Q: It is said in the rig ved that all names ultimately belong to Bhagavan. So why can’t we just chant anything (like coca cola coca cola).
A: Does chanting Coca-cola remind you of Bhagavān?
Q: It reminds me of cocal cola 🥤. But bhagvatam also says sanketyam parihasyam va….So will I get the same result by chanting coca cola as I get by chanting harinam?
A: The sanketyam parihasyam va verse refers to sanketa to Bhagavan’s name, not Coca-cola’s name. Sanketa means indication, parihasya means joking.
You have a misunderstanding about the statement, “all names belong to Bhagavān”. Even though there are statements like this in the scriptures that all names belong to Bhagavān, they are meant for yogīs to meditate on Bhagavān by seeing everything in existence as a reminder of Him. śāstra also says that Bhagavān has no names. That means He has no material names. Thus, Coca-cola is not His name.
Bhagavān has transcendental names. In the śāstra, there are statements that ordain the worship of various other-named devatās including Brahmā etc. In that context, we understand that such names are originally Bhagavān’s names.
Yet in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta 2.4.141-44, Sri Sanatana Gosvami seems to say that meditating on demigods alongside listing some Bhagavan’s forms can also bring us to pure transcendence, yet some of these deities like Rudra, Brahma, Agni, Vayu, Indra (in His commentary it’s there, quote: “Thus, the devotee obtains a thousand-eyed form by worshiping Indra.”), Moon, Surya, etc. and some of them are themselves not liberated fully, so how to understand it? It’s like chanting material names (here it’s meditating on the forms) but material names cannot give devotion as you stated. In his ‘dig darsini’ under it He has made it clear, though I don’t have Sanskrit for the commentary, I am pasting His original verses
यद्-वर्णवद् यद्-आकारं रूपं भगवतोऽस्य ये ।
निज-प्रियतमत्वेन भावयन्तोऽभजन्न् इमम् ॥ १४१ ॥
तादृशं तेऽस्य सारूप्यं प्राप्ता नानाकृति-श्रियः ।
मनुष्या मुनयो देवा ऋषयो मत्स्य-कच्छपाः ॥ १४२ ॥
वराहा नरसिंहाश् च वामनाश् च त्रिलोचनाः ।
चतुर्मुखाः सहस्राक्षाः महा-पूरुष-विग्रहाः ॥ १४३ ॥
सहस्र-वक्त्राः सुर्येन्दु-वायु-वह्न्य्-आदि-रूपिणः ।
चतुर्भुजादि-रूपाश् च तत्-तद्-वेशादि-रूपिणः ॥
The text states that the devotees worshiped Bhagavān (abhajann imam) while contemplating particular forms of Bhagavān (rūpaṁ bhagavato’sya). Those forms may resemble Indra etc; does not mean they are Indra.