Glossary
Acarya -- "one who teaches by example"; a great leader or teacher amongst the Vaishnavas.
Akrura -- an uncle of Lord Krishna.
Aisvarya -- majesty, opulence and glory.
Aparadha -- offense.
Ashrama -- residence, hermitage or monastery; the four spiritual orders of life according to the Vedic social system.
Balaram -- the first plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. He appeared as the son of Rohini and elder brother of Lord Krishna.
Bhagavad-gita -- "the song of God"; a seven-hundred verse record of a conversation between Lord Krishna and His disciple, Arjuna, from the Bhisma Parva of the Mahabharata of Vedavyasa. Krishna teaches the science of the Absolute Truth and the importance of devotional service. Bhagavad-gita contains the essence of all Vedic wisdom. Srila Prabhupada's annotated English translation is called Bhagavad-gita As It Is.
Bhagavat -- "in relationship to the Supreme Lord"; see "Srimad Bhagavatam".
Bhajan -- worship or adoration; kirtana; devotional service.
Bhakta -- devotee.
Bhakti -- devotion; loving devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati -- (1874-1937) the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and the spiritual grandfather of the present day Krishna consciousness movement. A powerful preacher, he founded sixty-four branches of the Gaudiya Mission in India.
Bhaktivinode Thakur -- (1838-1915) the spiritual great-grandfather of the present-day Krishna consciousness movement, the instructing spiritual master of Srila Gaura-kisora Das Babaji, the father of Srila Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvati, and the grand-spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was a responsible government officer and a householder, yet he dedicated his life to the mission of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He was the first to present Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mission in a modern context through profuse publication of books and songs in Bengali, Sanskrit, English and other languages.
Bindu -- "a drop".
Brahma -- the first created living being and secondary creator of the material universe. Directed by Lord Vishnu, he creates all life forms in the universes. He also rules the mode of passion.
Brahmacari -- "one who is situated in the behavior of brahman or spirit"; a celibate student.
Brahman -- the absolute truth; the impersonal, all-pervasive feature of Godhead; the bodily effulgence of the Lord, experience of which is the first level of God realization.
Brahmana -- a person of priestly or intellectual nature.
Caitanya-caritamrta -- "the character of the living force in immortality,” the authorized biography of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu written in Bengali in the late sixteenth century by Srila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami.
Cataka-parvata -- a sacred sand dune in Jagannath Puri.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu -- the most recent incarnation of Lord Krishna. He appeared in Nabadwip, West Bengal, in 1486.
Darsana -- seeing.
Devaki -- the apparent mother of Krishna, who lives in Mathura and Dwarka.
Devi -- goddess.
Dhama -- house or dwelling place; domain; a holy site connected with the appearances and pastimes of the Lord.
Ekadasi -- a sacred day on the Vaishnava calender which appears twice in a month. On this day Vaishnavas traditionally abstain from eating all grains and beans and increase their devotional activities of hearing and chanting.
Gopis -- the cowherd damsels of Vraja, who assist Sri Krishna in his sweet pastimes as a young cowherd boy.
Gauranga -- another name for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, referring to His golden complexion.
Gaudiya Vaishnavism -- a branch of Vaisnavism prominent in Orissa, Bengal, and Vrindavan.
Govardhan -- a large hill dear to Lord Krishna and His devotees. Krishna held it up for seven days to protect His devotees in Vrindavan from a devastating storm sent by Indra.
Grhastha -- "one who resides at home"; a married person.
Guru-pada-padma -- lotus feet of the guru.
Hari -- a name for Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Hari-nama -- the names of Krishna or Hari.
Hladini-sakti -- the pleasure giving aspect of the internal potency of the Lord.
Indra -- king of the devas or demigods.
Jagannath Puri -- a place of pilgrimage in Orissa, on the eastern coast of India, where the deity of Jagannath is worshiped.
Jagannath -- "Lord of the universe"; a particular deity form of Lord Krishna, fashioned from wood and brightly painted, which has been worshiped for thousands of years in Jagannath Puri. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to daily visit Lord Jagannatha.
Jiva -- living entity, soul.
