Glossary
Sanskrit and Hindi terms you'll meet in the Gita, explained simply.
A
- Abhimanyu अभिमन्यु
- Arjuna's brave young son who learned to enter the Chakravyuha battle formation but not how to escape it.
- acharya आचार्य
- A teacher or master — someone who teaches by both words and the example of their life.
- ahankara अहंकार
- The ego — the feeling of "I" and "mine" that makes you think you are separate from everything else.
- akarma अकर्म
- Inaction — refusing to act. The Gita teaches that mere avoidance of work does not lead to freedom.
- akshara अक्षर
- The imperishable — that which never changes or dies. The eternal witness within every being.
- Arjuna अर्जुन
- The third Pandava brother — the greatest archer in the world. Krishna is his charioteer and guide.
- ashvattha अश्वत्थ
- The sacred fig tree (peepal). In Chapter 15, Krishna describes a cosmic upside-down ashvattha whose roots grow upward into heaven.
- asura असुर
- A being driven by ego and desire — the opposite nature of the devas.
- atman आत्मन्
- The soul — the real you that lives inside every being. It cannot be cut, burned, or destroyed. Unchanging and eternal. In its deepest nature, the atman is not different from Brahman.
- avatar अवतार
- A form that God takes when coming to Earth. Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu.
B
- bhakti भक्ति
- Devotion and loving surrender to God. One of the main paths to spiritual freedom.
- Bhima भीम
- The second Pandava — immensely strong and fiercely loyal to his brothers. Wielder of the great mace.
- Bhishma भीष्म
- The great-grandfather of both Pandavas and Kauravas. Bound by a terrible vow, he fights on the Kaurava side.
- Brahman ब्रह्मन्
- The ultimate reality — the one infinite awareness that IS everything in the universe. Not a being among other beings, but the ground of all existence.
- buddhi बुद्धि
- The intellect — the part of your mind that decides, discerns right from wrong, and understands clearly.
C
- Chakravyuha चक्रव्यूह
- A deadly spiral battle formation. Abhimanyu famously broke into one but could not find his way out.
- chandas छन्दस्
- Vedic hymns — the sacred verses and metres in which ancient wisdom is preserved and chanted.
D
- deha देह
- The physical body — the "clothing" the soul wears. Bodies change, but the soul inside them does not.
- dehin देहिन्
- The embodied one — the soul that lives inside a body, like a person wearing clothes.
- deva देव
- A shining one — a god or divine being in the world of light.
- dharma धर्म
- The right way to live — your duty, righteousness, and the natural order of things.
- Dhritarashtra धृतराष्ट्र
- The blind king of Hastinapura. Father of the hundred Kauravas. He asks Sanjaya to describe the battle.
- Drona द्रोण
- Dronacharya — the royal teacher of archery who trained both the Pandavas and Kauravas. Fights for the Kauravas.
- Duryodhana दुर्योधन
- The eldest Kaurava prince. Proud and jealous, he refused to share the kingdom with his Pandava cousins.
- dvandva द्वन्द्व
- Pairs of opposites — pleasure and pain, heat and cold, gain and loss. The wise person stays steady through them all.
- dvesha द्वेष
- Aversion — the push away from things you dislike. The opposite of raga, and equally blinding.
G
- guna गुण
- One of three qualities of nature — sattva (goodness), rajas (passion), tamas (inertia) — that shape everything in the world.
- guru गुरु
- A spiritual teacher who guides you from darkness toward light and understanding.
H
- Hastinapura हस्तिनापुर
- The great capital city of the Kuru dynasty — where the palace, the court, and the fateful dice game all took place.
I
- indriya इन्द्रिय
- A sense organ — eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin. The five doorways through which the world enters your mind.
J
- jnana ज्ञान
- Knowledge or wisdom — especially the deep understanding of the true nature of reality.
K
- kama काम
- Desire or craving — the wanting that makes you reach for more and more, like a fire that is never satisfied.
- karma कर्म
- Action, and the results that come from your actions. Every deed has a consequence.
- Karna कर्ण
- A great warrior raised as a charioteer's son, but secretly the eldest son of Kunti. Loyal to Duryodhana.
- kashmala कश्मल
- Weakness or dejection — the faint-heartedness that overcomes Arjuna at the start of Krishna's teaching.
- Kaurava कौरव
- The hundred sons of King Dhritarashtra, led by Duryodhana. Rivals of the Pandavas.
- Krishna कृष्ण
- An avatar of Lord Vishnu who serves as Arjuna's charioteer. He speaks the teachings of the Gita.
- krodha क्रोध
- Anger — the fierce heat that rises when desire is blocked. Krishna calls it the great enemy of wisdom.
- kshara क्षर
- The perishable — everything in the world that changes, decays, and passes away.
- kshatriya क्षत्रिय
- A warrior — one whose dharma is to protect people and fight for justice.
- kshetra क्षेत्र
- A field — can mean a battlefield or the body where life's experiences happen.
- Kunti कुन्ती
- Mother of the Pandavas — a queen of great strength and devotion who raised her sons through hardship.
- kuru कुरु
- The ancient royal family. Both the Pandavas and Kauravas belong to the Kuru dynasty.
- Kurukshetra कुरुक्षेत्र
- The sacred battlefield where the great war of the Mahabharata was fought.
