Holy names, or words of power, are like bridges which lead the mind from worldly cares to consciousness of the eternal. The eternal is not set apart from the human mind. It is the unwavering spiritual power which underlies all mental activity. Yet life leads to increasing preoccupation with external matters, until our spiritual roots are entirely forgotten, and the world confronts us as the stern and only reality. The holy names correct this process, and reawaken the more inward and subtler part of the mind, called buddhi, which, when purified, is the organ of spiritual experience.

Spiritual experience has been called awakening to Reality. According to the sages, the inner spiritual realm is the rock-firm basis of all experience. It is called Truth, and when Truth is realized, all else turns out to have been an appearance only. The spirit, Brahman, is the ultimate support of all appearances. The spirit is the imperishable; the realm of appearances is a phenomenal expression of the Lord, a kind of divine illusion, or maya. It is that very same power, all pervading and divine, which enables human beings to think, feel, move and plan. It is the power behind the mind.

What is the method for uncovering Truth? It is to learn how to awaken and develop the spiritual sense within us. Traditionally, this is the function of religion, though religion too can forget its raison d’être, as proclaimed by its founders, and focus on externals. Still, as Swami Rama Tirtha once said, religion, when freed from narrowness and dogmatism, ‘is essentially a mysterious process by which the mind or intellect reaches back and loses itself in the inscrutable source, the great beyond’. Seen in this light, religions are paths to inner discovery. They are variations of a single basic quest to uncover what Christ called the kingdom of heaven within, and what Mohammed referred to in his inspired utterance: ‘I am not contained in earth or heaven. But know this for certain: I am contained in the true believer’s heart. How wonderful! If you seek me, search in those hearts.’

One of the great gifts of religions is that they provide symbols of the deeper reality, a reality which is too close and too subtle to grasp with our present mental powers. But these symbols given to us by religion have their own special power. That power comes into operation when we learn to meditate on these symbolic forms, words, or images with love and with receptivity. When this practice is established, the material of the mind is gradually transformed. The mind is transformable. This is the foundation of Yoga practice. The mind is greatly influenced and changed by what it absorbs, and especially by the emotional and intellectual atmosphere we place it in. The spiritual symbols carry within them associations of purity, peace and higher knowledge, and these spiritual qualities can be uncovered in us through whole-hearted meditation on the chosen symbol.

What are these symbols? To the Hindus, they include the forms of the incarnations of God, Krishna and Rama, and meditating on incidents in their lives, and the deeper meaning behind them. To the Buddhists, the statue of the Buddha, or the opened lotus flower, are symbols, pointing to the inner peace of enlightenment. To a Christian, the most meaningful symbol is the Cross; meditation on the life and teachings of Jesus also has a profound influence on the mind. All these forms and symbols can bring the mind into touch with what is symbolized: the realm of the imperishable, the Divine Spirit.

One of the great practices especially developed in the East, is the repetition of a name of God. The name presents the Divinity in an approachable form, and yet points beyond itself. Such names are Rama, Krishna, Allah, Christ, even the word Lord, and, not least, the holy syllable OM. Repetition, performed with intensity and love, enables our understanding to penetrate more deeply, and to contact the spiritual realm represented by the Deity. It pierces through the superficial consciousness, and releases the mind from its bondage to the material.

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