| Term |
Meaning |
| Ascetic |
one who renounces physical pleasures and worldly attachments for the sake of spiritual advancement. |
| Atman |
the eternal self or soul of an individual. |
| Brahman |
the highest of the four classes of the caste system, made up of priests. |
| Avatar |
an incarnation, or living embodiment, of a deity, usually vishnu, who is sent to earth to accomplish a diving purpose |
| Rig Veda |
A collection of 1,017 Sanskrit hymns composed about 1500 B.C or earlier; Hinduism's oldest sacred text. |
| Maya |
Cosmic illusion brought about by divine creative power |
| Caste System |
Traditional division of Hindu society into various categories; brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, and shudra each class contains numerous subgroups, resulting in more than three thousand categoreies. |
| Four Goals of Life |
Sensual pleasure, Material Success, Harmony with Dharma, The bliss of Moksha. |
| Karma |
The moral law of cause and effect of actions |
| Dharma |
Ethical duty base on the divine order of reality |
| Moksha |
Liberation or release of the individual self |
| Monism |
The doctrine that reality is ultimately made up of only one essence |
| Upanishads |
a collection of over two hundred texts composed between 900 and 200 B.C. |
| Samsara |
Wheel of Rebirth. |
| Three Paths of Liberation |
To be active, To gain knowledge, and to experience emotional attacmhent. |
| Four Stages of Life |
1st- Student, 2nd- pursuing a career and raising a family. 3rd- birth of the first grandchild, forest dweller stage. 4th- wandering ascetic. stage for forest dwellers ready to return to society. |
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