Arumar’s humble beginnings trace back to World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade. He was born as a Blood Elf Hunter for the Horde.

My new WoW table in 2007 was where all my friends were at, but I couldn’t come up with a cool name. All my normal gamer names taken. So, I created it using letters from my children’s names.

Ironically, I play the characters life a lot like the master of the bow Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. He is also a master of the Bow. But most of all he is always a moral character. Arumar never makes immoral decisions even in a group that some may consider the bad guys. Even when I’m playing single player games, Arumar can never be the bad guy.

Now when my path started up, I wasn’t known to anyone in the Bhakti world. So to protect myself on Zoom, I chose to use that name.

After our Sangha group became a podcast of Wisdom of the Sages, Raghunath got a kick out of giving us nicknames when saying good morning to us on zoom. He had seen my daily Gratitude posts and yells out “Arumar the Grateful one” and thus Arumar transcended from the digital world to the material world.

As many things in life that start off good and wholesome the Maya Express will take it and turn it against us. Using ego and pride. The persona of posting three grateful things now became a whole other beast.

People would tell me how much it helped them, so I kept posting them. Even as social media train cart was becoming more and more toxic, and affecting my mental health, I forced myself to logon every day and post three things for everyone else. Not me. As much as I knew and Loved that it helped other people, it was now starting to cause me harm. I didn’t need to be on social media that much. I felt the Arumar the Grateful persona was becoming more than my path.

After future paths from the current stop on the Maya Express, Arumar would be stripped to his core and rebirthed. I still use it, but now it’s to remind me of what he stands for inside of me.

Gratitude, goodness and only the fierce hunter when it’s required.

The hope is that Arumar the Online Journaling persona doesn’t veer off course.

Yours Forever Grateful