The next day shortly after sandhyā, Vijaya and Vrajanātha came before the respected Bābājī, and having offered sāṣṭāṅga-daṇḍavat, they took their āsanas. Vijaya took the opportunity to humbly ask, “Prabhu, kindly have mercy upon us
and tell us everything about nāmābhāsa-tattva. We are very
anxious to know the secret of nāma-tattva.”
Bābājī answered, “You are very fortunate. If you want to understand nāma-tattva, you must understand three subject
matters very well: nāma, nāmābhāsa and nāmāparādha. I have
already explained so much about nāma and nāmāparādha, and now I will explain about nāmābhāsa, which means the semblance
of śrī-nāma.”
Vijaya: What is nāmābhāsa, and how many kinds of ābhāsa are there?
Bābājī: The word ābhāsa means luster, shadow or reflection. As the radiance that emanates from a naturally lustrous object has
kānti (effulgence) or chāyā (shadow), so the sun-like Name has two kinds of ābhāsa: one is the shadow (nāma-chāyā), and the
other is the reflection (nāma - pratibimba). Learned people who
are conversant with bhakty-ābhāsa, bhāva-ābhāsa, nāmābhāsa, and vaiṣṇava-ābhāsa say that all kinds of ābhāsa have two
divisions: pratibimba (reflection) and chāyā (shadow).
Vijaya: What is the relation between bhakty-ābhāsa, bhāva-ābhāsa, nāmābhāsa, and vaiṣṇava-ābhāsa?