Chant and Be Happy

Words from George Harrison

Contemporary Vedic Library Series
Preface
Introduction
1. The Hare Kĺńëa Mantra: "There's Nothing Higher..."
2. Chanting for Liberation
3. Çréla Prabhupäda Brings the Hare Kĺńëa Mantra to the West
4. Chanting for Higher Consciousness: A Cultural History
5. The Life of Çré Caitanya
6. Haridäsa Öhäkura and the Prostitute
7. The Science of Mantra Meditation
8. The Benefits of Chanting
9. Techniques for Chanting
CABH: Words from George Harrison
Words from George Harrison
Everybody is looking for KĹŃËA.
Some don't realize that they are, but they are.
KĹŃËA is GOD, the Source of all that exists,
the Cause of all that is, was, or ever will be.
As GOD is unlimited, HE has many Names.
Allah-Buddha-Jehova-Räma:
All are KĹŃËA, all are ONE.
By serving GOD through each thought, word, and
DEED, and by chanting of HIS Holy Names,
the devotee quickly develops God-consciousness.
By chanting

Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa

Kĺńëa Krńëa, Hare Hare
Hare Räma, Hare Räma
Räma Räma, Hare Hare

one inevitably arrives at KRSNA Consciousness.

(The proof of the pudding is in the eating!)
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (KRISHNA) HARI BOL

George Harrison
Chant and be Happy
The Power of Mantra Meditation
Based On The Teachings Of
His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda
Founder-Äcärya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Dedication
We dedicate this book to our beloved spiritual master and guide, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupäda, who brought the transcendental teachings of Lord Kĺńëa, including the authorized
science of reincarnation, to the Western world.
-The Editors
CABH: Contemporary Vedic Library Series
Contemporary Vedic Library Series
The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Contemporary Vedic Library series explores subjects of current interest
from the perspective of the timeless knowledge of India's Vedic wisdom.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, founder-äcärya (spiritual master) of the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness, established the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in 1970 to
present Vedic literatures, as received through the authorized disciplic succession, to the people of the
modern age. For the first time in history, through Çréla Prabhupäda's translations and commentaries, the
world's most profound philosophical tradition soon began to have a major impact upon a widespread
Western audience. Hundreds of scholars worldwide have reviewed Çréla Prabhupäda's books, acclaiming
his consummate erudition and devotion to the original Sanskrit texts, as well as his unique ability to
communicate the most profound and subtle philosophical subjects in a simple and easy-to-understand
manner. The Encyclopedia Britannica reported that his voluminous translations from the original Sanskrit
and his lucid commentaries "have astounded literary and academic communities worldwide."
Vedic knowledge has been a source of inner peace, profound wisdom, and spiritual inspiration for millions
of people since the dawn of time. The Contemporary Vedic Library editions have been designed to
demonstrate practically how this transcendental knowledge, when properly applied, will become a key
factor in surmounting the myriad problems facing modern man as we approach the twenty-first century.
Contemporary Vedic Library Series Editorial Board:
Rämeçvara Däsa (Robert Grant)
Mukunda Goswami (Michael Grant)
Bhütätma däsa (Austin Gordon)
Drutakarmä däsa (Michael Cremo)
Mahärudra däsa (Jeff Long)
CABH: Preface
Preface
The Search for Happiness
Everyone wants to be happy. Some of us seek happiness through our families, in natural and healthy living,
in successful careers, active social lives, fine gourmet foods, gambling, or through sports and exercise.
Others experience happiness in politics, the arts, academia, or in hobbies ranging from mechanics and
computer science to drama, philanthropy, welfare work, and literally thousands of other activities that
comprise man's unending quest for pleasure. Millions of people find their happiness in liquor, mood
elevators, tranquilizers, or other drugs.
Each day doctors and scientists discover more about how the human mind and body work. Yet with this
abundance of scientific knowledge and space-age technology, which vastly outstrips that of all previous
generations, is modern man really any happier than his predecessors?
The basic problem in our search for happiness is that our sources of pleasure are all limited. What many
people consider man's most basic and fundamental pleasures- eating and sex-can only occupy a few
moments of each day. Our bodies constantly thwart our plans for enjoyment. After all, you can only eat so
much before becoming ill. Even sex has its limits.
Chant and Be Happy provides information about how we can expand our pleasure beyond our present
limitations. It deals with a pleasure principle that operates beyond the bounds of time and space and
emanates from the very innermost part of our being. This book thoroughly explains how this inner
happiness can be experienced immediately by anyone, through the mystical power of transcendental sound
vibrations.
This technique for obtaining unlimited happiness does not depend on new products touted by Madison
Avenue whiz kids or Hollywood moguls, but has been successfully practiced by countless people
throughout the ages. Chant and Be Happy explains how to use these transcendental sound vibrations to
attain the ultimate state of happiness. It's an easy process and it's free.
To achieve this unlimited and imperishable happiness one need only chant and hear what sages of ancient
India have for millennia called the Great Chant for Deliverance, the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra. This simple
sixteen-word mantra is comprised of sound vibrations powerful enough to awaken the natural happiness
within everyone.
Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare
Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare
In recent years, millions have learned how to chant the Hare Kĺńëa mantra and experience this true, spiritual
happiness. It is the most popular mantra in India, the homeland of meditation, and differs from other
systems in two ways. First, the complete mantra is chanted (not just a fragment of a mantra) and, second,
the mantra is chanted aloud (not silently).
A brief introduction by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, the founder-äcärya
(spiritual master) of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, explains the exact nature and
meaning of the mantra. Chapter One, a recent exclusive interview with former Beatle George Harrison,
reveals how the Hare Kĺńëa mantra has played a leading role in his life over the last fifteen years. George
explains that although he had achieved riches and fame beyond what most people could ever hope for, he
found that there was "nothing higher" than the happiness he experienced from chanting Hare Kĺńëa. George
discusses his confidence in the mantra's powers over death, explains how much of his musical career has
been influenced by and intimately connected with the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, and describes the knowledge,
bliss, and spiritual intelligence that comes from chanting.
In Chapter Two, Çréla Prabhupäda speaks with John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison at John's
estate in Tittenhurst Park, discussing the potency of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra as the path to peace and
liberation.
Chapter Three is a fascinating account of how Çréla Prabhupäda brought the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa from
India to the Western world in the midst of the counter cultural turmoil of the sixties and convinced the
disillusioned hippies of New York's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury that this
mantra, not psychedelics and antiwar protests, would make them happy. The history of chanting and
meditating for higher consciousness is discussed in Chapter Four. The next chapter delineates the life and
teachings of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, the sixteenth-century saint, mystic, and incarnation of Lord Kĺńëa
who popularized the timeless practice of chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra.
Chapter Six, a narration taken from one of India's most important historical and philosophical literatures, the
Sri Caitanya-caritämĺta, reveals how by simply hearing the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa from a genuine spiritual
master anyone's character can be freed from all unwanted qualities.
The next chapter forms a treatise on self-realization, mantras, religion, and the power of the mind in
meditation, compiled from the teachings presented in Çréla Prabhupäda's books. Chapter Eight explains the
wide-ranging effects and personal benefits one can expect from chanting Hare Kĺńëa. The final chapter
gives practical, step-by-step instructions for chanting, which if followed will open the door to ultimate
happiness.
CABH: Introduction
Introduction
On Chanting
Brought to the West in 1965 by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, "Hare Kĺńëa"
quickly became a household word. In 1979, Dr. A. L. Basham, the world's leading authority on Indian
history and religion, wrote of the Hare Kĺńëa movement, "It arose out of nothing in less than 20 years and
has become known all over the West. This, I feel, is a sign of the times and an important fact in the history
of the Western world."
But what exactly do the words "Hare Kĺńëa" mean? In this short essay from the LP Krishna Consciousness,
which first introduced Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon to the chanting, Çréla Prabhupäda
explains the meaning of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra.
The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare
Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare [Huh-ray; Krish-na; Rahm-uh] is the sublime
method for reviving our transcendental consciousness.
As living spiritual souls, we are all originally Kĺńëa conscious entities, but due to our association with
matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now adulterated by the material atmosphere. The
material atmosphere, in which we are now living, is called mäyä, or illusion. Mäyä means "that which is
not." And what is this illusion? The illusion is that we are all trying to be lords of material nature, while
actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. When a servant artificially tries to imitate the all-
powerful master, he is said to be in illusion. We are trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but
actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. Therefore, although we are
engaged in a hard struggle to conquer nature, we are ever more dependent on her. This illusory struggle
against material nature can be stopped at once by revival of our eternal Kĺńëa consciousness.
Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare is the transcendental process for reviving this original,
pure consciousness. By chanting this transcendental vibration, we can cleanse away all misgivings within
our hearts. The basic principle of all such misgivings is the false consciousness that I am the lord of all I
survey.
Kĺńëa consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original, natural
energy of the living entity. When we hear this transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. This
simplest method of meditation is recommended for this age. By practical experience also, one can perceive
that by chanting this mahä-mantra, or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a
transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum.
In the material concept of life we are busy in the matter of sense gratification, as if we were in the lower,
animal stage. A little elevated from this status of sense gratification, one is engaged in mental speculation
for the purpose of getting out of the material clutches. A little elevated from this speculative status, when
one is intelligent enough, one tries to find out the supreme cause of all causes-within and without. And
when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and
intelligence, he is then on the transcendental plane. This chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is enacted from
the spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness-namely
sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor
is there any need for mental speculation nor any intellectual adjustment for chanting this mahä-mantra. It is
automatic, coming from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in the chanting without any
previous qualification. In a more advanced stage, of course, one is not expected to commit offenses on the
grounds of spiritual understanding.
But there is no doubt that chanting takes one immediately to the spiritual platform, and one shows the first
symptom of this in the urge to dance along with the chanting of the mantra. We have seen this practically.
Even a child can take part in the chanting and dancing. Of course, for one who is too entangled in material
life, it takes a little more time, but even such a materially engrossed man is raised to the spiritual platform
very quickly. When the mantra is chanted by a pure devotee of the Lord in love, it has the greatest efficacy
on hearers, and as such this chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that
immediate effects can be achieved.
The word Harä is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Kĺńëa and Räma are forms
of addressing the Lord Himself. Both Kĺńëa and Räma mean "the supreme pleasure," and Harä is the
supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, changed to Hare in the vocative. The supreme pleasure energy of the
Lord helps us to reach the Lord.
The material energy, called mayä, is also one of the multi-energies of the Lord. And we, the living entities,
are the marginal energy of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to material energy. When
the superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises; but when the
superior marginal energy is in contact with the superior energy, Hara, it is established in its happy, normal
condition.
These three words, namely Hare, Kĺńëa, and Räma, are the transcendental seeds of the mahä-mantra. The
chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His energy to give protection to the conditioned soul. This
chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the
Supreme Father's grace, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.
No other means of spiritual realization is as effective in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy as the chanting of
the mahä-mantra:
Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa,
Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare,
Hare Räma, Hare Räma,
Räma Räma Hare Hare.
CABH 1: The Hare Kĺńëa Mantra: "There's Nothing Higher..."
CHAPTER 1
The Hare Kĺńëa Mantra:
"There's Nothing Higher..."
A 1982 Interview with George Harrison
If you open up your heart
You will know what I mean
We've been polluted so long
But here's a way for you to get clean
By chanting the names of the Lord and you'll be free
The Lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see.
—"Awaiting On You All"
from the album All things Must Pass
In the summer of 1969, before the dissolution of the most popular music group of all time, George Harrison
produced a hit single, "The Hare Krishna Mantra," performed by George and the devotees of the London
Rädhä-Kĺńëa Temple. Soon after rising to the Top 10 or Top 20 best-selling record charts throughout
England, Europe, and parts of Asia, the Hare Kĺńëa chant became a household word-especially in England,
where the BBC had featured the Hare Kĺńëa Chanters, as they were then called, four times on the country's
most popular television program, Top of the Pops.
At about the same time, five thousand miles away, several shaven-headed, saffron-robed men and sari-clad
women sang along with John Lennon and Yoko Ono as they recorded the hit song "Give Peace a Chance" in
their room at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel:
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor,
Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. All we are saying is give peace a chance.*
The Hare Kĺńëa devotees had been visiting with the Lennons for several days, discussing world peace and
self-realization. Because of this and other widespread exposure, people all over the world soon began to
identify the chanting Hare Kĺńëa devotees as harbingers of a more simple, joyful, peaceful way of life.
George Harrison was the impetus for the Beatles' spiritual quest of the sixties, and today, nearly fifteen
years later, the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra-Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa. Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/
Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare-still plays a key role in the former Beatle's life.
In this conversation with his long-time personal friend Contemporary Vedic Library Series editor Mukunda
Goswami, taped at George's home in England on September 4, 1982, George reveals some memorable
experiences he has had chanting Hare Kĺńëa and describes in detail his deep personal realizations about the
chanting. He reveals what factors led him to produce "The Hare Krishna Mantra" record, "My Sweet Lord,"
and the LPs All Things Must Pass and Living in the Material World, which were all influenced to a great
extent by the Hare Kĺńëa chanting and philosophy. He speaks lovingly and openly about his association
with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, founder-äcärya (spiritual master) of the
Hare Kĺńëa movement. In the following interview George speaks frankly about his personal philosophy
regarding the Hare Kĺńëa movement, music, yoga, reincarnation, karma, the soul, God, and Christianity The
conversation concludes with his fond remembrances of a visit to the birthplace of Lord Kĺńëa in Vĺndävana,
India, home of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, and with George discussing some of his celebrity friends'
involvement with the mantra now heard and chanted around the world.
Mukunda Goswami: Oftentimes you speak of yourself as a plainclothes devotee, a closet yogé or "closet
Kĺńëa," and millions of people all over the world have been introduced to the chanting by your songs. But
what about you? How did you first come in contact with Kĺńëa?
George Harrison: Through my visits to India. So by the time the Hare Kĺńëa movement first came to
England in 1969, John and I had already gotten ahold of Prabhupäda's first album, Kĺńëa Consciousness.
We had played it a lot and liked it. That was the first time I'd ever heard the chanting of the maha-mantra.
Mukunda: Even though you and John Lennon played Çréla Prabhupäda's record a lot and had chanted quite
a bit on your own, you'd never really met any of the devotees. Yet when Gurudäsa, Çyämasundara, and I
[the first Hare Kĺńëa devotees sent from America, to open a temple in London] first came to England, you
co-signed the lease on our first temple in central London, bought the Manor* for us, which has provided a
place for literally hundreds of thousands of people to learn about Kĺńëa consciousness, and financed the first
printing of the book Kĺńëa. You hadn't really known us for a very long time at all. Wasn't this a kind of
sudden change for you?
George: Not really, for I always felt at home with Kĺńëa. You see, it was already a part of me. I think it's
something that's been with me from my previous birth. Your coming to England and all that was just like
another piece of a jigsaw puzzle that was coming together to make a complete picture. It had been slowly
fitting together. That's why I responded to you all the way I did when you first came to London. Let's face
it. If you're going to have to stand up and be counted, I figured, "I would rather be with these guys than with
those other guys over there." It's like that. I mean I'd rather be one of the devotees of God than one of the
straight, so-called sane or normal people who just don't understand that man is a spiritual being, that he has
a soul. And I felt comfortable with you all, too, kind of like we'd known each other before. It was a pretty
natural thing, really.
Mukunda: George, you were a member of the Beatles, undoubtedly the greatest single pop group in music
hisiory, one that influenced not only music, but whole generations of young people as well. After the
dissolution of the group, you went on to emerge as a solo superstar with albums like All Things Must Pass,
the country's top selling album for seven weeks in a row, and its hit single "My Sweet Lord," which was
number one in America for two months. That was followed by Living in the Material World, number one on
Billboard for five weeks and a million-selling LP. One song on that album, "Give Me Love," was a smash
hit for six straight weeks. The concert for Bangladesh with Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Leon
Russell, and Billy Preston was a phenomenal success and, once the LP and concert film were released,
would become the single most successful rock benefit project ever. So, you had material success. You'd
been everywhere, done everything, yet at the same time you were on a spiritual quest. What was it that
really got you started on your spiritual journey?
George: It wasn't until the experience of the sixties really hit. You know, having been successful and
meeting everybody we thought worth meeting and finding out they weren't worth meeting, and having had
more hit records than everybody else and having done it bigger than everybody else. It was like reaching the
top of a wall and then looking over and seeing that there's so much more on the other side. So I felt it was
part of my duty to say, "Oh, okay, maybe you are thinking this is all you need-to be rich and famous-but
actually it isn't."
Mukunda: George, in your recently published autobiography, I, Me, Mine, you said your song "Awaiting on
You All" is about japa-yoga, or chanting mantras on beads. You explained that a mantra is "mystical energy
encased in a sound structure," and that "each mantra contains within its vibrations a certain power." But of
all mantras, you stated that "the mahä-mantra [the Hare Kĺńëa mantra] has been prescribed as the easiest
and surest way for attaining God Realization in this present age." As a practitioner of japa-yoga, what
realizations have you experienced from chanting?
George: Prabhupäda* told me once that we should just keep chanting all the time, or as much as possible.
Once you do that, you realize the benefit. The response that comes from chanting is in the form of bliss, or
spiritual happiness, which is a much higher taste than any happiness found here in the material world. That's
why I say that the more you do it, the more you don't want to stop, because it feels so nice and peaceful.
Mukunda: What is it about the mantra that brings about this feeling of peace and happiness?
George: The word Hare is the word that calls upon the energy that's around the Lord. If you say the mantra
enough, you build up an identification with God. God's all happiness, all bliss, and by chanting His names
we connect with Him. So it's really a process of actually having a realization of God, which all becomes
clear with the expanded state of consciousness that develops when you chant. Like I said in the introduction
I wrote for Prabhupäda's Kĺńëa book some years ago, "If there's a God, I want to see Him. It's pointless to
believe in something without proof, and Kĺńëa consciousness and meditation are methods where you can
actually obtain God perception."
Mukunda: Is it an instantaneous process, or gradual?
George: You don't get it in five minutes. It's something that takes time, but it works because it's a direct
process of attaining God and will help us to have pure consciousness and good perception that is above the
normal, everyday state of consciousness.
Mukunda: How do you feel after chanting for a long time?
George: In the life I lead, I find that I sometimes have opportunities when I can really get going at it, and the
more I do it, I find the harder it is to stop, and I don't want to lose the feeling it gives me.
For example, once I chanted the Hare Kĺńëa mantra all the way from France to Portugal, nonstop. I drove
for about twenty-three hours and chanted all the way. It gets you feeling a bit invincible. The funny thing
was that I didn't even know where I was going. I mean I had bought a map, and I knew basically which way
I was aiming, but I couldn't speak French, Spanish, or Portuguese. But none of that seemed to matter. You
know, once you get chanting, then things start to happen transcendentally.
Mukunda: The Vedas inform us that because God is absolute, there is no difference between God the person
and His holy name; the name is God. When you first started chanting, could you perceive that?
George: It takes a certain amount of time and faith to accept or to realize that there is no difference between
Him and His name, to get to the point where you're no longer mystified by where He is. You know, like, "Is
He around here?" You realize after some time, "Here He is-right here!" It's a matter of practice. So when I
say that "I see God," I don't necessarily mean to say that when I chant I'm seeing Kĺńëa in His original form
when He came five thousand years ago, dancing across the water, playing His flute. Of course, that would
also be nice, and it's quite possible too. When you become real pure by chanting, you can actually see God
like that, I mean personally. But no doubt you can feel His presence and know that He's there when you're
chanting.
Mukunda: Can you think of any incident where you felt God's presence very strongly through chanting?
