The purpose of worshipping God's forms, and of reciting His names, is to get rid of our obsession with the name-and-form world. The world is too much with us; it prevents us from realizing the truth of the non-dual Reality-Godhead-which is its basis. The Indian schools of philosophy present different analyses of the world.
The factors that Constitute the world are known as the
tattvas. There are two attitudes possible in regard to the number of
tattvas, the rudimentary constituents of the world. One of them is: the more the number of the
tattvas
analyzed, the deeper is our knowledge of the world.
The other attitude is: if is possible to explain the world in terms of a lea number of categories, it is prolix to assume more. According to
Advaita-Vedanta, the phenomena of the world fall into two categories -- name
(nama) and form,
(rupa). Name and form constitute the stuff of the universe.
The Nrsimhottara-tapini-upanisad
says: "All this, indeed, is of the nature of name and
form" ("nama-rupatmakam
hidam sarvam"). The
Brhadaranyaka-upanisad gives an account of the differentiated
manifestation thus: "This (universe), indeed, was then
undifferentiated.
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