If it is to be effective, the sound of the Holy Name of Krishna must have a divine quality. The Holy Name of Krishna which is infinite can do away with everything undesirable within us, but the Name must be invested with a real spiritual conception. It must not be a mere physical imitation produced only by the help of the lip and tongue. That sound is not the Holy Name. If it is to be genuine, the Holy Name of Krishna, Hari, Visnu, or Narayan must be Vaikuntha-nam: it should have spiritual existence, divine backing. That principle is all-in-all in vibrating the Holy Name.
We are concerned with sound vibration that has spiritual depth. The physical imitation of the Holy Name is not the Name proper; it is not sabda-brahma, divine sound. Only imitation sound may come from the plane of mundane conception. The Holy Name of Krishna means divine sound; it must have some spiritual background. Something spiritual must be distributed through the physical sound.
In the case of a capsule of medicine, the capsule is not the medicine; the medicine is within. Externally, one capsule may look like another, but within one capsule there may be medicine and within another there may be cyanide. The capsule itself is not the medicine. So, it is not the sound of Krishna’s Name that is Krishna: Krishna is within the sound. The Holy Name must be surcharged with the proper spirit, not any mundane sentiment.
Even the followers of the impersonal Sankar school have faith that the Name is not confined within the jurisdiction of physical sound. They consider it to be within the mental plane, within the plane of sattva-guna. Unfortunately, they think that the Holy Name is the product of maya, or misconception, and so they conclude that the names of Hari, Krishna, Kali, and Siva are all one and the same. The Ramakrishna Mission and the Sankar school both preach in that way. But that conception also has its origin in the plane of misunderstanding.