# The Name Is Nondifferent from the Lord Because the Lord is absolute, there is no difference between His holy name and Himself. The holy name is Kṛṣṇa Himself, fully transcendental, liberated, and invested with all His potencies. This understanding is the basis of pure chanting. --- ## The Holy Name Is Identical with Kṛṣṇa > "'The holy name of Kṛṣṇa ... is identical with Kṛṣṇa ...'" —*Padyāvalī* (24), by Rūpa Gosvāmī, cited in Cc. [[cc/madhya/15/110|Madhya 15.110]] --- ![[sb/6/16/51|I am the form of the transcendental vibrations like oṁkāra and Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma, and I am the Supreme Absolute Truth. These two forms of Mine—namely, the transcendental sound and the eternally blissful spiritual form of the Deity—are My eternal forms; they are not material]] —SB [[sb/6/16/51|6.16.51]] --- **Kṛṣṇa's name is identical with His form:** The demigods say, "O Lord, the impersonalists, who are nondevotees, cannot understand that Your name is identical with Your form." Since the Lord is absolute, there is no difference between His name and His actual form. In the material world there is a difference between form and name. The mango fruit is different from the name of the mango. One cannot taste the mango fruit simply by chanting, "Mango, mango, mango." But **the devotee who knows that there is no difference between the name and the form of the Lord chants Hare Kṛṣṇa and realizes that he is always in Kṛṣṇa's company.** —*Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam* [[sb/10/2/36|10.2.36]] --- ![[cc/madhya/15/106#purport|One should accept the holy name of Kṛṣṇa to be identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Transcendence Himself]] —Cc. [[cc/madhya/15/106|Madhya 15.106]] Purport --- ## Kṛṣṇa Descends as His Holy Name **In this age, Kṛṣṇa has descended as sound vibration—as His holy name:** Sometimes Kṛṣṇa descends personally, and sometimes He descends as sound vibration, and sometimes He descends as a devotee. There are many different categories of avatāras. **In this present age Kṛṣṇa has descended in His holy name**, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu also confirmed that in this Age of Kali, Kṛṣṇa has descended in the form of sound vibration. **Sound is one of the forms which the Lord takes. Therefore it is stated that there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His name.** Today people have forgotten their relationship with God, but this incarnation of Kṛṣṇa in the form of His holy names, this chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, **will deliver all the people of the world from their forgetfulness.** —*Elevation to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness* --- **Lord Caitanya taught that the holy name is nondifferent from the Lord:** Lord Caitanya instructed the mass of people in the Sāṅkhya philosophy of *acintya-bhedābheda-tattva*, which maintains that the Supreme Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. Lord Caitanya taught this philosophy through the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. **He taught that the holy name of the Lord is the sound incarnation of the Lord** and that since the Lord is the absolute whole, there is no difference between His holy name and His transcendental form. **Thus by chanting the holy name of the Lord one can directly associate with the Supreme Lord by sound vibration.** —*Teachings of Lord Caitanya* --- ## No Distinction Between Kṛṣṇa's Name and Person **Unlike the conditioned soul, there is no distinction between Kṛṣṇa's name and His person:** "The Lord's holy name, His form and His personality are all one and the same. There is no difference between them. Since all of them are absolute, they are transcendentally blissful. **There is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's body and Himself or between His name and Himself.** As far as the conditioned soul is concerned, everything is different. One's name is different from the body, from one's original form and so on...." The name of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa the person are both spiritual. Everything about Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, blissful and objective. For a conditioned soul, the body is different from the soul, and the name given by the father is also different from the soul... However, this is not the case with Kṛṣṇa. **Kṛṣṇa's name and His person are identical.** There is no such thing as *māyā* Kṛṣṇa because Kṛṣṇa is not a product of the material creation. There is no difference between Kṛṣṇa's body and His soul. One may be named Mr. John, but if we call for Mr. John, Mr. John may never actually appear. **However, if we utter the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is immediately present on our tongue.** In the Padma Purāṇa, Kṛṣṇa says, *mad-bhakta yatra gāyanti tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada*: "O Nārada, I am present wherever My devotees are chanting." —*Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya-līlā* [[cc/madhya/17/131|17.131-32, 135]] --- ## Kṛṣṇa Invests All His Potencies in His Name ![[cc/antya/20/16|You have invested all Your potencies in these names]] —Cc. [[cc/antya/20/16|Antya 20.16]] --- **Being identical with Kṛṣṇa, the holy name is fully transcendental and no less powerful than He:** > "'The holy name of Kṛṣṇa is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual benedictions, for it is Kṛṣṇa Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure. Kṛṣṇa's name is complete, and it is the form of all transcendental mellows. **It is not a material name under any condition, and it is no less powerful than Kṛṣṇa Himself.** Since Kṛṣṇa's name is not contaminated by the material qualities, there is no question of its being involved with māyā. Kṛṣṇa's name is always liberated and spiritual; it is never conditioned by the laws of material nature. **This is because the name of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa Himself are identical.**'" —Padma Purāṇa, cited in Cc. [[cc/madhya/17/133|Madhya 17.133]] --- **The holy name is as perfect as the Lord Himself in fullness, purity, and eternity:** It is said in the Padma Purāṇa: "There is no difference between the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself. As such **the holy name is as perfect as the Lord Himself in fullness, purity and eternity.