Glossary
A
Ācārya —a spiritual master who teaches by example.
Arcā-vigraha —the Deity incarnation of the Supreme Lord, manifest within material substances such as wood or stone.
Aṣṭāṅga-yoga —the mystic  yoga  system propounded by Patañjali in his  Yoga-sūtras .
Asuras —atheistic demons.
Ātmā —the eternal spirit soul who is living within the temporary, material body.
Avatāra —an incarnation, or “descent,” of the Supreme Lord.
B
Bhagavad-gītā —the discourse between the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, and His devotee Arjuna expounding devotional service as both the principal means and the ultimate end of spiritual perfection.
Bhakta —a devotee of God.
Bhakti —devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Brahmacarya —celibate student life; the first order of Vedic spiritual life.
Brahmajyoti —the brilliant effulgence emanating from the Supreme Lord’s personal form, which is experienced by impersonalists as formless, limitless light, and thus mistaken by them to be the ultimate realization of the Absolute.
Brahman —the Absolute Truth; especially the impersonal aspect of the Absolute.
Brāhmaṇa —one wise in the  Vedas  who can guide society; the first Vedic social order.
Brahmāstra —in Vedic military science, an advanced nuclear weapon powered by the chanting of certain  mantras .
D
Dharma —occupational duty; religious principles.
G
Gañjā —marijuana.
Goloka (Kṛṣṇaloka) —the highest spiritual planet, containing Kṛṣṇa’s personal abodes, Dvārakā, Mathurā, and Vṛndāvana.
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