How sweet is the name of the Lord! How soothing and elevating are the names of Hari, Rama, Krishna, Shiva. There is an unfathomable depth and charm in the Lord’s name. It is beyond the futile explanation of the limited intellect. It is a thing knowable only through experience.
There is a mysterious power in the name. There is an inscrutable shakti in God’s name. All the divine potencies are hidden in the Lord’s name. It is the seed of the tree of spirituality and destroyer of the impurities of the mind. It bestows supreme peace, eternal bliss and infinite knowledge. It infuses divine love in the heart of one who recites it. It is the fountainhead of all happiness.
God and His name are identical; they are inseparable. He dwells where His name is sung. The whole atmosphere becomes sanctified. Peace, purity and bliss prevail there. His name carries the message of love. His name frees the soul from affliction, unrest and bondage. His name knows no barrier or distinction. His name purifies the lower self and elevates it to sublimity of universal consciousness and the transcendent Godhead.
The name is a verbal embodiment of the conception of the Supreme Being who is known by different names and forms in different times and climes. Any name denotes a particular concept. Whatever the object of conception may be, whether general or particular, gross or subtle, visionary or real, the name is essentially associated with it. It gives a clear, adequate expression to a particular form or object that is associated with it, so as to enable us to comprehend and distinctly retain it in our mind.
Name and nami, one who bears the name, are inseparable. Ultimately, when a habit of repetition of the name is formed, there remains no distinction between the name and the associated idea or object. A harmonious, rhythmical note produces a distinctive image. This is not imagination. For every sound there is a particular image. It has been scientifically proven that a particular sound produces a particular figure over distinct surfaces. So it is reasonable to believe that the respective names of God associated with their respective forms can also produce their images on the mental surface. Through continuous repetition it forms a deep-rooted impression in the mind of the repetitioner who ultimately attains God-vision.
The glory of the divine name cannot be established through reasoning or discursive arguments. It can be experienced only through faith and belief. A finite, limited intellect surely cannot understand the nature of the infinite or the limitless. There is no limit of God’s name. The scriptures present us His innumerable names. It means His names are unreckonable and therefore, infinite. So, how can a finite intellect comprehend that which transcends finitude?
The Lord’s name is all-bliss, and when it is chanted, the mind merges in its bliss. It loses its individual entity in the bliss; it becomes one with the bliss itself. The worldly mind cannot grasp or perceive this state of intense emotion. Ultimately, the ordinary self-consciousness elevates into a transcendental experience, into a state of super-consciousness. The repetitioner and the name become one. The eternal truth is revealed. The devotee realizes his oneness with the Supreme. The sense of duality, the gulf of separateness between the finite and the infinite, is removed. The dawn of intuition leads from finitude to infinitude, from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, from mortality to immortality. The devotee only experiences delight in the divine.
Remembrance of God also includes hearing stories pertaining to God, talking of God, teaching to others what pertains to God, meditation on the attributes of God, etc. God is to be remembered at all times, without a break, as long as one’s consciousness is intact. Right from the time one gets up from sleep in the morning, until one is completely overpowered by sleep at night, a person is to remember God. He has no other duty in the world but to remember God. Even to visualize the Lord in meditation just once, to utter the divine name of the Lord with love even a single time, has a tremendous, transforming influence upon the soul.
Ajamila was a righteous Brahmin in the beginning. He fell in love with a low-caste girl and committed many atrocious crimes. It was at the time of death that he uttered the name of his son Narayana, and there came the messengers of Lord Narayana to his rescue, and Ajamila was released from this world forever.
All glory to His all-blissful, all pure, omnipotent name that liberates one form the shackles of earthly bondage and leads to the illimitable domain of peace, bliss, and immortality! All glory to those blessed ones who take delight in His name, sustain themselves by His name and live to merge in His name!