Book Review: ‘Naam or Word’ Reprinted

Naam or Word, by Kirpal Singh, Ruhani Satsang, Delhi; Third Edition, 1970, 336 plus xvi pages, paperback, $ 3.00

The concept of the Naam, Word, or Logos is both the central theme in the teachings of the Masters, and the basic common denominator of all the great world religions; just as a fact, it is the essence of all life, so that if the body, mind, ego, habits, desires and subconscious reservoir of memories are all swept away, only the Naam remains; so in the same way, as a concept, when all rituals, prejudices, theology, language barriers and dogma are swept away again only the Naam remains. When the expressions of the ego, no matter on what level, are removed, then all that is left is the expression of God.

From time to time, people, no different than the rest of us in the beginning, are granted the full vision of the true possibilities and potential and purpose of their life, and, by virtue of the strength and intensity of their desire, and the Grace of God working through some Master, succeed in penetrating through to the essence of their own being and become One, fully and wholly and solely One, with the expression of God they find there in the depths of themselves; and this is the real and only meaning of:

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

This then is a book about the Word, the expression of God, written by One Who has made that Word the sole reality of His life; living on the level of the Word, just as we live on the level of the ego,

we behold His Glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth.

For there is only one begotten of the Father, and that is His own Word, His Name, His projection, His Son; and he who becomes One with That radiates that Glory too. How could it be otherwise?

So in this beautiful book on the Love of God, the Master has shared with us His understanding and knowledge of the Word based of course on His own personal Inner Experience; but, while He teaches with authority and not as the scribes, He demonstrates His continuity and agreement with past Masters and Spiritual Leaders by documenting every statement He makes from one or another scripture, incidentally revealing His really incredible scholarship in the field of comparative religions. While the majority of quotes and extracts are taken from the Adi Granth of the Sikhs – and the Master’s familiarity with and knowledge of this huge Sacred Book is breathtaking –, He quotes extensively from the Bible also; and the Vedas, various Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana of Tulsi Das, the Surangama Sutra, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Tao Te Ching, the writings of Jacob Boehme, the Sar Bachan, the Koran, the Tazkrai-Ghousia of Amir Khusro, the Divan of Shamas-i-Tabrez, the Masnavi of Jalal-ud-din Rumi, the odes of Hafiz and many others are represented.

The basic principle of the Word is presented ten different ways, according to its ten different aspects:

  1. As the Name or Word, the fundamental expression of God, creating and sustaining the Universe, and enlivening all that has life;

  2. as the Sound Current – Shabd –, the audible Life-Stream, making itself known to men, by listening to which men can become One with It;

  3. as the Nectar or Water of Life – Amrit –, drinking which produces the only genuine intoxication – it is a terrible misunderstanding of this aspect of Naam, referred to symbolically in the Vedas as Soma and by the Sufis and sometimes by Christ as ‘wine,’ that has led to the tragic and misguided attempts to find God by chemical means, as well as the use of intoxicants in the various rituals of organised religions;

  4. as the Music of the Spheres, or the Original Hymn – Kirtan –, sung by God Himself out of pure Love for His own;

  5. as the substratum and inspiration of all scriptures and verbal expressions and teachings of the Masters – Bani and Gurbani;

  6. as the original and basic mantra, pronounced and charged by the Ultimate Guru – Guru-Mantra;

  7. as the riches in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt, nor thieves break through nor steal, as mentioned by Christ – Vakhar;

  8. as the Life-Impulse conveyed by the Master at initiation – Deeksha;

  9. as the Ultimate Knowledge of all things, in answer to the Upanishadic question. What is that, knowing which, all else becomes known? – Cyan or Jnanu;

  10. as Light emanating from the Godhead and referred to as the Lotus Feet of God or the Inner Master – Charan Kamal.

The text of the book, the kernel of which was originally written in Punjabi as part of the Master’s classic Gurumat Siddhant and later enlarged and rendered into English by Him and published first in 1960, was, at the orders and under the supervision of the Master, revised from the point of view of the English language last year in India. The section ‘Evidence from Various Religions’ has been somewhat expanded and the entire text of this Third Edition has been reset in large readable type.

The book includes also a beautiful introduction, written by the Master, which sets the poetic and reverent tone of the entire work; and one photograph each of the Master and His Beloved Guru, Baba Sawan Singh.

Russell Perkins