Who’s Who: Understanding Sanskrit Titles

Who’s Who: Understanding Sanskrit Titles

[00:45] Umbrella Terms

Jai Guru Deva This is my podcast, The Vedic Worldview, and I’m Thom Knoles. Thank you for listening.

My listeners have collectively sent in inquiries about lists of words and names, positions and titles that they’ve heard of, perhaps they’ve heard other meditators speak, or they may have heard somewhere else or read about, or may have even heard me speak, and would like more definition about these.

So we’re going to spend now a few minutes describing these and I’ve put the list here alphabetically, simply for ease of access. Looking over it, I think the alphabetical will work quite well. It may be that some of the initial addressing of definition and meaning will be longer in the first instance and shorter later because we’ve already addressed certain principles.

One important principle to understand, though we do have expressions like this in English, there are neuter forms in Sanskrit and then gender-specific forms of a given word or noun, even in some cases verbs.

And so, having acknowledged that, there may be certain ways of addressing a specific masculine and specific feminine, but with a neuter form that sounds masculine as the umbrella term for the entire range.

[02:22] Acharya

The first on my list is Acharya.

And now I want to go into a little detail about the way in which I break down Sanskrit. There is the denotative, meaning the literal, and there’s the connotative meaning, the figurative, that which has in it a bit of legendary.

Acharya can be broken down in the following way. A is a negating sound in Sanskrit. Whatever follows the a is being negated by the a.

Acharya. Acharya. Char means four in Sanskrit, the number four. And four is the point at which the supersymmetry of the unmanifest Unified Field breaks, the breaking of the symmetry happens on the fourth iteration of consciousness observing itself, observing itself, observing itself, observing itself.

On the fourth iteration of self-referential observation, we have a breaking of the symmetry. The breaking of the symmetry means the Big Bang happens. Consciousness breaks its symmetry. Being becomes. The unmanifest goes into manifestation. The unlimited issues forth into boundaries.

[04:04] The Figurative Meaning

Char, fourth. Achar, the one who is teaching the non four. What is the non four? That which comes before the fourth elaboration, the field of consciousness itself, and there are the following layers of the unmanifest: Is-ness, Am-ness, I-ness, and My-ness.

Consciousness in its pure existence is referred to as Is-ness. Consciousness, when it becomes aware of itself, when existence becomes conscious.

Am-ness. The “I” isn’t there yet. Am-ness.

Then when “I” is added to it, greater sense of identity, I am. Is-ness, Am-ness, I-ness.

And then My-ness. About whom, about what am I speaking? There are qualities. The qualities of evidently, unbounded, evidently, source of creativity, evidently, silent, evidently, source of whatever’s coming next, then boom.

The My-ness is the fourth elaboration.

Acharya.

Ya. In Sanskrit, whenever we see the word ya, something is being administered. The administrator of the achar, the administrator of that which precedes the four, the fourth elaboration, acharya. This is the denotative, the literal, that which is unimaginative in a sense.

[05:59] The Connotative Meaning

What has it come to mean in terms of its figurative and connotative meaning? It has come to mean a teacher. A teacher who’s facing in the direction that others also should face. Someone who is an exemplar. Someone who is a preceptor, someone who teaches by example, is an acharya. Acharya. Acharya.

[06:32] Grihasta and Grihasti

Now we have the word next in my alphabetical listing, grihasta. Grihasta, G-R-I-H-A-S-T-A.

There are four different levels of the evolution of a person. The first level is brahmacharya. When someone is learning from, presumably from a teacher or teachers, brahmacharya.

After graduating from that level of brahmacharya, meaning that it’s still there but one has added to it, it’s like when you get a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree and then you go off and acquire a Master’s degree, the Bachelor’s degree doesn’t go away, it just has added to it, has layered over the top of it, a new level of knowledge, the Master’s degree.

So layered over the top of Brahmacharya, that is to say the level of being a student, someone who is learning, comes grihasta. Grihasta is someone who is a civilization builder. The point at which you’ve learned and you are in the process of making a relevant contribution to the building of civilization.

You are a householder.You may be owner, whether your property is a set of sunglasses or land or houses or whatever it might be. So you are someone who has accumulated things. And you are accumulating things, not hoarding, with reference to engaging in exchange, in transaction, exchange of energy and information, and interaction, and it may well be that, if this is your want, that you will be a procreator, someone who is adding to the numbers of humans on the earth.

The grihasta is a phase. Someone who is participating in that phase is considered a grihasti. So grihasta is the phase of life. Grihasti is someone who is doing grihasta.

