Glory of the Divine Name

LITERAL TRANSLATION OF NAMDEV’S “PHILOSOPHY OF THE DIVINE NAME.”

I. The Name permeates densely the sky and the lowest regions and the entire universe. Who can tell to what depths in the nether regions and to what height in the heavens It extends? The ignorant undergo the eighty-four lakhs of species of births, not knowing the essence of things. Namdev says the Name is immortal. Forms are innumerable, but the Name is all that.

II. The Name itself is form; and form itself is Name. There is no distinction between Name and form. God became manifest and assumed Name and form. Hence the Name the Vedas have established.

Beware, there is no mantra beyond the Name. Those who say otherwise are ignorant. Namdev says the Name is Keshava Himself. This is known only to the loving devotees of the Lord.

III. The all-pervading nature of the Name can only be understood when one recognises his ‘I’. When one’s own name is not recognised, it is impossible to get the all-pervading Name. When one knows

oneself, then one finds the Name everywhere. To see the Name as different from the Named creates illusion. Namdev says, “Ask the Saints.”

IV. None can realise the Name by practice of knowledge, meditation or austerity. Surrender yourself first at the feet of the Guru and learn to know that ‘I’ myself is that Name. After finding the source of that ‘I’, merge your individuality in that one-ness, which is Self-existent and devoid of all duality. That which pervades beyond dwaita and dwaitatita, that Name has come into the three worlds. The Name is Para Brahman itself, where there is no action arising out of duality. 

When Sri Bhagavan had read this, a certain musician came into the hall and began to sing Tyagaraja Kirtanas in Telugu. One of them says: “Find the source of the sound which is transcendental (mooladhara sabda) by diving deep like a pearl-diver diving for pearls.” Then again another song was: “For a man who has controlled his mind where is the use of tapasya? Give up ‘I-am-the-body’ idea and realise ‘I am not; Thou art all’.”