Yoga Terms Library | Complete List Of 132 Yoga Terms

A collection of ancient Hindu scriptures. They contain theoretical and practical knowledge on Yoga and Tantra.

The term Agamas translates to mean “that which has come down”.

Amrita is the sweet, spiritual nectar that flows forth from the crown chakra. As it permeates the whole body, it transforms it.

Ananda is spiritual bliss, no less.

Apana is one of the five winds, Vayus, or Pancha Pranas. These five Vayus regulate the body’s energies by each governing a specific area of the body.

The Apana-Vayu governs the downward and outward flow of energy within the body.

Arunja (also known as Partha and Dhananjaya) is a mythical prince and the protagonist in the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu scripture.

The fourth of the four main ancient Hindu scriptures. The Atharva Veda contains knowledge of daily life practices.

Asanas are the yoga postures themselves, the physical positions.

These positions are the being-state in which the dualities of the body have been transcended.

Ashtanga means eight limbs, which make up the practice of classical yoga as Patanjali defined thousands of years ago in the Yoga Sutras – a collection of short aphorisms.

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a classical approach to yoga practice that is outlined in the Yoga Koruntam. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga embodies the spontaneous continuity of the Eight Limbs of Yoga.

Aswini Mudra is also known as the gesture of a horse. It is the contraction and relaxation of the anal muscles to direct Prana (life force) upwards through the spine.

Atman is the inner, higher self.

Atmanjali Mudra, also known as Anjali Mudra, or Namaskar Mudra, is a gesture that acknowledges the higher self.

Aum is the vocal expression of the subtle and imminent vibration of the universe.

It is often written as OM or as the symbol ॐ.

Babaji is an ageless saint that is said to have lived in the Himalayan mountains for hundreds of years in the body of a young man.

A bandha is an internal mudra known as a “body lock”. It is a muscular grip that when activated blocks the energy from a certain area, but when released, allows the energy to travel through with greater force.

The Bhagavad Gita is major scripture in Hinduism and the original yogic scripture.

Bhakti is the process, and the state, of devotional surrender.

Bhakti Yoga is a type of yoga of devotional surrender to a guru or a God.

Bindu is a drop. Typically of divine nectar or fluid that comes from the crown chakra.

Brahman is the supreme deity immanent in all creation, the Ultimate Reality. Brahman, representing creation, connotes the highest universal principle and is the first God in the Hindu trinity.

Chakras are subtle energy centers, or wheels in the energy (pranic) body. There are 7 chakras in the human body.

Cit is transcendental consciousness.

Citta is the individual mind consciousness. In other words, consciousness which operates through the limitations of the human experience.

Darshana means viewpoint, sight, or vision.

Desikachar, T. K. V. is a yoga master (1938-2016). He was the son of Krishnamacharya, who was referred to as ‘the father of modern yoga’.

Dharana is the sixth limb of yoga. It is meditative contemplation where awareness is focused on a single point.

Dharma is one’s duty, one’s essence, one’s truth.

Dharmamegha is a could of revelation. It characterizes a stable and profound samadhi in which karma and afflictions are burned up/

Dhayana is the seventh limb of yoga. It is a meditative contemplation in which the object which is meditated upon is revealed in all of its subtle detail.

Drishti is a gaze point. It is a point to which the internal or external eye gazes upon to lead to Dharana (concentration).

Gheranda was a medieval yoga master.

Gheranda Samhita is a collection on Hatha Yoga composed by the medieval yoga master Gheranda.

The gunas are the three fundamental energetic expressions of manifestation. These are Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas.

Hatha refers to the internal energetics of sun and moon.

Hatha Yoga is a yoga style that works to balance the internal energies through the body.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a fifteenth-century manual on Hatha Yoga.

Ida is one of the three energy channels in the body. It runs to the left of the spine and corresponds to lunar energy, the reflective, the receptive principle of duality.

Ishvara means the divine within, God.

Iyengar, B. K. S. (1918-2014) was a yoga master and founder of Iyengar Yoga who is credited for bringing yoga to the West.

Jalandhara Bandha is the holding lock or throat regulator used in Pranayama. It stimulates the diaphragm and prevents the divine fluid from being engulfed and consumed by gastric acid.

Jnana is transcendental wisdom.

Jnana Yoga is a style of Yoga of direct inquiry into the true nature of the self.

Kaivalya is the ultimate goal of Ashtanga Yoga. It means living in a state of detachment and liberation from duality and non-duality.

