abhava—coming into being in the individual consciousness.

abhisti—entering in, taking possession.

abhyasa—repetition, practice.

adesa— imperative command from the Divine; in the Record, usually the divine command received by Sri Aurobindo in Alipur jail to accomplish a certain work for the world. This work had four principal parts: religious (dharma), literary (sahitya), political (krti) and social (samaja or kama).

adhara—support, receptacle; the mental-vital-physical system as a vessel of the spiritual consciousness; a physical object or sensation serving as a support for subtle sense-perception.

adri—hill or rock; in the Veda, symbolic of the physical being.

ahaituka — without any special cause, spontaneous; (physical ananda) not associated with an initiating stimulus. The description of the various forms of physical ananda as ahaituka must be distinguished carefully from the use of the word in the term ahaituka ananda, sometimes abbreviated "ahaituka"; see next.

ahaituka ananda — "delight without any cause", the subjective ananda corresponding to the mental plane.

aiskhistos estha (Greek) — you were the ugliest or vilest.

aisvarya—a siddhi of power (SC III, Ashtasiddhi): effectiveness of the will acting as

a command, without special concentration on the person or object as in vasita.

akasa— ether, the subtlest of the five states of matter; also, any of various immaterial ethers (vital, mental, etc.) Rupa and lipi seen in the akasa are distinguished from the citra ("pictorial") and sthapatya ("sculptural") types, which appear on a background from which they draw material. "Akasha on a background" refers to a form of sadhara rupa which "is created not from the background, but from the akash & thrown on the background to help the distinctness".

akasarupa—rupa seen in the akasa.

aksepa — disturbance.

alasya—laziness.

alpa—small.

ama—raw.

ananda—bliss, spiritual delight, ecstasy; an aspect of the supreme reality (see anandam brahma). Ananda is experienced variously on the different planes of consciousness; its principal forms are the seven types of bhukti (see SC VII), categorised as physical ananda (kama-nanda with its five varieties; see SC IV, Ananda) and six grades of subjective ananda (premananda, etc.)

ananda brahman — see anandam brahma.

anandamaya—full of ananda, blissful; belonging to the plane of pure ananda.

anandam brahma — (the realisation of) the Brahman as the self-existent bliss and its universal delight of being, the last member of the brahmacatustaya (SC VI).

ananta—infinite; the Infinite; see anantam brahma.

anantam brahma — (the realisation of) the Brahman infinite in being and infinite in quality, the second member of the brahmacatustaya (SC VI).

anima—"subtlety", a siddhi which frees the body from subjection to strain and pain (SC III, Ashtasiddhi).

anrtam— falsehood; negation of rtam.

antar—see antardarsi.

antardarsi— "inward-looking" (jagrat samadhi); same as antardrsta.

antardrsta—"seen within"; samadhi in the waking state (jagrat) in which images are

seen inside oneself in the mental ether, generally with eyes closed.

apas—work, action.

arogya—health; freedom from disease or disturbance in the bodily system, a component of the sariracatustaya (SC IV).

asamata—inequality, lack of samata.

asana— any of various postures or positions of the body. In the Record, asana usually does not refer to the traditional fixed postures of Hathayoga.

asat (brahma) — brahman as Non-Being.

asiddhi—imperfection; negation of siddhi.

avira—lacking in strength.

avyakta—unmanifest.

bahirdarsi— "outward-looking"; samadhi in the waking state (jagrat) in which images are seen outside oneself in the physical atmosphere.

barhih, barhis—in the Veda, the seat of sacred grass on which the gods are invited to sit at the sacrifice.

bhava—state of being; state of mind; psychological condition; feeling; temperament; aspect.

bhoga—enjoyment.

bhur—earth; the material world; the physical consciousness.

brahmadarsana—vision of Brahman.

brahmadrsti—vision of Brahman.

brahman—the infinite and omnipresent Reality, "the One besides whom there is nothing else existent"; in the Record, "Brahman" often refers to the realisation of the four aspects of the Supreme enumerated in the brahmacatustaya (SC VI).

brhat—vast; vastness; the vast and total consciousness proper to the vijnana.

caitanya—consciousness.

caksus—eye.

candananda — intense ananda.

candra—relating to the moon; mild, subdued.

chayamaya—"shadowy"; composed of chhya, the lowest of the seven kinds of "crude" material from which rupa is formed.

cidananda—ananda of pure consciousness, one of the seven levels of ananda, corresponding to cit.

cidghana (ananda)—ananda of dense luminous

consciousness, one of the seven levels of ananda, corresponding to vijnana.

cit—consciousness; essential self-awareness inherent in infinite existence (sat).