[09:15] Vanaprasta and Vanaprasti

After grihasta comes vanaprasta. Vana  means the woods. Like a forest. Vanaprasta, dweller, a dweller in the forest. Now this is not literal, it doesn’t mean that you go off and live in a forest, although there are people who actually do that, but maybe the forest is surrounding the house in which you live. A forest dweller.

Perhaps, from some perspectives, I am viewed as having entered vanaprasta. Vanaprasta because when I look outside my windows right now, I see a big mountain rising up to more than 10,000 feet above sea level, and masses of trees that are representative of the 10 million acres of forest in which my home is placed.

Perhaps I could be referred to as living in vanaprasta, a forest dweller. What is that? We’ll take it out of simply the denotative and get into the connotative now.

Someone who has made their contribution to civilization. Someone who is in a transition, and we’ll talk about to what in a moment, in a transition from being a civilization builder into being a protégé creator. Someone who is making protégés, who is making sure that there’s generational succession.

Generational succession because of being able to count. You may not feel old, but if you can count the number of years in which you’ve resided in a human body, obviously they’re not unlimited.

As I’m fond of saying, for those of you who it hasn’t occurred to, the death rate on earth is, so far, a hundred percent. One of the great mysteries of creation is that everyone, absolutely everyone, is hurtling towards death and yet behaving as if they’re utterly immortal. It’s one of the great mysteries.

As enshrined in many stories, by the way, and not just ones from India.

Vanaprasta. Someone who is living vanaprasta life, building proteges, making transition out of grihastha and into something that’s coming, is a vanaprasti. Vanaprasti is someone who is in vanaprasta. Vanaprasta.

[12:04] Sannyas and Sannyasi

Then comes Sannyas. Sannyas.

Sannyas is the next phase. What is sannyas? Well, you feel like you’ve done everything you can do to create proteges,You no longer feel like interacting, transacting, and engaging at all the levels that you once did when you were much younger, and so you enter into the sannyas phase of life, where you are enjoying solitude.

Indeed. You might refer to it, and likely would, as blessed solitude, the only true blessedness, you might think. The only true blessedness, blessed solitude, because you’ve done everything. You’ve been there and you’ve done that. All the there’s and all the that’s, and now you are a sannyasi. A sannyasi is someone who is in the sannyas phase of life.

Now, in India, someone can graduate straight to sannyasi, straight out of brahmacharya. Brahmacharya, the earliest phase of learning in studenthood, and one can go straight from being a brahmacharya into being a sannyasi if one has adopted the monastic phase of life If one has adopted, as early as that, the monastic phase of life, then one can skip right over being a householder, civilization builder, skip right over being a forest dweller, protégé builder, and all of that, and go straight to sannyasi.

And typically these people are initiated. If they’re moving straight from brahmachari to sannyasi, then the one who gives them permission to do so is a guru. A guru, a teacher, a darkness remover. Gu, darkness, ignorance. Ru, remover of. Remover of darkness and ignorance. Guru.

A guru may give a brahmachari, someone who is in the brahmacharya phase, on request, permission to enter sannyas. That is the last phase of life in which there is no attachment, romantic, familial, possessions, or anything except probably just the robes one wears on one’s back, and that’s generally very simple clothing, nothing terribly showy. From brahmachari to sannyas. One can be a sannyasi in that respect.

So this is all very interesting, isn’t it? So then one has entered into, even at an early age, someone could be a young age sannyasi, who has no attachments. They typically have even no attachment to the name that was assigned to them at birth. They’re typically given a spiritual name, which now they are known by.

So, in the case of my master, for example, his birth name was Mahesh Prasad Varma Srivastava and that was his given name. Then he met Guru Deva and he became Bal Bramchari Mahesh. The young boy, strong brahmachari, Mahesh, Bal means boy, living in the brahmachari lifestyle.

[15:58] Yogi

Then he became a sannyasi when his master dropped his body and he became known as Maharishi, the great seer. Mahesh was still there, left over from his birth name. Yogi. Yogi means someone who is experiencing continuously the unification point between individuality and universality. A yogi. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Spiritual name.

So long gone were the days of being Mahesh Prasad Varma and indeed, his name and his title, which,, properly speaking, would be The Maharishi, no longer the The was there, the title became his name, Maharishi, Maha Rishi, Maharishi, Maharishi.

[16:57] Guru

Next on my list, guru. We’ve talked about guru, remover of darkness, a teacher. Someone whose responsibility it is to bring you out of whatever phase you’re in that requires more knowledge. When you require no more knowledge, you’ve gone beyond that particular guru, but maybe you’ll graduate to another guru, or maybe not.

Maybe you’ll end up becoming a guru. Maybe the days of you being a seeker are over. And when the days of you being a seeker are over, then you yourself, likely, are going to be a guru, likely. Because people are going to ask you , “How did you get to be the way you are?”

