| A | B |
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| Ascetic | One who renounces physical pleasures and worldly attachments for the sake of spiritual advancement; common in Hinduism and many other religious traditions, most notably Jainism. |
| Artha | Material success and social prestige, one of the four goals of life. |
| Atman | The eternal self, which the Upanishads identify with Brahman; often lowercase: the eternal Self or soul of an individual that is reincarnated from one body to the next and is ultimately identified with Atman. |
| Avatar | An incarnation, or living embodiment, of a deity, usually of Vishnu, who is sent to earth to accomplish a divine purpose; Krishna and Rama are the most popular avatars. |
| Bhagavad-Gita | Sanskrit: "The Song of the Blessed Lord." A short section of the epic poem Mahabharata in which the god Krishna teaches the great warrior Arjuna about bhakti marga and other ways to God; Hinduism's most popular sacred text. |
| Bhakti marga | Sanskrit: "The path of devotion." The most popular of the three Hindu paths to salvation, emphasizing loving devotion to one's chosen god or goddess. |
| Brahman | The eternal essence of reality and the source of the universe, beyond the reach of human perception and thought. |
| Brahmin | The highest of the four classes of the caste system, traditionally made up of priests. |
| Caste system | Traditional division of HIndu society into various categories or classes; each class contains numerous subgroups, resulting in more than 3000 categories. |
| Dharma | Ethical duty based on the divine order of reality; one of the four goals of life. |
| Jnana marga | Sanskrit: "The path of knowledge." One of the three Hindu paths to salvation, emphasizing the true nature of reality through learning and meditation. |
| Kama | Pleasure, especially of sensual love; one of the four goals of life. |
| Karma | Sanskrit: "Action." The moral law of cause and effect of actions; determines the nature of one's reincarnation. |
| Karma marga | Sanskrit: "The path of works." One of three Hindu paths to salvation, emphasizing performing right actions according to dharma. |
| Kshatriya | The second of the four classes of the caste system, traditionally made up of warriors and administrators. |
| Maya | Cosmic illusion brought about by divine creative power. |
| Moksha | Liberation or release of the individual self, atman, from the bondage of samsara; salvation; one of the four goals of life. |
| Monism | The doctrine that reality is ultimately made up of only one essence. |
| Rig Veda | A collection of 1017 Sanskrit hymns composed about 1500 B.C. or earlier; Hinduism's oldest sacred text. |
| Samadhi | A trancelike state in which self-consciousness is lost, and the mind is absorbed into the ultimate reality; the culmination of the eight steps of Yoga. |
| Sankhya | A system of Hindu philosopy and one approach within jnana marga, "the path of knowledge," asserting that reality comprises two distinct categories: matter and eternal selves. |
| Sannyassin | A wandering ascetic who has advanced to the fourth and highest stage of life. |
| Sati | The traditional practice of burning a widow on her husband's funeral pyre; outlawed in 1829, though it still occurs rarely. |
| Shudra | The lowest of the four classes of the caste system, traditionally made up of servants and laborers. |
| Upanishads | Sanskrit: "Sitting near a teacher." A collection of over 200 texts composed between 900 and 200 B.C. that provide philosophical commentary on the Vedas. |
| Vaishya | The third of the four classes of the caste system, traditionally made up of producers, such as farmers, merchants, and artisans. |
| Vedanta | A system of Hindu philosophy and one approach within jnana marga, holding that all reality is essentially Brahman; most notable advocate is the medieval Hindu philosopher Shankara. |
| Yoga | A system of Hindu philosophy and one approach within jnana marga, seeking to free the eternal self from the bondage of personhood, culminating in the experience of samadhi; lowercase: physical and psychological techniques for spiritual advancement. |
| Puja | Religious ritual for gods and goddesses, distinguished persons, and special guests. |
