Glossary of Indian Terms

(partially based on Indian — English Glossary, published by the international Fellowship of Recongiliation, London)

• Advaita — ‘non-duality’, the teaching of everything being one, nun-dual, as proposed in the philosophy of advaita vedanta (see vedanta).
• Ahimsa — ‘non-harm’; non-violence.
• Aparigraha — non-possessiveness, voluntary poverty.
• Arya-Samaj — a Hindu society devoted to the regeneration of Vedic religion.
• Ashram — abode of spiritual teacher; centre of Gandhian activity.
• Baba — good father; affectionate title given to Vinoba Bhave.
• Bapu — father, affectionate name for M.K. Gandhi.
• Bhagavad Gita — ‘Song of the Lord’; that part of the Mahabharata in which Arjuna is instructed by Krishna on the battle field of Kurukshetra; considered by many to contain the essence of Hinduism.
• Bhoo-dan — also Bhudan, land-gift.
• Brahma Samaj — a reformist religious society deriving from Hinduism, with affinities with English Unitarianism.
• Brahma-Vidya — knowledge of the Supreme-Self, of the Absolute.
• Charkha — spinning wheel.
• Chintan-sarvasva — devotion of the whole of one’s thought to the work
• Crore — ten million.
• Dan — gift; sharing.
• Ghee — clarified butter.
• Gita — See Bhagavad Gita.
• Gram-dan — ‘Village-gift’; the radical development of Bhoo-dan in which villagers give up private property in land to the village and administer the village as a family unit.
• Gram-nirman — ‘Village-building’, (communal) village life revival and reconstruction.
• Gram-raj(ya) — ‘Village rule’; system of autonomous village republics.
• Guru — spiritual guide and teacher.
• Hanuman — monkey deity of the Ramayana; devotee of Rama.
• Harijan — ‘off-spring of god’; Gandhiji’s name for the outcaste and “untouchable”.
• Himsa — harm, injury; violence.
• Khadi — cloth spun and woven by hand.
• Kshatriya — warrior caste.
• Lakh — a hundred thousand.
• Lanka — Ceylon.
• Lok-niti — ‘politics of the people’ (as opposed to raj-niti, politics of the State or power politics).
• Lok-sevak — ‘servant of the people’.
• Mandal — ‘halo of light’; assembly (see Samaj).
• Mela — ‘fair, held in connection with a religious festival.
• Nai Talim — ‘new education’; the craft-centred system of Basic Education introduced by M.K. Gandhi.
• nish-kam — self-less, desire-less, free from the desire for the fruit of ones action, working without expectations and without any wish for reward.
• Rajas — energy, passion; one of the three ‘qualities’ of the Samhkya philosophy, the others being sattva and tamas.
• Rig Veda — the oldest of the vedas.
• Sahayak — assistant, helper, auxiliary.
• Sainik — soldier.
• Samadhi — final stage of absorption in deep meditation or death (of saint).
• Samaj — society or union; mandal is the smallest group, sangh a larger association, samaj a wide fellowship or society in general.
• Samanvaya — integration.
• Sammati — consent.
• Sammelan — ‘commingling’; general meeting, conference, chapter.
• Sampatti — wealth, property.
• Sangh(a) — association (see Samaj).
• Sanyasi/Sannyasi — one who has entered sanyas, the final meditative stage of life. renunciant.
• Sarva Seva Sangh — overall executive body of the Sarvodaya Samaj.
• Sarvodaya — ‘all-rising’, i.e., the integrated development of all mankind, integral common good of all; the social philosophy of M.K. Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.
• Sarvodaya Patra — earthen vessel or bowl in home into which the youngest child’s handful of grain is put daily for the upkeep of Sarvodaya workers.
• Sattva — (adjective Sattvik) — serenity; purity (see rajas).
• Sena — army; brigade.
• Seva — service.
• Sevak — ‘servant’; Sarvodaya worker.
• Shanti — peace.
• Shanti Sena — Peace Army.
• Sutras — Hindu sacred texts.
• Tamas — inertia; apathy (see rajas)
• Vanprastha — one who has reached the third of the 4 stages of life, the stage of retirement from household and business affairs.
• Vedanta — ‘end of the Veda’, one of the philosophical system of Hinduism (also see advaita).
• Vedas — oldest Hindu scriptures.
• Vidya — knowledge.
• Yajna — religious sacrifice.
• Yoga — ‘union’; system of spiritual development.