Sharing a interesting note on the word Arya its origin and meaning. Do read on !! The word arya is used in Sanskrit both as a noun and as an adjective inreference to a person, quality, character and social status. When it is used as a noun to refer a person, it means a person of noble birth or character, lord or preceptor.. When it is used as an adjective to denote a quality or character, it means worthy, respectable, honorable, noble and hight. When it is used to address a person it means revered or honored sir. According to Amarakosa An arya comes from a noble family, is civilzed, of good character and. Aryaputra was a proud epithet used in ancient India to denote a persons noble origin. As time passed by the word Arya lost its ethnic or racial flavor in the Indian subcontinent and acquired the meaning of any person of noble origin. In the modern world with the rise of German power under Hitler, the word acquired a distinct ethnic and racial flavor with very unhappy consequences for those who were supposed to be of non-Aryan descent. ~ Arya Its Significance ~ Following is an excerpt from an article on the significance of arya by Sri Aurobindo ! The question has been put from more than one point of view. To most Europeans the name [Arya] figuring on our cover is likely to be a hieroglyph which attracts or repels according to their temperament. Indians know the word, but it has lost for them the significance which it bore to their forefathers. Western Philology has converted it into a racial term, an unknown ethnological quantity on which different speculations fix different values. Now, even among the philologists, some are beginning to recognise that the word in its original use expressed not a difference of race, but a difference of culture. For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration. All the highest aspirations of the early human race, its noblest religious temper, its most idealistic varieties of thought are summed up in this single vocable. In later times, the word Arya expressed a particular ethical and social ideal, an ideal of well-governed life, candour, courtesy, nobility, straight dealing, courage, gentleness, purity, humanity, compassion, protection of the weak, liberality, observance of social duty, eagerness of knowledge, respect for the wise and learned, the social accomplishments. Arya is the one who makes that choice, whoever seeks to climb from level to level up the hill of the divine, fearing nothing, deterred by no retardation or defeat, shrinking from no vastness because it is too vast for his intelligence, no height because it is too high for his spirit, no greatness because it is too great for his force and courage, he is the Arya, the divine fighter and victor, the noble man, aristos, best, the srestha of the Gita. Intrinsically, in its most fundamental sense, Arya means an effort or an uprising and overcoming. The Aryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to the human advance. Self-conquest is the first law of his nature. He overcomes earth and the body and does not consent like ordinary men to their dullness, inertia, dead routine and tamasic limitations. He does not live in a shell of ignorance, inherited prejudices, customary ideas, pleasant opinions, but knows how to seek and choose, to be large and flexible in intelligence even as he is firm and strong in his will. For in everything he seeks truth, in everything right, in everything height and freedom. Self-perfection is the aim of his self-conquest. Therefore, what he conquers he does not destroy, but ennobles and fulfils. He knows that the body, life and mind are given him in order to attain to something higher than they; therefore they must be transcended and overcome, their limitations denied, the absorption of their gratifications rejected. But he knows also that the Highest is something which is no nullity in the world, but increasingly expresses itself here, - a divine Will, Consciousness, Love, Beatitude which pours itself out, when found, through the terms of the lower life on the finder and on all in his environment that is capable of receiving it. Of that he is the servant, lover and seeker. When it is attained, he pours it forth in work, love, joy and knowledge upon mankind. Such vast ind insightful is the true meaning of this beautiful word: Arya. May all of us strive to attract its meaning in real senses in our every day lives. Stay Blessed !! #Lifelogic
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:24:53 +0000
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