What Is in a Name? Everything

Our scriptures say that the world as we experience it or perceive is just names and forms. Beyond that, objects or beings are not even a reality.

That means the world is in our mind, or the collective mind of communities or groups.

I just saw a picture from my childhood. Just a few months old. On my knees, with my head raised and smiling at the camera. I couldn’t myself believe that it was me.

Why do people think that it is the same me — then and now? There is hardly any comparison. Not in terms of height, weight, skin texture, strength of the hair, strength of the bones. I didn’t have teeth then. Then teeth came. They went away. A new set came. Nothing is similar. Why do people think that it is the same?

Even in biological terms — science says just some of my brain cells and the cells at the centre of my eye lens have been probably the same all this while. Maybe. Even they are not sure.

My heart has changed completely at least once. My liver has changed at least 40 times. The red cells in my blood have changed at least 150 times. They say my whole body has changed at least 5 to 7 times so far.

Thankfully, my parents gave me a name within a few days of when I was born. Otherwise, even they would have lost track of me.

By what logic are people saying that this is my name, this is who I am, this is how I am? I am good, I am not so good. What are they referring to as me — I don’t know.

This is about the name.

Then the form.

I see a few cubes of ice in a tumbler. I go back after a few minutes and check. They are not the same. Still, if someone asks me, I would say, yes, the ice is still there in the tumbler.

I go to the river nearby every day for my bath. In the summer, there is hardly half a foot of water — it is all sand. And some years there is no water only — totally dried up. In the rainy season, it is a different story.

There is so much change in its form. Still, when someone says river, it is that image that comes to my mind. Sometimes during a day, it changes its form so many times.

In fact, when I paid attention, I realized that it is only for a split second that it was one particular form — after that it changes.

Then I thought maybe mountains and rocks don’t change. But then the scientists told me that every atom inside them is changing every second. Not the same even for a second. There is continuous motion even in the rocks.

Then someone told me there is cool breeze on my terrace at sunset every day. Then I myself realized that it is not the same wind that is blowing every day. The same wind cannot blow every day. It blows and it is gone — it will never come back.

Then finally I realized — this ever-changing scenario around is maddening. It is very complicated.

So for our own comfort, we devised this system of names and forms and accept them to be the reality.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi