SRILA PRABHUPADA EXPLAINS THE MAHA MANTRA

Although "Hare Krsna" has become a household word, practically nobody knows what it means. Is it merely a repetitious incantation designed to hypnotize its practitioners? Is it a form of escapism? Or is it a genuine meditation that can actually summon higher awareness.

You can listen as you read the explanation of the nature of the maha-mantra by Srila Prabhupada

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This transcendental vibration by chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna  Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the sublime method for reviving our Krsna consciousness. As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by material atmosphere.

In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. This illusion is called maya -- or hard struggle for existence for winning over the stringent laws of material nature.

By practical experience, also, we can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra, or "the great chanting for deliverance," one can at once feel transcendental ecstasy from the spiritual stratum. When one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and intelligence, one is situated on the transcendental plane.

This chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna , Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is directly enacted from the spiritual platform, surpassing all lower status of consciousness, namely sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need of understanding the language of the mantra, nor there is any need of mental speculation, nor any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such anyone can take part in this transcendental sound vibration without any previous qualification and dance in ecstasy. We have seen it practically -- even a child can take part in the chanting, or even a dog can take part in it.

The chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effect can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of nondevotees should be avoided as much as milk touched by the lips of a serpent causes poisonous effect.

The word Hara is a form of addressing the energy of the Lord. Both Krsna and Rama are forms of addressing directly the Lord, and they mean "the highest pleasure eternal" .  Hara is the supreme pleasure potency of the Lord. This potency, when  addressed as Hare, helps us in reaching the Supreme Lord.

The material energy, called as maya, is also one of the multipotencies of the Lord.  As much as we are also marginal potency of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior energy than matter. When the superior energy is in contact with inferior energy, it becomes an incompatible situation. But when the supreme marginal potency is in contact with spiritual potency, Hara, it becomes the happy, normal condition of living entity.

The three words -- namely Hara, Krsna, and Rama -- are transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra, and the chanting is spiritual call for the Lord and His internal energy, Hara, for giving protection to the conditioned souls. The chanting is exactly like genuine crying by the child for mother. Mother Hara helps in achieving the grace of the supreme father Hari, or Krsna, and the Lord reveals Himself to such sincere devotees.

No other means therefore of spiritual realization is as effective in this age as chanting the maha-mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna , Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. 

Srila Prabhupada's kirtan.

 

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 >>> Ref. VedaBase => SSR 5c: Chanting the Hare Krsna Mantra