Kali is the Hindu Goddess of destruction.

Kapalabhati is a breathing practice that cleanses the lungs, sinus, and brain.

Karma is the process of action and reaction that underlies all activity.

Karma Yoga is the Yoga of devotion to God and all that God created.

The Koshas are the sheaths that make up the inner bodies. The five Koshas are:

Annamaya Kosha (food sheath, Earth element), Pranamaya Kosha (vital sheath, Water element), Manomaya Kosha (mental sheath, Fire element), Vijnanamaya Kosha (intellect/intuitive sheath, Air element), Anandamaya Kosha (bliss sheath, Ether / Space element)

Krishna is the Hindu God celebrated in the Bhagavad Gita. He is the eighth incarnation of Vishnu.

Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), referred to as ‘the father of modern yoga’, was the teacher of B. K. S. Iyengar, B. N. S. Iyengar, and Desikachar.

Krishnamurti (1895-1986) is the yoga master of meditation and Jnana yoga.

Kriya is defined as action, the process, activity.

Kundalini is the spiritual energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine. The energy can be awoken by yoga techniques.

A Mandala is a geometric circular figure that represents the universe and is used for aiding meditation.

Manomaya Kosha is the innermost sheath. This Kosha corresponds to the mind and is a fire element

A Mantra is a special word or phrase that can be repeated inwardly or out loud as a meditation aid.

Matsyendra was a saint and yogi who is regarded as the founder of Hatha Yoga. Mythologically, he is said to have been transformed from a fish having overheard and memorized by heart every word of Shiva’s teachings.

Moksha is the liberation from suffering and delusion.

A Mudra is a gesture that is used to circulate energy and focus the mind during meditation or yoga.

Mula is the root, or the base. Mula is the first of the Bandhas, or energy locks.

Mula Bandha is a root lock, or root bandha. It is an energetic adjustment centered in the pelvic floor.

Nadis are the subtle energy channels that conduct prana. There are 72,000 Nadis in the human body, all springing from three fundamental Nadis: Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna.

Nadi Shodhana is balancing the energy currents, or Nadis. This can be done through breath or through the Ashtanga Intermediate Series.

Nauli is a cleansing technique that focuses on the abdominal organs. It involves contracting alternating abdominal muscles so that the belly appears to roll.

Nirvana is a release from the cycle of Karma. It is being freed from the cycle of birth and death. A state of non-duality.

Niyama is the second limb of the Eight Limbs of Yoga. It involves adhering to profound rules and observances.

Patanjali is the revered father of yoga who wrote the Yogasutras.

Pingala is one of the three major energy channels, or Nadis. It runs down the right side of the spine and represents solar energy and the creative and generative.

Prakriti is the energetic web that is the primal creative natural force, apparent as the natural world.

Prana is cosmic energy. It is the vital life force that underlies all other energies. It is the energy of manifestation.

Pranayama is the fourth limb of the Eight Limbs of Yoga. It is a way of using the breath to regulate the movement of prana through the body. It is a state of being in which the breath and the breather are transcended.

Pranidhana is inner alignment.

Pratyahara is the fifth limb of the Eight Limbs of Yoga. It is the withdrawal of the senses, or meditative internalization of the senses.

Puraka is the inhalation during Pranayama.

Purusha is the supreme higher self, also known as Atman.

Raja means royal. Raja yoga is the path of meditation.

Ramakrishna (1836-1886) is a yogi whose disciple Vivekananda was the first to bring yoga to the west during the late nineteenth century.

Ramana Maharshi (1879-1960) was a sage who was known to have spent much of his life in a state of pure and ecstatic liberation.

Rechaka is the exhalation during Pranayama.

The Rig Veda is the most widely known of the Brahamanic Hinduism original scriptures.

Sadhana is a consistent and committed yoga practice.

Sahaja means innate. Sahaja Samadhi is to wake up and live in the world of liberation and pure ecstasy.

The Sama Veda is one of the four original ancient Hindu scriptures.

Samadhi is the eighth and final limb of yoga. It is the beingstate of liberation where the mind is transcended.

Samana is one of the five winds, Vayus, or Pancha Pranas. These five Vayus regulate the body’s energies by each governing a specific area of the body.

Samana is the balancing air that governs digestion.

Samsara is the wheel of birth and death and birth that we are all bound to by Karma’s laws until we awaken to live in a world of liberation and our true nature.

Samyama encompasses the sixth, seventh, and eighth limbs of yoga. It is the process of deep meditation.

