The Story of this Blog 

(March 14, 2011) 


When this blog was first created on April 23, 2010, it was called mangalorearyasamaj.blogspot.com. I had christened it so because of my association with the Arya Samaj. 


I had approached the Arya Samaj back in March 2009 for purely social reasons. I desparately wanted to place my son in Hindu society. So, I went there Sunday after Sunday, chatted with them all endlessly, drank endless cups of tea, had numerous plates of snacks, smiled indulgently when I heard them talk about vegetarianism, and so on and so forth...simply because I wanted to place my son in Hindu society. The world crashed around my ears exactly a year later, somewhere in February, when I learned that the place I had learned to love was fraught with internal conflicts and legal battles, a fact that was carefully kept secret from me for months. 


As I walked away from Mangalore Arya Samaj, I felt a pain I had never felt before. Was this place lost to me for ever? I had been a Christian for nearly 32 years before I joined the Arya Samaj and I hardly felt a thing when I left the Church, but the loss of the Arya Samaj was a deep personal loss. I asked myself again and again: "Didn't I join for purely social reasons?" "Did all those social get togethers mean so much to me?" 


I searched deeply in my mind and heart and wondered what was it about Arya Samaj that kept dragging me back, however much I tried to get away from it. It was only after several months that I realized that the one I missed the most was Agni. After all, I had sat before Him Sunday after Sunday, as the purohit chanted mantras in a language I did not understand. I had reverently offered ahutis Sunday after Sunday. Agni never forced me to become a vegetarian, but I found myself unable to eat non vegetarian foods. Right from childhood, I had been terrified of fire, but in Arya  Samaj, the most terrifying one became the most beloved one to me. Agni was no longer the hell fire of Christianity, he was the giver of light and warmth of the ageless Vedic religion. I had felt that I had finally found the place I belonged to. 


Now that I have explained my association with Arya Samaj, let me get back to this blog. On June 6, 2011, I was called "moorukasinavalu" precisely for starting this blog. I decided to change its address to mangalorearyas.blogspot.com simply because I did not want to get entangled in any legal wrangles.


Today, on March 14, 2011, I changed the name of this blog for the third and last time. Although the Arya Samaj introduced me to an aspect of God that fascinated me, the Arya Samaj has not succeeded in telling me everything I need to know. From now on, I am on my own, joining hundreds and thousands of people in the eternal quest for the Incomprehensible one ... commonly called God. 


I thought that the address of this blog should be a name of God. I mulled over the name Agni for a long time, but someone else had already taken it. I then typed the phrase "names of the Vedic God" in Google and came across this interesting web page. I finally decided to give my blog the address: insearchofaum.blogspot.com.


I have unpublished everything I had ever published about the Arya Samaj, except news. I don't thing there is anything here that might upset anyone from the Mangalore Arya Samaj. If there is, kindly bring it to my attention, and I will remove it at once.