Dictionary

In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana (प्राण, prāṇa; the Sanskrit word for breath, “life force”, or “vital principle”) permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects In Hindu literature, prāṇa is sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements Five types of prāṇa, collectively known as the five vāyus (“winds”), are described in Hindu texts Ayurveda, tantra and Tibetan medicine all describe prāṇa vāyu as the basic vāyu from which the other vāyus arise...

Yajna (Sanskrit: यज्ञ, romanized: yajña, lit ‘sacrifice, devotion, worship, offering’) refers in Hinduism to any ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras Yajna has been a Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature called Brahmanas, as well as Yajurveda The tradition has evolved from offering oblations and libations into sacred fire to symbolic offerings in the presence of sacred fire (Agni) Yajna rituals-related texts have been called the Karma-kanda (ritual works) portion of the Vedic literature, in contrast to Jnana-kanda (knowledge) portion contained in the Vedic Upanishads...

Yajnavalkya or Yagyavlkya (Sanskrit: याज्ञवल्क्य, Yājñavalkya) is a Hindu Vedic sage figuring in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c 700 BCE) Yajnavalkya proposes and debates metaphysical questions about the nature of existence, consciousness and impermanence, and expounds the epistemic doctrine of neti neti (“not this, not this”) to discover the universal Self and Ātman Texts attributed to him include the Yajnavalkya Smriti, Yoga Yajnavalkya and some texts of the Vedanta school He is also mentioned in various Brahmanas and Aranyakas

The Yajurveda (Sanskrit: यजुर्वेद, yajurveda, from yajus meaning “worship”, and veda meaning “knowledge”) is the Veda primarily of prose mantras for worship rituals An ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, it is a compilation of ritual-offering formulas that were said by a priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the yajna fire Yajurveda is one of the four Vedas, and one of the scriptures of Hinduism The exact century of Yajurveda’s composition is unknown, and estimated by Witzel to be between 1200 and 800 BCE, contemporaneous with Samaveda and Atharvaveda...

Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities In Sanskrit, his name can be interpreted to mean “twin” He is also an important deity worshipped by the Kalasha and formerly by the Nuristani peoples, indicating his prominence in ancient Hinduism In Hinduism, Yama is the son of sun-god Surya and Sanjana, the daughter of Vishvakarma...

The Yamuna (Hindustani: pronounced [jəmunaː]), also spelt Jamuna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387 metres (20,955 ft) on the southwestern slopes of Bandarpunch peaks of the Lower Himalaya in Uttarakhand, it travels a total length of 1,376 kilometres (855 mi) and has a drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi), 40...

Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (roughly 700) was a Hindu philosopher and a scholar of Mimamsa school of philosophy from early medieval India He is famous for many of his various theses on Mimamsa, such as Mimamsaslokavarttika Bhaṭṭa was a staunch believer in the supreme validity of Vedic injunction, a champion of Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā and a confirmed ritualist The Varttika is mainly written as a subcommentary of Sabara’s commentary on Jaimini’s Purva Mimamsa Sutras...

Yantra (यन्त्र) (literally “machine, contraption”) is a geometrical diagram, mainly from the Tantric traditions of the Indian religions Yantras are used for the worship of deities in temples or at home; as an aid in meditation; used for the benefits given by their supposed occult powers based on Hindu astrology and tantric texts They are also used for adornment of temple floors, due mainly to their aesthetic and symmetric qualities...

The Yoga Korunta or Yoga Kuruntha is a purported 5,000 year old text on yoga, said to have been written in Sanskrit by an otherwise unknown author, Vamana Rishi, allegedly discovered by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya in the National Archives of India in the early 20th century, and supposedly lost when Krishnamacharya’s only copy was eaten by ants Krishnamacharya also told various other stories of how he came across the Yoga Korunta; Fernando Pagés Ruiz noted in the Yoga Journal that he had heard “at least five conflicting accounts” of the supposed text...

Vasishta Yoga Samhita (Sanskrit: योग-वासिष्ठ, IAST: Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha; also known as Maha-Ramayana, Arsha Ramayana, Vasiṣṭha Ramayana, Yogavasistha-Ramayana and Jnanavasistha ) is a historically popular and influential syncretic philosophical text of Hinduism, dated to the 6th CE or 7th CE — 14th CE or 15th CE It is attributed to Maharishi Valmiki, but the real author is unknown The complete text contains over 29,000 verses The short version of the text is called Laghu Yogavasistha and contains 6,000 verses...

The Yoga Yajnavalkya (Sanskrit: योगयाज्ञवल्क्य, Yoga-Yājñavalkya) is a classical Hindu yoga text in the Sanskrit language The text is written in the form of a male-female dialogue between the sage Yajnavalkya and Gargi The text consists of 12 chapters and contains 504 verses Like Patanjali’s Yogasutras, the Yoga Yajnavalkya describes the eight components of yoga; however, it has different goals The text contains additional material that is not found in Yogasutras, such as the concept of kundalini...

Yogachara (IAST: Yogācāra; literally “yoga practice”; “one whose practice is yoga”) is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices It is also variously termed Vijñānavāda (the doctrine of consciousness), Vijñaptivāda (the doctrine of ideas or percepts) or Vijñaptimātratā-vāda (the doctrine of ‘mere representation’), which is also the name given to its major epistemic theory...

A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions The feminine form, sometimes used in English, is yogini Yogi has since the 12th century CE also denoted members of the Nath siddha tradition of Hinduism, and in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, a practitioner of tantra In Hindu mythology, the god Shiva and the goddess Parvati are depicted as an emblematic yogi–yogini pair

Yogini (Sanskrit: योगिनी, IAST: yoginī) is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet The term is the feminine Sanskrit word of the masculine yogi, while the term “yogin” IPA: [ˈjoːɡɪn] is used in neutral, masculine or feminine sense A Yogini, in some contexts, is the sacred feminine force made incarnate, as an aspect of Parvati, and revered in the yogini temples of India as the Sixty-four Yoginis

Yudhishtira (Sanskrit: युधिष्ठिर, IAST: Yudhiṣṭhira) is the eldest among the five Pandava brothers He is mentioned in the ancient epic Mahabharata He was sired by King Pandu of the Kuru Dynasty and his first wife, Kunti Yudhishthira is later crowned the king of Indraprastha with his capital at Hastinapura From his childhood, Yudhishthira was greatly influenced by his uncle Vidura and his great uncle Bhishma, and believed in the virtues of dharma...