citra—"pictorial" rupa or lipi; subtle images or writing seen on a background rather than in the akasa, and as two-dimensional pictures rather than in relief (sthapatya).

dasya—the state of being a servant or slave of the Divine; submission, surrender. In the period of 1913-14, three principal degrees of dasya were defined in the Record: (1) "primary, that is a free subjection of the Will on the basis of a potential independence", (2) "secondary, that is a mechanical subjection of the adhara independent of the personal Will to the Prakriti", and (3) "tertiary, a complete subjection, mechanical & volitional to the Ishwara with the Prakriti only as a channel".

dasyabuddhi—sense of dasya.

dasya madhura — an attitude of dasya in the mode of madhura.

defaillances (French)—failings.

dhana—wealth; symbolically, spiritual plenitude.

dharma—in the Record, the "religious" part of Sri Aurobindo's life-work (see adesa). It consisted of imparting the realisations of his Yoga to others.

drsti — vision; subtle sight; subtle sense-perception in general; revelation, direct vision of the truth, a power of jnana.

gandha—(subtle) scent; the subtle sense of smell (short for gandhadrsti).

hasya—"laughter", the last member of the samatacatustaya (SC I); "an active internal state of gladness and cheerfulness which no adverse experience mental or physical can trouble".

hetu—cause; used in the Record in connection with ananda, particularly kamanan-da, to mean an initiating stimulus (usually a contact) for the ananda.

indriya—sense-organ.

isa(h)—impulsions.

isita — a siddhi of power (SC III, Ashta-siddhi): "effectiveness of the will acting not as a command or through the

thought," as in aisvarya, "but through the heart or temperament (citta) in a perception of need or pure lipsa."

isthi philos estha (Greek) — know you were a friend.

jdgrad, jdgrat—awake, in the waking state; the state of samadhi "when in the waking consciousness, we are able to concentrate and become aware of things beyond our consciousness".

jnana—knowledge; supra-rational thought-perception (often referred to in the Record as simply "thought"), the first member of the vijnanacatustaya (SC III); jnanam brahma.

jnana brahma(n)—see jnanam brahma.

jnanam brahma — (the realisation of) the Brahman as the self-existent consciousness and universal knowledge, the third member of the brahmacatustaya (SC VI).

jugupsa—repulsion.

Kali—a name of the Goddess in her forceful and destructive, yet supremely compassionate aspect; in the Record, Kali designates the divine Shakti, the Power who carries out the will of the Lord (Krsna). The manifestation of Kali is the second element of the karmacatustaya (SC V).

kama—desire; a quality of the ideal Sudra temperament in which desire changes "from the seeking after physical well-being and self-indulgence to the joy of God manifest in Matter" (SC II, Virya); as a component of the karmacatustaya (SC V), kama is the divine enjoyment which accompanies a divinised action in the world (karma). The social aspect of Sri Aurobindo's fourfold work (see adesa) is also referred to as kama.

kamananda—the form of physical ananda associated with the spiritual transmutation of sensuous desire (kama); the same word is also used as the generic term for physical ananda with its five varieties: kamananda (in the specific sense), visayananda, tivrananda, raudrananda and vaidyutananda.

karma—action, work; perfect action on the basis of the vijnana, part of the karmacatustaya (SC V); specifically, spiritual action in the objective field along the

fourfold lines of the adesa.

kausalya—skilfulness, proficiency.

ketu — thought-perception.

Krsna— a name of the supreme Deity; the most blissful form of the divine Personality. The manifestation of Krsna, "the Ishwara taking delight in the world", is the first member of the karmacatustaya (SC V).

Krsnadarsana, Krsnadrsti — the vision of Krishna in all things and beings.

krti—action, work; especially, the political part of Sri Aurobindo's work (see adesa).

Kutsa—the name of a Rishi, companion of Indra in the Rg Veda (e.g. 5.31.9, the sortilege of 10 June 1914). In Essays on the Gita (p. 18), Sri Aurobindo explains the name as meaning "he who constantly seeks the seer-knowledge". In the Record, Kutsa is associated with "intensity of subjective ananda through the indriyas".

laghima — "lightness", a physical siddhi by which it is possible "to get rid of weariness and exhaustion and to overcome gravitation" (SC III, Ashtasiddhi).

lilamaya — enjoying the delight of the divine play (lila).

lipi—writing seen in subtle vision or the power of such vision, an instrument of vijnana closely connected with trikaladrsfi. Like rupa, lipi may manifest either in the akasa or in the form of citra or sthapatya on a physical background.

lipsa—seeking, reaching out; "divine desire-less reaching out of Brahman in personality to Brahman in the vishaya or object"; a means by which isita is effected.

madhura—sweet; the "sweet" relation with the Divine which is the most intense and blissful, the relation of lover and beloved.

mahima—a siddhi which gives unhampered force to the workings of mind and body (SC III, Ashtasiddhi).

manomaya—mental; the mental plane.

mayavin—magician, master of illusions.

namas—submission.