Sanskrit is the ancient language of the yoga texts and Hindu scriptures. Sanskrit is the source of many Indo-European languages today.

Sat is the state of absolute, pure being.

Sattva is one of the three Gunas, or ‘modes of existence’. It is purity, wisdom, and luminance.

In Hinduism, Satya Yuga is the golden age or Yuga. It is the best of the four Yugas in the Yuga Cycle. Satya Yuga is said to last 1,728,000 years.

Satyananda (1923-2009) was a tantric master.

Shaivism is one of the major Hindu traditions that worships the God Shiva.

Shakti is the energetic, female expression of the universe. Shakti is energy and power.

Shiva is the Hindu God of transformation, destruction, energy. Shiva is the male expression of the universe. Shiva is the lord of the dance of life. The destroyer and creator of the universe.

Shiva Samhita is a major classical text on Hatha Yoga written around 1300 to 1500 CE.

Sivananda (1887-1963) was a yogi who’s teachings have spread widely across the Western world.

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was a poet, and scholar who founded Auroville, a yogic community in Tamil Nadu, India.

Sri Prabhupada (1896-1997) was the founder of the Hare Krishna movement. He promoted and spread the teachings of Bhakti Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita throughout the Western world.

Sthira Bagha neutral stability that is a result of the practice of advanced Asanas, such as in Ashtanga Yoga.

Sushumna is the most important Nadi (subtle energy channel in the body). Sthira Bagha flows in three layers up the spine, the same channel that the spiritual Kundalini force rises through the Chakras. The balancing of the opposing energies through the Nadi brings transcendence of duality.

A Sutra is a spiritual aphorism, or collection of aphorisms. Often in the form of a manual.

Tamas is one of the three Gunas (or basic qualities of nature). Tamas represents inertia, changelessness, or darkness.

Tantra is a profound approach to life and yoga. Tantra sees all that there is as an expression of the divine. In Tantra, all of the energies within ourselves and within nature are explored, harnessed, and transformed, with the goal of liberation.

Tantras are mythical texts which date from the 7th Century or earlier and expound on the theory and applications of Tantra.

Tapas is the heat that is generated by yogic practices. It is a purification by an inner fire.

Tattvas are the truths or elements that make up the natural world.

Trataka is the practice of gazing at the light of a candle. It is said to strengthen the eyes and develop concentration.

Udana is one of the five winds, Vayus, or Pancha Pranas. These five Vayus regulate the body’s energies by each governing a specific area of the body.

Udana Prana represents the upward moving breath that moves from lower to higher planes of consciousness.

Uddiyanabandha is a body lock that involves the use of the core muscles during inhalation to move Prana upwards.

Ujjayi Pranayama is a breathing technique, often known as ocean breath, which involves inhalation and exhalation through the nostrils and directing the breath to different areas of the respiratory system.

Upanishads (circa 700 to500 BCE) are modern Hindu scriptures that explain the human experience and the universe.

Vajroli Mudra, or the Vajroli Seal, is a Tantric technique for transforming sexual energy.

Vedanta is one of the pillars of Hinduism. It is based on non-duality.

The Vedas are the four ancient Hindu scriptures.

Vinyasa is the principle of fluidity, of connectivity.

Vaishnavism is the worship of Lord Vishnu.

Vishnu is one of the Hindu trinity (Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer). Vishnu is the God of stability, of continuity.

Vyana is one of the five winds, Vayus, or Pancha Pranas. These five Vayus regulate the body’s energies by each governing a specific area of the body.

Vyana Vayu represents the outward moving air and governs the circulation of substances through the body.

Yajur Veda is one of the four main ancient Hindu scriptures.

Yama is the first of the Eight Limbs of Yoga and is the application of positive psychological attitudes to the practice of yoga.

Yantra is a geometrical diagram and visual device used in meditation.

Yoga Chikitsa or Yoga Therapy is the practice of restructuring the body by way of yoga Asanas. One example of Yoga Chikitsa is the Ashtanga Primary Series.

A Yogi is a man who is dedicated to the practice of Yoga.

A Yogin is someone who is dedicated to the practice of Yoga.

A Yogini is a woman who is dedicated to the practice of Yoga.

A Yuga is an age, or a period of time. In the Hindu cycle of time there are four major Yugas.

Zen is one of the few yoga terms that are not directly from Sanskrit, it is the Japanese form of the Sanskrit word Dhayana. It describes an approach to Buddhist meditation.