Sanskirt Flashcards
Ātman
“The individual”; “Self”; you; self-existent essence.
Refers to the self that persists through time. The soul.
Concept explored in Upanishads but involved in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Nirvāṇa (Pāḷī Nibbāṇa)
“Across the wind” or “blowing out.”
Moksha; the transcendent state in which the cycle of karma is broken and there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self the highest state someone can attain; a state of enlightenment.
Concept in Buddhism.
Duḥkha (Pāḷī Dukkha)
“Suffering,” “pain,” or “unhappiness”; but more aptly rendered as “unsatisfactoriness,” “unease,” or “stress.”
Nothing in this world will ever be enough to truly make you happy; if it were so that such a thing existed, this state does not last long; habitual experience of mundane life is fundamentally unsatisfactory and painful.
Concept in Buddhism.
Tṛṣṇā (Pāḷī taṇhā)
“Thirst” or “desire, longing, greed.”
Refers to our desire and how we long for something.
Concept in Buddhism.
Brahman
“Big self”; “to be or make firm, strong, solid, expand, promote.”
Brahman refers to the structure of the world and the matrix of existence. It is something that allows all things in this world to work, for rituals to work, and realizes the existence of the whole world; it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists.
Karman/Karma
Action; seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation.
In Hinduism, one of the means of reaching Brahman. In Buddhism, results in continuous reincarnation (continuous suffering). Exists and is explored in Hinduism, Buddhism, and many other religions, practices, and religious denominations.
Important to understand the difference between karma which means direct object and karma which means action.
Yajña
“Sacrifice”; yaj means “to worship, adore, honor, consecrate, hallow, offer, present, grant, yield, bestow.
Refers to a ritual done before a sacred fire with a specific intention or objective.
Concept in Hinduism; Vedic civilization.
Deva
“Shiny”, “exalted”, “heavenly being”, “divine being”, “anything of excellence.”
Refers to the gods; a member of a class of divine beings in the Vedic period, which in Indian religion are benevolent (and in Zoroastrianism are evil).
Upaniṣad
“Down [upa] near [ni] sit [sad]”;
Refers to immediate action in teach-student relations in which students sit down near their teachers. Refers to late Vedic texts, the earliest of which were written around 800 BCE. Considered by many as the religious, spiritual, and philosophical core of Indian thought.
These texts do the following: set of connections between the micro- and macrocosm; homologize ritual and cosmology; and theorize the connection between the Ātman and the Brahman (3 big ideas: Ātman, Karman, and Brahman).
Buddha
“Enlightened one, a knower.”
Refers to the ascetic and spiritual teacher of South Asia who lived during the 6th or 5th century BCE; founder of Buddhism; a fully enlightened being who taught a path to Nirvana, freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth, and suffering.
He was a Hindu prince who lived in his palace, shielded from the outside world. He finally saw the outside world and realized all the suffering that was around him (sickness, aging, etc.) He also noticed that there was a renouncer who tried to attain a different path to life’s sufferings. After noticing this, he renounces his position to follow a path and seek enlightenment.
Āśrama
“Stage” or “life stage.”
Refers to the four life stages in the Upanishadic texts. These were: student (brahmacarin), householder (grhastha), forest mendicant (vanaprastha), and renouncer (samnyasin).
Saṃsāra
“Flowing around”; “world.”
Refers to the concept of rebirth and “cyclicality of all life, matter, existence.”; cycle of death and rebirth. Depicted by a wheel being eaten and/or held by Yama.
Ahiṃsā
“Not (a-) desiring to harm (hiṃsā: can also mean kill, strike, be violent).”
A key tent of many Śraman doctrines, most notably Buddhism and Jainism; Jainism takes this doctrine to its core.
Jina
“Conquer” or “victor.”
Founder of Jainism. Master of the 5 senses.
Varṇa
“Colour, hence, class.”
Refers to social class within a hierarchical caste system that goes back to a hymn in the Rg Veda; Brahman (priest), the Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the Shudra issued forth at creation from the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet of the primeval person (purusha).
