Mandukya_Upanishad

Kriṣhna is a name; and so on, we have many names – nāma.These names correspond to particular forms which theyconnote and also denote. When you utter a name, the formcorresponding to that name comes to your mindautomatically, spontaneously as it were, because of apermanent connection that has been established betweenthe particular name and its corresponding form. Howmuch we are influenced by a name, every one of you knowsvery well. If you are called by a particular name, you may bepleased or displeased. There are names, by which you maybe called, which may annoy you, put you out of yourbalance, because of the reason that you have created apermanent association in your mind between a particularnāma and its corresponding rūpa. For example, if you areaddressed as ‘mahārāj’, you are pleased; but if you areaddressed as an ‘ass’, you are displeased. The reason is theassociation that you have established in your mind andfeeling between the name ‘mahārāj’ and its correspondingsignificance, or the name ‘ass’ and its correspondingsignificance. Names create vibrations within us. Supposeone of you suddenly cries out, ‘snake! snake!’ just now, youwill all get up suddenly, and listen to nothing that I say.What sort of vibration it creates in your mind – the wordsnake! You have established a contact in your psychologicalbeing between the name ‘snake’ and its correspondingmeaning or significance, and its connection with you. Whatit means, you know very well. Every name in the world hasa form and a meaning attached to it. Every form is notmerely a counterpart of the name with which it isconnected, but it has a relation with other forms, as well.18