Nam Ghosha is the uniquely placed literature piece that sings the saga of contemplative philosophical renderings. Madhavdeva is the unrivalled poet whose works portray the Assamese ethnic flavour intermingled with the Vaishnava cults. The Nama-ghosa reflects that Brahman is Eternal, Infinite, Good, Benevolent, Permanent, All-pervading, one and the unrivalled one without any demarcations of change. Madhavadeva`s magnum opus, the supreme achievement of Assamese Vaisnavite Hymnic rapture, the Nama-ghosa, known also as Hajari-ghosa (a book of thousand couplets), occupies a unique place in the philosophical literature of Assam, nay of India. It is not only widely read but memorised and freely quoted as scriptural text, and thus, without a doubt, is an enduring prop of Assamese Vaisnavism. The philosophy of Madhavadeva as revealed in Nama-ghosa divides itself into different sections, namely, Maya, its nature and effects; cosmology; the Brahman; means of self-realisation; psychology of the Jiva; the goal of human life.

History and Evolution of Nam Ghosha
It is true that the Vaisnavite movement gave a tremendous impetus to the development of Assamese literature in various directions, but the personality and the genius of Sankaradeva gave it a galloping momentum. Sankaradeva was himself a source of infinite inspiration to contemporary writers. His devout disciple Madhavadeva, another literary luminary of the time, composed lyrics and dramas at the suggestion of his guru. The circumstances of the compilation of Namaghosa or Hajari-ghosa by Madhavadeva, a treatise of philosophical verses, are vividly described in Katha-guru-carit. Madhavadeva undertook the translation of Visnupuri Sannyasi`s Bhakti-Ratnavali and composed the kdvya, Rdjasuya, at the request of Sankaradeva. According to tradition, the first couplet of each of the texts of Nama-ghosa and Bhakti- Ratnavali was composed by Sankaradeva as a mark of his kind regard for his disciple.

Rama Sarasvati, another prodigious contemporary writer, undertook to translate the Mahabharata at the suggestion of Sankaradeva. His indebtedness to Sankara was very great. An interesting story is told regarding the translation of some sections of Book X of the Bhagavata Purana by the Brahmana Ananta Kandali. In a dream Ananta Kandali was directed to partake of the remains of Sankara`s meals; when the Brahmana asked Sankara for them, the latter refused to offer them but instead, entrusted Ananta Kandali with the rendering of the remaining sections of Book X of the Bhagavata Purana, which Sankara himself had previously undertaken to translate. Most of the other poets who translated different books of the Bhagavata were either directly commissioned by Sankaradeva or inspired by his immediate disciples to undertake the translations.

Spiritualism in Nam Ghosha
In essence all apparent variety in name and form is nothing but Brahman. Brahman is beyond space, time or causation merging along the cosmic macrocosm and microcosm. It is absolutely pure, perfect, and indestructible and omnipotent omnipresent and omniscient. It is of the nature of pure consciousness. Anything which is not in the beginning and not at the end necessarily does not exist in the middle. Thus Brahman is like the vast expanse of the sky, the beginning or the end of which is unfathomed. It is Brahman that creates preserves and destroys the universe.

The Brahman is both immanent and transcendental. It pervades all the three worlds and is yet apart from them. It is beyond the three qualities, beyond merit and demerit. It is Sama, Narottama Nirvikara Niranjana. Above all, Brahman is Sahajananda Svarupananda and Paramananda. Madhavadeva believed in Incarnations because his hardly manifested and unqualified God may be brought to manifest.

At the very outset Nama-ghosa explains that just as a dreaming man believes in the dream world which is his own creation, the individual self under the influence of Maya forgets its true nature-the pure self, and takes the unreal world, a creation of Maya, as real. That is why Madhavadeva says, "Thy Avidya (illusion), Oh Hari, has so bewildered and bewitched me that I do not know Thee in Thy essence (or Reality)." He clearly says all that is seen and extended in forms is nothing but Maya, and as such all of it should be rooted out from the mind. According to Hinduism, the creation of the world is not out of nothing.

The Bhagavata says that the world is created, made to stay and dissolved by Krsna. The Nama-ghosa solves the problem by saying that quite distinct from Purusa and Prakrti and yet the cause and upholder of the two is Paramesvara Narayana. In this world, the `inhabiter` or the `indweller` (Purusa) has two forms; the Ksara (perishable) and the Aksara (imperishable). The Supreme (Uttama Purusa) is otherwise called Paramatman, the Immutable, and the Lord upholds the three worlds having interpenetrated them. Thus there exists nothing but Brahman. Brahman alone is true in essence. He is all-pervading, in all space and in all time. Madhavadeva says, "I bow down to Thee again and again, O Eternal, unstained one! Thou art the Reality, the everlasting Narayana, Siva, the Infinite without beginning, the Absolute without attributes. Thou art Bhagavanta, the Supreme Purusa, who has no antecedent or subsequent, neither beginning nor end. Thou art the only consciousness that thinkest out the whole universe." In short, Nama-ghosa maintains that the universe is nothing but a manifestation of God.

Spiritual Importance of Nam Ghosa
Nama-ghosa lays great stress on the help of the Guru (Preceptor). The service of the Guru as the chief cause of self-realisation is emphasised. It lays the highest stress on Guru Bhakti (devotion to the Guru). The Guru, in fact, is God to his disciples. There is no difference between God and Guru. Both are one, although the Guru appears to have a different bodily existence. The hearts of both are full of sweetness of grace- both always think of the good of the world, are devoid of pride, and are pleased with others out of their own virtues. The Guru visualises the Brahman and it is he who enables the disciple also to visualise it and thus makes him jivanmukta (one who attains salvation in the flesh). Only the Guru is competent to show the extremely subtle path of God-realisation, which is beyond the reach of the scriptures. Real knowledge of the Brahman cannot be had without the Guru. Thus the Guru is the real means to self-realisation. According to Nama-ghosa, the Jiva (Creature) is not different from the Brahman. Its inherent power is as infinite as the Brahman itself. But the Atman (Self) fails to experience Isvara (God) because of Avidya (Illusion). It thinks this unreal material body to be the Atma and commits a great offence, deeply immersed, as it were, in worldly pleasures. When Avidya is destroyed Krsna becomes manifest just like a thing attached to the neck. Enveloped by Maya and imbued with ego, the Jiva undergoes the bondage of Samsara (the World). Unless the ego is annihilated there is no release from Sarhsara. Nama-ghosa is replete with prayers to God, supplicating Him to destroy the dread of the world. Man`s involvement in the cycle of birth and death is primarily due to desire. Man desires to achieve something, acts accordingly and reaps the fruit of action. That is how he goes on whirling in the endless cycle of birth and death. The only way, therefore, to self-realisation is cessation of desire once for all which alone can pave the way to the attainment of the supreme bliss

The eternal nature of the child is revealed in the boy Krishna, who becomes the child of today, absolutely simple, and ``his very smile rains a shower of nectar". The magic of Madhavadeva`s pen has worked a renaissance of wonder and given a new import and delight to familiar episodes. Nam ghosa at once lays bare the contemporary flows of Vaishnavism and the eternal work of Madhavadeva as he observed in Nama-ghosa: Samasta vedanta sara mahabhagavata sastra) :The Bhagavata-sastra is the essence of all the Vedantas.