"What's in a Name?"

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta

Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

“What’s in a Name?”

 

The current craze among people is for “Nameology”.

This has acquired the proportions of a “science” and its

practitioners are minting money. Even eminently rational people

appear to be impressed by its tenets and the thing is fast assuming

the veneer of wisdom. For those who haven’t heard of the term,

Nameology refers to the science of names, their properties, their

power to influence people’s lives, etc. Though no University

of repute is yet awarding degrees in the subject, yet its

practitioners appear to have conferred impressive-sounding titles

upon themselves. Their advice has resulted in people’s names

undergoing rather funny transformations, with “R.

Gopalan” becoming “R.G. Pal” and so on.

 

Even before the advent of these Nameologists, an undesirable

trend had become noticeable in naming the new-born. Where previously

people used to search for suitable sobriquets in the Sri Vishnu

Sahasranamam or the LakshmISahasranamam, they shifted their research

to dictionaries and encyclopeadeas. And since each parent wanted to

be individualistic and unique in naming his or her offspring, there

was a profusion of “TanUjA”s, “KavyA”s,

“NetrA”s and so on, while boy babies ended up with fancy

names like “Dhanush”, “PeeyUsh”, etc. I

would say that these parents were somewhat short of foresight, from a

purely aesthetic angle, for, a name should sit well on a person as

well as it does in infancy and youth, as in old age. It would sound

indeed incongruous to call a person “Dhanush Tatha” or

“ ShObha Patti”. In my banking career, I have come across

people with names like “Russia”, making me wonder at the

innovativeness of parents, which often results in their offspring

being greeted with derision everytime their name is called out. In

their anxiety to be “different”, parents often bestow

upon their offspring names like “TanUjA”, (which really

means one who was born out of a body), “Neha”,

“Sangita” etc., which are pretty prosaic, with little

significance. And there are those with a smattering of classical

Sanskrit, who come up with perhaps grammatically correct but

unappealing names like “advE”, leaving you with a feeling

of something missing from the appellation. Worse still, many exhibit

their devotion to political leaders by naming their children after

these figures with feet of clay. Some take perverse pleasure in

giving their infants the names of dreaded asurAs—it was hence

no surprise to me to come across recently a book by one Mr.Ravanan- I

looked carefully to see whether the work was dedicated to Mr Marichan

or Mr. Indrajit, but obviously the author felt one unconventionality

to be enough.

 

Not only are fancy names becoming the order of the day, but even

grown-up people, who had already been named well, have begun changing

their appellations, as they would clothes. Abbreviation has become

the name of the game, with “Sundararajan” cosnsidering

himself to be having too long a handle and shortening himself to

“S.Rajan”, Srinivasan becoming S.Vasan, Krishnaswamy

changing into “K.Swamy”, “Narayanan” shedding

excess baggage to become “Narayan”, and so on. In the

process, the beautiful and profound purports behind most of these

names are mutilated and mangled beyond recognition.

 

All this makes us wonder as to the purpose for which a name is chosen.

The most obvious objective is to confer a distinctive tag to the baby,

to distinguish it from others: but then, considering the fact that

most of the names are repetitive (there must be any number of

Satakopans in our Sampradaya, as there are Ramanujans, Krishnans and

Ramans), there must indeed be a more profound purpose to this naming

business, than mere identification. Some names are universally

popular and in a crowd, if the name “Venkatesan” is

called out, there would be a forest of hands going up. And among

women, there is a veritable proliferation of “LakshmI”,

“PadmA”, “IndirA” etc.

 

When we analyse the naming pattern that was prevalent before the

advent of these fancy monickers, we find that babies were mostly

named after the Lord. It would be either a Rama, a Krishna, an

Aravamuda, a Srinivasa, a Parthasarathy, an Oppili and so on, not to

mention the Ranganathas and the Varadas. And as far as female infants

were concerned, they were called Lakshmi (and its variants like

Vijayalakshmi and Rajalakshmi), Vedavalli, Alarmelu (this had become

slightly unfashionable, for some unknown reason, quite some time

back), Padma, Pankajam, Ranganayaki etc. It was thus axiomatic to

name children after Emperuman and Piratti. And no one could complain

of lack of choice in this regard, because the Lord has a thousand

names and more, as does His Consort, affording a wide variety of

titles to choose from, according to the parents’ taste and

inclination. From an aesthetic angle too, all these divine names were

sweet-sounding, none of them being tongue-twisters, with most of them

sporting the added advantage of brevity.

