Story behind the name ISHRA

I was recently asked “what is the meaning of your daughter’s name ISHRA?” So I went as far as I could down the short yet eventful memory lane of three years or so and tried to recollect. I still remember how it felt like the first drizzle of rain, when Vandana told me that our family was going to grow. I will always cherish the moment. I pondered how our lives would be transformed, like a flourishing landscape after monsoon. In our case the lush bounty of a life was to stay forever.

Amidst immense pressure, Vandana started her quest for a Childs name, which had to be unique, modern, easily pronounceable, never used before …the list was limitless. After knowing that we were going to be blessed with a daughter, search for the name got more focused and intensified.

As a Brahmin, if not a devout one, I wanted my daughter to have a name that personifies Hinduism and instill in her a sense of Identity, conveniently forgetting the fact that she would be an American citizen. I strenuously if not religiously, scanned the entire Shrimad Bhagwat Gita, only to find that apart from the divine truth, it is also a great store house of boy names.

And then one day, my wife with a sparkle in her eyes enquired “how does Ishra sound? “ It was refreshingly new, at least to me. Her hard work had paid off. To set the record straight, I give my wife whole and full credit for naming our first born. “Ishra” as a name, relates to names/words such as Ishvara, Ish,Isht, Eish and Shri Ishwar Das – a prominent name in Vandana’s ancestry and Ishri Devi from my side.

However, a concise yet serious research narrowed our search down to Ishvara, which is directly related to Ishra. The meaning of the word Ishvara translates as “The Controller of the Cosmos”, the cosmic Mind, the Manifest Divinity, and the Supreme Being. The word Ishvara contains both the words ISH and RA, which when combined form the word ISHRA, our lovely daughter’s name. In Sanskrit RA is the acoustic root of fire. RA also connotes with light or spiritual light.

Vandana and I, both have our values deeply rooted in the Indian ethos. We strongly believe in the spiritual philosophy of our Vedas, which nurtures introspection, re-interpretation and re-evaluation in order to attain the new that embodies an un-denying and omnipresent truth. We both, as individuals engaged in creative professions, wanted a similar notion to guide us in determining our daughter’s name.

My daughter Ishra will turn two and half years on 13^th July, 2011. Yes, she was born on the thirteenth day of the first month of the year, one of the most auspicious day in Indian calendar i. e. Makar Sankranti or popularly known as Lohri in Punjab. ISHRA is the truth of our life. ISHRA means Gods Light that shines on us and manifest as Almighty’s Blessing.