George: Once I was on an airplane that was in an electric storm. It was hit by lightning three times, and a
Boeing 707 went over the top of us, missing by inches. I thought the back end of the plane had blown off. I
was on my way from Los Angeles to New York to organize the Bangladesh concert. As soon as the plane
began bouncing around, I started chanting Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa Hare Hare/ Hare Räma,
Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. The whole thing went on for about an hour and a half or two hours,
the plane dropping hundreds of feet and bouncing all over in the storm, all the lights out and all these
explosions, and everybody terrified. I ended up with my feet pressed against the seat in front, my seat belt as
tight as it could be, gripping on the thing, and yelling Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa Hare Hare at
the top of my voice. I know for me, the difference between making it and not making it was actually
chanting the mantra. Peter Sellers also swore that chanting Hare* Kĺńëa saved him from a plane crash once.
CABH 1.1: John Lennon and Hare Kĺńëa
John Lennon and Hare Kĺńëa
Mukunda: Did any of the other Beatles chant?
George: Before meeting Prabhupäda and all of you, I had bought that album Prabhupäda did in New York,
and John and I listened to it. I remember we sang it for days, John and I, with ukulele banjos, sailing
through the Greek Islands chanting Hare Kĺńëa. Like six hours we sang, because we couldn't stop once we
got going. As soon as we stopped, it was like the lights went out. It went on to the point where our jaws
were aching, singing the mantra over and over and over and over and over. We felt exalted; it was a very
happy time for us.
Mukunda: You know, I saw a video the other day sent to us from Canada, showing John and Yoko Ono
recording their hit song "Give Peace a Chance," and about five or six of the devotees were there in John's
room at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, singing along and playing cymbals and drums. You know,
John and Yoko chanted Hare Kĺńëa on that song. That was in May of '69, and just three months later, Çréla
Prabhupäda was John and Yoko's house guest for one month at their estate outside London.
While Prabhupäda was there, you, John, and Yoko came to his room one afternoon for a few hours. I think
that was the first time you all met him.
George: That's right.
Mukunda: At that point John was a spiritual seeker, and Prabhupäda explained the true path to peace and
liberation. He talked about the eternality of the soul, karma, and reincarnation, which are all elaborately
dealt with in the Vedic literatures.* Although John never made Hare Kĺńëa a big part of his life, he echoed
the philosophy of Kĺńëa consciousness in a hit song he wrote just about a year after that conversation,
"Instant Karma."
Now what's the difference between chanting Hare Kĺńëa and meditation?
George: It's really the same sort of thing as meditation, but I think it has a quicker effect. I mean, even if
you put your beads down, you can still say the mantra or sing it without actually keeping track on your
beads. One of the main differences between silent meditation and chanting is that silent meditation is rather
dependent on concentration, but when you chant, it's more of a direct connection with God.
CABH 1.2: Practical Meditation
Practical Meditation
Mukunda: The mahä-mantra was prescribed for modern times because of the fast-paced nature of things
today. Even when people do get into a little quiet place, it's very difficult to calm the mind for very long.
George: That's right. Chanting Hare Kĺńëa is a type of meditation that can be practiced even if the mind is in
turbulence. You can even be doing it and other things at the same time. That's what's so nice. In my life
there's been many times the mantra brought things around. It keeps me in tune with reality, and the more
you sit in one place and chant, the more incense you offer to Kĺńëa in the same room, the more you purify
the vibration, the more you can achieve what you're trying to do, which is just trying to remember God,
God, God, God, God, as often as possible. And if you're talking to Him with the mantra, it certainly helps.
Mukunda: What else helps you to fix your mind on God?
George: Well, just having as many things around me that will remind me of Him, like incense and pictures.
Just the other day I was looking at a small picture on the wall of my studio of you, Gurudäsa, and
Çyämasundara, and just seeing all the old devotees made me think of Kĺńëa. I guess that's the business of
devotees-to make you think of God.
Mukunda: How often do you chant?
George: Whenever I get a chance.
Mukunda: Once you asked Çréla Prabhupäda about a particular verse he quoted from the Vedas, in which
it's said that when one chants the holy name of Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa dances on the tongue and one wishes one had
thousands of ears and thousands of mouths with which to better appreciate the holy names of God.
George: Yes. I think he was talking about the realization that there is no difference between Him standing
before you and His being present in His name. That's the real beauty of chanting-you directly connect with
God. I have no doubt that by saying Kĺńëa over and over again, He can come and dance on the tongue. The
main thing, though, is to keep in touch with God.
Mukunda: So your habit is generally to use the beads when you chant?
George: Oh, yeah. I have my beads. I remember when I first got them, they were just big knobby globs of
wood, but now I'm very glad to say that they're smooth from chanting a lot.
Mukunda: Do you generally keep them in the bag when you chant?
George: Yes. I find it's very good to be touching them. It keeps another one of the senses fixed on God.
Beads really help in that respect. You know, the frustrating thing about it was in the beginning there was a
period when I was heavy into chanting and I had my hand in my bead bag all the time. And I got so tired of
people asking me, "Did you hurt your hand, break it or something?" In the end I used to say, "Yeah. Yeah. I
had an accident," because it was easier than explaining everything. Using the beads also helps me to release
a lot of nervous energy.
Mukunda: Some people say that if everyone on the planet chanted Hare Kĺńëa, they wouldn't be able to
keep their minds on what they were doing. In other words, if everyone started chanting, some people ask if
the whole world wouldn't just grind to a halt. They wonder if people would stop working in factories, for
example.
George: No. Chanting doesn't stop you from being creative or productive. It actually helps you concentrate.
I think this would make a great sketch for television: imagine all the workers on the Ford assembly line in
Detroit, all of them chanting Hare Kĺńëa Hare Kĺńëa while bolting on the wheels. Now that would be
wonderful. It might help out the auto industry, and probably there would be more decent cars too.
CABH 1.3: Experiencing God Through the Senses
Experiencing God Through the Senses
Mukunda: We've talked a lot about japa, or personalized chanting, which most chanters engage in. But
there's another type, called kértana, when one chants congregationally, in a temple or on the streets with a
group of devotees. Kértana generally gives a more supercharged effect, like recharging one's spiritual
batteries, and it gives others a chance to hear the holy names and become purified.
Actually, I was with Çréla Prabhupäda when he first began the group chanting in Tompkins Square Park on
New York's Lower East Side in 1966. The poet Allen Ginsberg would come and chant with us a lot and
would play on his harmonium. A lot of people would come to hear the chanting, then Prabhupäda would
give lectures on Bhagavad-gétä back at the temple.
George: Yes, going to a temple or chanting with a group of other people-the vibration is that much stronger.
Of course, for some people it's easy just to start chanting on their beads in the middle of a crowd, while
other people are more comfortable chanting in the temple. But part of Kĺńëa consciousness is trying to tune
in all the senses of all the people: to experience God through all the senses, not just by experiencing Him on
Sunday, through your knees by kneeling on some hard wooden kneeler in the church. But if you visit a
temple, you can see pictures of God, you can see the Deity form of the Lord, and you can just hear Him by
listening to yourself and others say the mantra. It's just a way of realizing that all the senses can be applied
toward perceiving God, and it makes it that much more appealing, seeing the pictures, hearing the mantra,
smelling the incense, flowers, and so on. That's the nice thing about your movement. It incorporates
everything-chanting, dancing, philosophy, and prasädam*. The music and dancing is a serious part of the
process too. It's not just something to burn off excess energy.
Mukunda: We've always seen that when we chant in the streets, people are eager to crowd around and listen.
A lot of them tap their feet or dance along.
George: It's great, the sound of the karatälas [cymbals]. When I hear them from a few blocks away, it's like
some magical thing that awakens something in me. Without their really being aware of what's happening,
people are being awakened spiritually. Of course, in another sense, in a higher sense, the kértana is always
going on, whether we're hearing it or not.
Now, all over the place in Western cities, the saěkértana party has become a common sight. I love to see
these saěkértana parties, because I love the whole idea of the devotees mixing it up with everybody, giving
everybody a chance to remember. I wrote in the Kĺńëa book introduction, "Everybody is looking for Kĺńëa.
Some don't realize that they are, but they are. Kĺńëa is God ... and by chanting His Holy Names, the devotee
quickly develops God-consciousness."
Mukunda: You know, Çréla Prabhupäda often said that after a large number of temples were established,
most people would simply begin to take up the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa within their own homes, and we're
seeing more and more that this is what's happening. Our worldwide congregation is very large-in the
millions. The chanting on the streets, the books, and the temples are there to give people a start, to introduce
them to the process.
George: I think it's better that it is spreading into the homes now. There are a lot of "closet Kĺńëas," you
know. There's a lot of people out there who are just waiting, and if it's not today, it will be tomorrow or next
week or next year.
Back in the sixties, whatever we were all getting into, we tended to broadcast it as loud as we could. I had
had certain realizations and went through a period where I was so thrilled about my discoveries and
realizations that I wanted to shout and tell it to everybody. But there's a time to shout it out and a time not to
shout it out. A lot of people went underground with their spiritual life in the seventies, but they're out there
in little nooks and crannies and in the countryside, people who look and dress straight, insurance salesmen
types, but they're really meditators and chanters, closet devotees.
Prabhupäda's movement is doing pretty well. It's growing like wildfire really. How long it will take until we
get to a Golden Age where everybody's perfectly in tune with God's will, I don't know; but because of
Prabhupäda, Kĺńëa consciousness has certainly spread more in the last sixteen years than it has since the
sixteenth century, since the time of Lord Caitanya.* The mantra has spread more quickly and the
movement's gotten bigger and bigger. It would be great if everyone chanted. Everybody would benefit by
doing it. No matter how much money you've got, it doesn't necessarily make you happy. You have to find
your happiness with the problems you have, not worry too much about them, and chant Hare Kĺńëa, Hare
Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare.
CABH 1.4: The Hare Kĺńëa Record
The Hare Kĺńëa Record
Mukunda: In 1969 you produced a single called "The Hare Krishna Mantra," which eventually became a hit
in many countries. That tune later became a cut on the Rädhä-Kĺńëa Temple album, which you also
produced on the Apple label and was distributed in America by Capitol Records. A lot of people in the
recording business were surprised by this, your producing songs for and singing with the Hare Kĺńëas. Why
did you do it?
George: Well, it's just all a part of service, isn't it? Spiritual service, in order to try to spread the mantra all
over the world. Also, to try and give the devotees a wider base and a bigger foothold in England and
everywhere else.
Mukunda: How did the success of this record of Hare Kĺńëa devotees chanting compare with some of the
rock musicians you were producing at the time like Jackie Lomax, Splinter, and Billy Preston?
George: It was a different thing. Nothing to do with that really. There was much more reason to do it. There
was less commercial potential in it, but it was much more satisfying to do, knowing the possibilities that it
was going to create, the connotations it would have just by doing a three-and-a-half-minute mantra. That
was more fun really than trying to make a pop hit record. It was the feeling of trying to utilize your skills or
job to make it into some spiritual service to Kĺńëa.
Mukunda: What effect do you think that tune, "The Hare Krishna Mantra," having reached millions and
millions of people, has had on the cosmic consciousness of the world?
George: I'd like to think it had some effect. After all, the sound is God.
Mukunda: When Apple, the recording company, called a press conference to promote the record, the media
seemed to be shocked to hear you speak about the soul and God being so important.
George: I felt it was important to try and be precise, to tell them and let them know. You know, to come out
of the closet and really tell them. Because once you realize something, then you can't pretend you don't
know it any more.
I figured this is the space age, with airplanes and everything. If everyone can go around the world on their
holidays, there's no reason why a mantra can't go a few miles as well. So the idea was to try to spiritually
infiltrate society, so to speak. After I got Apple Records committed to you and the record released, and after
our big promotion, we saw it was going to become a hit. And one of the greatest things, one of the greatest
thrills of my life, actually, was seeing you all on BBC's Top of the Pops. I couldn't believe it. It's pretty hard
to get on that program, because they only put you on if you come into the Top 20. It was just like a breath of
fresh air. My strategy was to keep it to a three-and-a-half-minute version of the mantra so they'd play it on
the radio, and it worked. I did the harmonium and guitar track for that record at Abbey Road studios before
one of the Beatles' sessions and then overdubbed a bass part. I remember Paul McCartney and his wife,
Linda, arrived at the studio and enjoyed the mantra.
Mukunda: Paul's quite favorable now, you know.
George: That's good. It still sounds like quite a good recording, even after all these years. It was the greatest
fun of all, really, to see Kĺńëa on Top of the Pops.
Mukunda: Shortly after its release, John Lennon told me that they played it at the intermission right before
Bob Dylan did the Isle of Wight concert with Jimi Hendrix, the Moody Blues, and Joe Cocker in the
summer of '69.
George: They played it while they were getting the stage set up for Bob. It was great. Besides, it was a
catchy tune, and the people didn't have to know what it meant in order to enjoy it. I felt very good when I
first heard it was doing well.
Mukunda: How did you feel about the record technically, the voices?
George: Yamuna, the lead singer, has a naturally good voice. I liked the way she sang with conviction, and
she sang like she'd been singing it a lot before. It didn't sound like the first tune she'd ever sung.
You know, I used to sing the mantra long before I met any of the devotees or long before I met Prabhupäda,
because I had his first record then for at least two years. When you're open to something it's like being a
beacon, and you attract it. From the first time I heard the chanting, it was like a door opened somewhere in
my subconscious, maybe from some previous life.
Mukunda: In the Iyrics to that song "Awaiting on You All," from the All Things Must Pass album, you
come right out front and tell people that they can be free from living in the material world by chanting the
names of God. What made you do it? What kind of feedback did you get?
George: At that time, nobody was committed to that type of music in the pop world. There was, I felt, a real
need for that, so rather than sitting and waiting for somebody else, I decided to do it myself. A lot of times
we think, "Well, I agree with you, but I'm not going to actually stand up and be counted. Too risky."
Everybody is always trying to keep themselves covered, stay commercial, so I thought, just do it. Nobody
else is, and I'm sick of all these young people just boogeying around, wasting their lives, you know. Also, I
felt that there were a lot of people out there who would be reached. I still get letters from people saying, "I
have been in the Kĺńëa temple for three years, and I would have never known about Kĺńëa unless you
recorded the All Things Must Pass album." So I know, by the Lord's grace, I am a small part in the cosmic
play.
Mukunda: What about the other Beatles? What did they think about your taking up Kĺńëa consciousness?
What was their reaction? You'd all been to India by then and were pretty much searching for something
spiritual. Çyämasundara said that once, when he ate lunch with you and the other Beatles, they were all
quite respectful.
George: Oh, yeah, well, if the Fab Four didn't get it, that is, if they couldn't deal with shaven-headed Hare
Kĺńëas, then there would have been no hope! [Laughter.] And the devotees just came to be associated with
me, so people stopped thinking, "Hey, what's this?" you know, if somebody in orange, with a shaved head,
would appear. They'd say, "Oh, yeah, they're with George."
Mukunda: From the very start, you always felt comfortable around the devotees?
George: The first time I met Çyämasundara, I liked him. He was my pal. I'd read about Prabhupäda coming
from India to Boston on the back of his record, and I knew that Çyämasundara and all of you were in my
age group, and that the only difference, really, was that you'd already joined and I hadn't. I was in a rock
band, but I didn't have any fear, because I had seen dhotés, your robes, and the saffron color and shaved
heads in India. Kĺńëa consciousness was especially good for me because I didn't get the feeling that I'd have
to shave my head, move into a temple, and do it full time. So it was a spiritual thing that just fit in with my
life-style. I could still be a musician, but I just changed my consciousness, that's all.
Mukunda: You know, the Tudor mansion and estate that you gave us outside London has become one of our
largest international centers. How do you feel about the Bhaktivedanta Manor's success in spreading Kĺńëa
consciousness?
George: Oh, it's great. And it also relates to making the Hare Kĺńëa record or whatever my involvements
were. Actually, it gives me pleasure, the idea that I was fortunate enough to be able to help at that time. All
those songs with spiritual themes were like little plugs-"My Sweet Lord" and the others. And now I know
that people are much more respectful and accepting when it comes to seeing the devotees in the streets and
all that. It's no longer like something that's coming from left field.
And I've given a lot of Prabhupäda's books to many people, and whether I ever hear from them again or not,
it's good to know that they've gotten them, and if they read them, their lives may be changed.
Mukunda: When you come across people who are spiritually inclined but don't have much knowledge, what
kind of advice do you give them?
George: I try to tell them my little bit, what my experience is, and give them a choice of things to read and a
choice of places to go-like you know, "Go to the temple, try chanting."
Mukunda: In the "Ballad of John and Yoko," John and Yoko rapped the media for the way it can foster a
false image of you and perpetuate it. It's taken a lot of time and effort to get them to understand that we are a
genuine religion, with scriptures that predate the New Testament by three thousand years. Gradually,
though, more people, scholars, philosophers, and theologians, have come around, and today they have a
great deal of respect for the ancient Vaińëava* tradition, where the modern-day Kĺńëa consciousness
movement has its roots
George: The media is to blame for everything, for all the misconceptions about the movement, but in a
sense it didn't really matter if they said something good or bad, because Kĺńëa consciousness always seemed
to transcend that barrier anyway The fact that the media was letting people know about Kĺńëa was good in
itself.
Mukunda: Çréla Prabhupäda always trained us to stick to our principles. He said that the worst thing we
could ever do would be to make some sort of compromise or to dilute the philosophy for the sake of cheap
popularity. Although many swamis and yogés had come from India to the West, Prabhupäda was the only
one with the purity and devotion to establish India's ancient Kĺńëa conscious philosophy around the world
on its own terms-not watered down, but as it is.
George: That's right. He was a perfect example of what he preached.
Mukunda: How did you feel about financing the first printing of the Kĺńëa book and writing the
introduction?
George: I just felt like it was part of my job, you know. Wherever I go in the world, when I see devotees, I
always say "Hare Kĺńëa!" to them, and they're always pleased to see me. It's a nice relationship. Whether
they really know me personally or not, they feel they know me. And they do, really.
Mukunda: When you did the Material World album, you used a photo insert taken from the cover of
Prabhupäda's Bhagavad-gétä showing Kĺńëa and His friend and disciple, Arjuna. Why?
George: Oh, yeah. It said on the album, "From the cover of Bhagavad-gétä As It Is by A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami." It was a promo for you, of course. I wanted to give them all a chance to see Kĺńëa, to know about
Him. I mean that's the whole idea, isn't it?
CABH 1.5: Spiritual Food
Spiritual Food
Mukunda: At lunch today we spoke a little about prasädam, vegetarian foods that have been spiritualized by
being offered to Kĺńëa in the temple. A lot of people have come to Kĺńëa consciousness through prasädam,
especially through our Sunday Feast of Kĺńëa at all of our temples around the world. I mean, this process is
the only kind of yoga that you can actually practice by eating.
George: Well, we should try to see God in everything, so it helps so much having the food to taste. Let's
face it, if God is in everything, why shouldn't you taste Him when you eat? I think that prasädam is a very
important thing. Kĺńëa is God, so He's absolute: His name, His form, prasädam, it's all Him. They say the
way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so if you can get to a man's spirit soul by eating, and it works,
why not do it? There's nothing better than having been chanting and dancing, or just sitting and talking
philosophy, and then suddenly the devotees bring out the prasädam. It's a blessing from Kĺńëa, and it's
spiritually important. The idea is that prasädam is the sacrament the Christians talk about, only instead of
being just a wafer, it's a whole feast, really, and the taste is so nice-it's out of this world. And prasädam's a
good little hook in this age of commercialism. When people want something extra, or they need to have
something special, prasädam will hook them in there. It's undoubtedly done a great deal toward getting a lot
more people involved in spiritual life. It breaks down preju dices, too. Because they think, "Oh, well, yes, I
wouldn't mind a drink of whatever or a bite of that." Then they ask, "What's this?" and "Oh, well, it's
prasädam." And they get to learn another aspect of Kĺńëa consciousness. Then they say, "It actually tastes
quite nice. Have you got another plateful?" I've seen that happen with lots of people, especially older people
I've seen at your temples. Maybe they were a little prejudiced, but the next thing you know, they're in love
with prasädam, and eventually they walk out of the temple thinking, "They're not so bad after all."
