Glossary Y

Yādava dynasty

see: Glossary Y below.

Yadavadri

town of Melkot in South India.

Yādava

a name for the Supreme Personality of Godhead meaning “He who appears in the Yadu dynasty.”

Yadu dynasty

the dynasty in which Lord Kṛṣṇa appeared.

Yadu-kumāra

Kṛṣṇa as the young darling of the Yadus in Mathurā and Dvārakā.

Yadupati

the name of Kṛṣṇa meaning “King of the Yadu dynasty.”

Yadus

the descendants of Yadu.

Yadu

one of the sons of King Yayāti. He was the founder of the Yadu dynasty.

Yadvā-tadvā kavi

one who writes poetry without proper knowledge.

Yajamānas

those for whom a priest executes sacrifices.

Yajana

the duty of a brāhmaṇa to perform Vedic rituals.

Yajña-puruṣa

the supreme enjoyer of all sacrifices.

Yajña

a Vedic sacrifice; also, a name for the Supreme Lord meaning “the personification of sacrifice”; the goal and enjoyer of all sacrifices.

Yajñeśvara

an epithet of Kṛṣṇa, “Lord of sacrifice.”

Yakṣa

ghostly followers of the demigod Kuvera, the treasurer of the demigods. They were born from the feet of Lord Brahmā.

Yamadūtas

the messengers of Yamarāja, the lord of death.

Yamarāja

the demigod of death, who passes judgment on non-devotees at the time of death. He is the son of the sun-god and the brother of the sacred river Yamunā.

Yama

the process of controlling the senses.

Yāmunācārya

a great Vaiṣṇava spiritual master and author in the Śrī-sampradāya, one of the important disciplic lines.

Yamunā

the sacred river where Kṛṣṇa performed many pastimes. One of the holy rivers of India, flowing through Vṛndāvana. It was here that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa sported when He was a young child. The personification of the Yamunā River, known as Kālindī, is the daughter of the sun god and the sister of Yamarāja, the god of death. She is also called Yamī. In Krṣṇa-līlā she became one of Krṣṇa’s queens at Dvārakā.

Yaśodā-nandana

the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, who played as the son of Yaśodā.

Yaśodā

the foster mother of Kṛṣṇa, who was the Queen of Vraja and wife of Mahārāja Nanda.

Yātrā

a journey.

Yavana

a class of humans fallen from the Vedic culture; a low-class person, generally a meat-eater; a barbarian.

Yavana

the servant of Yamarāja.

Yayāti

the king who, because of his lust, was cursed by Śukrācārya to prematurely accept old age.

Yoga-mārga

the path of developing mystic powers.

Yoga-māyā

the internal, spiritual energy of the Supreme Lord, to which the external energy, mahā-mayā, is subordinate, and which hides Him from non devotees..

Yoga-nidrā

mystic slumber in which Mahā-Viṣṇu creates universes.

Yoga-siddhis

mystic perfections; mystic powers.

Yogarudha

the highest stage of yoga.

Yogarurukṣa

the beginning stage of yoga.

Yoga

a spiritual discipline meant for linking one’s consciousness with the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa; Literally, connection; the discipline of self-realization. One of the six systems of Vedic philosophy, taught by Patañjali. According to Bhagavad-gītā, the most sublime form of yoga is bhakti-yoga (the yoga of pure devotion). Through the process of bhakti-yoga, the consciousness of the individual soul connects with its source, Kṛṣṇa. This is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the soul rids itself of the bondage of the three modes of material nature and returns back home, Back to Godhead. See Glossary B, Glossary S.

Yogeśvara

the supreme master of all mystic powers, Kṛṣṇa.

Yogendras

nine devotee sons of Ṛṣabhadeva.

Yogī

a transcendentalist who practices one of the many authorized forms of yoga, or processes of spiritual purification; those who practice the eight-fold mystic yoga process to gain mystic siddhis or Paramātmā realization.

Yojana

a standard Vedic measurement equal to eight miles.

Yuddha

the Sanskrit word for war.

Yudhāmanyu

a prince of Pāñcāla. He fought on the side of the Pāṇḍavas and was killed on the last night of the battle when Aśvatthāmā entered his tent severed his head.

Yudhiṣṭhira

the eldest of the Pāṇḍavas in the Mahābhārata, and the son of Dharmarāja or Yamarāja, the god of death. It was the dispute over his succession to the throne in India that led to the Battle of Kurukṣetra; he ruled the earth after the Kurukṣetra war.

Yuga-avatāra

an incarnation of the Lord in each millennium who prescribes the appropriate process of self-realization for that age.

Yuga-dharma

the religion for the age.

Yugala-pirīti

the conjugal love between Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.

Yuga

one of the four ages of the universe, which differ in length and which rotate like calendar months. See also: Glossary S, Glossary T, Glossary D and Glossary K.

Yukta-vairāgya

befitting, real renunciation, in which one utilizes everything in the service of the Supreme Lord.

Yuyutsu

a son of Dhṛtarāṣṭra by a Vaiśya wife. He took the side of the Pāṇḍavas during the Kurukṣetra war. He lived through the battle and performed the last funeral rites for the slain warriors on the side of Kurus.

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