Jiva Goswami -- one of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan and the nephew of Rupa and Sanatana Goswamis. A disciple of Rupa Goswami, he wrote eighteen major works on Vaishnava philosophy, comprising more than 400,000 verses. He is considered by many philosophers and Sanskritists to be the greatest scholar who ever lived.
Jnana -- knowledge.
Kali-yuga -- the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy, which began approximately 5,000 years ago.
Kirtana -- narration; glorification; song in praise; the act of singing in glorification of the Lord.
Krishna -- the original, two-armed form of the Supreme Lord, and the origin of all expansions of Godhead.
Krishna-katha -- topics or stories about the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna, or His incarnations or His devotees.
Kshetra (ksetra) -- land or region; place of origin; sphere of action; a sacred spot or place of pilgrimage.
Lakh -- 100,000.
Lakshmi -- the consort of Lord Narayan in Vaikuntha.
Lila -- pastime.
Madhurya -- sweetness, exquisite beauty; transcendental love of Godhead in the mode of conjugal love.
Madhava -- a name for Krishna.
Madhurya-rasa -- the conjugal mellow or sentiment.
Mahabharata -- an epic history of ancient India in Sanskrit language, composed by Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasadeva in 100,000 verses.
Maha-mantra -- "great mantra"; the mantra composed of these sixteen names of Krishna: hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare.
Mandir -- temple.
Manu -- an empowered universal ruler, specifically charged with regulating the affairs of human beings.
Manvantara-avatara -- an incarnation of the Supreme Lord as a universal ruler; a manu.
Mathura -- Lord Krishna’s abode, and apparent birth place. The place where Krishna performed His pastimes as the prince of the Yadu dynasty. It is also the name of the district where Vraja (Vrindavan) is located.
Mayavadi -- someone with a conception of God as being impersonal.
Murti -- shape, form, image, deity.
Nanda Maharaj -- Krishna's father who lives in Vrindavan.
Nama -- name.
Nama-aparadha -- offense to the name of the Lord.
Nama-hatta -- "marketplace of the holy name"; a system of preaching the chanting of the holy names of God through small groups of devotees in remote villages and towns or other places where there are no large temples, devised by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur.
Narayan -- a name for the majestic four-armed form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead meaning, "He who is the source and goal of all living entities." Lord Vishnu, an expansion of Krishna.
Narottam Das Thakur -- a renowned 16th century Vaishnava spiritual master in the disciplic succession from Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is famous for his many compositions of devotional songs.
Nava-kalevaram -- the festive procedure of changing Lord Jagannatha's body.
Nistha -- "steadiness"; a stage of spiritual advancement characterized by the rise of one-pointedness and an incessant striving in the pursuit of bhajan.
Nityananda Prabhu -- the incarnation of Lord Balaram who appeared as the principal associate of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Pada-yatra -- "foot journey"; pilgrimage; when devotees travel on foot chanting and preaching.
Pandas -- priests of Lord Jagannath.
Paramahamsa -- a self-realized soul.
Prabhupada -- "one at whose feet all masters sit", or "one who sits at the feet of the supreme master, Krishna"; a title bestowed upon great Vaishnava acharyas.
Prabhupada, Srila -- (1896-1977) His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He is in the tenth generation in the disciplic succession from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), he was the first to spread Krishna Consciousness on a large scale outside of India.
Prasada (prasadam) -- "mercy"; remnants of offerings to the Lord.
Prema-bhakti -- loving devotion.
Purana -- historical supplement to the Vedas.
Puri -- Jagannath Puri Dham.
Purusottama Kshetra -- Jagannath Puri Dham.
Radha -- see Radharani.
Radha-bhava -- the sentiment of Srimati Radharani.
Radharani -- Lord Krishna’s most intimate consort, who the personification of the internal, pleasure potency of Lord Krishna.
Ram -- name of the Absolute Truth as the source of transcendental unlimited pleasure; incarnation of the Supreme Lord, Lord Ramachandra, as a perfect, righteous king, who appeared in Ayodhya in the Treta-yuga.
