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Glossary of Sanskrit Terms

Yaga - offering oblations; any ceremony in which offerings or oblations are presented.
Yajna - a sacrifice in which a deity is propitiated by the chanting of prayers and mantras and the offering of ghee into the sacred fire.
Yati - an ascetic; one who has restrained his passions and abandoned his involvement with material civilization.
Yavana - a barbarian, a Muslim, i.e. one who does not follow suddhacara, (pure lifestyle), one who eats flesh, takes intoxicants and does other degraded activities. This term sometimes refers to any foreigner or to those excluded from varnasrama society.
Yoga - (1) union, meeting, connection, combination. (2) a spiritual discipline aiming at establishing one’s connection with the Supreme. There are many different branches of yoga such as karma-yoga, jnanayoga, and bhakti-yoga. Unless specified as such, the word yoga usually refers to the astanga-yoga system of Patanjali (see astanga-yoga).
Yogi - one who practices the yoga system with the goal of realization of the Paramatma or of merging into the Lord’s personal body.
Yuga - an age of the world. Four ages are described in the Vedas: Krta or Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. The duration of each yuga is said to be respectively 1,728,000; 1,296,000; 864,000; and 432,000 years. The descending numbers represent a corresponding physical and moral deterioration of mankind in each age. The four yugas comprise an aggregate of 4,320,000 years and constitute a maha-yuga, or great yuga.
Yugala - a couple or pair.
Yugala-kisora - the divine youthful couple, Sri Sri Radha-Krsna.
Yukta-vairagya - appropriate renunciation; renunciation which is suitable for entrance into bhakti. This is defined in Bhakti-rasamrtasindhu (1.2.255): “When one is detached from material sense enjoyment, but accepts in appropriate proportion objects which are favorable to one’s bhakti, and shows special inclination toward things which are directly related to Krsna, such as mahaprasada, his renunciation is known as yukta-vairagya.” (See phalgu-vairagya with which this is contrasted.)

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Zamindar - a landowner, landlord (responsible for property taxes to the government).