Dwapara Yuga: The local and the global

A local bank in Britain is using Cockney Rhyming Slang as an option on its ATM (Automated Banking) screens in East London.

Cockney began as something of an underworld language used by police and thieves but over the years has become a well-known dialect used extensively around London, England, often for comic effect.

It figures in many independent films set in London and was showcased in one of the "Austin Powers" movies, as a nod to the crossover of British and Canadian actors into the American and hence worldwide markets.

"Sausage and Mash" means "Cash"

"Charlie Sheen" means "Screen"

"Fleet Street" means "Receipt"

With a bit of practice, anyone can work out Sky Rocket, Rattle & Tank, Huckleberry Finn and words such as Moolah are well know. Parts of Britain's colonial past can be found all over in English like Punch the drink which comes from the Hindi word for five, or thug which comes from the sect of Thugi who worshipped the Goddess Kali and had a habit of strangling travelers . An 18 wheeler truck (lorry) in England is known as a Juggernaut, from Lord Jagganath.

Other gems not seen on the screen are "Ruby Murray" for "Curry". The rhyming aspect becomes harder to figure out for non initiates when the context is not known or an abbreviated form is used - "Are you up for a Ruby?"

In a world in which the global and commercial forms of English standardize and commoditize language it is excellent to see the survival of ancient forms which in their own way have the same value as the language of Shakespeare or the King James Bible, both of which borrowed massively from pre-existing works and forms.

At the same time, politics, law, medicine and technical fields tend to jargon at the expense of clear communication, as a barrier to entry for new comers but always presented as necessary for the subject. Under the King, the French language had just such a transformation, with efforts to add complexity and nuance to limit power to its elite classes. It is amusing to see the simplicity and clarity of ancient manorial documents compared to modern French. In modern times, a similar difference can be seen with British and American newspapers, although in fairness, the reading age of mass market American journals is deliberately kept low to not exclude potential readers.

In Dwapara Yuga, knowledge of God in both the impersonal and personal aspects is becoming a better and better known goal and in a mundane way these aspects of language reflect at the same time the impersonal, unity of communication and at the same time the personality of particular places and times much as a Saint in Samadhi is connected to everything yet retaining their individual personality.