
Selfless service
Service offered freely, without seeking reward or recognition.
One of steady wisdom
The person of settled understanding described in Gītā 2.54-72, undisturbed by gain or loss.
One's own duty
The duty that belongs to one's own nature and situation, rather than another's.
Self-study
Study of scripture, and study of oneself in its light.
Spiritual practice
The regular practice — study, prayer, meditation, service — by which the mind is prepared.
Dullness and inertia
The quality of heaviness, confusion and laziness.
Disciplined effort
Willingly accepted discipline that burns away weakness — of body, speech and mind.
Letting go
Giving up attachment to the fruits of action, while still doing the work.
Scriptures of Self-knowledge
The texts, taught from teacher to student, that reveal the nature of the Self.
Dispassion
A quiet freedom from craving, born of seeing how little lasting joy things give.
The teaching of the Upaniṣads
The knowledge at the end of the Vedas, concerning the Self and the infinite.
Discrimination
The ability to tell the real from the unreal, the lasting from the passing.
Deep-seated tendency
The residue left by past actions, which quietly pulls us to repeat them.
Sacrifice, offering
Any act done as an offering rather than for personal gain.
Union; a spiritual path
Literally 'joining'. Any practice that steadies the mind and joins the individual with the divine.
One who practises yoga
A person established in spiritual practice.
Joy, blessedness
The fullness that is our own nature, not dependent on circumstances.
The Self within
The unchanging awareness that is our true nature, distinct from body, mind and roles.
The Lord
The infinite reality seen as creator and sustainer, whom devotees worship.
Faith, trust
Trust in the teaching and the teacher while one's own understanding ripens.
Listening to the teaching
The first step: hearing the teaching from a teacher or scripture.
Peace
The stillness that comes when craving and agitation subside.
Every term here comes from the teachings in our library — free to read, on any device.