Param Purush
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The Name, the Name-giver, the Named
Shri Shri Anandamurti, April 27, 2018: The Times of India
Why is the name believed to be more powerful than the named? Energy, in the name is centralised. It is latent. But when a name comes into being, it means a namer has come, and through the name, the named is addressed. So, the latent power in the name gets activated.
In Sanskrit, the Aum syllable is written with a dot and crescent. The dot represents energy and cognition in potential form; as yet unexpressed. And the crescent represents expression. When latent energy becomes activated, this mark will be the symbolic representation of the activation – that is, energy is now no longer latent; it is translated into action. As long as energy is latent, it is as good as not being energy. When energy is activated, and expressed, then people will take it as energy.
Rabindranath Tagore was a great poet. Had the poetic genius in him not got expression and remained latent, the world would not have known him to be a great poet. Had he composed his poems in his mind and not written them, he would not have won popularity and recognition as a poet.
In the same way, when the namer does not name, the named is powerless. Therefore it is said that the name has greater power than the named.
A person addresses Parama Purusha as he wishes to. Therefore the named has to be named. But as regards the extent to which a name is ideational – the name Parama Purusha cannot be so very ideational. Whereas the more an ideational name is taken, the more the bliss increases.
And what should be (that ideational) name? The most proper name for Parama Purusha, that a person can use, is that person’s own Ishta mantra, meditation mantra for that person, other names of Parama Purusha are of no consequence.
If somebody says, “Don’t name Parama Purusha, simply meditate,” you will discover something while meditating – that one has to address Parama Purusha by name, otherwise one is not satisfied. When you meditate you have a wish to address the Meditated, to say something to that party. That is, again the name comes up. Though the name is something limited, the human mind cannot help using it. Ultimately the name and namer will no longer remain, only the named will remain. But as long as the namer and name are there, the name has to be used – simply because one can’t help it.
People see the lila, divine play of Parama Purusha all around. Where you see the effect but not the cause, that is lila. Where you see the effect together with the cause, that is not lila.
So a person gives a name to Parama Purusha to the extent that he understands within the scope of time, space, and person. And when, while repeating that name, they reach the named, they find that the named is beyond relativities. Then the mind tries to attain the Supreme by transcending relativities, and when it goes beyond them, it is absorbed in samadhi. Samadhi is in Parama Purusha, because samadhi is beyond relativity.
Therefore language is limited compared to bhava, divine ecstasy.
And when people are established in mahabhava, they become bliss itself. How can this be expressed through language? So where there is less bliss, people will talk a lot, and where there is a maximum of it, people will be silent.
