Freedom Source: Glossary of Terms
These terms are from the Sanskrit and may recur throughout the poem. A few such terms which are being adopted into the American vernacular are also included, so that what knowledge you may have in this ancient language will be shored up, and there may be no confusion. If you have any question as to the meaning of any of these words, send an email. Please note that in this glossary strict definition is buttressed by greater elaboration in the teaching style of Vedanta.
brahman-from the root bR, meaning to make big; thus, it opens up into brahman to mean that through which there is no bigger than, and it refers to the creation, to the supreme spirit. Many times, brahman is considered to be parambrahman. parama means that which is without limit, and specifies the three limiting features of time, place and object as absent. Some scholars, however, including shankara, maintain that brahman can be properly used in the sense yet of ishvara which includes the cause of creation or maya. This is a point which must be inferred by the reader in the context of the author’s intent in any discourse.
dharma-technically means the essence of something, the leading characteristic or feature which makes a thing distinct unto itself for what it is. ( Examples would be water for its properties as a solvent, a mountain for its elevation or an ocean for its vast size.) Dharma is known for its prevalence in the more specific sense in metaphysics as righteousness, or duty. Svadharma means one’s own duty. (Note that the Sanskrit sva is the equivalent of the Latin reflexive or possessive pronoun suus [feminine, sua], which likewise refers to self.) Dharma when applied in a general context which correlates to society, to mankind, thus construes the essence of that collective according to the more general mores or ethos which derive fundamentally from righteousness. Therefore, dharma can also mean laws, justice, piety, character or merit. If a person or a deed is described as dharmic, then that person or deed is known as righteous.
guru-teacher. In Sanskrit, which is devabhasha, or language of the shining ones, of the devas or gods, the guru is revered as the teacher of the highest knowledge, or knowledge of the self. Any guru is qualified as one who has the capacity to teach the essence of truth, knowing which, there is nothing else to be known.
ishvara-distinct from brahman in that ishvara is the creation including cause; so brahman is manifest as the world through cause, which is ishvara. ( See discussion further at brahman.)
jnanam-(pronounced “ng-yaanam”; the ‘ng’ sound of the ‘-ing’ ending in English combines with the consonant ‘y’ and opens up into a long ‘a’ as in ‘awesome’.)jnanam means knowledge, and refers particularly to the knowledge of universal Truth, from whence arises wisdom. Thus jnanam connotes sacred knowledge, just as a guru is a sacred teacher of such knowledge. vijnanam carries the extended meaning of the ‘how to’ of knowledge, and the one who practices in the knowledge of self through remarkable surrender to God thinks and acts according to wisdom, or vijnanam, which is defined as wisdom in that sense. jnanam comes from the verbal root jna, to know.
jnani-one who knows; one who is a knower of Truth. It is said that one who truly knows will not say that he/she knows. In that way, a contemplation of mutual objectivity outside the false ego is posed between an inquirer and a jnani, whereby the Truth is held equally between them for the best determination possible for each side. The egolessness of the jnani wins the inquirer to the perception of that fellow thinker as the one who might know, or as the one who must know, depending on the readiness of that inquirer for universal Truth. This scenario describes the mores of the culture in which jnanam as a value-based thing is sought after.
karma -action; in the sense of non-dual or advaita vedanta, karma includes action throughout time in its three periods, and thereby becomes a counting board through which the individual in body-form, or ayatanam, counter, expresses according to certain laws which are derived from the dualistic nature of the physical world and allows the moment of prayer to intervene in the resolution of the sense of free will. Such prayer can be by charitable deed, or by faith or by conviction of mind itself. karma is now a popular term in the American vernacular. In the typical vernacular adapted to our culture, karma refers to accepting ‘what is’ situationally as destiny or fate, and as coming out of a higher order of things. Thus, the leading concept intended in such popular usage is acceptance of, or finding oneself in the greater plan of creation as ‘meant to be’. However, this conceptual thinking dualizes further the one who seeks after a non-dual concept which would match or attempt to match the transcendental oneness of satyam, universal Truth. Why? Then we must understand more of the literal translation of the noun karma if we are to understand why. karma means action, from the verbal root kr, (where the underlined r should in the transliterated script be a dot), which means to do. In the sense of destiny strictly speaking, all living beings are constrained unto action by the simple laws of nature, whereby we must survive. Therefore, using the word karma to mean destiny, or destined activity or lot in life, is a very loose translation of an actually more scientifically precise word. Indeed, to allow one’s sense of perfection or sense of attunement to Truth to be relegated to the raw idea of action out of uncontrollable source, as inherited, and thereby reduce the moral imperative of one’s deeds to fate itself, can lead to a harmful precept in thinking which works exactly counter to the truth to be gained by the careful definition of the Sanskrit in the science of Vedanta. There is Truth in the popular usage of the word karma insofar as the connotation of the history of deeds or worth attached somehow to the soul of an individual, which is how this author has heard it typically used, and wherein the idea of past lives is also invoked in order to give credibility to such history, or record, an individual carries in the present life. However, there is a deeper meaning in the word karma which cannot be understood without some elaboration, since karma, if well understood, will free the mental preparedness of the seeker after Truth into the penultimate contemplation of Truth whereby the necessity for action itself is transcended, it is put to rest. And that contemplation is unto moksha, or liberation from taking physical birth at all, a high spiritual achievement, or, better put, realization, self-realization. For if one is caught in action, one is either alive and in the physical body/world complex, or awaiting such human birth, and carrying into that birth will be the time-vintage karma which arises out of actions performed in the sense of broad time. These actions have indeed occurred in past lives, and since the atma, or soul, knows no beginning or time, is the same in all three periods of time, only the actions accruing to the individual as expressing in the physical bodies carry through this transmigration, which transmigration occurs in the continuum called time. This is known because of the possibility of moksha. If freedom from birth-death cycle is possible, then it is possible to leave time, to leave the transmigration of atma. That makes intuitive sense, since it seems that if atma is outside of time, then that must be like a source for atma. So if the atma can go back to being outside of time, or beyond time, then has it not returned to that from whence it came? Yes, in which case, there will be no more actions as we know actions, as in the physical world, where actions are driven by desire fundamentally. Actions carry the measure of time and in that sense are referred to as karma. They trace the atma in time and fructify, and foment a physical life, or bring about a human birth. Thus we live a life wherein we are answering to actions of the vast past in time, of previous lives. This allows for a greater justice in the sense of order, whereby the moral imperative of human individuals can be transgressed, and grave results accrue even to all of mankind in such anarchy which may result therefrom. So if justice cannot be wielded for, say, a Hitler, as Hitler in his own lifetime should have been brought to terms by all rights for those witnessing his atrocities, the laws of karma will settle that debt for Hitler. This is true for any individual who occupies a human body, no matter how powerful he had become. (Note: in discussing atma it must be emphasized that atma is unchanged in time. Is is all-pervasive, and includes the sentient and the insentient. It ‘goes’ nowhere, and in discussing any transmigration, if one analyses more deeply, it is only the investment of the sharira-linga with the atma which brings about a consciousness in the jiva. atma itself is beyond action, since action invoves change. The atma is as though doer, or karta, but again, strictly speaking, atma always remains above time, and only appears as doer in concert with the gross body, sthula-sharira, and the subtle and causal bodies, linga-sharira and karana-sarira respectively.)
From the foregoing analysis, therefore, it is clear that the concept of karma as action must include a view of action across time, yes; however, a value judgment as to rationalizing action as immune to dharma only because of the continuous nature of time constitutes an improper understanding of the term karma. This is so critical that it cannot be decried enough in one phrase, or in one paragraph. For if karma is ever truthfully grasped by an inquirer, that conceptual Truth will be so complete, that all understanding of Truth and reality will be drawn from it. To understand action is all-commanding. Why? Because action is the leading attribute of human life. Expressing through action enables the seeker in this life to approach God. To know God is the purpose of human life. So if such a careful analysis of karma is pre-eminent in the metaphysical correctness of the word, then more elaboration in Sanskrit should serve to verify its importance. A distinction is made between good and bad action, wherein punya- karma means good action, and papa-karma refers to sinful action. The entire challenge in self-realization unto moksha or the desire for moksha for an individual finds its fulcrum precisely as to this differentiation according to dharma, according to right or wrong. The goal is to achieve a level of action whose purity will allow an indivudual to progress in the sense of karma, and transcend the karma which accompanies a given birth, or the sancita-karma; even an attempt at such transcendence is powerful and will confer a blessing, often referred to as ‘good’ karma. There is a type of karma called prarabdha-karma, which literally means ‘forward from what has begun’. ‘What has begun’ implies that atma has begun a human life journey in the eternal nature of time, and that from a life succession in the lower births on Earth as creatures. In that journey through human lifetimes, a given atma will perform actions also out of ignorance, and in an uncontrollable sense of sheer action, if only because action is both possible and most probable. A most famous example of the power of action in this sense to be carried forth in time, causing each jivanmukta to live in the fruits of actions pertaining to former lives if only because each individual was ever born, is as follows: let us say a papa-karma is committed out of non-awareness and in the total absence of intent. A person shoots an arrow to target what he perceives to be a tiger in the forest, thinking it could become a menace to the village. After the arrow leaves his bow, that person sees that the creature is indeed a cow. That arrow instead hits and kills a cow, which is a definite papa-karma. The results of that action will carry forth in time even outside of the innocence of the intent of the individual in question. Similarly, the hunter who is Ishvara, Lord of creation, shoots an arrow from his mighty bow, and that arrow is the jivanmukta. This type of action which cannot be reversed due to its momentum as derived from the very nature of the creation itself is called prarabdha-karma. This type of karma reflects the sheer nature of action, whereby the momentum of action is uncontrollable, it is written in the natural laws of the physical life: we are constrained unto action. There will be punya and papa written into our actions which arise out of the dualistic nature of the physical, relative world, and only because of that nature. That is why the world is designed as it is: to allow a given individual, a jivanmukta, to better himself or herself and evolve spiritually ever closer to God. To rarefy ones actions according to knowledge of the very nature of action, of karma as it is understood more scientifically according to these categorical types and others that are beyond the scope of this explication, and for the sake of any brevity, is the supreme accomplishment of metaphysical scientific thinking. And by the same adherence to Truth, karma should not be misconstrued as reason to limit an individual’s self-actuation, either. Those who know more of karma and who relegate the lot of another to karma, seeing thereby limitations upon that individual as concerted by karma, may be deluding themselves and working from ignorance instead of from knowledge in order to understand another’s lot or perhaps even misfortune. A truly enlightened Devotee will, instead of rationalizing the instance of hurt or oppression on another as ‘bad karma’, which only re-dualizes the one so objectified, offer compassionate understanding. In the light of such compassion there is a chance that the person whose lot in life is in question, will see a proper course of action, that svadharma can indeed become meaningfully operative and relieve the suffering, sorrow or challenge of the moment or day; that karma as a judgment is not going to become now a sentence to pain because others have decided, much like doomsayers, ‘you have bad karma’. Please let us understand that anyone who can fall down and be hurt, or reach for an object out of mere curiosity and get killed for it, even, is subject to the laws of karma. For the laws of karma tell the time in a vital and critical way for a jivanmukta, and are most difficult to discern for those who are striving to map out a course in life amenable to right actions always. Therefore, a wise person, a jnani, is best qualified to apply the meaning of karma to the question of the fortune of an individual, good or bad, in a non-judgmental and therefore metaphysically accurate way.
