शब्दकोश

अकर्म akarma

Action that does not bind the doer. In the Gita, akarma does not mean idleness.

अनन्य भक्ति ananya bhakti

Devotion that does not scatter in other directions and turns to the Lord alone; the tradition's name for the idea of Gita 7.17.

अभ्यास abhyāsa

Repeated effort, returned to again and again, by which a restless mind slowly learns to rest on its aim.

अर्पण arpaṇa

Handing over one's gift, one's work and its fruit to the Lord with devotion; offering is not an extra act but a way of doing every act.

अव्यक्त avyakta

The unmanifest. What is not shown to the senses or grasped by the mind, yet is real, as the self and the Supreme are.

अहंकार ahaṅkāra

Ego: the feeling "I am the doer and the owner", which makes a mind formed within nature take itself for a separate doer.

आत्मतृप्ति ātmatṛpti

Contentment in the Self alone; a fullness that does not depend on outer objects, praise or the fruit of action.

आत्मा ātman

The eternal, imperishable knower within the body; in the Gita it is never born and never dies.

इन्द्रिय indriya

The means of seeing, hearing, speaking and doing, the senses. Gita 3.40 counts them among the seats of desire, and 3.41 says to govern them first.

करुणा karuṇā

Compassion: the feeling that wakes at another's trouble and moves a person to act for their good, without sinking.

कर्तृत्व kartṛtva

Doership: the feeling "I am the one who does", with the action and its fruit taken as mine alone.

कर्म karma

What we do through body, speech or mind, and what follows from it; in the Gita no one is without karma even for a moment.

कर्मफलत्याग karmaphala-tyāga

Giving up attachment to and clinging for the fruit of action; not giving up the action or its purpose.

कर्मयोग karmayoga

The path of doing one’s work as duty or service, without clinging to its fruit or to the pride of being the doer.

काम kāma

A wish on which the whole weight of the mind comes to rest. In Gita 2.62 it is born of clinging and turns into anger when blocked.

काल kāla

Time, which makes, holds and gathers in all; in chapter 11 the Lord names himself Time.

कुरुक्षेत्र Kurukṣetra

The battlefield where the armies of the Kauravas and the Pandavas stand facing each other and where the Gita is spoken.

क्रोध krodha

The surge that rises from desire, after which comes bewilderment. In Gita 2.63 it leads on through clouded memory to lost discernment.

क्षत्रधर्म kṣatradharma

The warrior's duty as put to Arjuna; it is the tradition's label, not a word of the Gita.

क्षर-अक्षर kṣara-akṣara

The perishable and the imperishable. Gita 15.16 names them as the two kinds of beings in this world.

गुण guṇa

The three strands of nature, sattva, rajas and tamas, whose mixture shapes each person's tendency and the direction of action.

गुह्यतम guhyatama

The most secret or most intimate teaching, given with affection to a dear listener.

चतुर्विध भक्त caturvidha bhakta

The four kinds of devotee: the one in distress, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of gain and the wise (Gita 7.16).

ज्ञानयोग jñānayoga

The path of discernment and Self-knowledge: seeing what is lasting and what is passing, and resting in that understanding.

ज्ञानाग्नि jñānāgni

The fire of knowledge that burns away action’s power to bind, not action itself.

तमस् tamas

The mode of nature that brings inertia and fog; in 18.7 dropping the due action out of delusion is called tāmasa relinquishment.

तितिक्षा titikṣā

Bearing passing contacts such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain, without running from them or freezing; the practice of staying.

त्याग tyāga

Letting go; by Gita 18.2, giving up the grip on the fruit of all actions, and by 18.11 what makes one who gives up that fruit a relinquisher.

देवता devatā

A divine power or deity who is worshipped; in the Gita, the arrangement behind what a deity gives is the Lord's.

देह deha

The body, the covering in which the embodied one lives; in the Gita it is said to change and to have an end.

दैव daiva

Destiny: the fifth of the five causes of action, that which is beyond the doer's sight and control.

द्वन्द्व dvandva

Pairs of opposites, such as pleasure and pain, cold and heat, gain and loss, victory and defeat, between which the mind swings.

धर्म dharma

The sense of duty, right order and right conduct; in the Gita it carries several senses depending on the passage.

ध्यानयोग dhyānayoga

The path of settling and steadying the mind within, through regular practice.

निमित्तमात्र nimittamātra

Being merely an instrument: doing the action without claiming to be the sole maker of its result.

निराश्रय nirāśraya

Not depending on any outer support such as fruit, position or recognition. An inner steadiness that does not rest on the result.

निष्काम कर्म niṣkāma karma

Action done wholeheartedly without craving for or clinging to its fruit; the tradition's name for this teaching of the Gita.

नैष्कर्म्य naiṣkarmya

Freedom from the bondage of action: acting fully while action no longer binds the doer.

परिग्रह parigraha

Possessiveness: holding on to things, and to the sense of “mine”, as if they were one’s own security.

प्रकृति prakṛti

Nature: that which includes body, mind, senses and temperament, and whose three modes perform all actions.

