Key Terms

GLOSSARY

AHIMSA (Sk.).
Non-injury, non-violence, harmlessness, renunciation of the will to kill and the intention to hurt; abstention from any hostile thought, word, or act; non-coercion.
ATMA or ATMAN (Sk.).
The Universal Spirit, the divine Monad, the 7th Principle, so-called, in the septenary constitution of man. The Supreme Soul. The Universal Self.
BUDDHI (Sk.).
A specialized ray of Atman, Universal Soul or Mind; also the spiritual Soul in man (the sixth principle), the vehicle of Atman, exoterically the seventh. A seat of intuition or direct insight. Discrimination and moral perception.
DHARMA (Sk.).
Duty, righteousness, moral law; social and personal morality; natural law, natural obligation.
GURU (Sk.).
Spiritual preceptor and guide.
KAMA, KAMA RUPA (Sk.).
Kama is the desire principle. Kama is a most mysterious and metaphysical subject. Kama is pre-eminently the divine desire of creating happiness and love, connecting Manas with pure Atma-Buddhi. It is only many ages later, as mankind began to materialize by anthropomorphization its grandest ideals into cut and dried dogmas, that Kama became the power that gratifies desire on the animal plane.
KARMA (Sk.).
Moral law; the law of ethical causation and moral retribution; causality, action.
LINGA SHARIRA (Sk.) or ASTRAL BODY.
The “body”, i.e. the vehicle of Prana. The aerial symbol of the body. This term designates the doppelganger or the “astral body” of man or animal. It is the eidolon of the Greeks, the vital and prototypal body; the reflection of the man of flesh. It is born before and dies or fades out, with the disappearance of the last atom of the body. It is the seat of our earthly sensations.
MANAS (Sk.).
“Lit., “the mind”, the mental faculty which makes of man an intelligent and moral being, and distinguishes him from the mere animal; a synonym of Mahat. Contains thought-will-feeling. Esoterically, it means, when unqualified, the Higher Ego, or the sentient reincarnating Principle in man. When qualified, it is called by Theosophists Buddhi-Manas or the Spiritual Soul in contradistinction to its human reflection—Kama-Manas or “the mind of desire”.
NOUS (Gk.).
A Platonic term for the Higher Mind or Soul. The Spirit, divine consciousness or mind in man.
PRANA (Sk.).
Life-principle; the breath of Life.
SAT (Sk.).
Abiding, actual, right; self-existent essence.
SATYA (Sk.).
Truth; goodness; purity.
SATYAGRAHA (Sk.).
Non-violent resistance; a relentless search for truth; truth-force; holding on to truth.
STHULA SHARIRA (Sk.).
Gross physical body consisting of differentiated and conditioned matter.
TAPAS (Sk.).
Austerities, penance.
YAJNA (Sk.).
Sacrifice.
YOGA (Sk.).
Spiritual discipline; union with the divine; skill in action.
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