IDOLATRY AND DOGMATISM: THE VEILS OF MAYA

The Idolatry of a Name

The foundation of all material things is the naming process. Through names we discriminate forms. The name creates the idea of external reality. It divides us off from the Divine or nameless Truth. The Divine transcends all names. To insist that only one set of names for God is correct is another form of idolatry or materialism.

Hindus do not mind if Brahman, their main term for the Divine, is called God, a Western and generally Christian term. However, Christians object if Hindu terms like Brahman or Ishvara are used for God, even though they mean much the same thing, the Supreme Being. Muslims do not allow Sanskrit names for God, though such things are not fundamentally different in meaning than Allah, or Persian Khuda.

Those who refuse to accept God called by the same type of name in another language are only demonstrating their ignorance of what the Divine really is, the Unlimited. They are showing that they have never really experienced God but are content with a mere word as indicating that Absolute Truth.

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