Mukunda: The Vedic literatures reveal that prasädam conveys spiritual realization, just as chanting does, but
in a less obvious or conspicuous way. You make spiritual advancement just by eating it.
George: I'd say from my experience that it definitely works. I've always enjoyed prasädam much more when
I've been at the temple, or when I've actually been sitting with Prabhupäda, than when somebody's brought
it to me. Sometimes you can sit there with prasädam and find that three or four hours have gone by and you
didn't even know it. Prasädam really helped me a lot, because you start to realize "Now I'm tasting Kĺńëa."
You're conscious suddenly of another aspect of God, understanding that He's this little samosa.* It's all just
a matter of tuning into the spiritual, and prasädam's a very real part of it all.
Mukunda: You know, a lot of rock groups like Grateful Dead and Police get prasädam backstage before
their concerts. They love it. It's a long-standing tradition with us. I remember one time sending prasädam to
one of the Beatles' recording sessions. And your sister was telling me today that while you were doing the
Bangladesh concert, Çyämasundara used to bring you all prasädam at the rehearsals.
George: Yes, he's even got a credit on the album sleeve.
Mukunda: What are your favorite kinds of prasädam, George?
George: I really like those deep-fried cauliflower things-pakoras?*
Mukunda: Yes.
George: And one thing I always liked was rasamalai [a milk sweet]. And there's a lot of good drinks as well,
fruit juices and lassé, the yogurt drinks mixed with fruit, and sometimes with rose water.
Mukunda: Do you remember the time we called the press in London for a big feast when we were
promoting "The Hare Krishna Mantra" record? They were pretty surprised, for no one really knew us then
for our food. Now, pretty much when people think about us, they still think, "They're the ones chanting and
dancing in the streets," but they're connecting us more and more now with prasädam-"They're the ones with
those free vegetarian dinners."
George: The press were probably thinking, "Oh, we've got to go and do this now." And then suddenly they
find that they're all sitting around and eating a much better Indian take-away than they would ever have at
any one of the local spots. They were pretty impressed.
Mukunda: We've served about 150 million plates of prasädam so far at the free feasts around the world,
what to speak of our restaurants.
George: You ought to have it up outside on billboards like those hamburger places do. You know, like "150
million served." I think it's great. It's a pity you don't have restaurants or temples on all the main streets of
every little town and village like those hamburger and fried chicken places. You should put them out of
business.
Mukunda: You've been to our London restaurant, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise?
George: Lots of times. It's good to have these and other restaurants around, where plainclothes devotees
serve the food. People slowly realize, "This is one of the best places I've been," and they keep coming back.
Then maybe they pick up a little bit of the literature or a pamphlet there and say, "Oh, hey, that was run by
the Hare Kĺńëas." I think there's a lot of value also to that kind of more subtle approach. Healthy, Wealthy,
and Wise has proper foods, good, balanced stuff, and it's fresh. Even more important, it's made with an
attitude of devotion, which means a lot. When you know someone has begrudgingly cooked something, it
doesn't taste as nice as when someone has done it to try and please God, to offer it to Him first. Just that in
itself makes all the food taste so much nicer.
Mukunda: Paul and Linda McCartney have prasädam frequently from Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Not
long ago, Paul met a devotee near his London studio and wrote a song about it. In an interview with James
Johnson in a London paper, he said, "One song, 'One of These Days' is about when I met someone on the
way to the studio who was a Hare Kĺńëa and we got talking about life-styles and so forth. I'm not a Hare
Kĺńëa myself, but I'm very sympathetic."
You've been a vegetarian for years, George. Have you had any difficulties maintaining it?
George: No. Actually, I wised up and made sure I had dal bean soup or something every day. Actually,
lentils are one of the cheapest things, but they give you A-1 protein. People are simply screwing up when
they go out and buy beef steak, which is killing them with cancer and heart troubles. The stuff costs a
fortune too. You could feed a thousand people with lentil soup for the cost of half a dozen filets. Does that
make sense?
Mukunda: One of the things that really has a profound effect on people when they visit the temples or read
our books is the paintings and sculptures done by our devotee artists of scenes from Kĺńëa's pastimes when
He appeared on earth five thousand years ago. Prabhupäda once said that these paintings were "windows to
the spiritual world," and he organized an art academy, training his disciples in the techniques for creating
transcendental art. Now, tens of thousands of people have these paintings hanging in their homes, either the
originals, lithographs, canvas prints, or posters. You've been to our multimedia Bhagavad-gétä museum in
Los Angeles. What kind of an effect did it have on you?
George: I thought it was great-better than Disneyland, really. I mean, it's as valuable as that or the
Smithsonian Institute in Washington. The sculpted dioramas look great, and the music is nice. It gives
people a real feel for what the kingdom of God must be like, and much more basic than that, it shows in a
way that's easy for even a child to understand exactly how the body is different from the soul, and how the
soul's the important thing. I always have pictures around like the one of Kĺńëa on the chariot that I put in the
Material World album, and I have the sculpted Çiva fountain* the devotees made for me in my garden.
Pictures are helpful when I'm chanting. You know that painting in the Bhagavad-gétä of the Supersoul in
the heart of the dog, the cow, the elephant, the poor man, and the priest? That's very good to help you
realize that Kĺńëa is dwelling in the hearts of everybody. It doesn't matter what kind of body you've got, the
Lord's there with you. We're all the same really.
CABH 1.6: Meeting Çréla Prabhupäda
Meeting Çréla Prabhupäda
Mukunda: George, you and John Lennon met Çréla Prabhupäda together when he stayed at John's home, in
September of 1969.
George: Yes, but when I met him at first, I underestimated him. I didn't realize it then, but I see now that
because of him, the mantra has spread so far in the last sixteen years, more than it had in the last five
centuries. Now that's pretty amazing, because he was getting older and older, yet he was writing his books
all the time. I realized later on that he was much more incredible than what you could see on the surface.
Mukunda: What about him stands out the most in your mind?
George: The thing that always stays is his saying, "I am the servant of the servant of the servant." I like that.
A lot of people say, "I'm it. I'm the divine incarnation. I'm here and let me hip you." You know what I
mean? But Prabhupäda was never like that. I liked Prabhupäda's humbleness. I always liked his humility
and his simplicity The servant of the servant of the servant is really what it is, you know. None of us are
God-just His servants. He just made me feel so comfortable. I always felt very relaxed with him, and I felt
more like a friend. I felt that he was a good friend. Even though he was at the time seventy-nine years old,
working practically all through the night, day after day, with very little sleep, he still didn't come through to
me as though he was a very highly educated intellectual being, because he had a sort of childlike simplicity.
Which is great, fantastic. Even though he was the greatest Sanskrit scholar and a saint, I appreciated the fact
that he never made me feel uncomfortable. In fact, he always went out of his way to make me feel
comfortable. I always thought of him as sort of a lovely friend, really, and now he's still a lovely friend.
Mukunda: In one of his books, Prabhupäda said that your sincere service was better than some people who
had delved more deeply into Kĺńëa consciousness but could not maintain that level of commitment. How
did you feel about this?
George: Very wonderful, really. I mean it really gave me hope, because as they say, even one moment in the
company of a divine person, Kĺńëa's pure devotee, can help a tremendous amount.
And I think Prabhupäda was really pleased at the idea that somebody from outside of the temple was
helping to get the album made. Just the fact that he was pleased was encouraging to me. I knew he liked
"The Hare Krishna Mantra" record, and he asked the devotees to play that song "Govinda." They still play
it, don't they?
Mukunda: Every temple has a recording of it, and we play it each morning when the devotees assemble
before the altar, before kértana. It's an ISKCON institution, you might say.
George: And if I didn't get feedback from Prabhupäda on my songs about Kĺńëa or the philosophy, I'd get it
from the devotees. That's all the encouragement I needed really. It just seemed that anything spiritual I did,
either through songs, or helping with publishing the books, or whatever, really pleased him. The song I
wrote, "Living in the Material World," as I wrote in I, Me, Mine, was influenced by Çréla Prabhupäda. He's
the one who explained to me how we're not these physical bodies. We just happen to be in them.
Like I said in the song, this place's not really what's happening. We don't belong here, but in the spiritual
sky:
As I'm fated for the material world
Get frustrated in the material world
Senses never gratified
Only swelling like a tide
That could drown me in the material world
The whole point to being here, really, is to figure a way to get out.
That was the thing about Prabhupäda, you see. He didn't just talk about loving Kĺńëa and getting out of this
place, but he was the perfect example. He talked about always chanting, and he was always chanting. I think
that that in itself was perhaps the most encouraging thing for me. It was enough to make me try harder, to be
just a little bit better. He was a perfect example of everything he preached.
Mukunda: How would you describe Çréla Prabhupäda's achievements?
George: I think Prabhupäda's accomplishments are very significant; they're huge. Even compared to
someone like William Shakespeare, the amount of literature Prabhupäda produced is truly amazing. It
boggles the mind. He sometimes went for days with only a few hours sleep. I mean even a youthful, athletic
young person couldn't keep the pace he kept himself at seventy-nine years of age.
Çréla Prabhupäda has already had an amazing effect on the world. There's no way of measuring it. One day
I just realized, "God, this man is amazing!" He would sit up all night translating Sanskrit into English,
putting in glossaries to make sure everyone understands it, and yet he never came off as someone above
you. He always had that childlike simplicity, and what's most amazing is the fact that he did all this
translating in such a relatively short time-just a few years. And without having anything more than his own
Kĺńëa consciousness, he rounded up all these thousands of devotees, set the whole movement in motion,
which became something so strong that it went on even after he left.* And it's still escalating even now at an
incredible rate. It will go on and on from the knowledge he gave. It can only grow and grow. The more
people wake up spiritually, the more they'll begin to realize the depth of what Prabhupäda was saying-how
much he gave.
Mukunda: Did you know that complete sets of Prabhupäda's books are in all the major colleges and
universities in the world, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, and the Sorbonne?
George: They should be! One of the greatest things I noticed about Prabhupäda was the way he would be
talking to you in English, and then all of a sudden he would say it to you in Sanskrit and then translate it
back into English. It was clear that he really knew it well. His contribution has obviously been enormous
from the literary point of view, because he's brought the Supreme Person, Kĺńëa, more into focus. A lot of
scholars and writers know the Gétä, but only on an intellectual level. Even when they write "Kĺńëa said...,"
they don't do it with the bhakti or love required. That's the secret, you know-Kĺńëa is actually a person who
is the Lord and who will also appear there in that book when there is that love, that bhakti. You can't
understand the first thing about God unless you love Him. These big so-called Vedic scholars-they don't
necessarily love Kĺńëa, so they can't understand Him and give Him to us. But Prabhupäda was different.
Mukunda: The Vedic literatures predicted that after the advent of Lord Caitanya five hundred years ago,
there would be a Golden Age of ten thousand years, when the chanting of the holy names of God would
completely nullify all the degradations of the modern age, and real spiritual peace would come to this
planet.
George: Well, Prabhupäda's definitely affected the world in an absolute way. What he was giving us was the
highest literature, the highest knowledge. I mean there just isn't anything higher.
Mukunda: You write in your autobiography that "No matter how good you are, you still need grace to get
out of the material world. You can be a yogé or a monk or a nun, but without God's grace you still can't
make it." And at the end of the song "Living in the Material World," the Iyrics say, "Got to get out of this
place by the Lord Çré Kĺńëa's grace, my salvation from the material world." If we're dependent on the grace
of God, what does the expression "God he]ps those who help themselves" mean?
George: It's flexible, I think. In one way, I'm never going to get out of here unless it's by His grace, but then
again, His grace is relative to the amount of desire I can manifest in myself. The amount of grace I would
expect from God should be equal to the amount of grace I can gather or earn. I get out what I put in. Like in
the song I wrote about Prabhupäda:
The Lord loves the one that loves the Lord
And the law says if you don't give,
then you don't get loving
Now the Lord helps those that help themselves
And the law says whatever you do
It comes right back on you
-"The Lord Loves the One that Loves the Lord"
from Living in the Material World
Apple LP
Have you heard that song "That Which I Have Lost" from my new album, Somewhere in England? It's right
out of the Bhagavad-gétä. In it I talk about fighting the forces of darkness, limitations, falsehood, and
mortality.
CABH 1.7: God Is a Person
God Is a Person
Mukunda: Yes, I like it. If people can understand the Lord's message in Bhagavad-gétä, they can become
truly happy.
A lot of people, when they just get started in spiritual life, worship God as impersonal. What's the difference
between worshiping Kĺńëa, or God, in His personal form and worshiping His impersonal nature as energy or
light?
George: It's like the difference between hanging out with a computer or hanging out with a person. Like I
said earlier, "If there is a God, I want to see Him," not only His energy or His light, but Him.
Mukunda: What do you think is the goal of human life?
George: Each individual has to burn out his own karma and escape from the chains of mäyä* (illusion),
reincarnation, and all that. The best thing anyone can give to humanity is God consciousness. Then you can
really give them something. But first you have to concentrate on your own spiritual advancement; so in a
sense we have to become selfish to become selfless.
Mukunda: What about trying to solve the problems of life without employing the spiritual process?
George: Life is like a piece of string with a lot of knots tied in it. The knots are the karma you're born with
from all your past lives, and the object of human life is to try and undo all those knots. That's what chanting
and meditation in God consciousness can do. Otherwise you simply tie another ten knots each time you try
to undo one knot. That's how karma works. I mean, we're now the results of our past actions, and in the
future we'll be the results of the actions we're performing now. A little understanding of "As you sow, so
shall you reap" is important, because then you can't blame the condition you're in on anyone else. You know
that it's by your own actions you're able to get more in a mess or out of one. It's your own actions that
relieve or bind you.
Mukunda: In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam, the crest jewel of all the Vedic literatures, it's described how those
pure souls who live in the spiritual world with God have different types of rasas,* or relationships, with
Him. Is there any special way you like to think of Kĺńëa?
George: I like the idea of seeing Kĺńëa as a baby, the way He's often depicted in India. And also Govinda,
the cowherd boy. I like the idea that you can have Kĺńëa as a baby and feel protective to Him, or as your
friend, or as the guru or master-type figure.
CABH 1.8: "My Sweet Lord"
"My Sweet Lord"
Mukunda: I don't think it's possible to calculate just how many people were turned on to Kĺńëa
consciousness by your song "My Sweet Lord." But you went through quite a personal thing before you
decided to do that song. In your book you said, "I thought a lot about whether to do 'My Sweet Lord' or not
because I would be committing myself publicly ... Many people fear the words Lord and God ... I was
sticking my neck out on the chopping block ... but at the same time I thought 'Nobody's saying it ... why
should I be untrue to myself?' I came to believe in the importance that if you feel something strong enough,
then you should say it.
"I wanted to show that Hallelujah and Hare Kĺńëa are quite the same thing. I did the voices singing
'Hallelujah' and then the change to 'Hare Kĺńëa' so that people would be chanting the mahä-mantra-before
they knew what was going on! I had been chanting Hare Kĺńëa for a long time, and this song was a simple
idea of how to do a Western pop equivalent of a mantra which repeats over and over again the holy names. I
don't feel guilty or bad about it; in fact it saved many a heroin addict's life."
Why did you feel you wanted to put Hare Kĺńëa on the album at all? Wouldn't "Hallelujah" alone have been
good enough?
George: Well, first of all "Hallelujah" is a joyous expression the Christians have, but "Hare Kĺńëa" has a
mystical side to it. It's more than just glorifying God; it's asking to become His servant. And because of the
way the mantra is put together, with the mystic spiritual energy contained in those syllables, it's much closer
to God than the way Christianity currently seems to be representing Him. Although Christ in my mind is an
absolute yogé, I think many Christian teachers today are misrepresenting Christ. They're supposed to be
representing Jesus, but they're not doing it very well. They're letting him down very badly, and that's a big
turn off.
My idea in "My Sweet Lord," because it sounded like a "pop song," was to sneak up on them a bit. The
point was to have the people not offended by "Hallelujah," and by the time it gets to "Hare Kĺńëa," they're
already hooked, and their foot's tapping, and they're already singing along "Hallelujah," to kind of lull them
into a sense of false security. And then suddenly it turns into "Hare Kĺńëa," and they will all be singing that
before they know what's happened, and they will think, "Hey, I thought I wasn't supposed to like Hare
Kĺńëa!"
People write to me even now asking what style that was. Ten years later they're still trying to figure out
what the words mean. It was just a little trick really. And it didn't offend. For some reason I never got any
offensive feedback from Christians who said "We like it up to a point, but what's all this about Hare Kĺńëa?"
Hallelujah may have originally been some mantric thing that got watered down, but I'm not sure what it
really means. The Greek word for Christ is Kristos, which is, let's face it, Kĺńëa, and Kristos is the same
name actually.
Mukunda: What would you say is the difference between the Christian view of God, and Kĺńëa as
represented in the Bhagavad-gétä?
George: When I first came to this house, it was occupied by nuns. I brought in this poster of Vińëu [a four-
armed form of Kĺńëa]. You just see His head and shoulders and His four arms holding a conchshell and
various other symbols, and it has a big oŕ* written above it. He has a nice aura around Him. I left it by the
fireplace and went out into the garden. When we came back in thc house, they all pounced on me, saying,
"Who is that? What is it?" as if it were some pagan god. So I said, "Well, if God is unlimited, then He can
appear in any form, whichever way He likes to appear. That's one way. He's called Vińëu." It sort of freaked
them out a bit, but the point is, why should God be limited? Even if you get Him as Kĺńëa, He is not limited
to that picture of Kĺńëa. He can be the baby form, He can be Govinda and manifest in so many other well-
known forms. You can see Kĺńëa as a little boy, which is how I like to see Kĺńëa. It's a joyful relationship.
But there's this morbid side to the way many represent Christianity today, where you don't smile, because
it's too serious, and you can't expect to see God-that kind of stuff. If there is God, we must see Him, and I
don't believe in the idea you find in most churches, where they say, "No, you're not going to see Him. He's
way up above you. Just believe what we tell you and shut up."
I mean, the knowledge that's given in Prabhupäda's books-the Vedic stuff-that's the world's oldest scriptures.
They say that man can become purified, and with divine vision he can see God. You get pure by chanting,
then you see Him. And Sanskrit, the language they're written in, is the world's first recorded language.
Devanägaré [the alphabet of the Sanskrit language] actually means "language of the gods."
Mukunda: Anyone who is sincere about making spiritual advancement, whatever one's religion may be, can
usually see the value of chanting. I mean if that person was really trying to be God conscious and trying to
chant sincerely.
George: That's right. It's a matter of being open. Anyone who's open can do it. You just have to be open and
not prejudiced. You just have to try it. There's no loss, you know. But the "intellectuals" will always have
problems, because they always need to "know." They're often the most spiritually bankrupt people, because
they never let go; they don't understand the meaning of "to transcend" the intellect. But an ordinary person's
more willing to say, "Okay. Let me try it and see if it works." Chanting Hare Kĺńëa can make a person a
better Christian, too.
CABH 1.9: Karma and Reincarnation
Karma and Reincarnation
Mukunda: In I, Me, Mine, you speak about karma and reincarnation, and how the only way to get out of the
cycle is to take up a bona fide spiritual process. You said at one point, "Everybody is worried about dying,
but the cause of death is birth, so if you don't want to die, you don't get born!" Did any of the other Beatles
believe in reincarnation?