** The holy name is no material sound vibration, nor has it any material contamination." —*The Nectar of Devotion* --- ![[sb/1/1/14#purport|The almighty Vāsudeva has empowered His name with the powers of His personal Self]] —SB [[sb/1/1/14|1.1.14]] Purport --- ## Understanding the Non-difference ![[cc/adi/7/73#purport|The holy name and the Lord are identical. One who is completely free from the clutches of māyā can understand this fact]] —Cc. [[cc/adi/7/73|Ādi 7.73]] Purport --- **When one is situated on the absolute platform, he can understand that the holy name and the Lord are identical:** The more one is freed from material identification, the more one can realize that the spirit soul is qualitatively as good as the Supreme Soul. **At such a time, when one is situated on the absolute platform, he can understand that the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself are identical.** At that stage of realization, the holy name of the Lord, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, cannot be identified with any material sound. If one accepts the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra as a material vibration, he falls down. One should worship and chant the holy name of the Lord by accepting it as the Lord Himself. —*Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā* [[cc/madhya/15/108|15.108]] --- ![[cc/adi/2/11#purport|Devotees of the Personality of Godhead know that Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the son of the King of Vraja, is the Absolute Truth. They do not discriminate between Śrī Kṛṣṇa's name, form, quality and pastimes]] —Cc. [[cc/adi/2/11|Ādi 2.11]] Purport --- **Bhāva results from understanding that Kṛṣṇa's person and name are identical:** The transcendental ecstatic attachment for Kṛṣṇa which results from **perfectly understanding that Kṛṣṇa's person and name are identical** is called *bhāva*. One who has attained *bhāva* is certainly not contaminated by material nature. He actually enjoys transcendental pleasure from *bhāva*, and when *bhāva* is intensified, it is called love of Godhead. Lord Caitanya told Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī that the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, called the mahā-mantra, enables anyone who chants it to attain the stage of love of Godhead, or intensified *bhāva*. —*Teachings of Lord Caitanya* --- ## Offending the Name by Denying Non-difference ![[cc/adi/7/74#purport|Although Māyāvādīs profess monism, they differentiate between the holy name of the Supreme Lord and the Lord Himself. For this offense of nāmāparādha they gradually glide down from their exalted position of brahma-jñāna]] —Cc. [[cc/adi/7/74|Ādi 7.74]] Purport --- ## The Holy Name Is All-Auspicious ![[sb/6/3/31|The chanting of the holy name of the Lord is able to uproot even the reactions of the greatest sins. Therefore the chanting of the saṅkīrtana movement is the most auspicious activity in the entire universe]] —SB [[sb/6/3/31|6.3.31]] --- ![[sb/8/17/8#purport|The chanting of the holy name of the Lord—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—is pleasing to the ear, and it expands good fortune]] —SB [[sb/8/17/8|8.17.8]] Purport --- ![[sb/2/7/15#purport|The Lord's holy name is called śravaṇa-maṅgala. This means that one receives everything auspicious simply by hearing the holy name]] —SB [[sb/2/7/15|2.7.15]] Purport --- **The Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is the greatest benediction:** It is said that once a poor brāhmaṇa worshiped Lord Śiva for a benediction, and Lord Śiva advised the devotee to go to Sanātana Gosvāmī. The devotee went to Sanātana Gosvāmī and informed him that Lord Śiva had advised him to seek out the best benediction from him (Sanātana). Sanātana had a touchstone with him, which he kept with the garbage. On the request of the poor brāhmaṇa, Sanātana gave him the touchstone... But after he left Sanātana, he thought, "If a touchstone is the best benediction, why has Sanātana Gosvāmī kept it with the garbage?" He therefore returned and asked Sanātana Gosvāmī, "Sir, if this is the best benediction, why did you keep it with the garbage?" Sanātana Gosvāmī then informed him, "Actually, this is not the best benediction. But are you prepared to take the best benediction from me?" The brāhmaṇa said, "Yes, sir. Lord Śiva has sent me to you for the best benediction." **Then Sanātana Gosvāmī asked him to throw the touchstone in the water nearby and then come back. The poor brāhmaṇa did so, and when he returned, Sanātana Gosvāmī initiated him with the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.** Thus by the benediction of Lord Śiva the brāhmaṇa got the association of the best devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa and was thus initiated in the mahā-mantra. —*Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam* [[sb/4/7/6|4.7.6]] --- **The chief worshipable object is the holy name of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa:** Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked, "Among all worshipable objects, which is the chief?" Rāmānanda Rāya replied, **"The chief worshipable object is the holy name of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra."** —*Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā* [[cc/madhya/8/256|8.256]] --- ## The Holy Name of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu **The name "Kṛṣṇa Caitanya" is all-auspicious to the world:** "His name, Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, is all-auspicious to the world. Everything about Him—His name, form, and qualities—is unparalleled." —*Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā* [[cc/madhya/17/113|17.113]] --- ![[cc/madhya/16/175#purport|One can be delivered from material existence simply by remembering Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's holy name or by visiting Him]] —Cc. [[cc/madhya/16/175|Madhya 16.175-184]] Purport --- ![[cc/madhya/17/51#purport|Simply by chanting His holy name (śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda) people throughout the world are becoming devotees]] —Cc. [[cc/madhya/17/51|Madhya 17.51]] Purport --- **[← Back to Śrī Nāmāmṛta](wiki/compile/sri-namamrita)**