बुद्धि buddhi

The inner power that weighs, distinguishes and resolves; where the mind is pulled, the intellect decides.

बुद्धियोग buddhiyoga

Discernment held steady in one direction; in chapter 10, the wisdom the Lord gives the devotee and by which he reaches Him.

ब्रह्मभूत brahmabhūta

One who has become established in Brahman: serene, free of grief and craving, and equal toward all beings.

भक्ति bhakti

Devotion to the Lord, a bond of love and faith in which the mind rests steadily on Him.

भक्तियोग bhaktiyoga

The path of loving, faithful and surrendered devotion, in which the mind rests in God.

महात्मा mahātmā

One who has taken shelter in the divine nature and worships the Lord with an undivided mind, knowing him as the source of all.

महाभारत Mahābhārata

The vast epic within which the Gita is set, the story of the conflict between the Kauravas and the Pandavas.

मात्सर्य mātsarya

Envy: the pain of seeing another’s gain, which sours the mind and the work.

माया māyā

The Lord's own divine power, made of the three modes, that confuses the mind and is crossed only by taking refuge in him.

मिथ्याचार mithyācāra

One who holds back the organs of action yet dwells on sense objects in the mind: an inner self-delusion, not a deliberate act.

मैत्री maitrī

Friendliness: a wish for the good of every being, with no hatred, that does not depend on liking or disliking.

मोह moha

The fog of the mind in which right and wrong blur. It shows in Arjuna's bewildered mind in 2.7 and in its destruction in 18.73.

यज्ञ yajña

Action done in a spirit of offering for a purpose larger than oneself. More than a ritual of pouring offerings into fire.

योग yoga

Joining, and the discipline that joins: in the Gita, equanimity, skill in action and a steady mind are each called yoga.

योगक्षेम yogakṣema

Getting what one lacks (yoga) and keeping what one has (kshema); for undivided devotees the Lord carries this load.

योगारूढ yogārūḍha

One who has climbed to yoga; by Gita 6.4, one who clings neither to sense objects nor to actions and has given up all saṅkalpa.

रजस् rajas

The mode of nature that keeps the mind active and restless. In Gita 3.37 desire and anger are said to be born of it.

लोकसंग्रह lokasaṅgraha

Acting with the welfare of the world in view, holding people together; doing one's work free of attachment while keeping everyone's good in sight.

विकर्म vikarma

Forbidden or contrary action, the kind that should not be done. The Gita says it must be understood alongside karma and akarma.

विभूति vibhūti

The Lord's splendour: all the greatness, beauty and power seen in the world, whose source is the Lord.

विश्वरूप viśvarūpa

The Lord's form in which Arjuna sees the whole universe at once through divine sight (chapter 11).

विषाद viṣāda

A sinking of the mind so deep that the body fails and the power to decide wavers. The Gita's first chapter is a picture of this state.

वैराग्य vairāgya

Dispassion: the loosening of attraction and aversion, so that the mind is no longer pulled around by what it meets.

व्यवसायात्मिका बुद्धि vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ

The deciding intellect that rests on one centre; in Gita 2.41 it is called single.

शरणागति śaraṇāgati

Coming for refuge: asking with trust and being ready to learn. It is the tradition's name, not a word of the Gita itself.

शान्ति śānti

Peace: the settled calm of a mind that no longer clings to desire, ownership and the fruit of action.

श्रद्धा śraddhā

The inner trust by which a person turns towards something; in the Gita, as the faith, so the person (17.3).

संग saṅga

Attachment: the clinging of the mind to objects, results or roles, so that peace depends on them.

सङ्कल्प saṅkalpa

Resolve or intention; in the Gita, the mind’s imagined plans from which desires are born.

सत्-असत् sat-asat

Sat is what always is and does not cease; asat is what has no lasting being and changes and goes.

सत्त्व sattva

The mode of nature that gives clarity and balance; in 18.10 the sāttvika relinquisher is said to be filled with sattva.

सत्सङ्ग satsaṅga

The company of the wise, where the Lord is spoken of. It is the tradition's name; Gita 10.9 describes it without the word.

संन्यास saṃnyāsa

Renunciation, especially of actions; by Gita 3.4 outward renunciation alone does not bring perfection.

समत्व samatva

Evenness of mind in pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and failure: not the absence of feeling, but not being swept away by it.

सांख्य sāṅkhya

The path of understanding that distinguishes the self from the body; in Gita 2.39 it is the intellect taught before the turn to yoga.

साधु sādhu

A good person on the right road; in the Gita, also one who has resolved rightly, whatever his past.

स्मृति smṛti

Memory, and all that keeps a person tied to their path. In 2.63 it goes astray, and in 18.73 it is regained.

स्वधर्म svadharma

One's own duty or role, fitting the qualities born of one's nature; the Gita says even an imperfect svadharma is better than another's duty well done.

स्वभाव svabhāva

One's own natural make-up and tendency, from which one's qualities and natural work arise; not today's mood or preference.