Topic: Hare Krishna Maha-mantra
Reading Complexity: Info
The recording that put the Hare Krishna Mantra at the top of the pop charts
The Hare Krishna mantra is a chant meant for enhancing consciousness to the greatest possible degree. Chanting the Hare Krishna mantra can give peace, happiness, God realization, freedom from repeated birth and death, and total self-fulfillment. Also known as the maha-mantra—great chant—it consists of three Sanskrit...
Reading Complexity: Info
What is Hare Krishna? Depending on the context in which the term is used, "Hare Krishna" could mean a number of things, including (but not limited to):
Hare Krishna is the beginning of the Hare Krishna mantra, a prayer for reviving our relationship with the Supreme Person:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Often translated as, "O...
Reading Complexity: Easy 
Lord Jesus Christ, Mohammed, and all the world’s scriptures emphasize glorifying God’s names. What is unique about this kind of prayer?
According to Vedic calculation, great time spans are measured in yugas, or ages. The Vedas describe four yugas-Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara- yuga, and Kali-yuga-which repeat themselves in cyclical order like the four seasons. The duration of Satya-yuga is 1,...
Reading Complexity: Easy
On the first of January this year, at our ISKCON center in Boise, Idaho, we held a “japathon”—an eight- hour session of japa (chanting the Hare Krishna mantra on beads). It was a spiritually rejuvenating way to begin the New Year, and many in our mostly Indian congregation took part wholeheartedly. Some chanters completed seventy-four rounds, while others did sixty-four, fifty, thirty-two,...
Reading Complexity: Easy
“Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise Him, O ye servants of the Lord… . Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” (Psalms, 135, 150)
Among all the practices of the Hare Krishna movement, the most prominent is the public chanting of God’s names, ecstatic dancing, and playing of musical instruments—a spontaneous street liturgy common in most major cities throughout...
Reading Complexity: Easy
According to an Indian proverb, there’s nothing that a goat won’t eat and nothing that a madman won’t say. Madmen? Sometimes it seems like we’re living in a world of them, or at least a world of fools. The human impulse is to say something—anything. Something stupid, something contentious, something sweet, deceitful, smart, ridiculous, or empty. Big strings of words, amounting to nothing. It’s...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Whether one chants meditatively on beads or exuberantly with musical instruments, the Hare Krishna mantra is the easiest and most potent means to spiritual advancement.
“O my Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benediction to living beings, and thus You have millions of names, like Krishna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies. There...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Allen Ginsberg: If you’re identifying love, however, with the shabda [sound] Krishna, what of those people who identify love with the shabda Allah?
Srila Prabhupada: Well, of course, if that shabda identifies with God, we have no objection. As Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, namnam akari bahudha nija-sarva- shaktis: God has many names, in which He has invested His transcendental energies. God is...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Does true spirituality require a specific hairstyle, clothing style, vocabulary, and a diet of curried vegetables?
Allen Ginsberg: Your Divine Grace, my original question was, Is the complicated ritual and the Sanskrit language—are they going to keep people from accepting what you’re giving.
Srila Prabhupada: No, no. We are translating, presenting everything in the English language. All our...
Reading Complexity: Easy
"The guru does not manufacture a new process to instruct the disciple. The disciple receives from the guru an authorized process received by the guru from his guru. This is called the system of disciplic succession (evaḿ paramparā-prāptaḿ imaḿ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg. 4.2]). This is the bona fide Vedic system of receiving the process of devotional service, by which the Supreme Personality of Godhead...
Reading Complexity: Easy
More on this topic
Krishna Meditation—the significance of, reasons for, and philosophy behind Hare Krishna mantra meditation.
"You Can Pronounce Krishna in Any Way"—Does true spirituality require a specific hairstyle, clothing style, vocabulary, and a diet of curried vegetables?
How to Chant on Beads—How to get up and running in your practice of chanting Hare Krishna in the privacy of your own...
Reading Complexity: Easy
In Sanskrit, man means “mind” and tra means “freeing.” So a mantra is a combination of transcendental, spiritual sounds meant to liberate the mind from the anxieties of life in the material world.
Ancient India’s Vedic literatures single out one mantra as the maha (great) mantra. The Kali-santarana Upanishad explains, “These sixteen words— Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Meditation is the seventh stage in the eightfold mystic yoga system by which one gradually learns to sit still, control the breath, withdraw the senses from the world, fix the mind on one point, and eventually attain full concentration on the object of meditation.
In Western countries, “meditation” has become a buzzword. In the 1960s the only meditation that people discussed was “Transcendental...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Bhakti yoga practice includes chanting the Hare Krishna mantra softly to oneself. This is called japa.
While chanting, you'll keep the sacred japa beads in a bead bag to keep them clean and off the floor. One side of the bag is large enough to insert your hand. Your index finger comes out of the smaller hole on the other side, to help you hold on to the bag. Place your beads in the bag, and you’...
Reading Complexity: Easy
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and several of his disciples were joined by Father Emmanuel Jungclaussen, a Benedictine monk from Niederalteich Monastery. Noticing that Srila Prabhupada was carrying meditation beads similar to the Catholic rosary, Father Emmanuel explained that he also chanted a constant prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, be merciful unto us.” The following...
Reading Complexity: Easy
A selection of Srila Prabhupada's commentaries and conversations about the name "Krishna," including its Sanskrit etymology (word origin). Where possible, we've provided links for further exploring the topic or obtaining your own copy of the book quoted.
The meaning of the name "Krishna":
"The name Krishna means 'all-attractive.' God attracts everyone; that is the definition of 'God.' We have...
Reading Complexity: Easy
Because we think it's important, here are even more references for our statements about the Hare Krishna mantra:
Kali-santarana Upanishad:
"hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare
iti sodasakam namnam
kali-kalmasa-nasanam
natah parataropayah
sarva-vedesu drsyate
'After searching through all the Vedic literature, one cannot find a method of...
Reading Complexity: Easy
What Is Hare Krishna?
What is Hare Krishna? Depending on the context in which the term is used, "Hare Krishna" could mean a number of things, including (but not limited to):
Hare Krishna is the beginning of the Hare Krishna mantra, a prayer for reviving our relationship with the Supreme Person:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Often...
Reading Complexity: Medium 
Recently I took time out from traveling and lecturing to work on my practice of japa (quiet chanting on beads). Although I have been following Srila Prabhupada’s order to chant at least sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, I knew my japa had become poor and needed special care. I tried doubling the minimum quota and chanted in the early-morning hours in the company of other chanters...
Reading Complexity: Medium
I love chanting japa—some days. Other days, I endure chanting japa. It seems to be bliss or boredom. On the good days I am enthralled. Krishna feels very close, and very dear. Not that I’m seeing visions or hearing voices—nothing dramatic that would excite the tabloid crowd. The experience is closer to returning home after a long, arduous journey. Such a sweet pleasure from the simple fingering...
Reading Complexity: Medium
It’s 5:20 in the morning. For twenty minutes I’ve been chanting the maha-mantra on my beads: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. A group of children aged five through twelve had been sitting around me in a circle, also chanting. Forty minutes remain for my personal mantra meditation.
I lean over and unlock a wooden cabinet with my...