Thursday, July 21, 2005

What's in a name?....by Vidwattama

What's in a name?
by Vidwattama
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What's in a name..??
Well...it surely wouldn't mean much if it just happens to be "incidental", to quote the great Bard himself.
But what of the name that one "desires" to be known by...??? Quietly lying underneath could be a story hidden ... perhaps of a long lost love, or a favourite childhood hero, or a passionately cherished dream, or a plain assertion of what one wants to stand for, or ....
One fine morning, at a lousy mess, drinking a bland cup of lukewarm coffee with my friends, I was lucky enough to be asked "If you could choose a name for yourself, what would it be?". Perhaps, we should all subject ourselves to such questions. The feeling is akin to one suddenly realising a quietly standing mirror...waiting to be looked at...waiting to be acknowledged...with one's own self in it, waiting for a closer look. And as if I knew it all along, I just uttered "Vidwattama", though it is more than a decade back that I last read about the great lady.
But what about Vidwattama (translates as wisest of wise) makes her so fascinating ....???
(Keep watching this space for more.)
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2 comments:

Shencottah said...

Kovaiputhalvan, you are right.
Vidwattama is one of the thousand names in Vishnu Sahasranamam.

Regarding the reference to a lady, Vidhwattama (the author) says Keep watching this space for more

Anonymous said...

Shencottah,

please let me know the splitting of vidwattama. The nearest I could reach to wisest of wise is vidwatyuttama but it is not exact. Help me.

In sanskrit Uttamaha (with visargas at the end sounding aha) is masculine and Uttamaaaaaaaaaa should be feminine. One loses something both in transliteration and translation.