Ramachandra -- (see Ram)
Ramayan -- the epic history in Sanskrit language of the appearance and activities of Lord Ramachandra, written by Valmiki Muni.
Ratha-yatra -- a festival celebrating Krishna’s return to Vrindavan; The journey of the chariots, a traditional Vaishnava festival held every year at Jagannath Puri in Orissa. In Puri, the devotees place the deity forms of Jagannath, Baladeva and Lady Subhadra on three chariots and pull them to the Gundica temple, where They abide for seven days, after which there is a return Ratha-yatra to the Jagannath Temple.
Rupa Goswami -- foremost of the disciples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is also known as the rasacarya, or the teacher of devotional mellows
Rohini -- the mother of Balaram, one of the wives of Vasudev.
Sadhaka -- practitioner.
Sadhu -- saintly person.
Sadhu-sanga -- saintly association.
Sanatan Goswami -- the elder brother of Rupa Goswami and disciple of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The two brothers were ordered by Sri Chaitanya to write books establishing the philosophy of Gaudiya Vaisnavism and to excavate the holy places in Vrindavan.
Sankarshan -- a name for Balaram.
Sankirtan -- congregational chanting of the name, fame and pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Sannyasa -- renunciation; the renounced order of life.
Sannyasi -- "religious mendicant"; one who has accepted the renounced order of life.
Siksastaka -- eight verses of instruction written by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Simhasana -- "lion-throne"; seat of the deity on an altar.
Sishya -- disciple.
Siva -- the guna-avatara or qualitative expansion of Krishna who is the superintendent of the mode of ignorance (tamoguna) and who takes charge of destroying the universe at the time of annihilation. He is considered the greatest Vaishnava, or devotee of Lord Krishna.
Sastra -- revealed scripture.
Snana-yatra -- "bathing festival"; a festive ceremony on the occasion of the appearance day of Lord Jagannath.
Sri -- transcendental wealth, asset, beauty, grace, topmost.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta -- (see Caitanya-caritamrta)
Sri Guru -- eternally manifest guru endowed with prema-bhakti.
Srila -- "beautiful"; a title indicating possession of exceptional spiritual qualities. The most beautiful (spiritual) person.
Srimad Bhagavatam -- "beautiful story of the Supreme Personality of Godhead"; the foremost of the eighteen Puranas and the complete science of God that establishes the supreme position of Lord Krishna.
Sudra -- a person belonging to the laborer or servant class.
Syamasundara -- a name for Krishna.
Tapas -- sufferings.
Tattva -- fundamental truth or principle.
Tirtha -- sacred place.
Tulasi -- a pure devotee in the form of a plant in the basil family which is held sacred by the Vaishnavas and is very dear to Sri Krishna. Its leaves and manjaris (buds) are always offered to Krishna's lotus feet.
Uddhava -- a dear devotee and friend of Krishna.
Vaidya -- doctor.
Vaikuntha, Vaikunthapura -- the spiritual abode of Lord Narayan where everything is characterized by opulence and worship in the mood of awe and reverence.
Vaishnava --worshippers of Lord Krishna or Narayan.
Vasudev -- the apparent father of Krishna, and the half-brother of Nanda Maharaj. Vasudev is a resident of Mathura and Dwarka.
Vishnu -- see Narayan.
Viswanath Chakravarti -- a great acarya of Gaudiya Vaisnavism during the 18th century.
Vraja/Vrajabhumi -- the eternal land of Vraja which exists both in the spiritual as well as the material worlds wherein Krishna displays His manifest pastimes.
Vrajabasis -- residents of Vraja.
Vrindavan -- "forest of tulasi"; Krishna's rural village where He fully displays His topmost feature of sweetness.
Vyasadeva (Vyasa) -- the literary incarnation of God, and the greatest philosopher of ancient times.
Yajna -- sacrifice.
Yamuna -- a sacred river flowing through Vrindavan; Lord Sri Krishna sported on its banks and in its waters when He was a young child.
Yasoda -- Krishna's actual mother who lives in Vrindavan.
Yuga -- a extremely long period of time; One of the four ages of the universe, which differ in length and which rotate like calendar months