The NAME IS GOD
by Swami Ramdas

GOD and' His Name are not distinct from one another. Name is God Himself. The moment we think of the Name, our mind is filled with the presence of God. There is no easier way of focusing thought upon God than taking constantly His Name. When we repeat the Name aloud, we feel our heart is flooded with the ecstasy of love, because the sound of the Divine Name awakens the heart to the bliss and love of God.

ALTHOUGH the mental repetition of the Name is held to be far more efficacious than the verbal repetition, still the rare experience of sweetness and joy derived by uttering the Name aloud is incomparable. When the entire being of the devotee thrills with rapture to the music of the Name he realizes that the Name is Brahman.

GOD is both, manifest and unmanifest. The Name stands for such a God. Here the unmanifest is the all‑pervading, infinite, immutable, tranquil and static spirit of God. The manifest is the entire universe of name, form and movement with all its beings, creatures and things. The Name stands for this all‑inclusive and all‑transcendent Godhead, who is both personal and impersonal.

THE Divine Name is thus the beginningless source of all creation and the creation itself. God, the absolute, is the nameless Name.

THE Name can free the soul from bondage. The Name can take it to the highest consummation of spiritual life. The Name can grant a blind soul Divine sight. The Name can bless an individual with a universal vision full of sublimity. The Name can lift the soul to inconceivable heights of God‑realization.

THE power of the Name is invincible. A mind which is considered to be unconquerable, by the soothing influence of the Name becomes, docile, yielding and submissive. The mind itself is transformed into God by the power of the Name. He who takes refuge in the Name can work wonders. Death itself will stand in awe of him. He can command all the forces of nature and direct them, to bring about a spiritual awakening in the hearts of men. The Name can make a human being an embodiment of eternal love and joy. The Name can convert an individual into a Cosmic Reality - an ignorant soul into a very God.

WHERE the Name of God is sung, the atmosphere is permeated with purity, peace and bliss; for the symphony of the Name spreads everywhere the splendour of love.

THE Name is all‑sufficient. The utterance of it is itself meditation. The ecstasy born of it is itself Samadhi. The Name is love, light, power and joy.

THE writer can vouch for it from his own experience that the Name by itself without any other Sadhana can grant one the fullest vision of God everywhere and may merge him in an ocean of never‑ending love and joy.

THERE is no Sadhana, which can be so universally adopted by all people and is at the same time so simple for realizing God, as the Divine Name. It is perfectly true, in the words of a saint, that he who has God's Name always on his tongue is a Jivanmukta, or a liberated soul.

SO, dear friends, to whatever race, caste, creed or colour you may belong, take up the Name of God, and feel the sweet communion with it, and you may depend upon it, your souls through constant bathing in the nectar of the Name will not only be purified but will also be illumined with the omnipresent and omniscient light and love of God. This practice of taking the Name will lead the unyielding spirit of man to complete surrender to the omnipotent power and will of God. In the earlier stages when the Name is repeated with earnestness, faith and concentration, the face and the body of the devotee will shine with a peculiar lustre, his mind will be filled with wisdom and heart with love. This is due to the predominance of Satwa Guna in the devotee. Later when the repetition is continued with the same zeal; he will behold the universe before him as the very expression of God. Becoming one with God, he will have the vision of God everywhere.

VERILY THE NAME IS GOD HIMSELF