My parents gave me the name Robin Cathleen Oleata. I'm the sixth child in the Oleata brood and I often feel it is a name that carries some weight in the Southern California town I've spent my life in. My siblings have paved my way as someone a bit renegade, creative, and charismatic. "one of the Oleata's" people say upon my introduction. Of course this association is usually crippled by the far greater aknowledgment as "Tim Bessell's girlfriend!" Growing up I had other names too. At girl scout camp every summer they would call me "Twiggy" on account of my long skinny legs, a childhood friend and I had about a dozen play names for each other, some not-so-nice boys had their own play names for me too! When I was confirmed into the Catholic Church as a teenager, I choose the name Adelaide in honor of an ancient queen who had done great acts in her life. As a teen I travelled to South American and began to have my name butchered, "Roe-Bean" is how they like to say it. And ten-thousand times I've had a latino man call me Roe-Bean Hood! or ask me "¿Dónde está Batman?" where's Batman? Later when I was twenty and went to live in Brazil, where no single word ends in the letter N and an R at the beginning of a word sounds like a Yiddish Huh, I thought ahead and gave myself a cute brazilian name based on my middle name, and I became Kaite, Kay-Chee. It was a fun name that I loved being called. Some friends made it extra authentic and started calling me Kaite Maria. I can pinpoint when and where someone entered my life by the name they choose to call me.
Now in my Yoga Journey I have entered a new world of names. Like the chosing of a name for Confirmation into the Church, in Yoga traditions you are given a name by your teacher as a form of initiation into a committed way of life. At this initiation you are also often given a personal mantra, or prayer, to repeat throughout your life. The names are either one of the many names of God from Hindu mythology, or some other word that describes a holy attribute or divine message. I recieved a Spiritual Name and Mantra Initiation as part of my Yoga Teacher Training at the Sivananda Yoga Farm, an Ashram located in Grassvalley, California. Swami Sitaramananda gave me on that date my Mantra and the name Prem or Prema which means love, or specifically love for God and the love you receive from God, Divine Love! What a simply beautiful name! I have not chosen to educate the people around me to call me by this new name, but in the Sivananda community, I am called by this name, and I am happy to answer to it. I just returned from a week at the Yoga Farm and enjoyed the opportunity to live by this name and the message it carries.
I consider Prem to be my Hatha Yoga name, and I received this name in 2005. In the past two years I have been exploring at depth the 3HO community, which includes practitioners of Kundalini Yoga and practitioners of Sikh Dharma. These practices were brought to the West by Yogi Bhajan. As he began to receive followers, he would very often give them a new Spiritual Name from the Sikh Tradition. This Summer I applied for a Sikh Spiritual name, based upon my numerology, meaning the numbers related to my birthdate. Your Sikh name is also based upon divine concepts, and the name reveals to you an important messge about your Dharma, or life's purpose. The Sikh's gave me the name Puranjot Kaur. All women receive the last name Kaur, which means Princess of God, and all men receive the last name Singh, which means Lion of God. My first name is comprised of two words, Puran and Jot. Puran means perfect, complete, full and Jot means light. Together it means that I am completely filled with the perfect light of God. My Dharma is to beam this light out from my Soul, sharing it with all those around me. Yet again another beautiful name that I fell Graced by God to answer to this name, especially within the Sikh community.
If you would like to receive a Sikh Spiritual Name you can apply on-line and your name will be e-mailed to you...directly from God!
http://www.3ho.org