L
- lokasangraha लोकसंग्रह
- Holding the world together — acting for the welfare of all beings, not just yourself. The true purpose of karma yoga.
M
- Mahabharata महाभारत
- One of the two great Indian epics. The Bhagavad Gita is a part of this enormous story.
- manas मनस्
- The mind — the part of you that thinks, feels, worries, and imagines.
- mantra मन्त्र
- Sacred words or sounds that carry spiritual power when chanted or meditated upon.
- maya माया
- The power of appearance — the reason the one Brahman appears as many separate things. Not an illusion that doesn't exist, but a veil that hides the deeper unity beneath.
- moksha मोक्ष
- Liberation — the realization that you were never truly bound. Freedom from the cycle of birth and death through knowledge of your true Self.
N
- Nakula नकुल
- The fourth Pandava — twin brother of Sahadeva, known for his skill with horses and his striking beauty.
- nirvana निर्वाण
- Liberation — freedom from the cycle of birth and death. The final peace.
- nishkarmya नैष्कर्म्य
- Freedom from the bondage of action — not by avoiding work, but by doing it without selfish desire.
P
- Pandava पाण्डव
- The five sons of King Pandu — Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. The heroes of the Mahabharata.
- paramatma परमात्मा
- The Supreme Self — the great soul that holds all other souls, the way the sky holds all the stars.
- prajna प्रज्ञा
- Wisdom — deep understanding that comes from seeing things as they truly are, not just knowing facts.
- prakriti प्रकृति
- Nature — the material world that everything physical is made of, including your body and mind.
- prana प्राण
- Life-breath — the vital energy that flows through every living being. Without prana, the body cannot live.
- purusha पुरुष
- The spirit or consciousness — the witness that observes but is not changed by nature.
- purushottama पुरुषोत्तम
- The Supreme Person — higher than both the perishable world and the imperishable soul. Krishna's ultimate title.
R
- raga राग
- Attachment — the pull you feel toward things you like. One of the two guards that block clear seeing.
- rajas रजस्
- Passion, activity, and restlessness. The guna that drives desire and action.
- rajasic राजसिक
- Passionate and restless — food, actions, or thoughts that stir up desire and agitation.
- rasa रस
- Taste or essence — the lingering pull of past pleasures that remains even when the object is gone.
- rishi ऋषि
- A sage or seer — someone who has realized deep spiritual truths through meditation.
S
- Sahadeva सहदेव
- The youngest Pandava — twin brother of Nakula, known for his wisdom and knowledge of the stars.
- samadhi समाधि
- Deep absorption — the state where the mind is perfectly still and focused, like a lamp in a windless place, united with the divine.
- samatva समत्व
- Equanimity — being balanced in success and failure, pleasure and pain. Krishna says this IS yoga.
- samsara संसार
- The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that every soul goes through until it reaches moksha.
- Sanjaya सञ्जय
- Dhritarashtra's charioteer and advisor, blessed with divine sight to see the entire battlefield from far away.
- sankhya सांख्य
- A way of knowing through wisdom and reasoning — one of the two paths Krishna teaches. It tells apart the real (the soul) from the unreal (the material world).
- sannyasa संन्यास
- Renunciation — giving up attachment to actions and their results. A path of letting go.
- sattva सत्त्व
- Goodness, purity, and harmony. The guna that brings clarity, peace, and wisdom.
- sattvik सात्त्विक
- Pure and harmonious — food, actions, or thoughts that bring clarity and goodness.
- shloka श्लोक
- A verse or couplet in Sanskrit poetry. The Gita is written in shlokas.
- siddhi सिद्धि
- Perfection or accomplishment — the success that comes from dedicated, selfless practice.
- soma सोम
- The moon — source of nourishing nectar. Krishna says he becomes the moon to feed the sap of all plants.
- sthitaprajna स्थितप्रज्ञ
- One whose wisdom is steady and unshaken — a person who stays calm no matter what happens.
- swadharma स्वधर्म
- Your own duty — the particular role and responsibility that is yours to fulfill, based on your nature.
T
- tamas तमस्
- Darkness, laziness, and confusion. The guna that causes ignorance and inaction.
- tamasic तामसिक
- Dull and confused — food, actions, or thoughts that lead to laziness and ignorance.
- tapas तपस्
- Self-discipline — training yourself through effort, patience, and sometimes giving things up.
V
- vaishvanara वैश्वानर
- The universal fire — the divine flame in every belly that digests food. Krishna says "I am the fire in all beings."
- varna वर्ण
- A social group based on one's nature and work — not birth. The Gita describes four varnas.
- vedanta वेदान्त
- The end (conclusion) of the Vedas — the Upanishads, which contain the deepest teachings about the self and reality.
- vishada विषाद
- Deep sorrow, despair, or grief. Chapter 1 is called "Arjuna Vishada Yoga."
- Vishnu विष्णु
- The Supreme Preserver — one of the three great gods. Krishna is his avatar, descended to earth in human form.
Y
- yajna यज्ञ
- An offering or sacrifice — sharing what you have with the world as an act of devotion.
- yoga योग
- A way of connecting with something greater. It can mean discipline, union, or a spiritual path.
- Yudhishthira युधिष्ठिर
- The eldest Pandava — known for his unwavering truthfulness and commitment to dharma. Also called Dharmaraja.