THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HARE KRISHNA MAHA MANTRA

“HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE,
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.”

Hare Krishna Mahamantra that usually regarded as the Great Mantra is a sacred Sanskrit verse, recited as a means to cultivate awareness of a higher power and revive God-realization. It is consist of three powerful words of the supreme being namely, “HARE”, “KRISHNA” and “RAMA”. “HARE” can be interpreted as either the vocative form of Hari (another name of Vishnu meaning – he who removes illusion). As for “KRISHNA”, it can be defined as the one who is attractive and finally, “RAMA” referred to he who is the reservoir of pleasure.

By reciting this this maha mantra,one starts to re-develop and strengthen the relationship with God and eventually to be able to attain the state of bliss.The beauty of this mahamantra is that ANYONE can chant without any restrictions. This is the reason why I personally regarded this as the greatest gift of God to the humankind.

According to Vedic and ancient scriptures such as Chaithanya Caritamrta, SrimadBhagavatham,Kali Santarana Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita, this this sacred mahamantra has been written and spoken in the last 5000years back.

However, this mahamantra is not well known in the age of Kali Yuga. Consequently, in the 15th century the Lord Krishna Himself came to mother earth by his incarnation as Lord Chaithanya Mahaprabhu in order to deliver and preach this holy mahamantrato the human kind.

Lord Krishna can be regarded as the most merciful God. Due to His love towards his devotees, He Himself came to us and spread his mahamantrafor once again to protect us from the evil as well as helping us to release our soul from the cycle of birth and death.

Even after the demise ofLord Chaithanya Prabhu,his Krishna movement has been continued by his sampradaya lineage through Gaudiya Vaisanava. In 1965, this movement has formed an organization known as International Society for KRISHNA Consciousness(ISKCON) lead by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhakthivedanta Swami Prabhupada. His Divine Grace has continued the mission to spread the spiritual knowledge of Bhagavad Gita as it is and the Holy Naam Mahamantra Hare Krishna in western and other part of the world (India,America,Europe,Asia,Australia and Russia). Up till now, ISCKON has been established and successful in achieving the objective to spread the spiritual knowledge.

The chanting of this mahamantra is so powerful and capable to break the illusion of life which commonly referred as maya. Most of us have immersed with the material life and involve in the never-ending search of the so-called happiness. However, material happiness is not permanent. Our ultimate goal is to be closer to God. Only by letting go of our involvement in materialistic life,we will be able to find the utmost happiness in this life, which is the absolute happiness leading us to our bliss by entering his association.

We have become so attached to this material world until we have forgotten our true self – the spiritual self. When we too immersed with the material world, we have developed fears of death,old age and diseases.We also fear in losing the beauty,intelligence,strength and countless other material attachments. Spiritually, it means that for every material action we performed, the nature forces an equivalent reaction upon the performer (us). Due to this, we as the human being transform from one karmic destiny to another which is a never-ending cycle.

As we chant the mahamantra, we will come into realization that we are pure souls who have temporary body in this material world. This sacred mantra vibrates the powerful vibration that will help us to develop the realization to understand “ourself”.

Besides that, by chanting this mahamantra it can help us to build our positive karma. The name chanting evokes the “transcendental energy” that has the power to erase all the negative energy that exists within us and subsequently, to attain “Moksha”. In order to release ourselves from this cycle of life, we need to attain moksha (liberation) from the endless wheel of birth and death is also known as ‘samsara’. This can only be achieved when our consciousness is completely free from material desires.

Apart from this, by chanting this holy mantra we will be able to find God-realization and pure love of God. When our consciousness becomes one with God, our positive nature will be depicted in our character and behavior in the same phenomenon just as how the sun approaches the horizon, it is preceded by warmth and illumination.

This mahamantra is the greatest gift from God to all of us. As a Hindu, our utmost objective is to attain moksha and release our soul from this cycle of birth and death. Although there is various path to achieve this goal, a clear and simple path has been already set out for us that is by simply chanting the Holy name. What is left is just for us to have self-realization and open our eyes that are covered by the material life and its enjoyment. Let’s chant HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA HARE HARE to release us from these material life diseases.

Devindren Yalamalai

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked (required)