Srimat Jiva Goswâmipâd has written in Sri Bhakti-Sandarbha –

“‘Nâm‘ is a sound used to identify certain object.”

Shabda-Kalpa-Droom (a Sanskrit dictionary) says –

“Sound is of two types –

• That which cannot be pronounced (just as a thunder or rustling of leaves)
• That which can be pronounced”

Of course, a name is something we can pronounce. Whenever we want to talk about an object we say its name.  For example a thirsty person says “Please give me water”. Immediately we think of a liquid substance that quenches thirst. In this manner every person, object, concept or idea has a name that distinguishes it from others.

“Nâmi” is the object to which the name belongs. ‘Nâm’ is simply the word, while ‘nâmi’ is the object itself. The only function the nâm serves is to denote the object – it has no quality of the object whatsoever. Had it not been so, we would have quenched our thirst simply by uttering “water” – there would have been no need to actually drink water. If nâm and nâmi would have been non-different, nâm would have had all the power of nâmi.

Shabda-Shakti-Prakâshikâ¹ says – Names are of two types –

• Man-made
• Eternal

We give names to various worldly destructible objects; they are just words and do not have any characteristic of the said objects. Such names are ‘man-made’. However in the divine world there are names that have existed since eternity and will remain forever. So we call them ‘eternal’.

Amongst these names, the names of God almighty are non-different from Him. They contain all His qualities.  The saints and scriptures clearly state that Sri Bhagavân and His names are non-different – we must always remember this fact.

(to be continued………..)

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¹ A Sanskrit book that deals with the scientific study of words.