Narayana — the Divine making itself one with humanity even as the human, Nara, becomes one with the Divine.

nati — submission to the divine Will; the third stage of negative or passive samata.

Nidah — "Restrainers", a kind of hostile being in the Veda.

nirananda—negation of ananda.

niranandamaya—the opposite of anandamaya.

niskama — desire less.

nivrtti—inactivity, quietism.

pacana—ripening.

prakasa—light, clarity, "transparent lumi-nousness"; the divine light of knowledge into which sattva is to be converted in the liberation from the three gunas (SC VII, Mukti). The word prakasa is sometimes used to refer collectively to the faculties of knowledge in the vijnanacatustaya, just as tapas designates the faculties of power.

prasada—also called atmaprasada, "a state of clearness, purity and contentment in the whole self, sometimes considered to be the last member of the first catustaya.

pratistha—support, basis, pedestal.

pravrtti—movement, activity.

prema—love; love which seeks no return, a quality of the ideal sudra temperament (SC II, Virya); often short for premananda.

premakama—prema and kama.

premananda—ananda of love, one of the seven levels of ananda, corresponding to the vital-emotional plane.

rabhas—impetuosity of force or rapture.

radhas—riches; joy, felicity.

ratha—chariot; anandamaya movement.

raudrananda — fierce or intense ananda (more intense than tivrananda), the form of physical ananda associated with the conversion of pain to pleasure.

rtam—truth, right; right ordering; truth of knowledge and action; the principle of divine Law and Right inherent in the vijnana.

rudra—violent, impetuous.

rudrasakti—vehement energy.

rupa—form, image; forms or images, often symbolic or predictive, seen in subtle vision; also the faculty of such vision (rupadrsti), an instrument of vijnana. Rupa may be constituted from any of seven kinds of etheric material; this material is further analysed according to three orders of "fullness": "crude" (the

primary state), "dense" or ghana ("material developed into substance of consistency") and "developed" ("when the substance has developed lifelike appearance of reality"). Rupa may manifest spontaneously in the akasa or on a suggestive or supporting background (see citra and sthapatya).

sabda—(subtle) sound; the subtle sense of hearing (short for sabdadrsti).

sadananda—ananda of pure existence, one of the seven levels of ananda, corresponding to the plane of sal.

sadhara — (subtle sense-perception) with the support (adhara) of a physical sensation.

sahasya—with laughter (hasya).

sahitya—literature; literary work including poetry, prose and scholarship, part of karma.

sakti—force, power; the "power of the instruments", a heightened capacity of mind, heart, life and body, the second member of the sakticatustaya (SC II); the sakticatustaya itself.

samadhi—yogic trance as a means of increasing the range of consciousness, the last member of the vijnanacatustaya (SC III). It has three states, termed jagrat ("waking"), svapna ("dream") and su-supta ("deep sleep").

samaja — society; the social part of Sri Aurobindo's work (see adesa), also called kama.

samata—equality, "the capacity of receiving with a calm and equal mind all the attacks and appearances of outward things"; the first term of the first catustaya. It has two forms, passive or negative and active or positive, each with three stages.

samkalpa—resolution, volition, will.

samrajya—outward empire, "the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer activities and environment".

santa—calm, peaceful.

santam (brahma)—the silent Brahman.

santi — peace, the second element of the samatacatustaya (SC I); "either a vast passive calm based on udasinata or a vast joyous calm based on nati".

sarva, sarvam — all; the All; see sarvam

brahma.

sarvam brahma — (the realisation of) the Brahman that is the All, an aspect of the "fourfold Brahman" (see SC VI).

sat—existence, substance; pure existence, the ultimate principle of reality, manifested variously on all the planes of being.

sat brahman — brahman as "Existence pure, indefinable, infinite, absolute".

satyam—truth; essential truth of being, the basis of all knowledge and action in the vijnana.

saumya—gentle.

saundarya—beauty; physical beauty as an element of the perfection of the body (SC IV).

siddhi — perfection; success; accomplishment of the aims of the yoga as a whole or of any movement of the yoga; an occult or supernormal power. In the last sense, the eight siddhis of the Ashtasiddhi (SC III) are divided into two siddhis of knowledge (vyapti and prakamya), three of power (vasita, aisvarya, isita), and three physical siddhis (mahima, laghima, anima).

smarana—remembrance, attention.

sraddha—faith; the last member of the Sakticatustaya (SC II).

