Chaitanya is a 16th century charismatic Hindu saint; a devotee of Krishna, who urged the simple chanting of the Lord’s name as a powerful form of devotion. The ISKCON or “Hare Krishna” movement is one of several devotional movements that look to Chaitanya for inspiration.

Kundalini is a powerful spiritual energy, understood to be concentrated at the base of the spine like a coiled serpent. The discipline of releasing and raising that energy to the head where it transforms one’s consciousness is called kundalini yoga, a spiritual regimen common to some Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as to the Sikh Dharma taught by Yogi Bhajan.

The “royal gateway” of a temple is called a rajagopuram. In South Indian temple styles, the tallest tower or spire is over the gateway of the temple, not over its inner sanctum. Many large temples have a series of gopurams that rise over a successive series of gateways. The rajagopuram is the tallest, standing at the outermost gateway of the temple. It is usually highly ornamented with images of divine beings and auspicious protective guardians. In U.S. temples, the rajagopuram is often the last part of the temple to be completed and the consecration of the rajagopuram is a great festive... Read more about rajagopuram

The Vedanta Society is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order, headquartered at Belur Math in Calcutta. The first Vedanta Society in the United States was founded in New York in 1894 by Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). Vivekananda emphasized both Vedanta philosophy and the practice of yoga. Although the Vedanta Society has remained small, it has played an important role as the earliest organization to introduce Americans to Hinduism and yoga.

Bochasanwasi Swaminarayan Sanstha is a worldwide organization under the leadership of Shri Pramukh Swami Maharaj. It is one of the two major branches of the Hindu Swaminarayan movement, honoring Swaminarayan, a 19th century Gujarati teacher who is seen to be the human manifestation of the highest Divine reality.

Karma yoga means the spiritual discipline (yoga) of action (karma): active engagement with the concerns and affairs of the world, but with a spirit of detachment or renunciation, action without any ego-attachment to its fruits or results. In the Bhagavad Gita karma yoga is placed alongside inner realization (jnana) and expressive devotion (bhakti) as one of the main spiritual paths.

For the religious traditions of India, the term puja simply means “worship.. For Hindus, puja is the sequence of hospitality rites through which worshippers honor a deity with offerings such as water, fruit, a coconut, cloth, incense, and an oil lamp, and receive the “grace” of God in return. For Jains, especially Murtipujak Jains, puja may be offered before an image of a Tirthankara or Jina, but Jains do not believe that the beings represented by the images actually receive the offerings made. Instead, the acts of worship are among the ways in which those who perform... Read more about puja

In the religious traditions of India, an upadhyaya is a teacher or preceptor.

The Bhagavata Purana, also called the Srimad Bhagavatam, is one of the most widely cherished of the 18 Hindu Puranas, the scriptural traditions which are filled with myth, legend, and ritual. The Bhagavata Purana is famous for its stories of Lord Krishna.

Jagannatha is Krishna as “Lord of the Universe,” especially as he is present in the simple, saucer-eyed wooden form worshipped in the pilgrimage town of Puri in the Indian state of Orissa and beloved by worshippers of Krishna both in India and the West. The images of Krishna Jagannatha, his sister Subhadra, and his brother Balarama, are pulled through the streets of American cities in ISKCON’s annual Chariot Festivals.

Onam is the most popular festival of the Kerala region of India, falling at the lush time of harvest and welcoming back to Kerala the ancient legendary king Bali, who was a virtuous king, even though he was defeated by Vishnu in the form of his Vamana (dwarf) avatara. The famous snake boat races on Kerala’s waterways are an important part of this festival. Onam is also observed in immigrant communities from Kerala in the U.S.

A stotra is a hymn of praise to one of the Gods, usually sung or chanted in Sanskrit.

In Hinduism, an avatara is the “descent” of a deity upon earth, an incarnation, especially of Vishnu, whose avataras include Krishna and Rama.

Hatha yoga is a form of yoga or spiritual/physical discipline giving special attention to the postures and breathing exercises that release and control the energies of the body. The term is often used in the West to refer to the physical-fitness aspects of yoga.

Narayana is a name commonly used to refer to Vishnu, especially in the form in which he lies sleeping on the waters, resting on the serpent called Ananta, the “eternal.”