June 17, 2012
I had earlier started a series on Indian names in the Bhagavad Geeta and launched it with a post on Ananya. Ideally, that series should have been launched with a post on Arjuna since it is his name that appears over 40 times in the Geeta, compared to only 12 times for the name 'Krishna'.
Arjuna is a beautiful name and I am glad to see that Indian parents still name their children Arjuna since people of any nationality should find it easy name to pronounce. In Shri VS Apte's 'The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary', the word Arjuna is defined variously as 'white', 'clear, bright, of the color of day', 'silvery'. 'Arjuna' is also the name of a species of tree. The dictionary provides one beautiful quote by Arjuna (I guess it is Arjuna in the Mahabharata, though not stated explicitly in the dictionary) करोमि कर्म शुद्धं च तेन मामर्जुनं विदुः - 'I perform actions that are pure, hence know me as Arjuna.'
Pujya Guruji in one of his talks on Bhagavad Geeta chapter 18, said,
IT folks might be tickled that there is a firm arjuna.com that sells an agility framework for the cloud whose icon is:
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
I had earlier started a series on Indian names in the Bhagavad Geeta and launched it with a post on Ananya. Ideally, that series should have been launched with a post on Arjuna since it is his name that appears over 40 times in the Geeta, compared to only 12 times for the name 'Krishna'.
Arjuna is a beautiful name and I am glad to see that Indian parents still name their children Arjuna since people of any nationality should find it easy name to pronounce. In Shri VS Apte's 'The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary', the word Arjuna is defined variously as 'white', 'clear, bright, of the color of day', 'silvery'. 'Arjuna' is also the name of a species of tree. The dictionary provides one beautiful quote by Arjuna (I guess it is Arjuna in the Mahabharata, though not stated explicitly in the dictionary) करोमि कर्म शुद्धं च तेन मामर्जुनं विदुः - 'I perform actions that are pure, hence know me as Arjuna.'
Pujya Guruji in one of his talks on Bhagavad Geeta chapter 18, said,
The meaning of Arjuna is explained in two ways. One is अर्जनात् अर्जुनः (arjanaat arjunaH). 'arjan' means acquiring. He was always acquiring new types of weapons, through his own efforts, through tapas, austerity and learning. Also, he helped Yudhishthira (during the Rajasuya YaGYa) acquire more wealth. Hence, Arjuna is one who acquires wealth, weapons, new skills, etc. Another meaning is अर्जवात् अर्जुनः 'arjavaat arjunah'. Straightforward. His nature was straight forward, therefore Śrī Kṛṣṇa loved him. Even when he disagreed with Bhagavān, he said it out. Arjuna was not a simpleton, he was simple-hearted."
IT folks might be tickled that there is a firm arjuna.com that sells an agility framework for the cloud whose icon is:
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
Name is not by chance - its one of the things that defines one's personality.
ReplyDeleteArundhati