What is the purpose of this site?
The purpose of this website is two-fold:
1) To get as many people as possible interested in chanting Hare Krishna.
2) To help those who are already chanting improve the quality of their chanting.
Since we are covering the basics right now, this part is especially for those who have recently been attracted to chanting or at least want to know what it's about.
Much of this site is made up of writings by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He spread this maha-mantra (literally "great mantra for deliverance" - the Hare Krishna Mantra) all over the world. To find out about him, please see the "Srila Prabhupada" page in "Basics."
What is the Maha-Mantra?
Before we understand why we should chant "Hare Krishna," we should probably know what it is that we are chanting.
The maha-mantra is actually two things. First, it is a prayer. We are praying to God and to the energy of God to engage us in devotional service. Basically, to help us reconnect to the spiritual and disconnect from the material. Secondly, it is made up of three names of God.
The word "Hara" is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words "Krishna" and "Rama" are forms of addressing the Lord Himself. Both "Krishna" and "Rama" mean "the supreme pleasure," and "Hara" 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.
-Srila Prabhupada
These words are different from material words. While material words represent things, the names of God are God. Since God is absolute, He is nondifferent from His names. When you chant "Krishna," that sound vibration is Krishna, God. If this were not so, God would not be absolute, and thus not God. So by very definition, this chanting is God. When you chant, you are associating with God. It's that simple.
Waxing Philosophical
We're going to delve a little bit into the philosphy of Krishna consciousness here. The first thing we need to understand is that we are not our bodies. We are spirit souls. That little "divine spark" that we all think is inside of us is actually us! The soul, meaning the true "us," is eternal. Our bodies are not.
It is simple to see that we are not the body. If we chop off an arm or a leg, we are essentially still the same person. That "essential" part that remains, that which makes us, us, is the soul.
The soul is (and thus, we are) eternally full of knowledge and full of bliss. But due to coming into contact with material nature (basically, anything that is not spiritual), we have forgotten this. Since we are the soul and the soul is unchangable, we still possess these qualities. However, since we are in this material world, we have to deal with material nature.
This material nature is called maya, literally "that which is not" or "illusion." The illusion that we're living under is that we are somehow controlling this material nature. We believe that by giving ourselves so many conveniences, short cuts and escapes, we are actually bettering our lives. But this just isn't so. The more we try to make our lives "easier" by these material arrangements, the more entagled we get in the material nature, maya. The more entangled we are, the more in illusion we are. We believe all of these things will make us happy, but truthfully, how can they?
The soul is full of bliss. Bliss isn't just happiness that you got a new car or a promotion. Bliss is an eternal spiritual happines. It's a happiness where there is no return to sadness. It's a happiness that has always been within us, but is covered by this maya, this illusion.
That is our situation. We're trying like crazy to be happy through the process of "bettering" ourselves materially and aquiring more stuff. The more we do this, the more separated from the spiritual we become. The more we cover our spirituality with materialism, the more we need to undo it. Simply, the more we need to clean away this illusury covering and realize the true nature of ourselves: that we are spirit souls, eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss.
So, why chant Hare Krishna?
Because these words are names of God, and are thus not material but spiritual, they can immediately start chipping away at this materialistic covering. Chanting Hare Krishna is the transcendental process for reviving this original, pure consciousness. By chanting this transcendental vibration, we can cleanse away all misgivings within our hearts.
Srila Prabhupada continues: "Krishna 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 maha-mantra, or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a transcendental ecstasy coming through from the spiritual stratum."
The maha-mantra is coming from the spiritual platform. Since a spiritual consciousness is higher than a material consciousness, it transcends the sensual, mental and intellectual. Spirit is beyond all of this. The Hare Krishna maha-mantra is our direct connection to reviving our spiritual consciousness. Otherwise, we will just continue in this cycle of pretend happiness, never knowing that we not only deserve so much better than this, but are eternally so much more than this matter, this illusion.
We are spirit, we need a spiritual solution to our problem of materialism. The Hare Krishna maha-mantra is that solution.
No other means of spiritual realization is as effective in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy as the chanting of the maha-mantra:
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,
Hare Rama, Hare Rama,
Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!