tu nahi aap

English is a very simple language. Without much complexities. There you have not much choice, but to call the person by saying ‘you’ be it an adult or a child while making a conversation.

However complexities come in when we talk in our mother tongue Hindi when we have a lot of paryavachies of the word you available at ourdisposal. We can call the person in front of us as tum, tu or aap. Many times some of us find ourselves in the dilemma as to what to refer to the person we are making a conversation to.

This blog will help in making them take this decision a little easier!

Once my son came up to me singing a hymn in which God was referred to as tu. With great confusion breeding in his mind he asked, when we have so much of reverence for God why are we singing the word tu in the song, why don’t we say aap here.God definitely is highly respected and much bigger than us! Why are we saying tu in the song?

I heard his query quiet attentively. He needed a logical answer at this tender age. Besides I always insist him to call others by referring to them as aap and not to say tu to anyone. My answer had to be logical and make a sense to him.

‘When you say tu in the song for God you are referring to Him as one almighty God. God is one. So here you are talking or singing to that ONE super power that has created everyone and everything. Now when God created everything, he loved all that he created from the bottom of his heart and did not want to part away from them. So he made a small place for himself in everything he created and started residing there as well. Be it a tree or an animal or a stone or a human. Now those things became from singular to plural, as one part was ‘the thing/object’ created by God and another was a part of God himself. So we call them Aap. When you are making a conversation with your friend or your teacher or your aaya didi in school you are not just talking to them but also to God, as God lives in all of them, as well as God lives in you. Therefore in the song we sang as tu for God but when you talk to others say aap as youare talking to them and God simultaneously.’

Thus instilling the concept of

Aham Bhrahmasmi

Twam Bhramasmi

Teaching him to love and respect one and all!