[17:44] Mahamandaleshwar, Swami and Akhara

Mahamandaleshwar.

In India, there are people who are initiated into a particular role known as a swami. A swami is someone who is living a life of giving knowledge, who is in a particular order. There are orders of swamis, and not all of them are monastic, at least historically not. And in the current case of me, I’m considered to be a swami in India, I’m not a monastic person.

I’m someone who has lived the householder life and have many children to show for it, possessions and responsibilities and all of that. And yet I’m considered to be a swami in India and I’m often referred to by that title.

So, a mahamandaleshwar. is a class of swami that is the highest one can go except for being the king of the yogis, Shankaracharya.

So Mahamandaleshwar. Maha, great. Mandala. Mandala means a circle or a wheel and it refers to the entire mandala, the entire sphere. The sphere of influence.

Ishvara, means Lord, in the sense of the way that we use the term in English in places like England, the House of Lords, Lord so-and-so, you know, of Scotland or of England or of Wales and so on.

Lord means someone who is the recognized master. of a particular body of knowledge and even a geographic region. A mahamandaleshwar, someone who is a lead swami operating at that level of mastery and who is representative of a particular part of the geography or topology of a country. Generally speaking, a mahamandaleshwar is someone to whom that title is assigned by an akhara.

Akhara, A-K-H-A-R-A, akhara, means a council of swamis. And these are revered people who are the representatives, the exponents of the Vedic worldview.

One has to be a mahamandaleshwar before one can be appointed as a Shankaracharya. Shankaracharya.

[20:51] Maharaj

Maharaj. Maharaj. Maha, great. Raj, King. King or queen. It’s a neuter form, a specific feminine Raj or Raja is a Rani, a queen.

A specific male is a Raj king. So Maharaj, Raj. Raja is the neuter form that covers both Rani’s and Raja’s, feminine, and masculine. Great King.

And sometimes a spiritual teacher will be referred to as Maharaj. And sometimes at the end of the name comes the word Ji. Ji, in Sanskrit, it means dear, ji.

You’ll often hear people saying so-and-so –ji. It’s not to be confused with being an LA gang member. I did once have some gang members who came and learned to meditate with me in Los Angeles, straight out of South Central, and they referred to me as “Thom-ji.” And I had wondered, because I asked a few of my friends, how did they know the Indian way of addressing me? Because a lot of people in India address me as Thom-ji. J-I, ji, you know, dear Thom, Thom dear, Thom-ji.

And my friend who was a Los Angelino said to me, “Thom, they’re not saying Thom J-I, they’re saying Thom capital letter G, it means gangsta. So, Thom G.” Thom G. It’s a different use of the word G.

Maharaj ji. Maharaj ji. It ends up becoming all one word, Maharaji. great King-ji. And it is the term of endearment that is used for describing the current Shankaracharya designate, whose name is Swami Kailashanand Giri. He has a much longer name than that, but this is the name that is easily digestible.

Swami Kailashanand Giri, the Shankaracharya designate. He’s not yet officially the Shankaracharya because his master is still, as we say, in the body. That means his master is still alive. But, that role of Shankaracharya, King of the yogis, is waiting for him and so he is referred to. as Maharaji. Maharaj ji. Maharaji.

[23:37] Pundit or Pandit

Pundit. Pundit is one of those great examples of there being many different ways to pronounce the letter A.

It’s very often spelled P-A-N-D-I-T, and, you know, you’ll hear English speakers saying pandit, but pandit is not the way it’s pronounced. It’s pundit. Whether it’s spelled with an A, P-A-N-D-I-T or P-U-N-D-I-T, it’s the same word. Pundit, pundit, pundit.

Pundit means a scholar, a scholar of something.

It’s even a word that’s entered the English common vernacular, common parlance, pundit. Someone who is a financial pundit. Someone who is a political pundit. But in India it means specifically someone who is a scholar of Vedic knowledge, a pundit. Someone who knows how to perform Vedic ceremony, pundit.

[24:50] Maharishi, Maharishika

Moving on. Maharishi, Maharishika. So we’ve covered that I think, maha is great, rishi is a seer. Rishya yamantra drishtara is the description in Rig Veda of what a rishi is. A rishi is someone who can see, taste, touch, smell and hear mantras.

What does that mean? It means every form is vibratory. Every phenomenon is vibratory. Every intention in consciousness is vibratory.

These vibrations of forms, phenomena, and intentions are experienced by someone as a form that can be seen, tasted, touched, smelled and heard. And so someone who can hear, taste, touch, smell, and see a sound, a vibratory sound, is referred to as a rishi. And to give it some kind of easy way of describing it, it’s translated as “a seer.” A seer, someone who sees the reality, that you see the full spectrum, see, taste, touch, smell, and hear.