 

Beyond merely conferring an identity, the Lord’s names have an

extremely significant role to perform, which is highlighted by Sri

Periazhwar, in the first Tirumozhi of the fourth decad (“nAgam

karayudai kooraikku”). Azhwar says that the mother who names

her child after the Lord would never even peep into Hell

(“Naranan annai narakam pugAL”). She would never contract

any sin, necessitating a sojourn in narakam, and even if she did, the

stigma would be washed away by merely calling to her infant by name.

Before extolling the virtues of bestowing children with the

Lord’s holy names, the Azhwar points out the folly of naming

our offspring after human beings (however venerable they are) and

inanimate objects.

 

“What is the point of naming your child after a perishable

mortal, born in our same clan of human beings and subject to decay

and death, when you have the option of choosing from among the

innumerable tirunAmams of the incomparable Lord, capable of

conferring upon you coveted immortality?” enquires

Azhwar—

“MAnida sAdiyil tOndrittOr mAnida sAdiyayi

MAnida sAdiyin pEr ittAl marumaikku illai

VAnudai Madhava! Govinda! Endru azhaitthkkAl

NAnidai Naranan tam annai narakam pugAL”

 

If you name your child after a human being in ancticipation of

deriving from him or her material benefits like riches, bounty or

favours, you may or may not attain these coveted baubles, for human

beings are fickle-minded and whimsical and may or may not be

gratified by lending their names to others’ infants. However,

the Lord’s names are immensely powerful, as would be attested

by Droupati, Gajendra, Dhruva and others, and would definitely confer

upon the bearers untold benefits including immortality (“immayum

sAdittu….Veedum tarum”, as Sri Nammazhwar says). The

divine name thus emancipates not only its bearer, but also the

parents and others who have the good fortune to call out the names

time and again.

 

The story of ajAmiLa attests to the aforesaid averment of Sri

Vishnuchitta. Though born a Brahmin with all virtues and adherence to

shAstraic dicta, ajAmiLa fell into bad ways, left his family and was

living with a woman of dubious morals, ignoring his children born of

his legally-wedded wife and lavishing all affection on the child born

out of wedlock, whom he had providentially named

“Narayanan”. When this fallen Brahmin was on his death

bed, he was overwhelmed at the thought of separation from his beloved

boy and called to him with all love and affection, when his lifebreath

ebbed out of his body. When YamakinkarAs came to take away his soul

for undergoing just punishment for all his sins of omission and

commission, they found themselves confronted by messengers from

VishnulOkam, claiming custody of the departed soul for blissful

sojourn in the land of the immortals, solely by virtue of ajAmiLa

having uttered the Narayana nAmam. In vain did the minions of Yama

remonstrate with the angels from VishnulOka that it was not the

Paramapurusha Narayana that ajAmiLa had called to , but his own

infantile son, born out of wedlock. A name is a name, said the

VishnudootAs, laying down for posterity that the utterance of the

Lord’s names, whether in right earnest with due devotion, or

casually and derisively or even without any reference to the Lord

(“SAnkEtyam pArihAsyam cha stobham hElanam Eva vA”),

would definitely confer only the best on the utterer. The bottomline

was that despite his innumerable offences, ajAmiLa escaped the fires

of hell, simply because he had named his son after the Lord and

called to him while on his death bed. It is with this in mind that

Sri Periazhwar adopts the refrain, “Naranan tan annai narakam

pugAL”.

 

There are some interesting sidelights on names.

 

According to the Purusha Sukta, it was the Lord who first gave names

to all His creation, sentient and non-sentient, calling each created

being by its given name—“nAmAni kritvA abhivadan

yadAstE”.

 

And there is the fascinating episode of VasishttA’s arch rival

VisvAmitra, loathe to calling the Prince of Ayodhya by the name

“Rama:” given by Kula guru VasishttA, thinking long and

deep during their travel to DandakA vanam, searching for a suitable

sobriquet for the young prince, seeking to replace the one He was

already answering to. However hard he racked his brains, the sage was

unable to come up with a better tirunAmam, and finally ended up

calling the Lord by the name given to him by Maharshi

Vasishtta—“Rama! iti madhurAm vANeem VisvAmitrO

abhyabhAshata”.

 

A significant point made in the aforesaid Periazhwar Tirumozhi is that

parents who give their offspring the names of the Lord are spared the

rigours of Hell. When Azhwar says “MAnida sAdiyin pEr ittAl

marumaikku illai”, he seems to hint that naming our children

after the Lord and calling them often, can by itself bestow

emancipation on us. The important question arises here as to the

efficacy of the Lord’s tirunamas—by themselves, can they

lead us to the gates of Paramapadam? Are they an independent strategy

by themselves, capable of liberating us from our mundane shackles, as

extolled in the phalashruti portion of the Sahasranamam-

“SankIrtya Narayana sabda mAtram vimukta du:khA: sukhinO

bhavantu” and in numerous other pramANams?