George: I'm sure John does! And I wouldn't want to underestimate Paul and Ringo. I wouldn't be surprised
if they're hoping it's true, you know what I mean? For all I know, Ringo might be a yogé disguised as a
drummer!
Mukunda: Paul has our latest book, Coming Back: The Science of Reincarnation. Where do you think
John's soul is now?
George: I should hope that he's in a good place. He had the understanding, though, that each soul
reincarnates until it becomes completely pure, and that each soul finds its own level, designated by reactions
to its actions in this and previous lives.
Mukunda: Bob Dylan did a lot of chanting at one time. He used to come to the Los Angeles temple and
came to the Denver and Chicago temples as well. In fact he drove across the United States with two
devotees once and wrote several songs about Kĺńëa. They spent a lot of time chanting.
George: That's right. He said he enjoyed the chanting and being with them. Also Stevie Wonder had you on
one of his records, you know. And it was great the song he put the chanting in-"Pastimes Paradise."
Mukunda: When you were in Vĺndävana, India, where Lord Kĺńëa appeared, and you saw thousands of
people chanting Hare Kĺńëa, did it strengthen your faith in the idea of chanting to see a whole city living
Hare Kĺńëa?
George: Yeah, it fortifies you. It definitely helps. It's fantastic to be in a place where the whole town is
doing it. And I also had the idea that they were all knocked out at the idea of seeing some white person
chanting on beads. Vĺndävana is one of the holiest cities in India. Everyone, everywhere, chants Hare
Kĺńëa. It was my most fantastic experience.
Mukunda: You wrote in your book: "Most of the world is fooling about, especially the people who think
they control the world and the community. The presidents, the politicians, the military, etc., are all jerking
about, acting as if they are Lord over their own domains. That's basically Problem One on the planet."
George: That's right. Unless you're doing some kind of God conscious thing and you know that He's the one
who's really in charge, you're just building up a lot of karma and not really helping yourself or anybody else.
There's a point in me where it's beyond sad, seeing the state of the world today. It's so screwed up. It's
terrible, and it will be getting worse and worse. More concrete everywhere, more pollution, more
radioactivity. There's no wilderness left, no pure air. They're chopping the forests down. They're polluting
all the oceans. In one sense, I'm pessimistic about the future of the planet. These big guys don't realize for
everything they do, there's a reaction. You have to pay. That's karma.
Mukunda: Do you think there's any hope?
George: Yes. One by one, everybody's got to escape mäyä. Everybody has to burn out his karma and escape
reincarnation and all that. Stop thinking that if Britain or America or Russia or the West or whatever
becomes superior, then we'll beat them, and then we'll all have a rest and live happily ever after. That
doesn't work. The best thing you can give is God consciousness. Manifest your own divinity first. The truth
is there. It's right within us all. Understand what you are. If people would just wake up to what's real, there
would be no misery in the world. I guess chanting's a pretty good place to start.
Mukunda: Thanks so much, George.
George: All right. Hare Kĺńëa!
CABH 2: Chanting for Liberation
Chapter 2
Chanting for Liberation
A conversation about the Hare Kĺńëa mantra
between Çréla Prabhupäda and John Lennon, Yoko Ono,
and George Harrison
Montreal Star, June, 1969:
Reporter: Where do you get your strength?
John Lennon: From Hare Kĺńëa.
Yoko: That's where we get it from, you know. We're not denying it.
In September 1969. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, founder-äcärya (spiritual master) of the Hare
Kĺńëa movement, arrived as a house guest at Tittenhurst Park, the beautiful eighty-acre British estate owned
by John Lennon. Three or four times a week, the Swami, who later became known to the world as Çréla
Prabhupäda, gave public lectures in a tall, stately building at the northern end of the property a hundred
yards from the main house, in which John and Yoko lived.
The building had been formerly used as a hall for chamber-music recitals, but now several of Çréla
Prabhupäda's disciples, who resided along with him in a block of guest houses on the property, installed a
small Deity altar and a podium for Çréla Prabhupäda. The building never really had a name, but after Çréla
Prabhupäda's arrival, everyone called it "the Temple."
They still call it "the Temple" today, and except for the recent addition of an enormous crimson-and-gold
pipe organ nearly covering the towering west wall, it exists unchanged, now surrounded by a recording-
studio complex owned by Ringo Starr.
On September 14, John, Yoko, and George Harrison, after enjoying an Indian vegetarian meal prepared by
the devotees at the Temple, walked over to Çréla Prabhupäda's quarters for their first meeting.
CABH 2.1: Which Mantra to Chant
Which Mantra to Chant
Yoko Ono: If Hare Kĺńëa is such a strong, powerful mantra, is there any reason to chant anything else? For
instance, you talked about songs and different mantras. Is there any point in the chanting of another song or
mantra?
Çréla Prabhupäda: There are other mantras, but the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is especially recommended for this
age. But other Vedic mantras are also chanted. As I told you, the sages would sit with musical instruments,
like the tamboura, and chant them. For instance, Narada Muni* is always chanting mantras and playing his
stringed instrument, the véëä. So chanting out loud, with musical instruments, is not a new thing. It's been
done since time immemorial. But the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is especially recommended for this
age. This is stated in many Vedic literatures, such as the Brahmäëňa Puräëa, the Kalisantaraëa Upanińad,
the Agni Puräëa. and so forth. And apart from the statements of the Vedic literature, Lord Kĺńëa Himself, in
the form of Lord Caitanya, preached that everyone should chant the Hare Kĺńëa mantra. And many people
followed Him. When a scientist discovers something, it becomes public property. People may take
advantage of it. Similarly, if a mantra has potency, all people should be able to take advantage of it. Why
should it remain secret? If a mantra is valuable, it is valuable for everybody. Why should it be for only a
particular person?
John Lennon: If all mantras are just the name of God, then whether it's a secret mantra or an open mantra it's
all the name of God. So it doesn't really make much difference, does it, which one you sing?
Çréla Prabhupäda: It does make a difference. For instance, in a drug shop they sell all types of medicines for
curing different diseases. But still you have to get a doctor's prescription in order to get a particular type of
medicine. Otherwise, the druggist won't supply you. You might go to the drug shop and say, "I'm diseased.
Please give me any medicine you have." But the druggist will ask you, "Where is your prescription?"
CABH 2.2: Prescription for the Age of Kali
Prescription for the Age of Kali
Similarly, in this age of Kali* the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is prescribed in the çästras, or scriptures. And the great
teacher Caitanya Mahäprabhu, whom we consider to be an incarnation of God, also prescribed it. Therefore,
our principle is that everyone should follow the prescription of the great authorities. Mahäjano yena gataů sa
panthäů. We should follow in the footsteps of the great authorities. That is our business. The Mahäbhärata
states, "Dry arguments are inconclusive. A great personality whose opinion does not differ from others is
not considered a great sage. Simply by studying the Vedas, which are variegated, one cannot come to the
right path by which religious principles are understood. The solid truth of religious principles is hidden in
the heart of an unadulterated, self-realized person. Consequently, as the çästras affirm, one should accept
whatever progressive path the mahäjanas advocate." [Mahäbhärata, Vana-parva, 313.117] This Vedic
mantra says that if you simply try to argue and approach the Absolute Truth, it is very difficult. By
argument and reason it is very difficult, because our arguments and reason are limited. And our senses are
imperfect. There are many confusing varieties of scriptures, and every philosopher has a different opinion,
and unless a philosopher defeats other philosophers, he cannot become recognized as a big philosopher. One
theory replaces another, and therefore philosophical speculation will not help us arrive at the Absolute
Truth. The Absolute Truth is very secret. So how can one achieve such a secret thing? You simply follow
the great personalities who have already achieved success. So our Kĺńëa consciousness philosophical
method is to follow the great personalities, such as Lord Kĺńëa, Lord Caitanya, and the great spiritual
masters in disciplic succession. Take shelter of bona fide authorities and follow them-that is recommended
in the Vedas. That will take you to the ultimate goal.
CABH 2.3: You Can't Manufacture a Mantra
You Can't Manufacture a Mantra
Evaŕ paramparä-präptam: In this way, by disciplic succession, the knowledge is coming down. Sa käleneha
mahatä yogo nańöaů parantapa: But in the course of time the succession was broken. Therefore, Kĺńëa says,
I am speaking it to you again. So a mantra should be received from the disciplic succession. The Vedic
injunction is sampradäya-vihinä ye manträs te nińphalä matäů. If your mantra does not come through the
disciplic succession, it will not be effective. Manträs te nińphalä. Nińphalä means that it will not produce
the desired result. So the mantra must be received through the proper channel, or it will not act. A mantra
cannot be manufactured. It must come from the original Supreme Absolute, coming down through the
channel of disciplic succession. It has to be received in that way, and only then will it act.
According to our Kĺńëa consciousness philosophy, the mantra is coming down through four channels of
disciplic succession: one through Lord Çiva, one through the goddess Lakńmé, one through Lord Brahmä,
and one through the four Kumäras. The same thing comes down through different channels. These are
called the four sampradäyas, or disciplic successions. So, one has to take his mantra from one of these four
sampradäyas; then only is that mantra active. If we receive the mantra in that way, it will be effective. And
if one does not receive his mantra through one of these sampradäya channels, then it will not act; it will not
give fruit.
Yoko Ono: If the mantra itself has such power, does it matter where you receive it, where you take it?
Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes, it does matter. For instance, milk is nutritious. That's a fact; everyone knows. But if
milk is touched by the lips of a serpent, it is no longer nutritious. It becomes poisonous.
Yoko Ono: Well, milk is material.
Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes, it is material. But since you are trying to understand spiritual topics through your
material senses, we have to give material examples.
Yoko Ono: Well, no, I don't think you have to give me the material sense. I mean, the mantra is not
material. It should be something spiritual; therefore, I don't think anybody should be able to spoil it. I
wonder if anybody can actually spoil something that isn't material.
Çréla Prabhupäda: But if you don't receive the mantra through the proper channel, it may not really be
spiritual.
John Lennon: How would you know, anyway? How are you able to tell? I mean, for any of your disciples or
us or anybody else who goes to any spiritual master how are we to tell if he's for real or not?
Çréla Prabhupäda: You shouldn't go to just any spiritual master.
CABH 2.4: Who's a Genuine Guru?
Who's a Genuine Guru?
John Lennon: Yes, we should go to a true master. But how are we to tell one from the other?
Çréla Prabhupäda: It is not that you can go to just any spiritual master. He must be a member of a
recognized sampradava, a particular line of disciplic succession.
John Lennon: But what if one of these masters who's not in the line says exactly the same thing as one who
is? What if he says his mantra is coming from the Vedas and he seems to speak with as much authority as
you? He could probably be right. It's confusing like having too many fruits on a plate.
Çréla Prabhupäda: If the mantra is actually coming through a bona fide disciplic succession, then it will
have potency.
John Lennon: But the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is the best one?
Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes.
Yoko Ono: Well, if Hare Kĺńëa is the best one, why should we bother to say anything else other than Hare
Kĺńëa?
Çréla Prabhupäda: It's true, you don't have to bother with anything else. We say that the Hare Kĺńëa mantra
is sufficient for one's perfection, for liberation.
George Harrison: Isn't it like flowers? Somebody may prefer roses, and somebody may like carnations
better. Isn't it really a matter for the individual devotee to decide? One person may find that Hare Kĺńëa is
more beneficial to his spiritual progress, and yet another person may find that some other mantra may be
more beneficial for himself. Isn't it just a matter of taste, like choosing a flower? They're all flowers, but
some people may like one better than another.
Çréla Prabhupäda: But still there is a distinction. A fragrant rose is considered better than a flower without
any scent.
Yoko Ono: In that case, I can't
Çréla Prabhupäda: Let's try to understand this flower example.
Yoko Ono: O.K.
Çréla Prabhupäda: You may be attracted by one flower, and I may be attracted by another flower. But
among the flowers a distinction can be made. There are many flowers that have no fragrance and many that
have fragrance.
Yoko Ono: Is that flower that has fragrance better?
Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes. Therefore, your attraction for a particular flower is not the solution to the question
of which is actually better. In the same way, personal attraction is not the solution to choosing the best
spiritual process. In Bhagavad-gétä [4.11], Lord Kĺńëa says, "All of them-as they surrender unto Me-I
reward accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pĺthä." Kĺńëa is the Supreme
Absolute. If someone wants to enjoy a particular relationship with Him, Kĺńëa presents Himself in that way.
It's just like the flower example. You may want a yellow flower, and that flower may not have any
fragrance. That flower is there; it's for you, that's all. But if someone wants a rose, Kĺńëa gives him a rose.
You both get the flower of your choice, but when you make a comparative study of which is better, the rose
will be considered better.
Yoko Ono: I see a pattern in what you've said. For instance, you said that Hare Kĺńëa is the most
superpowerful word. And if that is true, then why do we bother to utter any other words? I mean, is it
necessary? And why do you encourage us, saying that we're songwriters and all, to write any other song
than Hare Kĺńëa?
Çréla Prabhupäda: Chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is the recommended process for cleaning our hearts. So
actually one who chants Hare Kĺńëa regularly doesn't have to do anything else. He is already in the correct
position. He doesn't have to read any books.
Yoko Ono: Yes, I agree. So why do you say that it's all right to write songs, speak, and all that? It's a waste
of time, isn't it?
Çréla Prabhupäda: No, it's not a waste of time. For instance, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu would spend most
of His time simply chanting. He was a sannyäsé, a member of the renounced spiritual order of life. So, He
was criticized by great sannyäsés, who said, "You have become a sannyäsé, and yet You do not read the
Vedänta-sütra. You are simply chanting and dancing." In this way, they criticized His constant chanting of
Hare Kĺńëa. But when Caitanya Mahäprabhu met such stalwart scholars, He did not remain silent. He
established the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa by sound arguments based on the Vedic scriptures.
CABH 2.5: Chanting for Liberation
Chanting for Liberation
Chanting Hare Kĺńëa is sufficient for liberation; there is no doubt about it. But if someone wants to
understand the Hare Kĺńëa mantra through philosophy, through study, through Vedänta, then we do not lack
information. We have many books. But it is not that the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is somehow insufficient and
therefore we are recommending books. The Hare Kĺńëa mantra is sufficient. But when Caitanya
Mahäprabhu was chanting, He sometimes had to meet opposing scholars, such as Prakäçänanda Sarasvaté
and Särvabhauma Bhaööäcärya. And then He was ready to argue with them on the basis of Vedänta. So, we
should not be dumb. If someone comes to argue with Vedänta philosophy, then we must be prepared. When
we are preaching, many different types of people will come with questions. We should be able to answer
them. Otherwise, the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is sufficient. It does not require any education, any reading, or
anything else. Simply by chanting Hare Kĺńëa, you get the highest perfection. That's a fact.
CABH 3: Çréla Prabhupäda Brings the Hare Kĺńëa Mantra to the West
Chapter 3
Çréla Prabhupäda Brings the Hare
Kĺńëa Mantra to the West
When His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda frst arrived in America in the midst ol the
cultural turmoil of the sixties, he quickly captured the hearts and minds of the New York hippies and the
San Francisco flower children with the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra.
Within three years, he journeyed to London, and by 1971, Hare Kĺńëa had been recorded on hit records by
former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. By then the mantra had been heard by hundreds of
millions of people, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, formed in New York in 1966,
had spread to six continents. How could an elderly Indian swami in a strange, foreign land, with no money,
no support, no friends, and no followers, achieve such phenomenal success? The story that follows includes
eyewitness accounts and excerpts from Çréla Prabhupäda-lélämĺta, the authorized biography of this
extraordinary saint, written by one of his intimate disciples, His Holiness Satsvarüpa däsa Goswami.
The arduous sea voyage from Calcutta to Boston was finally over. The lone passenger aboard the cargo ship
Jaladuta, a seventy-year-old Indian holy man, had been given free passage by the owner of the Scindia
Steamship Company. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda arrived at Commonwealth
Pier on September 17, 1965.
For thousands of years kĺńëa-bhakti, love of Kĺńëa, had been known only in India, but now, on the order of
his spiritual master, Çréla Prabhupäda had come to awaken the natural, dormant Kĺńëa consciousness of the
American people.
On his arrival day onboard the Jaladuta, he wrote in his diary the following words:
Absorbed in material life, they [Americans] think themselves very happy and satisfied, and therefore they
have no taste for the transcendental message of Väsudeva [Kĺńëa].... But I know that Your causeless mercy
can make everything possible, because You are the most expert mystic ... How will I make them understand
this message of Kĺńëa consciousness? ... O Lord, I am simply praying for Your mercy so that I will be able
to convince them about Your message.... I am seeking Your benediction ... I have no devotion, nor do I have
any knowledge, but I have strong faith in the holy name of Kĺńëa....
In 1922, Çré1a Prabhupäda's spiritual master, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvaté Öhäkura, had
requested him to spread the teachings of Lord Kĺńëa, including the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, to the West, and
now, after a lifetime in preparation, Çréla Prabhupäda was ready to begin.
After landing in America with the Indian rupee equivalent of eight dollars, he spent his first year in the
United States with a family in Butler, Pennsylvania; an Indian yoga teacher in Manhattan; and later, with
the help of friends, rented a small room in upper Manhattan.
By the summer of 1966, he had found a larger location more suited to propagating the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-
mantra and the ancient science of Kĺńëa consciousness. That summer Prabhupäda had met a young man
named Harvey Cohen, who offered him an old artist-in-residence loft in lower Manhattan's Bowery.
Here, a small group of young Bohemian types would join Çréla Prabhupäda every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday evening for chanting Hare Kĺńëa and classes on the Bhagavad-gétä. Although not yet
incorporated or known by its present name, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness had been
born.
Few of Çréla Prabhupäda's guests, whose interests included music, drugs, macrobiotics, pacifism, and
spiritual meditation, knew very much about what they were chanting or exactly why they were chanting it.
They just enjoyed it and liked being in the presence of the man they affectionately called "Swamiji." These
musicians, artists, poets, and intellectuals, most of whom had chosen to live outside of mainstream society,
felt that by chanting Hare Kĺńëa they were taking part in something mystical and unique.

Çréla Prabhupäda led the solo chanting: Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma,
Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. The melody was always the same-a simple four-note phrase, the first
four notes of the major scale. Prabhupäda led the kértana with small three-inch-diameter hand cymbals he
had brought with him from lndia. He would ring them in a one-two-three, one-two-three fashion Some of
his followers clapped along with him, and some joined in with small fingercymbals of their own. Others sat
in yoga postures, hands outstretched, chanting and meditating on this novel transcendental vibration. Guests
would sometimes bring other instruments, including guitars, tambouras,* flutes, tambourines, and a wide
variety of drums.
After a few months some of Çréla Prabhupäda's followers secured for him a better place to live and spread
the chanting of the holy name. The new Second Avenue location on the hippie-filled Lower East Side
included an apartment for Çréla Prabhupäda one floor up and a ground-floor storefront, which he would use
as a temple. Within a few weeks, the small sixty-by-twenty-five-foot storefront was packed with young
people three nights a week. Gradually the storefront took on the appearance of a temple as visitors began to
bring tapestries and paintings for the walls, carpets for the floors, and amplification equipment for Çréla
Prabhupäda's lectures and kértanas (congregational chanting).
Prabhupäda's kértanas were lively and captivating, with numerous guests spontaneously rising to their feet,
clapping and dancing. Çréla Prabhupäda, always conducting the kértana in call-and-response fashion and
playing a small African bongolike drum, would accelerate the chant faster and faster, until after about half
an hour it would reach a climax and suddenly end. Chanting along with Çréla Prabhupäda in this small
room on Second Avenue, guests found themselves transported into another dimension, a spiritual
dimension, in which the anxieties and pressures of everyday life in New York City simply did not exist.