Rishi, maha, great. Rishi. Maha rishi. Maharishi. Or just a rishi. Not yet maha, but someone who is beginning the process or has stabilized the process of this synesthetic capacity of perception.

A general neuter form, rishi applies both to males and females. Specific male, rishi. A specific female version of this consciousness state, rishika. Rishika.

[26:50] Satguru or Sadguru

Next on my list, satguru. Sometimes satguru is spelled S-A-T and then G-U-R-U, guru, remover of darkness, satguru.

Very simple, a teacher of The Absolute. The word sat, in Sanskrit, it can be spelled S-A-D, as long as you don’t pop the D. It’s not sard. It’s not sad. It’s S-A-D as in sad (sud). Sad. Or it can be spelled with a T as long as you don’t flap the T is not sat. It’s sat (sut). Sat.

S-A-T or S-A-D, both of them mean the same thing, The Absolute field, the field of the unmanifest. The one indivisible, whole, consciousness field in its unmanifest status.

Sat. Satguru. Someone who is a teacher of The Absolute, who brings The Absolute into the equation. When somebody says, “I have a big problem,” and we know problem is a consciousness state. Problem is not actually a situation or a circumstance. It’s a consciousness state.

Then a satguru is someone who says to them, “The answer to this is going to come if you transcend, go beyond all of this, and experience your inner true nature as The Absolute,” and then knows how to teach someone to have that experience.

And then when they have the experience, how to advise them on how that experience of The Absolute, the sat, has begun to appear in their daily life so that the meditator does not inadvertently resist the effect that meditation is having. Satguru.

[28:43] Sadhu, Saddhaka, Saddhaki

Sadhu. Sadhu, S-A-D-H-U, sadhu, a person dedicated to a life of practice, whose life is in orbit around a daily discipline, a daily practice, of spirituality. A sadhu, sadhu.

It is a shortening of the word sadhana. Sadhana, S-A-D-H-A-N-A, sadhana is a spiritual practice.

Saddhaka. Saddhaka is a male who is in spiritual practice and a Saddhaki is a female who is in spiritual practice.

Saddhaka, saddhaki are both practicing sadhana. A sadhu is a neuter form that applies to all who are graduates of sadhana, but in whose lives you can see, in every detail of their life, they’re engaged in spiritual practice. There’s nothing that they do that is not with reference to spiritual practice. Sadhu.

[30:03] Shishya or Shishyi

Next on my list, shishya. A shishya is someone who is a devotee of a guru, a close devotee of a guru, who has been given specific responsibilities, shishya. The neuter form is shishya. The specific masculine is shishya. The specific feminine is shishyi. shishyi.

If you wanted to say, “This woman is my devotee who has responsibilities,” you would say, “Ishkestriya meera shishyi.” This woman is someone with these specific spiritual responsibilities and represents me.

Or if you wanted to say this man you would say, “Iske purusha shishyahe, meera shishyahe,” Is my shishya, indicating that they’ve been given certain responsibilities to carry out on your behalf, as a guru.

So shishya is someone who is a senior devotee of a particular guru and who’s been given specific responsibilities.

[31:29] Swami

Swami, we’ve talked about already, someone who is initiated into an order of living the life as a sadhu, a spiritual practitioner who’s been initiated formally into an order, an order of people who are dedicated to living the life and upholding the teaching that has come down for thousands of years in the Vedic tradition.

[32:01] Yogi, Yogini and Yoga

Yogi, we’ve touched on that already. My Master’s last of his three names, Maharishi first, Mahesh middle, Yogi. Yogi means someone who is living in the state of yoga. Yoga is not spandex and whatever clothes you wear when you go to the yoga studio and bend and stretch and have breakthroughs and coffee.

Yoga is a consciousness state, a consciousness state in which universality and individuality are unified. It is the union state, the state of union of the two. Yoga.

And someone who is living that perpetually is referred to as a yogi. Sometimes you’ll see somebody walking down the streets of New York with a asana mat rolled up under their arm, for practicing the asanas or positions that are used in what’s called in the West, yoga.

And someone will go, “Oh, that’s a yogi.” And someone else will go, “Oh, no, no, no, that’s a yogini.” Yogini is the feminine. Yogi is the masculine. The neuter form is yogi. That covers both of them, but you know it’s only a yogi or a yogini if in fact they’re living perpetually in the consciousness state of enlightenment, where individuality and universality are merged together into oneness, yoga.

So far, that’s my list and I invite you and your further inquiry. To understand some of these Vedic terms and particularly the terms that have to do with badges of rank or understanding of the status of somebody according to their consciousness state or their duties in life.

Jai Guru Deva.