Ummachi

This is something that I learned from my father in law last year, so just wanted to share it. Many people including srivaishnavas use the word "Ummachi" to refer to "God" in general. For example, they say "Krishna Ummachi" to refer to Lord Krishna and "Ramar Ummachi" to refer to Lord Rama and "Pillayar Ummachi for Pillayar. Though they equate "Ummachi" to "God", this equation / association is so wrong.

Going by its etymology, the word "Ummachi' breaks itself into "Uma" and "Pathi". One who is the pathi (husband) of Uma (Parvati). Technically, this would mean only Sivan / Rudran. Another school of thought is that "Ummachi" is a concatenation of "Uma", referring to Parvati again and "Shi", referring to Sivan. "UmaShi" transformed to Ummachi.  One more connotation to this is "Umai aachi", just like when they say "Umayaal", they use "Umai aachi" to refer to Parvati herself. In all these schools of thought, the person referred to is Sivan/his wife and no one else.

With this background, it makes no sense whatsoever to say "Krishnar Ummachi" or "Ramar Ummachi". Especially srivaishnavas, when the say it, they should know whom are they referring to. This makes the most sense for all srivaishnava parents because many of them teach their children this word "Ummachi" as the synomym for God. Whatever is being taught in the childhood stays on forever. There are 1000s of names for Sriman Narayanan for us. So, please pick as many names from them as you want and tell them. Please dont go with the flow of the norms of the society here and stick to the point "I just use it refer to God and I dont want to know all these meanings and I dont care what it means. My kid is happy and so I am happy".

As a tangential point, the phrase "Ummachi kanna kuthum" (Ummachi will hurt our eyes) has been misappropriated and has been used as a threat for situations like if the kid does not eat or if the kid does not obey etc. Over a period of time, this creates a false illusion about Ummachi (going by their definition of Umachi as "God") and gradually as the kids grow, they develop a fear towards God. Sometimes, I tend to think why people say "I am God fearing". While God is there for everyone of us and for everyone to love Him, why would someone even think of creating a fear in the minds of young children. I am sure there would be many ways to handle a kid and threatening using God is definitely not a way by itself in the first place, leave alone if it is good or bad.