Many soon caught on that chanting Hare Kĺńëa was an intense and effective form of meditation, a direct
means of communion with something greater than themselves, no matter what their conception of the
Absolute.
Çréla Prabhupäda initiated his first disciples in September of '66, at which time about a dozen students
vowed to chant a minimum of sixteen rounds a day on their beads. This meant reciting the sixteen-word
mantra 1,728 times a day, a meditation that would take them between one and a half to two hours to
complete.
Prabhupäda's flock soon began to print and distribute invitations and leaflets such as this one:
Practice the transcendental sound vibration,
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare.
This chanting will cleanse the dust from the
mirror of the mind.
Another invited America's youth to
STAY HIGH FOREVER!
No More Coming Down

Practice Krishna Consciousness

Expand your consciousness by practicing the
*TRANSCENDENTAL SOUND VIBRATION*
HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE
HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE
In the mornings Çréla Prabhupäda would lead the devotees in one round of japa (chanting on beads). After
chanting with Prabhupäda, the devotees would chant their remaining sixteen rounds on their own.
The celebrated American poet Allen Ginsberg, accompanying the kértana on his harmonium, had by now
become a regular at the evening chanting sessions at the temple and in nearby Tompkins Square Park. In a
1980 interview published in Çréla Prabhupäda's biography, he recalled his experiences.
Allen: I liked immediately the idea that Swami Bhaktivedanta had chosen the Lower East Side of New York
for his practice.... I was astounded that he'd come with the chanting, because it seemed like a reinforcement
from India. I had been running around singing Hare Kĺńëa but had never understood exactly why or what it
meant.... I thought it was great now that he was here to expound on the Hare Kĺńëa mantra-that would sort
of justify my singing. I knew what I was doing but I didn't have any theological background to satisfy
further inquiry, and here was someone who did. So I thought that was absolutely great.... If anyone wanted
to know the technical intricacies and the ultimate history, I could send them to him.... he had a personal,
selfless sweetness like total devotion. And that was what always conquered me ... a kind of personal charm,
coming from dedication ... I always liked to be with him.
The chanting of Hare Kĺńëa seemed to spread in an almost magical way, and as time went on, the number of
people attracted to it increased geometrically. Even in this unlikely New York setting, the mantra seemed to
have a life of its own. Whether it was the melody, the beat, the sound of the words, the look of the devotees,
or Prabhupäda's humility or serenity, nearly everyone who then came in touch with the chanting of Hare
Kĺńëa responded favorably.
In December 1966, Çréla Prabhupäda would explain on his first record album, the LP that introduced two of
the Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison, to Hare Kĺńëa, that "the chanting Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa,
Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare is not a material sound vibration,
but comes directly from the spiritual world."
Prabhupäda's Tompkins Square Park kértanas were spiritual happenings that are now legendary. Hundreds
of people from all walks of life took part; some as observers and some as eager participants, chanting,
clapping their hands, dancing, and playing musical instruments. Irving Halpern, one of many local
musicians who regularly participated, remembers the scene.
Irving: The park resounded. The musicians were very careful in listening to the mantras.... I have talked to a
couple of musicians about it, and we agreed that in his head this Swami must have had hundreds and
hundreds of melodies that had been brought back from the real learning from the other side of the world. So
many people came there just to tune in to the musical gift, the transmission of the dharma. "Hey," they
would say, "listen to this holy monk." People were really sure there were going to be unusual feats,
grandstanding, flashy levitations, or whatever people expected was going to happen. But when the
simplicity of what the Swami was really saying, when you began to sense it-whether you were motivated to
actually make a lifetime commitment and go this way of life, or whether you merely wanted to place it in a
place and give certain due respect to it-it turned you around.
And that was interesting, too, the different ways in which people regarded the kértana. Some people thought
it was a prelude. Some people thought it was a main event. Some people liked the music. Some people liked
the poetic sound of it.
After the kértanas Çréla Prabhupäda usually spoke for a few minutes about Kĺńëa consciousness, inviting
everyone back to the temple for a Sunday afternoon "love festival" of chanting and feasting, a weekly event
that soon became a tradition that continues today. The October 9 edition of the New York Times described
the Tompkins Square Park kértana with the following headline: "SWAMI'S FLOCK CHANTS IN PARK
TO FIND ECSTASY."
Sitting under a tree in a Lower East Side park and occasionally dancing, fifty followers of a Hindu swami
repeated a sixteen-word chant for two hours yesterday afternoon to the accompaniment of cymbals,
tambourines, sticks, drums, bells, and a small reed organ.... Repetition of the chant, Swami A.C.
Bhaktivedanta says, is the best way to achieve self-realization in this age of destruction.
... many in the crowd of about a hundred persons standing around the chanters found themselves swaying to
or clapping hands in time to the hypnotic rythmic music. "It brings a state of ecstasy," said Allen Ginsberg
the poet.... The ecstasy of the chant or mantra Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/
Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare has replaced LSD and other drugs for many of the
Swami's followers."
At the same time, New York's avant-garde newspaper The East Village Other ran a front page story with a
full-page photograph of Çréla Prabhupäda standing and speaking to a large group of people in the park. The
banner headline read "SAVE EARTH NOW!!" and in large type just below the picture, the mahä-mantra
was printed: "HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA
HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE." The article admired the chanting and described how Çréla
Prabhupäda "had succeeded in convincing the world's toughest audience-Bohemians, acidheads, potheads,
and hippies-that he knew the way to God."
Turn Off, Sing Out, and Fall In. This new brand of holy man, with all due deference to Dr. Leary, has come
forth with a brand of "Consciousness Expansion" that's sweeter than acid, cheaper than pot, and nonbustible
by fuzz.
The newspaper story described how a visit to the temple at 26 Second Avenue would bring "living, visible,
tangible proof" that God is alive and well. The story quoted one of Çréla Prabhupäda's new disciples:
I started chanting to myself, like the Swami said, when I was walking down the street-Hare Krishna, Hare
Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare-over and over, and
suddenly everything started looking so beautiful, the kids, the old men and women ... even the creeps looked
beautiful ... to say nothing of the trees and flowers.
Finding it superior to the euphoria from any kind of drug, he said,
There's no coming down from this. I can always do this any time, anywhere. It is always with you.
CABH 3.1: To San Francisco and Beyond
To San Francisco and Beyond
Early in 1967, several of Çréla Prabhupäda's disciples left New York and opened a temple in the heart of
San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, home for thousands of hippies and "flower children" from all over
the country. Within a short time, Çréla Prabhupäda's temple there had become a spiritual haven for troubled,
searching, and sometimes desperate young people. Drug overdoses were common, and hundreds of
confused, dazed, and disenchanted young Americans roamed the streets.
Haridäsa, the first president of the San Francisco temple, remembers what it was like.
Haridäsa: The hippies needed all the help they could get, and they knew it. And the Rädhä-Kĺńëa temple
was certainly a kind of spiritual haven. Kids sensed it. They were running, living on the streets, no place
where they could go, where they could rest, where people weren't going to hurt them.
I think it saved a lot of lives; there might have been a lot more casualties if it hadn't been for Hare Kĺńëa. It
was like opening a temple in a battlefield. It was the hardest place to do it, but it was the place where it was
most needed. Although the Swami had no precedents for dealing with any of this, he applied the chanting
with miraculous results. The chanting was wonderful. It worked.
Michael Bowen, an artist and one of the leading figures of the Haight-Ashbury scene, recalled that Çréla
Prabhupäda had "an amazing ability to get people off drugs, especially speed, heroin, burnt-out LSD cases-
all of that.
Every day at the temple devotees cooked and served to over two hundred young people a free, sumptuous
multi-course lunch of vegetarian food offered to Kĺńëa. Many local merchants helped to make this possible
by donating to the cause. An early San Francisco devotee recalls those days.
Harńaräëé: People who were plain lost or needed comforting ... sort of wandered or staggered into the
temple. Some of them stayed and became devotees, and some just took prasädam [spiritual food] and left.
Just from a medical standpoint, doctors didn't know what to do with people on LSD. The police and the free
clinics in the area couldn't handle the overload of people taking LSD. The police saw Swamiji [Çréla
Prabhupäda] as a certain refuge.
Throughout lunch, devotees played the New York recording of Çréla Prabhupäda chanting the Hare Kĺńëa
mantra. The sacred sound reinforced the spiritual mood of the temple and helped to ease the tensions and
frustrations of its young guests.
Sunday, January 29, 1967 marked the major spiritual event of the San Francisco hippy era, and Çréla
Prabhupäda, who was ready to go anywhere to spread Kĺńëa consciousness, was there. The Grateful Dead,
Moby Grape, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver
Messenger Service-all the new-wave San Francisco bands-had agreed to appear with Çréla Prabhupäda at
the Avalon Ballroom's Mantra-Rock Dance, proceeds from which would go to the local Hare Kĺńëa temple.
Thousands of hippies, anticipating an exciting evening, packed the hall. LSD pioneer Timothy Leary
dutifully paid the standard $2.50 admission fee and entered the ballroom, followed by Augustus Owsley
Stanley II, known for his own brand of LSD.
At about 10:00 P.M., Çréla Prabhupäda and a small entourage of devotees arrived amid uproarious applause
and cheering by a crowd that had waited weeks in great anticipation for this moment. Çréla Prabhupäda was
given a seat of honor onstage and was introduced by Allen Ginsberg, who explained his own realizations
about the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra and how it had spread from the small storefront in New York to San
Francisco. The well-known poet told the crowd that the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra in the early
morning at the Rädhä-Kĺńëa temple was an important community service to those who were "coming down
from LSD," because the chanting would "stabilize their consciousness on reentry."
The chanting started slowly but rythmically, and little by little it spread throughout the ballroom, enveloping
everyone. Hippies got to their feet, held hands, and began to dance as enormous, pulsing pictures of Kĺńëa
were projected around the walls of the ballroom in perfect sync with the beat of the mantra. By the time
Çréla Prabhupäda stood and began to dance with his arms raised, the crowd was completely absorbed in
chanting, dancing, and playing small musical instruments they had brought for the occasion.
Ginsberg later recalled, "We sang Hare Kĺńëa all evening. It was absolutely great-an open thing. It was the
height of the Haight-Ashbury spiritual enthusiasm."
As the tempo speeded up, the chanting and dancing became more and more intense, spurred on by a stageful
of top rock musicians, who were as charmed by the magic of the mahä-mantra as the amateur musicians had
been at the Tompkins Square kértanas only a few weeks before. The chant rose; it seemed to surge and
swell without limit. When it seemed it could go no further, the chanting stopped. Çréla Prabhupäda offered
prayers to his spiritual master into the microphone and ended-by saying three times, "All glories to the
assembled devotees!" The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood buzzed with talk af the Mantra-Rock Dance for
weeks afterward.
Within a few months of the Mantra-Rock event, devotees in San Francisco, New York, and Montreal began
to take to the streets with their mĺdaěgas (clay drums) and karatälas (hand cymbals) to chant the mahä-
mantra on a daily basis. In just a few years, temples were opening all over North America and Europe, and
people everywhere were hearing the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa.
On May 31, 1969, when the Vietnam war protest movement was reaching its climax, six devotees joined
John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their Montreal hotel room to play instruments and sing on John and Yoko's
famous recording "Give Peace a Chance." This song, which included the mantra, and a hit single, "The Hare
Krishna Mantra," produced in September of the same year by Beatle George Harrison and featuring the
devotees, introduced millions to the chanting. Even Broadway's long-running musical hit Hair included
exuberant choruses of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra.
At the now historic mass antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 1969, devotees
from all over the United States and Canada chanted the Hare Kĺńëa mantra throughout the day and
distributed "The Peace Formula," a small leaflet based on Çréla Prabhupäda's teachings from the Vedic
scriptures. "The Peace Formula," which proposed a spiritual solution to the problem of war, was distributed
en masse for many months and influenced thousands of lives.
By 1970, when George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"- with its beautiful recurring Iyrics of Hare Kĺńëa and
Hare Räma-was the international number-one hit song of the day, devotees in dhotis and särés, chanting the
mahä-mantra with musical instruments, were now a familiar sight in almost every major city throughout the
world. Because of Çréla Prabhupäda's deep love for Lord Kĺńëa and his own spiritual master, his amazing
determination, and his sincere compassion, "Hare Kĺńëa" had become a household word.
CABH 4: Chanting for Higher Consciousness: A Cultural History
Chapter 4
Chanting for Higher Consciousness:
A Cultural History
It's a scene that has been repeated countless times on the thoroughfares of cities throughout the Western
world-from Hollywood Boulevard and Fifth Avenue in America, to London's Oxford Street and the Champs
Elysees in Paris. There, in the midst of traffic, shops, restaurants, and movie theaters, people suddenly find
themselves confronted by a group of young persons singing and dancing to the beat of cylindrical drums
and the brassy cadence of hand cymbals. The men are dressed in flowing robes and have shaven heads; the
women wear colorful Indian särés. Of course, it's the Hare Kĺńëa people, chanting their now familiar
mantra, Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa ... But what's actually going on? Is it some form of protest, avant-garde
street theater, a religious demonstration, or what?
If you were to ask them, you'd learn that these people are performing a type of meditation long encouraged
and practiced in the West-the chanting of the holy names of God. (Kĺńëa is the Sanskrit name for the
Supreme Lord.) Of course, meditation is a word that's thrown around quite loosely these days. It's come to
mean practically any technique employed to silence and calm the harried modern mind. But the ancient and
authorized form of meditation practiced by Hare Kĺńëa people has a much deeper and more sublime
purpose. Although it easily soothes the turbulent mind, it also awakens those who chant it to their original,
joyful spiritual nature and consciousness, imparting a genuine sense of pleasure unavailable by any other
means.
The Vedas, scriptures containing the timeless spiritual knowledge of ancient India, state that such an
awakening process is desperately needed because everyone in this material world is in a sleeping, dreamlike
condition. We have forgotten our original, spiritual identity, accepting instead a temporary material body
composed of physical elements as our real self. The Vedas compare the material body to the subtle forms
we experience in dreams. While sleeping, we forget our normal waking identity and may find ourselves
enjoying or suffering in different types of bodies. But when we hear the ringing of the alarm clock, we
awaken and return to normal consciousness. We remember who we are and what we should be doing.
Similarly, by hearing the powerful transcendental sound vibrations of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, we can
gradually wake up to our original self, the soul, which is characterized by eternality and is full of knowledge
and ever-increasing pleasure.
The sages of ancient India therefore tell us that the goal of human life should not be to try to enjoy our
temporary dreamlike situation in the material world. Rather, we are advised to awaken to our original,
spiritual nature and ultimately return to our true home in the spiritual world, where we may enjoy an eternal
relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kĺńëa.
This search for the true self through the meditative process is not something recently discovered, nor is it in
any way alien to the basically rationalistic philosophical and spiritual traditions of the West. Although
Western civilization has for the most part directed its energies outward in various efforts to control and
exploit the resources of nature, there have always been inner-directed philosophers, saints, and mystics who
have dedicated themselves to a higher purpose than material well-being, which is in all cases temporary.
CABH 4.1: The Search for the Self
The Search for the Self
The Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato held a view of man's original nature quite similar to that of the
Vedic sages. This temporary world, they taught, is not our real home; we once existed in a spiritual world.
In Plato's famous dialogues, Socrates says that in our original condition, "We were pure ourselves and not
yet enshrined in that living tomb which we carry about, now that we are imprisoned in the body like an
oyster in his shell.1 The purpose of philosophy, for these early Athenian thinkers, was to awaken a person to
his original, spiritual identity, now hidden within the covering of the physical body.
The very same thing was taught in Galilee four hundred years later by Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of St.
John, Christ says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth [gives life], the flesh profiteth nothing."2 In other words,
the body is simply an external covering for the soul, which is the real life-giving force. Therefore, Jesus
warned, "What profiteth a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his immortal soul?"3 The highest goal of
life, Christ taught, is to understand and experience our inner spiritual nature. In the Gospel of St. Luke,
Jesus instructs mankind to look within for true spiritual life: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for
behold, the kingdom of God is within you."4
Describing his inner search for God through meditation, St. Augustine, a great saint and eminent
philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church, tells us in his Confessions how his mind "withdrew its thoughts
from experience, abstracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images."5
During the Middle Ages in Europe, there was widespread interest in meditation, with many saints and
philosophers writing of their thoughts about the inward quest for divine reality. Thomas a Kempis, in his
classic Imitation of Christ, cautions man about material life and summarizes the purpose and goal of
meditation: "What do you seek here, since this world is not your resting place? Your true home is in
Heaven; therefore remember that all things of this world are transitory. All things are passing and yourself
with them. See that you do not cling to them, lest you become entangled and perish with them. Let all your
thoughts be with the Most High."6
When one achieves this deep spiritual vision, his entire world view is completely transformed, as in the case
of St. Francis of Assisi, who devoted his life to prayer and meditation. In his Life of St. Francis, St.
Bonaventura says, "In all fair things, he beheld Him who is most fair, and, through the traces of Him which
He has implanted in all His creatures, he was led on to reach the All-loved, constructing of these things a
ladder whereby he might ascend to Him who is Loveliness itself...."7 In other words, when one's original,
spiritual consciousness is revived, one sees God everywhere and in everything. One enters a unique world
of spiritual knowledge and pleasure, far superior to what most of us perceive as reality-a spiritual reality that
lies just beyond our ordinary abilities of perception. William James, the American philosopher who
specialized in the psychology of religion, writing on this point, said, "Our normal waking consciousness,
rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from
it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go
throughout life without suspecting their existence, but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are
there in all their completeness...."8
But what is the "requisite stimulus" for awakening the dormant consciousness of the self and God that lies
within everyone's heart? All genuine spiritual authorities agree that such transcendental experiences cannot
be awakened by any material stimulus or experience, including ingestion of chemical substances like LSD
and other "mind-expanding" drugs.
When Çréla Prabhupäda, the founder-äcärya (spiritual master) of the Hare Kĺńëa movement, was asked by a
follower of Timothy Leary about LSD's place in man's spiritual life, he said that drugs were not necessary
for spiritual life, that they could not produce spiritual consciousness, and that all drug-induced "religious
visions" were simply hallucinations. To realize God was not so easy or cheap that one could do it just by
taking a pill or smoking.9
CABH 4.2: Sound and Self-Realization
Sound and Self-Realization
The Vedic scriptures advise that the proper technique for awakening spiritual consciousness is the hearing
and chanting of transcendental sounds or mantras, like the Hare Kĺńëa mantra. The power of sound to effect
changes in consciousness has long been recognized. The English philosopher and statesman Sir Francis
Bacon noted that "the sense of hearing striketh the spirit more immediately than any other senses."10
Ordinary material sounds, however, will not awaken spiritual consciousness. For this, one must hear
spiritual sound vibrations. Therefore, almost every religion in the world recommends that we meditate upon
the Word of God. St. John wrote in his Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God."11 Divine sound is thus of a vastly different quality than worldly or material
sound. This fact was clearly explained by St. Augustine in his Confessions. Once, as he emerged from a
mystic trance, he said he "heard again the babble of our own tongues, wherein each word has a beginning
and an ending. Far unlike Thy Word, our Lord, who abideth in Himself, never growing old and making all
things new."12 And in the Gospel of St. John, Christ says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit."13
While the Word, or teachings of God, have enormous power to transform and uplift our lives, just as
important are the actual names of God, which are sometimes praised aloud in song or quietly meditated
upon. Since God is fully spiritual and absolute, the Vedic scriptures inform us that His holy names are
invested with the Lord's full spiritual potencies. God and His name are the same. The Padma Puräëa states,
"There is no difference between the holy name of the Lord and the Lord Himself. As such, the holy name is
as perfect as the Lord Himself." The Stoic philosopher Maximus noted, "There is one supreme God who is,
as it were, the God and mighty father of all." "It is Him," he said, "whom we worship under many
names."14 Modern Jewish theologian Martin Buber also agreed that "All God's names are hallowed."15
And the Bible is replete with similar statements. In the Old Testament it is said, "The name of the Lord is a
strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe."16 In Psalms, King David proclaims, "I will praise
the name of God with a song."17 Indeed, the Psalms contain countless references to the name of God: "All
nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord: and shall glorify Thy
name.18... O give thanks unto the Lord: call upon His name: make known His deeds among the people.
Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him: talk ye of all His wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name.19 ...
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon
the loud cymbals."20 The prophet Isaiah described God as "One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is
Holy."21 Centuries later, Israel Baal Shem Tov (1699-1761), the great Jewish mystic, founded Hasidism, a
popular pietist movement within Judaism, in which members dance and chant in glorification of the
Supreme Lord.
Christ, when teaching his disciples how to pray, glorified the Lord's holy name: "Our Father, who art in
Heaven, hallowed be Thy name." And in his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul wrote, "For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."22
In the early Christian churches, there was, according to the historian Eusebius, "one common consent in
chanting forth the praises of God."23 The Gregorian chants, popularized in the sixth century by Pope
Gregory the Great and later by works like Handel's masterpiece the Messiah, with its resounding choruses
of hallelujah ("praised be the Lord"), are still performed and appreciated all over the world.
In addition to praising the Lord's name and glories in song, there also developed in the Christian churches
the practice of meditating upon God by chanting prayers on rosary beads, a tradition continued today by
millions of Catholics worldwide. John Chrysostom, a saint of the Greek Orthodox church, especially
recommended the "prayerful invocation of the name of God," which he said should be practiced
"uninterrupted."24 The repetition of the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me") became
a regular practice among members of the Eastern Church. In The Way of a Pilgrim, a Russian monk
describes this form of meditation: "The continuous interior prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted
calling upon the divine name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart.... One who accustoms himself
to this appeal experiences as a result so deep a consolation and so great a need to offer the prayer always,
that he can no longer live without it."25
Among the followers of Islam, the names of God (Allah) are held sacred and meditated upon. According to
tradition, there are ninety-nine names of Allah, called "the Beautiful Names." They are found inscribed on
monuments such as the Taj Mahal and on the walls of mosques. These names are chanted on an Islamic
rosary, which consists of three sets of thirty-three beads. Worshipers repeat the names to help them
concentrate their minds upon Allah. The dual titles Al-Rahman, al-Rahim, meaning "God, the
compassionate, the merciful," are invoked at the beginning of each chapter of the Koran. Other Arabic
names of God glorify Him as the creator, provider, and king.
In India, the Sikhs place special emphasis on the name of God. Indeed, the Sikhs call God Näma-"the
name." Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, prayed, "In the ambrosial hours of the morn I meditate
on the grace of the true name," and says that he was instructed by the Lord in a vision to "Go and repeat My
name, and cause others to do likewise."26
"Rosaries are widely used in Buddhism; large ones by monks, smaller ones by the laity, says Geoffrey
Parrinder, a professor of comparative religion at the University of London, in his book Worship in the
World's Religions. "The large ones have 108 beads, the two halves representing the fifty-four stages of
becoming a boddhi-sattva (enlightened one). The large bead in the middle stands for Buddha."
Members of Japan's largest Buddhist order, the Pure Land sect, practice repetition of the name of Buddha
(namu amida butsu). The founder Shinran Shonin says, "The virtue of the Holy Name, the gift of him that is
enlightened, is spread throughout the world."27 The Buddhist teachings reveal that by chanting the name of
Buddha, the worshiper becomes liberated from the cycle of reincarnation and joins the Buddha in the Pure
Land, or spiritual world.
CABH 4.3: Kĺńëa: The All-Encompassing Name of God
Kĺńëa: The All-Encompassing Name of God
Although God is known throughout the world by many different names, each of which describes some
particular aspect of His glories and attractive features, there is one name which expresses the sum total of
God's infinite qualities and characteristics This supreme, all-encompassing, and most powerful name of God
is found in the oldest religious scriptures in the world, the Sanskrit Vedas of India, which state that the
principal name of God is Kĺńëa.
Çréla Prabhupäda explains: "When we speak of Kĺńëa, we refer to God. There are many names for God
throughout the world and throughout the universe, but Kĺńëa is the supreme name according to Vedic
knowledge."28 He further states, "God has many names according to His activities, but because He
possesses so many opulences, and because with these opulences He attracts everyone, He is called Kĺńëa
['all-attractive']."29
The spiritual qualities of Kĺńëa's holy name are described throughout the Vedic literatures. The Padma
Puräëa states, "The holy name of Kĺńëa is transcendentally blissful. It bestows all spiritual benedictions, for
it is Kĺńëa Himself, the reservoir of all pleasure.... It is not a material name under any condition, and it is no
less powerful than Kĺńëa Himself. Since Kĺńëa's name is not contaminated by the material qualities, there is
no question of its being involved with mäyä [illusion]. Kĺńëa's name is always liberated and spiritual; it is
never conditioned by the laws of material nature. This is because the name of Kĺńëa and Kĺńëa Himself are
identical."
Since time immemorial, millions of devotees and saintly persons have chanted the name of Kĺńëa to achieve
spiritual perfection. But history records that it was widely popularized by Lord Caitanya, an incarnation of
Lord Kĺńëa who appeared in Bengal barely five centuries ago and established the chanting of the Hare
Kĺńëa mantra as the universal spiritual practice for the present age.
According to Vedic cosmology, the material creation eternally passes through cycles of four ages. Each
begins with a Golden Age (Satya-yuga), then conditions progressively deteriorate, ending in the Kali-yuga,
an age characterized by quarrel and hypocrisy. For each of the four ages, the Vedas prescribe a universal
method of self-realization just suited for that particular age.
For instance, in the Satya-yuga, the recommended path was that of the mystic yoga system, which involved
a lifetime of unbroken yoga practice, accompanied by strict vows of penance and austerity. We are presently
at the beginning of the last age, Kali-yuga. In this age people no longer have the endurance, willpower, or
sufficient life span necessary to successfully practice the original yoga system described in the Vedas. The
Vedic scriptures therefore advise, "In this age of Kali there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is
no alternative for spiritual progress other than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the
holy name of the Lord." 30
The Kali-santaraëa Upanińad specifically recommends the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra: "Hare Kĺńëa,
Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare-these sixteen names
composed of thirty-two syllables are the only means to counteract the evil effects of Kali-yuga. In all the
Vedas it is seen that to cross the ocean of nescience there is no alternative to chanting the holy name."
Lord Caitanya's biographers record that He spent many years traveling all over India spreading the chanting
of the holy names of Kĺńëa. He chanted the Hare Kĺńëa mantra congregationally (kértana) to the
accompaniment of musical instruments, including drums and hand cymbals. The Lord also chanted the
mantra quietly a specific number of times daily as a private meditation (japa). In the Çikńäńöaka, His
famous prayers about the holy names of Kĺńëa, Lord Caitanya wrote, "Let there be all victory for the
chanting of the holy name of Lord Kĺńëa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of
the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good
fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kĺńëa
expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to
taste full nectar at every step."
During His lifetime, Lord Caitanya predicted that the holy names of Kĺńëa would spread to every town and
village in the world. This prophecy lay unfulfilled for four hundred years, until the time of Bhaktivinoda
Öhäkura, a great spiritual master in the direct line of disciplic succession from Lord Caitanya. In 1885
Bhaktivinoda wrote, "Lord Caitanya did not advent Himself to liberate only a few men in India. Rather, His
main objective was to emancipate all living entities of all countries throughout the entire universe and
preach the Eternal Religion.... There is no doubt that this unquestionable order will come to pass.... Very
soon the unparalleled path of hari-näma saěkértana [the congregational chanting of the holy name of the
Lord] will be propagated all over the world.... Oh, for that day when the fortunate English, French, Russian,
German, and American people will take up banners, mĺdaěgas [drums], and karatälas [hand cymbals] and
raise kértana [chanting] through their streets and towns! When will that day come?"31
Bhaktivinoda's vision became a reality in less than a century. In 1965, India's greatest spiritual and cultural
ambassador, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, arrived in New York's East Village,
the heart of the countercultural movement of the sixties. Within a year Çréla Prabhupäda, tenth in the line of
spiritual masters from Lord Caitanya, had founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Very quickly, the sound of the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa spread, first across America, then on to England and
throughout the world.
The Vedic scriptures predict that although the age of Kali is the most degraded of all, the chanting of the
Hare Kĺńëa mantra will dramatically alter the present war-torn, hate-filled atmosphere of the world. These
most ancient, timeless writings forecast a Golden Age, beginning with the widespread chanting of Hare
Kĺńëa, during which the painful disturbances of this age will be mitigated and people everywhere will be
economically, politically, socially, culturally, and spiritually happy.
Çréla Prabhupäda explains, "Kali-yuga continues for 432,000 years, of which only 5,000 years have passed.
Thus there is still a balance of 427,000 years to come. Of these 427,000 years, the 10,000 years of the
saěkértana movement inaugurated by Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu 500 years ago provide the opportunity for
the fallen souls of Kali-yuga to take to the Kĺńëa consciousness movement, chant the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-
mantra, and thus be delivered from the clutches of material existence and return home, back to Godhead."32
CABH 5: The Life of Çré Caitanya
Chapter 5
The Life of Çré Caitanya
In the latter part of the fifteenth century, India's most extraordinary political, cultural, and religious reformer
appeared in a small town in West Bengal.
Five hundred years before Gandhi, this remarkable personality inaugurated a massive nonviolent civil
disobedience movement. He swept aside the stifling restrictions of the hereditary caste system and made it
possible for people from any station in life to achieve the highest platform of spiritual enlightenment. In
doing so, He broke the stranglehold of a proud intellectual elite on India's religious life. Ignoring all kinds
of outmoded rituals and formulas, He introduced a revolutionary spiritual movement that was rapidly
accepted all over India, a movement which, because of its universal appeal, has now spread all over the
world. The name of this powerful reformer was Çré Kĺńëa Caitanya Mahäprabhu, the founder of the
modern-day Hare Kĺńëa movement.
The Vedic scriptures of India had long predicted His birth, in 1486 in Mäyäpur, a quarter of the city of
Navadvépa. Great saints and scholars soon detected that He was not an ordinary human being, but an
incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kĺńëa Himself, appearing as a great devotee of
the Lord.
Caitanya had little patience with ritualistic religious functions, and as He grew to young manhood, He began
to carry out His divine mission. He wanted all people, everywhere, to have access to the actual experience
of love of God, by which one can feel the highest spiritual ecstasies. This awakening, Çré Caitanya taught,
could be attained by saěkértana-the chanting of the holy names of the Lord, the Hare Kĺńëa mantra.
Caitanya rapidly acquired many followers, who immediately took up the chanting, sometimes performing it
in their homes and sometimes in the streets of Navadvépa. The Lord's saěkértana movement immediately
threatened the established groups in the social hierarchy-the Muslim rulers of Bengal and the hereditary
Hindu priestly class, the caste priests who were attempting to artificially monopolize religious leadership.
Members of both groups lodged complaints with the local Muslim ruler, Chand Kazi.
Agreeing that Caitanya and His followers threatened the established order, the Kazi tried to suppress the
growing saěkértana movement. On his order, constables raided the home of one of Caitanya's followers and
smashed the drums used in the chanting. The Kazi ordered that the chanting of the holy names of the Lord
be immediately stopped and threatened that if it began again in Navadvépa, he would ruthlessly punish
those responsible.
When informed of the raid, Çré Caitanya immediately organized the largest peaceful civil disobedience
movement in Indian history up to that time. On a prearranged evening, Çré Caitanya and one hundred
thousand of His followers suddenly appeared in the streets of Navadvépa and divided into many well-
organized chanting parties. As they danced through the city, the sound of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra resounded
in a deafening roar. Finally, the chanters converged on the residence of the Kazi, who hid inside.
At the Lord's invitation, however, the Kazi appeared, and the two began negotiations. Speaking politely, and
with great logic and reason, the Lord convinced the Kazi that the complaints against saěkértana were
groundless. In a dramatic conversion, the Kazi himself became a follower of Caitanya and actively
promoted and protected the saěkértana movement. To this very day, Hindus visit the tomb of this Muslim
magistrate to pay their respects. Since the time of the Kazi, the Muslim inhabitants of Navadvépa have
never interfered with the public chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, even during the time of the Hindu-
Muslim riots.
Not long after this important victory in His native town, Çré Caitanya began to spread His movement all
over India. For six years He traveled the length and breadth of the country, chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra
and spreading love of God. At many places, crowds of hundreds of thousands of people would join with
Him in massive chanting parties. Nevertheless, He also encountered opponents, the strongest of whom were
the Mäyävädés, an elitist group of philosophers who had spread throughout India, twisting the meaning of
the Vedic scriptures in a vain attempt to prove that God has no personality or form. The impersonalists also
believed that spiritual enlightenment could be obtained only by a chosen few who knew Sanskrit and
arduously studied the Vedänta-sütra.

Throughout His travels, Çré Caitanya struggled against the Mäyävädés and succeeded in convincing many
of them by the strength of His preaching. One of the greatest philosophers of the Mäyäväda school,
Särvabhauma Bhaööäcärya, tried to prevail over Çré Caitanya in philosophical discussion but was defeated.
Countering the Bhaööäcärya's impersonal explanation of God, Çré Caitanya said, "The living entities are all
individual persons, and they are all parts and parcels of the Supreme Whole. If the parts and parcels are
individual persons, the source of their emanation must not be impersonal. He is the Supreme Person
amongst all relative persons." Then out of His causeless mercy, Lord Caitanya performed a wondrous
miracle, manifesting before Särvabhauma Bhaööäcärya His beautiful, original, spiritual form as Kĺńëa, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Falling at Lord Caitanya's feet, the former impersonalist philosopher
surrendered to Him and soon became a great devotee of the Lord.
But the biggest confrontation with the Mäyävädés was yet to come, and it occurred at their very
headquarters, for centuries the capital of the Mäyäväda school, the city of Benares. There Lord Caitanya
stayed with His friends and devotees and continued His saěkértana movement, attracting crowds of
thousands wherever He went. Hearing reports of this, Prakäçänanda Sarasvaté, the leader of the prevailing
Mäyäväda sect, began to criticize the Lord. A real spiritual leader, he said, would never involve himself in
singing and dancing with all kinds of ordinary people. Ignorant of the spiritual significance of chanting the
Hare Kĺńëa mantra, he considered it mere sentiment. Prakäçänanda Sarasvaté believed a spiritualist should
continually study abstract philosophy and engage in lengthy discussions about the Absolute Truth. A great
clash between a popular non-sectarian universal religious movement and a stifling, schismatic and separatist
philosophy was about to occur. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu would soon destroy forever the impersonalists'
attempted domination over Indian spiritual thought and practice.
The Lord's followers were extremely unhappy about the Mäyävädés constant criticism of Him, so in order
to pacify them, He accepted an invitation to a meeting of all the leading Mäyävädés. After seating Himself
on the ground at the assembly, the Lord, exhibiting His supreme mystic potency, manifested from His body
a spiritual effulgence more brilliant than the sun. The Mäyävädés were amazed and immediately stood in
respect. Then Prakäçänanda Sarasvaté inquired about why Caitanya chanted and danced instead of studying
Vedänta philosophy. Lord Caitanya, who in truth was extremely well versed in the Vedic teachings, replied,
"I have taken to the saěkértana movement instead of the study of Vedänta because I am a great fool."
Indirectly, the Lord was criticizing the Mäyävädés for being overly proud of their dry, intellectual study of
the Vedas, which had led them to false conclusions. "And because I am a great fool," Caitanya continued,
"my spiritual master forbade Me to play with Vedänta philosophy. He said that it is better that I chant the
holy name of the Lord, for this would deliver Me from bondage." Çré Caitanya then spoke a Sanskrit verse
His spiritual master had told Him to always remember:
harer näma harer näma harer nämaiva kevalam
kalau nästy eva nästy eva nästy eva gatir anyathä
"In this age of Kali, there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative for spiritual
progress other than the chanting of the holy name, the chanting of the holy name, the chanting of the holy
name of the Lord." (Bĺhan-näradéya Puräëa)
The discussion went on for hours. Finally, in one of the most astounding religious conversions of all time,
Prakäçänanda Sarasvaté, the Mäyävädés' greatest scholar, along with all his followers, surrendered to Lord
Caitanya and began to chant the holy names of Kĺńëa with great enthusiasm. As a result of this conversion,
the entire city of Benares adopted Çré Caitanya's saěkértana movement.
Although born a brähmaëa, a member of the highest caste, Lord Caitanya always said that such designations
were simply external, and He behaved accordingly. Disregarding the social conventions of the age, He
would stay in the homes of devotees from even the lowest caste and take His meals with them. Indeed, He
delivered His most esoteric teachings on the subject of love of God to Rämänanda Räya, a member of a
lower caste. Another of the Lord's disciples, Haridäsa Öhäkura, was born a Muslim and thus was considered
an outcast in Hindu society. Yet Çré Caitanya elevated him to the exalted position of nämäcärya, the
spiritual master of the holy name of Kĺńëa. Çré Caitanya judged people not by their social status but by their
spiritual advancement.
In this way, Lord Caitanya laid the foundation for a universal religion for all mankind, a scientific process
of spiritual awakening that is now rapidly spreading around the globe. In this present age, when attendance
at churches, temples, and mosques is diminishing daily, and the world is torn with violence between
numerous religious and political sects, it is easy to see that people are growing more and more dissatisfied
with external, divisive religious formulas.
People are hungering for an experience of spirituality that transcends all boundaries. Millions are now
finding that experience in the worldwide saěkértana movement of Lord Caitanya, who said, "This
saěkértana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the
benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental
bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious."
CABH 6: Haridäsa Öhäkura and the Prostitute
Chapter 6
Haridäsa Öhäkura and the Prostitute
Strict followers of the caste system in sixteenth-century India avoided all contact with Muslims. Yet Çré
Caitanya Mahäprabhu, founder of the modern-day Hare Kĺńëa movement, shattered all bonds of prejudice
and bigotry by elevating Haridäsa Öhäkura, who was born in a Muslim family, to the position of nämäcärya,
or the spiritual master of the holy name of Kĺńëa. In this way Çré Caitanya practically demonstrated one of
His central teachings-if any person is seen to be a great devotee of the Lord, he should be honored and
respected regardless of his birth or social status. Such a spiritually advanced person can completely
transform the lives of others. In the following incident from the life of Haridäsa Öhäkura, we see how a
beautiful prostitute, through the power of his chanting, became a great saint.
In the forest of Benäpola, in what is now known as Bangladesh, the solitary monk sat before the sacred
tulasé plant chanting the holy names of Kĺńëa day and night. Haridäsa Öhäkura would chant three hundred
thousand names of the Lord each day. The body of this extraordinary saint, who was constantly in trance,
was maintained by spiritual strength from chanting, and he barely slept at all. He was so influential that all
the neighboring people offered their respects to him.
But a landholder named Rämacandra Khän, the district tax collector, was envious of devotees of Lord
Kĺńëa. Unable to tolerate the great respect that was being offered to Haridäsa Öhäkura, he schemed to
dishonor him. By no means, however, could he find any fault in the character of Haridäsa. Therefore, he
called for some local prostitutes and plotted to discredit the saint. Rämacandra Khän said to the prostitutes,
"There is a mendicant named Haridäsa Öhäkura. All of you devise a way to deviate him from his vows of
austerity." Austerity means renunciation of sensual pleasures, especially the pleasure of sex.