Then from the foregoing analysis of the noun karma, taken to mean action, it has been proven that the nature of action itself must be derived in order to understand the correct definition of karma; and that definition involves categorizing karma into its various types. Elsewise, without this further breakdown of karma categorically, the word karma can be misconstrued if it is localized to the meaning of fate or destiny only. For these meanings will delete the most prominent usage of karma which is prevalent among the knowers of Hindu sanatana-dharma. Generally, therefore, karma means work. But this definition refers to a specific task duty in reference to work metaphysically. What might that task be? The exact task is unique of course to each individual, and is to be derived from applying the desire to follow one’s own duty, or svadharma. Following one’s own duty will connect one to one’s major task in life, or, karma. One cannot easily divest oneself of prarabdha-karma, and that is rarely done by even the most gifted seekers after Truth, for it means that Ishvara has reclaimed his arrow. That leaves sancita-karma as the work task at hand for any given karmajam, or human birth. sancita means collection literally. So sancita-karma means the collection of actions which are available like a clay formation upon birth in the human body, to be processed by moral duty throughout the lifetime through right action. This clay is very old, and has been formed from previous lives, so that former actions will have results which span time past any certain, one given lifetime, and can be processed in the present life if addressed by the concertion available through svadharma. Once processed by being called forth as relevant in that karmic sense as appropriate work or moral duty, in the sense now of immediate task, and which task speaks to the fruit of former time, then that karma can be exhausted. Take for instance the villager who innocently killed the cow. That misdeed was through an exertion of free will thought to be morally correct as he had seen it. His desire to divert or avoid the arrow connecting to what became a wrong target would constitute atonement for the mishap. Yet, he is caught in the sheer momentum of physical laws. So Ishvara will see the prarabdha nature of the action on the part of the villager. Yet, a cow was indeed killed. So Ishvara will be affected by the sentiments of those villagers who react with horror at the event, just as the hunter is equally horrified and helpless unto the situation. Yet his atonement and desire to somehow stop the arrrow or de-target the cow, creates a samskara, or impression, a counterpart to an action to a deed he could not fully disown by law, by law of karma. Now in later life, or for the purpose of didactic explication here, in a later lifetime, that samskara will require an action with counteractive result from his free will. It may not be the same exact situation, although it could be so; but by laws of karma which draw up a connection invisible to his awareful memory, that reincarnated villager will settle his debt and be freed up from the former action by answering to it with a new performance relevant to the same concept or a similar one. An example might be that he becomes a butcher and tragically loses his job to economic failure of some sort. As he seeks restitution, he finds God, becomes a holy person, and begins teaching Vedanta.
In summary, karma can be defined as action, moral duty, or work, in an order derived from the sheer definition from the verbal root kr, to do, which is then qualified by the necessity for order to be made and kept in the relative world because of its dualistic nature, which necessity invokes moral precept relating to actions; and finally, once svadharma is discerned and applied by a given individual, such individual will actuate a correlation through actions to his/her own sancita-karma. This correlation will define the work, or karma, which is relevant to samskaras of past lives, and can also be improved upon by prayers, charity and rituals. Indeed, when such harmony obtains between a current life and its sancita-karma, proper destiny is realized for that lifetime, and this generates good karma. If a person is prayerful, then each action performed is as a prayer, it is indeed a prayer. That is because the mind becomes so attuned to the surrender to God, to the meaning of God everywhere and in everything, in every deed indeed, that each action is backed by the mind in an active state of awareness of God. This creates so many punya-karmas that the sancita-karma can be exhausted, and moksha becomes a mode now past a contemplation. That is a topic for another day.
sadhu-literally means a saint; as an adjective sadhu means good. In India one who has renounced all material things and worldly pursuits, and has embarked upon a dedication to spiritual knowledge, is considered to be a sadhu. Since sanatana dharma, or the spectrum of cults that comprise all of Hinduism, is based on reality precept, is based upon God as in and through everything and in all aspects of culture and branches of knowledge, the individual is regarded as a seeker after Truth. If that seeking is pursued at the cost of giving up all other pursuits in life, then that individual is esteemed as a sadhu even outside of being ordained and wearing the holy cloth. No title is necessary, and still there is a special regard for such a devout individual. These are the values found in a totally religious culture.