A section from the journey

The Power of the Name

Of all the forms of love, one is the simplest and the dearest: saying God's name. The saints held that the name carries the one who bears it — that to repeat "Rama" or "Krishna" or "Hari" with love is to hold God himself. This gentle repetition is called nama-japa. It needs no temple, no priest, no learning. It can be done at the loom, in the field, with the last breath. The Name is the poor heart's whole treasure.

Among the nine forms of love, one is so simple that a small child can do it, and yet the saints lifted it higher than almost any other. It is the saying of God's name.

Here is the bold idea behind it. The saints did not think a name was just a label, a sound stuck on from outside. They felt the name was alive — that it carried within it the very one it named. To speak the name with love was to reach out and touch that presence.

So to say "Rama," or "Krishna," or "Hari," or "Shiva" — slowly, lovingly, again and again — was held to be a way of holding God himself. The name and the named were not two.

This gentle, repeated saying of the Name has a word of its own. It is called , the repetition of the Name. The beads slip through the fingers, the lips move, and the one word turns and turns like a wheel that never tires.

And when the Name is not whispered alone but sung aloud, together, by many voices at once, it has another name: . A crowd takes up one name of God and sings it until the singing itself becomes a kind of flight, and strangers become one heart. We will hear much of that song in the chapters ahead.

Now, why did the saints love this path so dearly? Think about what it asks for. Nothing a person could lack. No temple is needed, and no priest. No Sanskrit, no scrolls, no wealth, no high birth. The Name costs nothing and belongs to all.

And it can be done anywhere, at any moment. Walking the road. Working the field. Throwing the shuttle at the loom. Rocking a child to sleep. Even with the very last breath. A weaver could keep the Name as he wove; a farmer as he sowed; a servant as she swept. No part of an ordinary day was too lowly to hold it.

Do you see why this mattered so much in this age? It was an age that longed to open God to everyone, not only to the learned few. And the Name was the open door of doors — the simplest treasure, free to the poorest heart. Keep it with you now. The Name will sound through every chapter that follows, the steady heartbeat beneath all the songs.

There is a strange power in a name said with love — the name of someone dear can steady you just by being spoken. The saints felt that about the name of God. Is there a name, or a few words, that calm your own heart when you repeat them quietly?