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Decolonizing the negative meanings of an old tradition
The following is from Sanskrit Origins of Bathala and Bahala at BahalaNaMeditations.com, written around 2013 at an old blog, and excerpted in Wikipedia.
“There are many people who believe the phrase bahala na originates from the Tagalog word Bathala, which means “supreme divine being” It’s easy to see and hear why this would be because the spelling and sound of the two words are very similar, differentiated by the use of the letter and sound of “t” within the word. But in fact, the word bathala comes from the Sanskrit word bhattara, which means “noble lord.” And bahala is a Tagalog word that actually means burden, responsibility or 100 million units of weight, and comes from the Sanskrit word bhara and Malaysian word bahara, both meaning burden, weight, or charge.
“BharaNa is also a Sanskrit and Hindi word that may have etymological pertinence. The Sanskrit word of bharaNa means sustenance; it also means bearing, as in carrying a burden or weight or supporting, nourishing, and maintaining as in caring for something.[15] And then, in Hindi, the word bharana means to complete, as in a form or task, and it also means to fill as in filling a space or container.[16]
“The meanings of bharaNa to carry, bhara and bahala which both mean burden, and bahala na…
