Sarma | Ancient Indians - Satya Samhita

Sarma, Sharma, s’arma, शर्म : shelter , protection , refuge , safety, a house, Joy , bliss , comfort , delight , happiness (as per dictionaries)

It is conventional for Brahmins to add the word/name s’arma at the end of their names when they intoduce themselves.

……name.. s’arma aham bho abhivAdayE.

When I heard that priests in some other cultures were called shamans, I wondered, what the word originally meant. I had heard that in Hindi s’aram had come to mean shy as in s’armili.

Recently, in one of the s’Anti mantras, I learned this :

..dEvEbhyah s’arma mE dyauh s’arma, pRthivI s’arma, ….

And I asked my Guru what it meant. ‘It means peace’ she said.. ‘of a very special kind., a different shade of peace than what is indicated by s’ama and dama‘.

I have written this about s’ama and dama‘ previously:

“…So obviously, when I next met my veda guru I questioned her about s’ama and dama. Both mean peace…. But dama is a stillness of the indriyas or the sense organs. s’ama is a peace of the antahkaraNas or the inner sense organs. s’iva is called s’ankara (s’am + kara) , because of the s’ama that he can cause in others. The word s’Anti is derived from s’ama. My Veda Guru told me that the entire purpose of a temple is to create this feeling of s’ama in the devotees….“

Today, of course, people of all castes sometimes use s’arma as a first or last name, because they like it and the government allows it. Joy to them! A special kind of peace to them!