sthapatya—"architectural" rupa or lipi, i.e. vision of things seen in relief on a background as if sculptured.

sthula—gross, physical; (belonging to) the gross physical plane of existence.

stomah—affirmations.

suddha—pure; see suddhananda.

suddhananda—"pure ananda", the subjective ananda corresponding to the ananda plane proper.

sukha — "happiness", the third term of the first catustaya; "not merely freedom from grief and pain, but a positive state of happiness in the whole system".

suksma—subtle, supraphysical; (belonging to) the subtle planes of existence.

supta — sleeping; immersed in the "deep sleep" state of samadhi.

suvirah—perfect in energy.

suvrkti—purification; in the explanatiom of the sortilege of 13 June 1914 (Rg Veda

3.62.12), suvrkti is interpreted as an adjective meaning "where all is clearly distinguished and put in its place".

svadha—the self-ordering power of Nature.

svaha—an exclamation used in making oblations to the gods; connected at one place in the Record with "being".

svapna—dream; vision in svapnasamadhi; the state of svapnasamadhi.

svapnamaya—pertaining to svapnasamadhi or to the intermediate planes of consciousness experienced in svapnasamadhi.

svapnasamadhi — the second or "dream" state of samadhi; "when the mind has lost its outward consciousness... and goes inside itself. In this state it has "not dreams but internal visions" which are "records of true and actual experiences".

svar—the plane of luminous Mind.

svarajya—self-rule, subjective empire; "the entire control by the subjective consciousness of all the states and activities proper to its own domain".

tanu—body.

tapas—spiritual force, power, will; concentration of energy to effect an end; infinite conscious force (cittapas), the second principle of the supreme reality. In the Record, tapas or its most common English equivalent, "power", often refers to the dynamic aspect of the vijnana which acts through the siddhis of power (SC III, Ashtasiddhi). Tapas (or pravrtti) is also the name given to the divine force of action into which rajas is to be transformed in the liberation from the three gunas (SC VII, Mukti). There is, however, a lower form of tapas which contains elements of stress and preference; the adjective "tapasic" is sometimes used in this sense.

tejas — mental or spiritual energy; "soul-force" with its four modes (brahmatejas, etc.) expressed through the fourfold temperament (SC II, Virya); "fire", the principle of light and heat, one of the five material elements.

titiksa—endurance, "the bearing firmly of all contacts pleasant or unpleasant"; the first stage of negative or passive samata.

tivra—see tivrananda.

tivrananda — intense or thrilling ananda, one of the five types of physical ananda.

trikaladrsti — "vision of the three times"; direct knowledge of the past, present and future; as an element of the vijnanacatustaya (SC III), it is jnana "applied to the facts and events of the material world".

udasina — detached, unconcerned, "seated above and indifferent".

udasinata—indifference, "being seated above, superior to all physical and mental touches"; the second stage of negative or passive samata.

utthapana—levitation; "the state of not being subject to the pressure of physical forces", part of the sariracatustaya (SC TV). "Primary utthapana" meant a general liberation of the mental and physical being "from exhaustion, weariness, strain and all their results". The practice of "secondary utthapana" involved the prolonged suspension of various limbs in the air with the aim of making the body able to "take and maintain any position or begin and continue any movement for any length of time naturally and in its own right". Tertiary utthapana is "when one is not necessarily subject to the law of gravitation or other physical laws".

vak—word; speech; the faculty of verbal expression.

vamih suvira isah—delightful impulsions full of a perfect energy. [Cf. Rg Veda 3.53.1]

vanmaya—(thought) formulated in words, articulate; "the revelation of truth through right and perfect vak in the thought".

vasita—a siddhi of power (SC III, Ashtasiddhi): concentration of the will on a person or object so as to control it.

vijnana — the supra-intellectual faculty or plane of divine knowledge and power, often referred to in the Record as the "ideality"; the vijnanacatustaya (SC III), consisting of the instruments and means of vijnana. The nature of the vijnana is expressed by the Vedic formula satyam rtam brhat, "the truth, the right, the vast".

vijnanamaya — of the nature of vijnana; supra-intellectual, ideal.

vijnanasiddhi — perfection of the vijnanacatustaya (SC III).

viveka—intuitive discrimination, a faculty of jnana. vrana—wound.

vrjina—crooked.

Vrtra — in the Veda, the "coverer" who blocks the flow of the waters of being; the power that obstructs the yoga; (in the

plural) the powers of Vrtra.

vyapti—telepathic reception or communication, a siddhi of knowledge (SC III, Ashtasiddhi). "Effective vyapti", the projection of one's thoughts and states of consciousness into others, is connected with the siddhis of power.

yantrabhava—the sense of being an instrument.