Rämacandra Khän selected a ravishing young beauty to break the monk's vow of celibacy and dishonor him.
"I shall attract the mind of Haridäsa Öhäkura," she promised, "within three days."
Rämacandra Khän said to the prostitute, "My constable will go with you so that as soon as he sees you with
Haridäsa Öhäkura, he will immediately arrest him and bring both of you to me."
The prostitute replied, "First let me have union with him once; then the second time I shall take your
constable with me to arrest him.
At night the prostitute, after dressing herself in a seductive way, went to the cottage of Haridäsa Öhäkura.
Haridäsa was young, strong, and handsome, and the girl was eager to be alone with him. After offering
respects to the tulasé plant, she went to the door of Haridäsa's hut, offered him obeisances, and stood there.
Exposing part of her body to his view, she sat down on the threshold and spoke to him in sweet words.
"My dear Haridäsa, O great preacher, great devotee, you are so beautifully built, and your youth is just
beginning. Who is the woman who could control her mind after seeing you? I am eager to be united with
you. My mind is greedy for this. If I don't obtain you, I shall not be able to keep my body and soul
together."
Haridäsa Öhäkura replied, "I shall accept you without fail, but you will have to wait until I have finished
chanting my regular rounds on my beads. Until that time, please sit and listen to the chanting of the holy
name. As soon as I am finished, I shall fulfill your desire."
Hearing this, the prostitute remained sitting there while Haridäsa Öhäkura chanted on his beads until the
light of morning appeared. When she saw that it was morning, the prostitute stood up and left. Coming
before Rämacandra Khän, she informed him of all the news.
"Today Haridäsa Öhäkura has promised to enjoy with me," she said. "Tomorrow certainly I shall have union
with him."
The next night, when the prostitute came again, Haridäsa Öhäkura gave her many assurances. "Last night
you were disappointed. Please excuse my offense. I shall certainly accept you. Please sit down and hear the
chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra until my regular chanting is finished. Then your desire will surely
be fulfilled."
After offering her obeisances to the tulasé plant and Haridäsa Öhäkura, she again sat down at the door.
Hearing Haridäsa Öhäkura chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, she also chanted, "O my Lord Hari, O my Lord
Hari."
When the night came to an end, the prostitute was restless. Seeing this, Haridäsa said, "I have vowed to
chant ten million names in one month. I have taken this vow, but now it is nearing its end. I thought that
today I would be able to finish my chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra. I tried my best to chant the holy
name all night, but I still did not finish. Tomorrow I will surely finish, and my vow will be fulfilled. Then it
will be possible for me to enjoy with you in full freedom."
The prostitute returned to Rämacandra Khän and informed him of what had happened. The next day she
came earlier, at the beginning of the evening, and stayed all night. Again, as she began to hear Haridäsa
Öhäkura's chanting, she also chanted "Hari, Hari," the holy name of the Lord.
"Today it will be possible for me to finish my chanting," the saint said. "Then I shall satisfy all your
desires."
The night ended with Haridäsa still chanting, but now, because of her constant hearing of Haridasa's
chanting, the mind of the prostitute had changed. Now fully purified, she began to cry and fell at the lotus
feet of Haridäsa Öhäkura, confessing that Rämacandra Khän had appointed her to pollute him.
"Because I have taken the profession of a prostitute," she said, "I have performed unlimited sinful acts. My
lord, be merciful to me. Deliver my fallen soul."
Haridäsa replied, "I know everything about the conspiracy of Rämacandra Khän. He is nothing but an
ignorant fool. Therefore his activities do not make me feel unhappy. On the very day Rämacandra Khän was
planning his intrigue against me, I would have left this place immediately, but because you came, I stayed
here for three days to deliver you.
"Kindly act as my spiritual master," she begged. "Instruct me in my duty by which to get relief from
material existence."
Haridäsa answered, "Immediately go home and distribute to the brähmaëas [priests] whatever property you
have. Then come back to this room and stay here forever in Kĺńëa consciousness. Chant the Hare Kĺńëa
mantra continuously and render service to the tulasé plant by watering her and offering prayers to her. In
this way you will very soon get the opportunity to be sheltered at the lotus feet of Kĺńëa."
After thus instructing the prostitute in the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa, Haridäsa Öhäkura stood up and left,
continuously chanting the Lord's holy names.
Following the order of her spiritual master, the prostitute distributed to the local priests whatever household
possessions she had. Following Haridäsa's example, she began chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra three
hundred thousand times a day. She chanted throughout the entire day and night, and she worshiped the
tulasé plant. By eating frugally and fasting, she conquered her senses. As soon as her senses were
controlled, symptoms of love of God appeared in her person.
Thus the prostitute became a great saint, and her fame spread throughout the land. Because she was very
advanced in spiritual life, many devotees of the Lord would come to see her. Seeing the sublime character
of this former prostitute, everyone was astonished. They glorified the influence of Haridäsa Öhäkura and
offered their obeisances to him.
As for Rämacandra Khän, he was eventually ruined by the arrangement of the Lord. Meanwhile, Haridäsa
Öhäkura continued his travels, always preaching the glories of the holy name, about which he often said,
"As the rising sun immediately dissipates all the world's darkness, which is deep like an ocean, so the holy
name of the Lord, if chanted once without offenses, can dissipate all the reactions of a living being's sinful
life. All glories to that holy name of the Lord, which is auspicious for the entire world."
To this day, thousands of pilgrims each year visit the samädhi tomb of Haridäsa Öhäkura, who, although
born a Muslim, became the spiritual master of the holy name, and one of India's greatest devotee-saints.
CABH 7: The Science of Mantra Meditation
Chapter 7
The Science of
Mantra Meditation
(Excerpts from the writings of
His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda)
Reviving Our Original Brilliance
Sparks are beautiful as long as they are in the fire. Similarly, we have to remain in the association of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead and always engage in devotional service, for then we shall always be
brilliant and illuminating. As soon as we fall from the service of the Lord, our brilliance and illumination
will immediately be extinguished, or at least stopped for some time. When we living entities, who are like
sparks of the original fire, the Supreme Lord, fall into a material condition, we must take the mantra from
the Supreme Personality of Godhead as it is offered by Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu. By chanting this Hare
Kĺńëa mantra, we shall be delivered from all the difficulties of this material world.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam (8.6.15)
The Mantra for Everyone
Caitanya Mahäprabhu introduced the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare
Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare as a great means of propaganda for spreading love of God. It is
not that it is recommended only for Kali-yuga. Actually, it is recommended for every age. There have
always been many devotees who have chanted and reached perfection in all ages. That is the beauty of this
Kĺńëa consciousness movement. It is not simply for one age, or for one country, or for one class of people.
Hare Kĺńëa can be chanted by any man in any social position, in any country and in any age, for Kĺńëa is
the Supreme Lord of all people in all social positions, in all countries, in all ages.
Elevation to Kĺńëa Consciousness
Awakening Our Original Consciousness
It is said in the Caitanya-caritämĺta, "Pure love for Kĺńëa is eternally established in the hearts of living
entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and
chanting, the living entity naturally awakens." Since Kĺńëa consciousness is inherent in every living entity,
everyone should be given a chance to hear about Kĺńëa. Simply by hearing and chanting-çravaëam
kértanam-one's heart is directly purified, and one's original Kĺńëa consciousness is immediately awakened.
Kĺńëa consciousness is not artificially imposed upon the heart, it is already there. When one chants the holy
name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the heart is cleansed of all material contamination
The Nectar of Instruction, Text 4
Chanting: The Universal Religion
In this present age quarrels take place even over trifles, and therefore the çästras [scriptures] have
recommended for this age a common platform for realization, namely chanting the holy names of the Lord.
People can hold meetings to glorify the Lord in their respective languages and with melodious songs, and if
such performances are executed in an offenseless manner, it is certain that the participants will gradually
attain spiritual perfection without having to undergo more rigorous methods.... all people of the world will
accept the holy name of the Lord as the common platform for the universal religion of mankind.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam (1.1, Intro.)
Seeing God Through Sound
Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare, Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare is a
sound (çabda) that is nondifferent from Kĺńëa. The sound Kĺńëa and the original Kĺńëa are the same....
There are things which we hear but do not see-the wind may be whistling past our ears, and we can hear it,
but there is no possibility of seeing the wind. Since hearing is no less an important experience or valid one
than seeing, we can hear Kĺńëa and realize His presence through sound. Çré Kĺńëa Himself says, "I am not
there in My abode, or in the heart of the meditating yogé, but where My pure devotees are singing." We can
feel the presence of Kĺńëa as we actually make progress.
Räja-vidyä: The King of Knowledge (p. 16-17)
The Holy Name Acts Like Fire
Fire will act, regardless of whether handled by an innocent child or by someone well aware of its power. For
example, if a field of straw or dry grass is set afire, either by an elderly man who knows the power of fire or
by a child who does not, the grass will be burned to ashes. Similarly, one may or may not know the power
of chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, but if one chants the holy name he will become free from all sinful
reactions.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam (6.2.18)
Liberation from Ego
The effect of chanting the holy name of the Lord is perceived by the chanter as liberation from the
conception of false egoism False egoism is exhibited by thinking oneself to be the enjoyer of the world and
thinking everything in the world to be meant for the enjoyment of one's self only. The whole materialistic
world is moving under such false egoism of "I" and "mine," but the factual effect of chanting the holy name
is to become free from such misconceptions.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam (2.1.11)
Chanting Defeats Death
By the grace of the Lord, if a devotee, at the time of death, can simply chant His holy names-Hare Kĺńëa,
Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare-simply by chanting
this mahä-mantra, he immediately surpasses the great ocean of the material sky and enters the spiritual sky.
He never has to come back for repetition of birth and death. Simply by chanting the holy name of the Lord,
one can surpass the ocean of death.
Çrémad-Bhägavatam (4.10.30)
Experiencing Ecstasy
The transcendental ecstatic attachment for Kĺńëa which results from perfectly understanding that Kĺńëa's
person and name are identical is called bhäva [ecstatic spiritual emotion]. One who has attained bhäva is
certainly not contaminated by material nature. He actually enjoys transcendental pleasure from bhäva, and
when bhäva is intensified, it is called love of Godhead. Lord Caitanya taught that the holy name of Kĺńëa,
called the mahä-mantra (great chanting), enables anyone who chants it to attain the stage of love of
Godhead, or intensified bhäva.
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
The Sound Incarnation of God
Sometimes Kĺńëa descends personally, and sometimes He descends as sound vibration, and sometimes He
descends as a devotee. There are many different categories of avataras [incarnations]. In this present age
Kĺńëa has descended in His holy name, Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare
Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu also confirmed that in this age of Kali, Kĺńëa
has descended in the form of sound vibration. Sound is one of the forms which the Lord takes. Therefore it
is stated that there is no difference between Kĺńëa and His name
Elevation to Krsna Consciousness
Christ or Kĺńëa-the Name's the Same
(from a conversation with a Benedictine monk)
Christos is the Greek version of the word Kĺńëa. When an Indian person calls on Kĺńëa, he often says,
"Kĺńöa." Kĺńöa is a Sanskrit word meaning "attraction." So when we address God as "Christ," "Kĺńöa," or
"Kĺńëa," we indicate the same all-attractive Supreme Personaiity of Godhead. When Jesus said, "Our
Father, who art in heaven, sanctified be Thy name," that name of God was "Kĺńöa" or "Kĺńëa." Actually it
doesn't matter-Kĺńëa or Christ-the name is the same. The main point is to follow the injunctions of the
Vedic scriptures that recommend chanting the name of God in this age. I have not come to teach you, but
only to request you to please chant the name of God. The Bible also demands this of you. So let us kindly
cooperate and chant, and if you have a prejudice against chanting the name Kĺńëa, then chant "Christos" or
"Kĺńöa"-there is no difference. Çré Caitanya said: nämnäm akäri bahudhä nija-sarva-çaktiů. "God has
millions and millions of names, and because there is no difference between God's name and Himself, each
one of these names has the same potency as God." Therefore, even if you accept designations like"Hindu,"
"Christian," or "Muhammadan," if you simply chant the name of God found in your own scriptures, you
will attain the spiritual platform We always have these beads, just as you have your rosary. You are
chanting, but why don't the other Christians also chant? If you would like to cooperate with us, then go to
the churches and chant, "Christ," "Kĺńöa," or "Kĺńëa" What could be the objection?
Science of Self-Realization
The Wild Horses of the Mind
The mind is always concocting objects for happiness. I am always thinking, "This will make me happy," or
"That will make me happy. Happiness is here. Happiness is there." In this way the mind is taking us
anywhere and everywhere. It is as though we are riding on a chariot behind an unbridled horse. We have no
power over where we are going but can only sit in horror and watch helplessly. As soon as the mind is
engaged in the Kĺńëa consciousness process-specifically chanting Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa,
Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare-then the wild horses of the mind will gradually
come under our control.
On the Way to Kĺńëa
The Peace Formula
The earth is the property of God, but we, the living entities, especially the so-called civilized human beings,
are claiming God's property as our own, under both an individual and collective false conception. If you
want peace, you have to remove this false conception from your mind and from the world. This false claim
of proprietorship by the human race on earth is partly or wholly the cause of all disturbances of peace on
earth.
Foolish and so-called civilized men are claiming proprietary rights on the property of God because they
have now become godless. You cannot be happy and peaceful in a godless society. In the Bhagavad-gétä
Lord Kĺńëa says that He is the factual enjoyer of all activities of the living entities, that He is the Supreme
Lord of all universes, and that He is the well-wishing friend of all beings. When the people of the world
know this as the formula for peace, it is then and there that peace will prevail.
Therefore, if you want peace at all, you will have to change your consciousness into Kĺńëa consciousness,
both individually and collectively, by the simple process of chanting the holy name of God. This is a
standard and recognized process for achieving peace in the world. We therefore recommend that everyone
become Kĺńëa conscious by chanting Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare
Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare.
This is practical, simple, and sublime. Four hundred and eighty years ago this formula was introduced in
India by Lord Çré Caitanya, and now it is available in your country. Take to this simple process of chanting
as above mentioned, realize your factual position by reading the Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, and reestablish
your lost relationship with Kĺńëa, God. Peace and prosperity will be the immediate worldwide result.
Science of Self-Realization
Free vs. High-priced Mantras
Recently, an Indian yogé came to America to give some "private mantra." But if a mantra has any power,
why should it be private? If a mantra is powerful, why should it not be publicly declared so that everyone
can take advantage of it? We are saying that this Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra can save everyone, and we are
therefore distributing it publicly, free of charge.... The devotees are preaching without charge, declaring in
the streets, parks, and everywhere, "Here! Here is the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra Come on, take it!"
Path of Perfection
Rx for Heart Disease
(from a conversation with a community relations
officer with the Chicago police department)
Lieutenant Mozee: Would there be more of a beneficial influence-more of a strengthening of the
community-if the program [congregational chanting] were held in a poorer area rather than an affluent area?
Çréla Prabhupäda: Our treatment is for the spiritually diseased person. When a person is afflicted with a
disease, there are no distinctions between a poor man and a rich man. They are both admitted to the same
hospital. Just as the hospital should be in a place where both the poor man and the rich man can easily
come, the location of the saěkértana facility should be easily accessible to all. Since everyone is materially
infected, everyone should be able to take advantage.
So our chanting process is for everyone, because it cleanses the heart, regardless of the man's opulence or
poverty. The only way to permanently change the criminal habit is to change the heart of the criminal. As
you well know, many thieves are arrested numerous times and put into jail. Although they know that if they
commit theft they will go to jail, still they are forced to steal, because of their unclean hearts. Therefore
without cleansing the heart of the criminal, you cannot stop crime simply by more stringent law
enforcement. The thief and the murderer already know the law, yet they still commit violent crimes, due to
their unclean hearts. So our process is to cleanse the heart. Then all the troubles of this material world will
be solved.
Science of Self-Realization
CABH 8: The Benefits of Chanting
Chapter 8
The Benefits of Chanting
Dr. Daniel Coleman, associate editor of Psychology Today and author of The Varieties of Meditative
Experiences, after studying the meditational techniques of members of the Kĺńëa consciousness movement,
said, "I found the Hare Kĺńëa devotees to be well-integrated, friendly, and productive human beings. In a
culture like ours, in which inner, spiritual development is almost totally neglected in favor of materialistic
pursuits, we might have something to learn from their meditational practices."
Everyone knows that a happy life requires good health. Proper diet, adequate exercise, and sufficient rest
are necessary to keep our bodies strong and fit. If we neglect these demands, our bodies become weakened
and resistance wanes. Highly susceptible to infection, we eventually become ill.
More important, but less well known, is the inner self's need for spiritual nourishment and attention. If we
ignore our spiritual health requirements, we become overwhelmed by negative material tendencies like
anxiety, hatred, loneliness, prejudice, greed, boredom, envy, and anger.
In order to counteract and prevent these subtle infections of the self, we should, as recommended in the
Vedic literatures, incorporate into our lives a program of self-examination and steady inner growth, based
on spiritual strength and clarity of thought.
The transcendental potency necessary for developing complete psychological and spiritual fulfillment is
already present within everyone. It must, however, be uncovered by a genuine spiritual process. Of all such
authentic processes, India's timeless Vedas tell us that meditation on the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is the most
powerful.
The initial result of chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is summarized by Çréla Prabhupäda in his commentary
on the Bhagavad-gétä: "We have practical experience that any person who is chanting the holy names of
Kĺńëa (Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare)
in course of time feels some transcendental pleasure and very quickly becomes purified of all material
contamination."
In the preliminary stages of chanting, the practitioner experiences a clearing of consciousness, peace of
mind, and relief from unwanted drives and habits. As one develops more realization by chanting, he
perceives the original, spiritual existence of the self. According to the Bhagavad-gétä, this enlightened state
"is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self "
And in the Caitanya-caritämĺta, a seventeen-volume commentary on the life and teachings of Çré Caitanya,
founder of the modern-day Kĺńëa consciousness movement, the ultimate benefit of chanting is described.
"The result of chanting is that one awakens his love for Kĺńëa and tastes transcendental bliss. Ultimately,
one attains the association of Kĺńëa and engages in His devotional service, as if immersing himself in a
great ocean of love."
So by chanting Hare Kĺńëa, one reaps innumerable benefits, culminating in Kĺńëa consciousness and love of
God. We can realize the fruits of chanting by adopting the process of mantra meditation and applying it
systematically. For clear understanding of the progressive effects of chanting, some of the more important
benefits are discussed separately.
CABH 8.1: Peace of Mind
Peace of Mind
Initially meditation focuses on controlling the mind, for in our normal condition, we are slaves to any
whimsical thoughts, desires, and appetites the mind may generate. We think of something and immediately
we want to do it. But the Bhagavad-gétä tells us that the meditator must learn to control the mind: "For one
who has conquered the mind, then his mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his
mind will be the greatest enemy.
The materialistic mind attempts to enjoy by employing the senses to experience matter and material
relationships. It is full of unlimited ideas for sense gratification, and being perpetually restless, it constantly
flickers from one sense object to another. In doing so, the mind vacillates between hankering for some
material gain and lamenting some loss or frustration.
In the Bhagavad-gétä Kĺńëa explains, "One who is not in transcendental consciousness can have neither a
controlled mind nor steady intelligence, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there
be any happiness without peace?" By chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, we can control the mind, instead of
letting it control us.
Mantra is a Sanskrit word. Man means "mind," and tra means "to deliver." Thus, a mantra is a
transcendental sound vibration with potency to liberate the mind from material conditioning.
