Yādava dynasty
see: Yadu dynasty 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 Bhakti-yoga, Six systems.
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: Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvāpara-yuga and Kali-yuga.
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.