Hare Krishna Maha-mantra
Srila Prabhupada once announced, "The chanting of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's name is more essential than the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra." (1) One smart devotee then inquired whether we should therefore chant rounds of the Panca-tattva mantra to which Srila Prabhupada replied, "No — because Lord Caitanya's instruction was to chant Hare Krishna."
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
The Hare Krishna maha-mantra is a very simple mantra consisting of only three words: Hare, Krishna, and Rama.
Hare means unto Mother Hara (i.e. Lord Krishna's personal pleasure potency, Srimati Radharani).
Krishna means the all-attractive Lord.
Rama means the source of all enjoyment.
When we chant Hare Krishna we are praying: "O energy of the Lord (Hare), O Lord (Krishna and Rama) please engage me in Your service!"
Maha-mantra means it is the Great Mantra Of Deliverance.
Lord Caitanya and the Vedas both recommend this process:
hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare
iti sodasakam namnam
kali-kalmasa-nasanam
natah parataropayah
sarva-vedesu drsyate
The sixteen words of the Hare Krishna mantra are especially meant for counteracting the contaminating influence of the age of Kali. After searching through all the Vedic literature, one cannot find a better method.
Footnote
(1) There are offenses to be considered in chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but there are no such considerations in chanting the names of Gaura-Nityananda. Therefore, if one chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra but his life is still full of sinful activities, it will be very difficult for him to achieve the platform of loving service to the Lord. But if in spite of being an offender one chants the holy names of Gaura-Nityananda, he is very quickly freed from the reactions to his offenses. Therefore, one should first approach Lord Caitanya and Nityananda, or worship Guru-Gauranga, and then come to the stage of worshiping Radha-Krishna.
One should first take shelter of Gaura-Nityananda in order to reach, ultimately, Radha-Krishna. … It should be noted in this connection that the holy names of Lord Krishna and Gaurasundara are both identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore one should not consider one name to be more potent than the other. Considering the position of the people of this age, however, the chanting of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s name is more essential than the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra because Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the most magnanimous incarnation and His mercy is very easily achieved. Therefore one must first take shelter of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by chanting Sri-Krishna-Caitanya Prabhu Nityananda Sri Advaita Gadadhara Srivasadi Gaura Bhakta-Vrnda. (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi 8.31 purport)
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