Mūla-Pūrvāṣāḍha Uttarāṣāḍha Nakṣatras🔗

Nakṣatra: the constellation in which the moon sits in the heaven at a particular time, commonly called as 'birth Star'

Vedic sciences: refer to a number of disciplines found in the Vedas, a large body of texts originating in ancient India, among the oldest sacred texts

Ṛg Veda: an ancient Indian sacred collection of hymns, counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas

Āryabhaṭa: one of the first astronomer and great mathematician of India. He was born in 476

Copernicus: (1473 - 1543) the first astronomer to formulate a heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe

Galileo: (1564-1642) Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and important astronomical observations

Yojanas: a Vedic measure of distance used in ancient India, between 6 to 15 km (4 and 9 miles)

Ṛṣi: a sage through whom the Vedic hymns flowed, a "seer" able to reach states of higher consciousness.

Yogi: a practitioner of various forms of spiritual discipline, as yoga

Parāśara Maharishi: author of many ancient Indian texts and important astrological texts, known as a traveling Master

Bṛhat Parāśara Hora Śāstra: a prominent astrological scientific text, written as a recorded dialogue between Parāśara and his disciple Maitreya

Vaśiṣṭa: Rāma's guru, a great Ṛṣi and had complete knowledge of the whole cosmos and the gods

Veda Vyāsa: a sage of ancient India, compiler of the Vedas and great epics like the Māhābhārata

Māhābhārata: one of the major Sanskrit epic of India and philosophical scripture, depicting a great war that happened in India; written in 250,000 verses

Saṁskāras: engraved memories stored in the subconscious part of the mind. They are continually interfering with our decision making process

Grahas: energy centers, energy fields that planets exert in the universe, generally assimilated to ‘planets’

Karmas: the collection of unfulfilled experiences and actions that stay in us and constantly pull us to fulfill them

Āyurveda: a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian Subcontinent, ayus, meaning ‘life’, and veda, meaning ‘related to knowledge’ or ‘science’

Yoga: literally union, union of the individual self and the divine Self, often taken to mean Hatha yoga, which is one of the components of yogāsana, relating to body postures

Rudrākṣa: a large broad-leaved tree whose seed is traditionally revered and used for prayer beads, or mala, mainly growing in foothills of the Himalayas up to South-East Asia

Sanskrit: the Indo-Aryan language, language of the Ṛg Veda and of many scriptures, as well as mantras.

Mantra: a sound, a formula, sometimes a word or set of words, which because of their inherent sounds, have energizing properties, an approach to spiritual evolution

Unclutching: understanding that each thought is completely independent, unconnected to the precedent; which leads to disengage oneself from the mind, resulting in experiencing the no-mind state

Cakra: literally a ‘wheel’: refers to energy centers in the mind-body system

Sahasrāra cakra: seventh energy center; located on the top of the head, also called ‘crown cakra’

Anāhata cakra: the fourth energy center, literally ‘that which cannot be created’, referring to love

Sattva: a state of mind in which the mind is steady, calm and peaceful

Kapha: One of the three dośas or attributes of the body in Āyurveda. Energy related to the element of water and earth, related to the structure and lubrication of the body.

Śāstras: sacred texts

Vedas: literally knowledge; refers to ancient Hindu scriptures, believed to have been received by enlightened Ṛṣis at the being level, also called sruti, along with Upanishad

Sadhana: practice, usually spiritual practice

Tantra: esoteric techniques used in spiritual evolution

Tapas: severe spiritual endeavor, penance

Dośa: in Ayurvedic medicine, one of the three biological humors or energies (kapha, pitta, vata) which combine in various proportions to determine individual constitution, mental and physical disorders

Vajrāsana: common yoga and meditation posture, where the person sits on his heels

Cin mudra: palms upraised with thumb and forefinger forming a circle and other three fingers outstretched.

Guru pūja: form of worship offered to the master

Asana: body postures performed in yoga, literally means 'seat'

Nitya ānanda: eternal bliss

Aṣṭānga namaskār: prostrating to a deity or master by lying on the floor with all eight limbs of the body touching the earth

Bhujangāsana: 'cobra posture' in yoga, in which the head and chest are raised while lying down

Pranic layer: the second layer of energy of the body, related to prana or life energy

Brahman: the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality, the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this Universe

Bīja mantra: refers to the single syllable mantra used to invoke certain deities

Pūja: a ritual made of different offerings related to the deity propitiated

Navagraha dośa: literally means ‘planetary defects’ or inauspicious alignment of planets

Homa: ancestral Vedic fire ritual

Nirvanic layer: seventh subtle body that we have and last layer of energy which is the space where one experiences intense bliss

Physical layer: the gross body made of flesh and bones

Aum: the primordial cosmic sound from which the whole Universe emerged

Hrīm: bīja, or seed mantra relating to feminine energy

Śakti: energy, intelligent energy, considered as the feminine aspect of Śiva

Jīvan Mukti: the state of achieving liberation from the cycle of birth and death during one’s lifetime