 

If the hallowed names of Vishnu are by themselves capable of

liberating us from Samsara and affording us eternal bliss in

Paramapadam, what about the various upAyAs prescribed by Shastras as

essential for achieving emancipation? Why should we adopt the

infinitely hard strategies of Bhakti or the thirty-odd Brahma vidyAs

prescribed by the various Upanishads? Why should we even attempt

Prapatti, which, though held out to be an easy strategy, is indeed

difficult for us who are unable to inculcate the MahAvisvAsam or

unshakeable faith it calls for in the Lord and His capabilities? When

such an easy path, that of merely reciting the Lord’s names, is

available, forming a virtual short cut to Paramapadam, why strike out

for the other thorny trails which lead to journey’s end only

after strenuous and arduous travel and considerable detour?

 

Acharyas tell us that while Emperuman’s tirunamam is indeed

extraordinarily powerful and is definitely capable of bestowing on us

the ultimate fruit, viz, a blissful existence in Paradise, it does so

through an appropriate upAya of our choice. Thus nAma sankeertanam

leads us to Moksham not directly, but through the alleyway of an

upAya like Bhakti or Prapatti. For, the Lord has made it clear that

He would not admit anyone to Paramapadam, unless they perform

Prapatti—

“PrapannAt anyEshAm na disati MukundO nija padam”.

The constant recitation of the Lord’s names and the resultant

exultant experience leads us to the company of similarly blessed

souls, bringing us together with BhAgavatAs. This, in turn, leads us

to an Acharya, who, in his infinite mercy, enlightens us as to the

nature of the Lord, of ourselves, the need for us to strive for

liberation from this mundane morass, the strategy to be adopted

therefor and what impediments lie across the way of the

Pilgrim’s Progress. With a mind made blemishless by such

sermons, we pray to the Acharya for upAya anushttAnam, which request

the Preceptor fulfils with alacrity, surrendering our souls at the

lotus feet of the Divya Dampati, thereby ensuring for us a berth in

Sri Vaikuntam, at the end of this human birth.

 

We thus find that the Lord’s holy names do lead us to liberty,

but through the adoption of an appropriate option like Bhakti or

Prapatti. And all this, says Sri Periazhwar, can be done by merely

naming our progeny after the Lord, for this affords us infinite

opportunities to chant the Lord’s names on the pretext of

calling our children. And whether or not we recite His tirunAmams

with devotion, He gives us the benefit of doubt (as He did to

ajAmiLa) and leads us on to Himself in due course. Just as a fire

scorches us, whether or not we know its property of burning, the

BhagavannAma too affords us all that is auspicious, whether we utter

it with due devotion or with disinterest or even disdain.

 

The next time you come across parents of a new-born, please persuade

them to eschew the temptation to be “fashionable” in

naming their child. Keshavan or Narayanan might be old-fashioned, but

they are tried, tested and found good. And better even than the

Lord’s names are those of Azhwars and Acharyas, for they

portray infinite bhakti, unmatched devotion and boundless humility,

all of which are hallmarks of excellent human beings. There are

definitely better prospects of a Ramanujan or Venkatanathan or Padma

attaining enlightenment, than a “Nitin”,

“Rahul” or “Shrishti”.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka Srivan Satakopa Sri

Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, satakopan.

[Guest guest]

My profound namskarams to Shri Sadagopanji

 

I have gone through your articles. It is really an eye-opener to

every Hindu family. I know one friend who named his child

as "Nelaja" for the sake it should start with "Ne"

 

My humble request to all is that dont avoid God names for the sake of

fashion please.

 

Peace to all,

 

 

 

Oppiliappan, sadagopaniyengar

<sadagopaniyengar@v...> wrote:

>

>

[Guest guest]

Dear and respected Sir,

Pl accept my sincere pranams at thy feet.

The articles posted by your goodselves are a pleasure to read and also I

have no words to describe

about the contents.It is so rich with meaning and bhakthi.

Sir, could you kindly enlighten me on the significance of Pithru tharpanam

especially the Mahalaya tharpanam. The mahalaya paksham is running now and I

would like to know the significance of these rituals.

With respects

Adiyen dasan,

Kodaganallur V.Vijayanarayanan.

 

 

>sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar

>Oppiliappan

>, Oppiliappan <Oppiliappan>,

>tiruvenkatam

> "What's in a Name?"

>Sun, 14 Sep 2003 19:44:25 +0530

>

>

>Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

>

>

>

> "What's in a Name?"

>

>

>