How to Name it!!!

How to name it - One of Ilayaraja's wonderful musical treatise... But I am not describing that here..

I am narrating here my free-flow thoughts on the significance of "Name" in someone's life.
 
The recent movie by sivakarthikeyan wherein he carries the name "kunchithapaadam" and the comic attacks that he faces because of his name in the society is well scripted.

I keep thinking that, casually I am so intimate with my name that I say "I am Shriram". In extra ordinary scenarios, when I meet a stranger, whom I believe is superior to me I tend to keep even my name away from me and say "My name is shriram" - i am taking off my name from myself!!!

Name - the one that identifies me with the society; says that I am one among them; i was wondering what happened to all the tamil names which were there a 1000 yrs back - nambi, mudhaliaandaan, koora-kulothama dasan, embaar, emperumaanaars, etc.... when the society undergoes a change, their way of life, thinking, etc, it is primarily the name of people which undergoes the subtle change. Recently I find all the "shs" names - like ramesh, suresh, rajesh, etc and the names like vadivelu,govindan, murugan, etc have almost gone extinct. Name is the reflection of Society

According to me, Name is the implicit contract by a person to abide by the societal laws - and ofcourse its his choice to abide or not. However if he breaks the law, carrying the name of his society, there is every chance that he might feel guilty.

Japanese mgmt theory has it that, if at all there is one word which everyone likes - its his Name. Call someone by his name and ask him to do a job, he is more likely to do it. Perhaps its one of the most influencing factor.

I still remember one of my college professor who has the unique ability to remember every student's name (within a week of college opening) and he calls everyone of us by our name. He demanded more respect in the college [unfortunately I forgot his name now!!]

Going to vedic tradition, in "upanayanam" (the sacred thread ceremony), in every stage, at the end of every mantra the work "asow" (i.e., the name of the boy) must be repeated. When the child gets to know a mantra wherein his name is embedded, he feels more interested in the ritual, thereby creating a bondage to the tradition.

I firmly believe that the student whose name starts in "A", would have enjoyed enough tortures in schools, as he is going to be the first person to be tested. Hence this should definitely have an impact on his emotional intelligence. [though I dont know whether any proof exists for my belief]

All the epics and puranas have the characters whose names are symbol of their Personality. Believe me its not X, Y or Z in epics... Its surpanakha (one who has got a sharper nail), ravan (man of terrifying sound). Not even one character in Indian epics have a name without a reason.

In the epics, the naming ceremony is done by a spiritual guru, who correctly visualises the future personality of child and names in accordingly. But what about present days????

Is the converse of the above theorem true? Can a name shape the character of a man?

Name a person as akhilesh, sharvesh, etc you will find him more sporty; name a person srinivasan, ramanujam, etc by default he should feel a pulling force. Again its a sub-concious feeling. Exceptions are there always.

Giving the name of ancestors, saints, people of demonstrated success - might have an impact on the child's level of enthusiasm.

Say for example, when you name a child ramanujam and the child gets 100% in its third standard maths exams - any passing reference that "you are like maths genius ramanujam" will take the child to extra-ordinary heights and he will start believing that he is a maths genius [atleast a one step advantage towards the subject].

i have even seen the tradition, where spiritual leaders will name the child of followers. the parents will for sure tell the child and cherish that the child's naming ceremony is done by the guruji and so his blessings are always with the child. This by itself is a positive factor for the child's entire life that he will not be let down anytime by the grace of guruji.

it is interesting to note that parents tend to think that their twins share the same identity. so they name them similary - say ramesh and rajesh; suresh and ramesh; atleast viswanathan and ramamoorthy (finding a musical duo). this can have an impact that the twins will start believing that they are similar. i really dont know why parents name the twins that way... probably some sample research will answer this.

So many rationales I find before naming someone. My father named me, after the chit fund where he worked, when I was born!!!

So what??? As shakespeare says, A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

Practising and Being

Warning: This article is spiritual (as I understand)

I still remember the news that I heard sometime back where a temple priest was involved in sexual activities inside the temple itself!! MMS released, that created a stir, near the place kanchipuram.

I still see many Orthodox (so called) people, stubborn in their way of life, get skipped off in silly matters like passion, anger, etc. One of the butchery shop owner told me - " Nee yenna sami!! Andha kovil iyeru en kadaila dhaan vaangittu poraaru"..

As a Prabandham goes, the Lord Brahma who is very near to Maha Vishnu, himself has never seen Vishnu's divine feet. I could recollect my own circle of people, my elderly friends, relatives, old-age people, who seem to be excellent when it comes to practising religion, but get let down when it comes to common life. If that be so, is religion / spirituality is something that is off the normal way of life? Is practising religion / spirituality required or not? Especially when it does not have any impact on one's thought process in his routine life style....

I came across an interesting lecture which gave some good answers to me for this question. Below is the extract of it -

Knowledge, Discipline and Devotion are the path to salvation [Gnana, Vairaakyam, Bakthi]. This can be done as a practice [anushtaanam] or it can be your own character [swaroopam]. The later is superior [being it as a swaroopam].

As an example, if a person wants to quit smoking and he tries controlling himself, it takes a longer time to achieve success. Sometimes he might even fail. But however a non smoker doesn't feels difficult to stay without smoking. Both the people are trying to stay without smoking .But the latter feels easy to stay (instinctly) where the former tries his 100% always to keep himself calm.

I understand that Bakthi, as a state of mind should not be practised; rather it should be a part of one's personality. As a mother loves her child (and not practises to love everytime), so the bakthi should be, which should come instinctly from within.

What if it does not comes from within? I do not feel like loving the God.. So what can I do... simply nothing... But probably one answer which i can feel now is - better look into those people who are roaming around with bakthi... I would feel better then.

I have a client who always is punctual. Within 2 or 3 encounters with him, I started being punctual. My efforts for being punctual is very minimal. Just that the simple change that i had from within made me stay punctual (atleast with that client). Where I had lot of excuses with other people on my time management, with this guy i am the most disciplined person (with little or even no efforts).

Once this bakthi (divine love) creeps in the mind, then automatically we withdraw ourselves from all the other external pleasures (with no efforts). This is what is real vairaagyam. Then gnana is automatic.

Good day

How to say Eunuch.....in Tamil???

Language.... something which is very vital for our livelihood.... something that we use to communicate our thoughts.... (which we even use to hide our thoughts)

For me even silence is a language... which conveys many meanings.....

Some time back, I came across an interesting article about the development and origin of languages... an information about the language Tamil...

Tamil, as a lingo has got
(a) vowels -ex., a, aa, e, ee, vu, vuuu, yae, yaaeee, ai, oh, oooh , ow - (referred as 12 Uyir Letters) and
(b) consonants - ex., ik, ing, ich, iny, it, in, ith, inn, ip, im, etc (referred as 18 Mei Letters)...

these vowels and consonants form the basic letters of the language (called as UyirMei)

Stop Not!  there is a peculiar letter called as "akkkk" (that is "aaidha" letter). what is so peculiar about this "akkk"... the letter is denoted by the symbol three dots forming a triangle.... you invert the triangle, it is again a triangle... anyway it resembles one and the same... that which is out of any change...

In ancient literatures, uyir letters are called as "Male letters" and Mei letters are called as "Feminine" letters.

And the male letters are classified into two:
1. Soft Men - Kuril - a, e, vu, yae, oh (short vowels)
2. Hard Men - Nedil -aa, ee, vuu, yaaee, oooh, etc (long vowels)

Feminine letters are classified into three:
1. Vallinam - Hard Natured - ka, sa, da, tha, pa, rra (so hard to pronounce)
2. Mellinam - Soft Natured - nga, nya, na, nna, ma, naa (using nostrils to pronounce - not so rigid)
3. Idayinam - Mediocre Natured - ya, ra, la, va, zha, lla (mediocre difficulty in pronounciation)

Lets learn a little bit of Tamil grammar here:
Principle 1: when this letter "akkk" has to be used in formation of words?
Answer: When a kuril is joined with the vallinam then this "akkk" has to be introduced in-between.

ex., "a" is a kuril.... "thu" (any form of tha) is a vallinam.. when we join it we get "athu" or bingo!!! "akthu..."

Genetic Formula:
A lesson that is derived from nature here is that... when a Hard Natured woman mates with a Soft Men, then in between what you get is an Eunuch.!!!!????

If we apply this theorem and categorize men and women and try to find out whether this formula really works in practical scenarios, there seems to be a positive reply. There is a research report on that (the article that I read claimed that! but not sure of the report)

Really I wonder how people imbibed genetic theory into the Grammatical Rules of the language.... Still more research can be done of these lines, decoding the language from a genetic perspective...