In his commentary on Çrémad-Bhägavatam, Çréla Prabhupäda explains, "Our entanglement in material
affairs is begun from material sound." Each day we hear material sounds from radio and television, from
friends and relatives, and based on what we hear, we act. But as Çréla Prabhupäda points out, "There is
sound in the spiritual world also. If we approach that sound, then our spiritual life begins." When we control
the mind by focusing it on the purely spiritual sound vibration of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, the mind becomes
calm. As "music has charms to soothe a savage breast," so the spiritual sound of the mantra soothes the
restless mind. The Hare Kĺńëa mantra, being imbued with God's own supreme energies, has the power to
subdue all kinds of mental disturbance. Just as a reservoir of water is transparent when unagitated, our
mental perceptions become clear and pure when the mind is no longer agitated by the waves of material
desires. The mind in its pure state, like a mirror cleansed of dust, will then reflect undistorted images of
reality, allowing us to go beneath the surface and perceive the essential spiritual quality of all life's
experiences.
CABH 8.2: Knowledge of the Self
Knowledge of the Self
The Vedas state that consciousness is a symptom of the soul. In its pure condition, the soul exists in the
spiritual world; but when it falls down into contact with matter, the living being is covered by an illusion
called false egoism. False ego bewilders the consciousness, causing us to identify with our material bodies.
But we are not our material body. When we look at our hand or leg, we say, "This is my hand" or "This is
my leg." The conscious self, the "I," is therefore the owner and observer of the body. Intellectually, this fact
is easily understandable, and by the spiritual realization that results from chanting, this truth can be directly
and continuously experienced.
When the living being identifies with the material body and loses awareness of his real, spiritual self, he
inevitably fears death, old age, and disease. He fears loss of beauty, intelligence, and strength and
experiences countless other anxieties and false emotions relating to the temporary body. But by chanting,
even in the early stages, we realize ourselves to be pure and changeless spirit souls, completely distinct from
the material body. Because the mantra is a completely pure spiritual sound vibration, it has the power to
restore our consciousness to its original, uncontaminated condition. At this point, we cease to be controlled
by jealousy, bigotry, pride, envy, and hatred. As Lord Kĺńëa tells us in Bhagavad-gétä, the soul is "unborn,
eternal, ever-existing, undying, and primeval." As our false bodily identification dissolves and we perceive
our true transcendental existence, we automatically transcend all the fears and anxieties of material
existence. We no longer think "I am American. I am Russian. I am black. I am white."
Attaining real self-awareness also gives us the ability to see the spiritual nature of all living beings. When
our natural, spiritual feelings are awakened, we experience the ultimate unity of all life. This is what it
means to become a liberated person; by spiritual realization we become free of all animosity and envy
toward other living things.
This higher vision is explained by Çréla Prabhupäda in the Transcendental Teachings of Prahläd Mahäräja.
"When a man becomes fully Kĺńëa conscious he does not see, 'Here is an animal, here is a cat, here is a dog,
and here is a worm.' He sees everything as part and parcel of Kĺńëa. This is nicely explained in the
Bhagavad-gétä, 'One who is actually learned in Kĺńëa consciousness becomes a lover of the universe.'
Unless one is situated on the Kĺńëa conscious platform, there is no question of universal brotherhood."
CABH 8.3: Brings Real Happiness
Brings Real Happiness
Everyone is thirsting for true and lasting happiness. But because material pleasure is limited and temporary,
it is compared to a tiny drop of moisture in the desert. It gives us no permanent relief, because material
sensations and relationships lack the potency to satisfy the spiritual desires of the soul. But the chanting of
Hare Kĺńëa provides complete satisfaction because it places us in direct contact with God and His spiritual
pleasure potency. God is full of all bliss, and when we enter His association, we can also experience the
same transcendental happiness.
In the Vedic literature there is an interesting account of how the pleasure of chanting far exceeds any
material benefit. Once a poor brähmaëa priest worshiped the demigod Lord Çiva for a material benediction.
Lord Çiva, however, advised him to go to the sage Sanätana Gosvämé to obtain his heart's desire. Upon
learning that Sanätana Gosvämé had a mystical stone capable of producing gold, the poor brähmaëa asked if
he could have it. Sanätana consented and told the brähmaëa he could take the stone from its resting place in
his garbage pile. The brähmaëa departed in great joy, for he could now get as much gold as he desired
simply by touching the stone to iron. But afterward he thought, "If a touchstone is the best benediction, why
did Sanätana Gosvämé keep it with the garbage?"
He returned to Sanätana Gosvämé to satisfy his curiosity. The sage then informed him, "Actually, this is not
the best benediction. But are you prepared to take the best benediction from me?"
"Yes," the poor brähmaëa replied. "I have come to you for the best benediction." Sanätana Gosvämé then
told him to throw the touchstone in the water nearby and then return. The poor brähmaëa did so, and when
he came back, the saintly Sanätana initiated him into the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra, the sublime
method for experiencing the highest spiritual pleasure.
CABH 8.4: Liberation from Karma
Liberation from Karma
The law of karma means that for every material action performed, nature forces an equivalent reaction upon
the performer, or, as the Bible states, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
Material activities can be compared to seeds. Initially they are performed, or planted, and over the course of
time they gradually fructify, releasing their resultant reactions. Enmeshed in this web of actions and
reactions, we are forced to accept one material body after another to experience our karmic destiny. But
freedom from karma is possible by sincere chanting of Kĺńëa's transcendental names. Since God's names are
filled with transcendental energy, when the living being associates with the divine sound vibration, he is
freed from the endless cycle of karma.
Just as seeds fried in a pan lose their potency to sprout, so karmic reactions are rendered impotent by the
power of the holy names of God. Kĺńëa is like the sun. The sun is so powerful that it can purify whatever
comes into contact with it. If any object enters the sun globe, it is immediately transformed into fire.
Similarly, when our consciousness is absorbed in the transcendental sound of Kĺńëa, His internal energies
act to purify us of all karmic reactions. In his commentary on Çrémad-Bhägavatam, Çréla Prabhupäda
stresses, "The holy name is so spiritually potent that simply by chanting the holy name one can be freed
from the reactions to all sinful activity."
CABH 8.5: Freedom from Reincarnation
Freedom from Reincarnation
The Vedas teach that the living entity, the soul, is eternal, but due to past activities and material desires, it
perpetually accepts different material bodies. As long as we have material desires, nature, acting under
God's direction, will award us one material body after another. This is called transmigration of the soul, or
reincarnation. Actually, this changing of bodies is not surprising, because even in this life we go through
many bodies. First we have the body of an infant, then a child, later an adult, and finally the form of an old
man or woman. Similarly, after the passing of our old body, we get a new one.
Liberation from this cycle, known as saŕsära, or the endless wheel of birth and death, is possible by freeing
our consciousness from material desires. By chanting Hare Kĺńëa, we revive the natural spiritual desires of
the soul. Just as the nature of the body is to be attracted to sense gratification, the nature of the soul is to be
attracted to God. Chanting awakens our original God consciousness and our desire to serve and associate
with Him. By this simple change in consciousness, we can transcend the cycle of reincarnation.
Çréla Prabhupäda discusses this in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gétä. "The cumulative effect of the
thoughts and actions of one's life influences one's thoughts at death; therefore the actions of this life
determine one's future state of being. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Kĺńëa's service, then his next
body will be trancendental [spiritual], not physical. Therefore the chanting of the Hare Kĺńëa mantra is the
best process for successfully changing one's state of being to transcendental life."
CABH 8.6: The Ultimate Benefit-Love of God
The Ultimate Benefit-Love of God
The final goal and the highest fruit of chanting is complete God realization and pure love of God.
As our consciousness becomes increasingly purified, our steady spiritual advancement is reflected in our
character and behavior. As the sun approaches the horizon, it is preceded by increasing warmth and
illumination. Similarly, as realization of Kĺńëa's holy name is revived within the heart, this increasing
spiritual awareness manifests in all aspects of our personality. Ultimately, the eternal, loving relationship
between God and the living being is revived. Before entering the material world, each soul had a unique
spiritual relationship with God. This loving relationship is thousands of times greater and more intense than
any love experienced in the material world. This is described in the Caitanya-caritämĺta: "Pure love for
Kĺńëa is eternally established in the heart of living entities. It is not something to be gained from another
source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, the living entity is awakened."
In our eternal, constitutional position in the spiritual world, we are able to associate with God directly,
serving Him in a spiritual form just suitable for our mood of love and devotion. In this relationship of
spiritual love, the pure devotee is absorbed in transcendental ecstasy. This state of ecstasy is described in
The Nectar of Devotion. "At that time one's heart becomes illuminated like the sun. The sun is far above the
planetary systems, and there is no possibility of its being covered by any kind of cloud. Similarly, when a
devotee is purified like the sun, from his heart there is a diffusion of ecstatic love more glorious than the
sunshine."
CABH 9: Techniques for Chanting
Chapter 9
Techniques for Chanting
The meditation business is flourishing these days. Modern-day "messiahs," "gurus," and "incarnations,"
with all varieties of mantras, are a dime a dozen, as eager customers flock to the feet of self-styled saviors.
One so-called guru instructs his disciples in supercharged techniques for becoming a financial success.
Another tells his followers that meditation will make their intelligence sharper and the body more fit to
enjoy sensual pleasures. Still other "gurus" claim that sex is the ultimate goal of life and that unlimited sex
will free one from all material desires. Some chic spiritual seekers pay a lot of money for secret mantras that
they believe will allow them to perform mystic feats. But the Vedic literatures issue stern warnings about
charlatan gurus and bogus mantras.
If a person is actually serious about spiritual life, he or she must come in contact with a bona fide spiritual
master and learn from him the science of Kĺńëa consciousness. The Muëňaka Upanińad states that "In order
to learn the transcendental science, one must approach the bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession,
who is fixed in the Absolute Truth."
Not just any guru will do. This verse informs us that the spiritual master must be in disciplic succession
from Lord Kĺńëa, the supreme spiritual master. Such a genuine spiritual master receives Kĺńëa's teachings
through the disciplic chain and distributes them exactly as he has heard them from his spiritual master,
without watering them down or altering them to suit his whims. A bona fide guru is not an impersonalist or
voidist. He will never claim to be God; rather, he aspires to be a servant of God and His devotees. Such a
guru is called äcärya, or one who teaches by example. His life is free from all material desires and sinful
behavior, his character is exemplary, and he must be qualified to deliver his disciples from the path of
repeated birth and death. The Kĺńëa conscious guru is absorbed in service to or meditation on the Supreme
Lord at every moment.
Since the holy name of Kĺńëa is completely spiritual, it must be received from a pure representative or
servant of Kĺńëa, who acts as a transparent via medium between God and the sincere spiritual seeker.
Mantras received from any other type of "guru" simply will not work.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda writes in the Çrémad-Bhägavatam: "Unless one
follows the disciplic succession, the mantra one receives will be chanted for no purpose. Nowadays there
are so many rascal gurus who manufacture their mantras as a process for material advancement, not for
spiritual advancement. Still, the mantra cannot be successful if it is manufactured. Mantras and the process
of devotional service have special power, provided they are received from the authorized person."

Receiving the Hare Kĺńëa mantra from a bona fide guru who is in complete harmony with Kĺńëa's teachings
in Bhagavad-gétä is the single most important aspect of chanting Hare Kĺńëa.
Chanting the Hare Kĺńëa mahä-mantra is the simplest of all processes of self-realization. There are no
exorbitant fees; the mantra is free. The thriving business of selling mantras is a form of cheating. The test of
a person's sincerity is not that he pays some money, but that he is willing to change his life.
In order to chant Hare Kĺńëa, one need not equip oneself with expensive props and paraphernalia, learn to
stand on one's head, or perform other difficult postures or breathing exercises. The only equipment one
needs is a tongue and ears. Everyone already has these. The tongue simply has to vibrate Kĺńëa's holy
names, and the ears must hear it. By this simple process alone, one can achieve all perfection.
CABH 9.1: How to Chant
How to Chant
There are no hard-and-fast rules for chanting Hare Kĺńëa. The most wonderful thing about mantra
meditation is that one may chant anywhere-at home, at work, driving in the car, or riding on the bus or
subway. And one may chant at any time.
There are two basic types of chanting. Personal meditation, where one chants alone on beads, is called japa.
When one chants in responsive fashion with others, this is called kértana. Kértana is usually accompanied
by musical instruments and clapping. Both forms of chanting are recommended and beneficial.
To perform the first type of meditation, one needs only a set of japa beads. These may be purchased from
any Hare Kĺńëa temple or by filling out the coupon in the back of this book. Or, if you like, you can make
your own beads at home.
If you decide to make your japa beads, follow these simple instructions:
1. Buy 109 large round beads (at least as big as a dime), and some strong, thick nylon thread.
2. Tie a knot about six inches from the end of a long piece of the thread and then string the beads, tying a
knot after each one.
3. After stringing 108 beads, pull the two ends of thread through one large master bead.
4. This bead is called the Kĺńëa bead. Tie a knot next to it and cut off the excess thread. You now have your
own set of japa beads.
To meditate with the beads, hold them in your right hand. Hold the first bead with your thumb and middle
finger (see illustration on page 100) and chant the complete mahä-mantra-Hare Kĺńëa, Hare Kĺńëa, Kĺńëa
Kĺńëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare. Then go to the next bead, holding it
with the same two fingers, again chanting the entire mantra. Then go on to the next bead and then the next,
continuing in this way until you have chanted on all 108 beads and have come to the Kĺńëa bead. You have
now completed "one round" of chanting. Do not chant on the Kĺńëa bead, but turn the beads around and
chant on them in the opposite direction, one after another. Chanting on beads is especially helpful, for it
engages the sense of touch in the meditative process and helps you concentrate even more on the sound of
the mantra.
You may want to chant japa indoors, but you can chant just as comfortably walking along the beach or
hiking in the mountains. Just bring your beads along with you. If you chant sitting down, you should assume
a comfortable position (preferably not Iying down or slouching, for there's always the tendency to fall
asleep). You can chant as loudly or as softly as you like, but it's important to pronounce the mantra clearly
and loudly enough to hear yourself. The mind may have a tendency to wander off to other matters when you
chant, for the mind is flickering and unsteady, always looking for something new and pleasurable to absorb
itself in. If your mind wanders (to anything except Kĺńëa and things related to Him), gently bring it back to
the transcendental sound vibration. It won't be difficult, because the mind is easily satisfied when absorbed
in the divine sound of the Lord's holy names (unlike other meditational practices, where one may be asked
to fix his mind on "nothing" or "the void").
One may chant japa at any time, but the Vedic literatures note that certain hours of the day are most
auspicious for performing spiritual activities. The early morning hours just before and after sunrise are
generally a time of stillness and quietude, excellently suited to contemplative chanting. Many people find it
especially helpful to set aside a certain amount of time at the same time each day for chanting. Start with
one or two "rounds" a day, and gradually increase the number until you reach sixteen, the recommended
minimum for serious chanters.
While japa is a form of meditation involving you, your beads, and the Supreme Lord, kértana, on the other
hand, is a form of group meditation, where one sings the mantra, sometimes accompanied by musical
instruments. You may have seen a kértana party chanting on the streets of your city, for the devotees
frequently perform this type of chanting to demonstrate the process and allow as many people as possible to
benefit from hearing the holy names.
One may hold a kértana at home with family or friends, with one person leading the chanting and the others
responding. Kértana is more of a supercharged meditational process, where in addition to hearing oneself
chant, one also benefits by hearing the chanting of others. Musical instruments are nice, but not necessary.
One may sing the mantra to any melody and clap his hands. (Especially recommended are the traditional
melodies, like those found on the cassette offered at the end of this book.) If you have children, they can
sing along as well and make spiritual advancement. You can get the whole family together every evening
for chanting.
The sounds of the material world are boring, hackneyed and monotonous, but chanting is an ever-
increasingly refreshing experience. Make a test yourself. Try chanting some word or phrase for even five
minutes. If you chant "Coca-Cola" over and over again, even for a few minutes, it becomes practically
unbearable. There's no pleasure in it. But the sound of Kĺńëa's names is transcendental, and as one chants he
wants to chant more and more.
CABH 9.2: Enhancing Your Chanting
Enhancing Your Chanting
Although one receives immense benefit however and whenever one may chant Hare Kĺńëa, the great
spiritual masters who are authorities on chanting suggest that the practitioner employ certain practical
techniques that will enhance the chanting and bring quicker results as well.
The more one chants, the more easily he will be able to follow the principles listed below, for as one chants,
he gains spiritual strength and develops a higher taste. When one begins to relish spiritual pleasure from
chanting, giving up bad habits that may hinder one's spiritual progress becomes much easier.
1. Just by chanting Hare Kĺńëa, one will automatically want to follow the four regulative principles of
spiritual life:
A. No eating of meat, fish, or eggs.
B. No intoxication.
C. No gambling.
D. No illicit sex (sex outside of marriage or not meant for the procreation of God conscious children).
The four above-mentioned activities make it especially difficult for one to progress in spiritual life, because
they increase one's attachment to material things. Therefore they are not recommended for one who has
taken up the chanting of Hare Kĺńëa. The chanting is so powerful, however, that one may begin chanting at
any stage, and the chanting will help one to make the necessary adjustments.
2. One should regularly read the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhagavad-gétä and Çrémad-Bhägavatam.
If one simply hears about God, His uncommon activities and transcendental pastimes, the dust accumulated
in the heart due to long association with the material world will be cleansed. By regularly hearing about
Kĺńëa and the spiritual world, where Kĺńëa enjoys eternal pastimes with His devotees, one willfully
understand the nature of the soul, true spiritual activities, and the complete procedure for obtaining release
from the material world.
3. In order to be more fully immunized against material contamination, one should eat only vegetarian foods
that have been spiritualized by being offered to the Supreme Lord. There is a karmic reaction involved when
one takes the life of any living being (including plants), but the Supreme Lord states in the Gétä that if one
offers Him vegetarian foods, He will nullify that reaction.
4. One should offer the fruit of one's work to the Supreme Lord. When one works for his own pleasure or
satisfaction, he must accept the karmic reactions to his activities, but if one dedicates his work to God and
works only for His satisfaction, there is no karmic reaction. Work performed as service to the Lord not only
frees one from karma, but awakens one's dormant love for Kĺńëa.
5. As much as possible, one who is serious about chanting Hare Kĺńëa should associate with other like-
minded persons. This gives one great spiritual strength. Çréla Prabhupäda formed the International Society
for Krishna Consciousness so that persons who are- sincere about becoming conscious of God and their
eternal loving relationship with Him may benefit from associating with others who are also on the path back
home to the spiritual world.
Eventually, serious chanters will want to take initiation from a bona fide spiritual master. Initiation is
recommended in the Vedic scriptures, for it dramatically helps one in chanting Hare Kĺńëa and assists in the
awakening of our original spiritual consciousness. There are qualified spiritual masters in the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness throughout the world who are willing to assist anyone sincere about
becoming God conscious.
Çréla Prabhupäda has indicated that those desirous of taking initiation must follow the regulative principles
mentioned earlier and chant each day on beads a minimum of sixteen rounds. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, the
incarnation of Kĺńëa who popularized the chanting of the holy names five hundred years ago in West
Bengal, India, introduced the system of chanting a fixed number of rounds each day. Careful completion of
sixteen rounds daily will help the disciple to remember Kĺńëa always.
That, in essence, is what Kĺńëa consciousness is all about-always remembering Kĺńëa and never forgetting
Him. And chanting is the simplest way of maintaining this constant state of God consciousness, for the
mystical potency contained in the mantra's vibration will always keep you in touch with God and your own
original, spiritual nature. All of God's innumerable spiritual potencies, including His transcendental pleasure
principle, are contained in His holy names. Therefore, the pleasure you will feel as you begin to chant will
be far, far greater than any material happiness you have ever experienced. And the more you chant Hare
Kĺńëa, the happier you will feel.