A recording of A.C. Bhaktivednata Swami Prabhupada’s explanation of the meaning of the Hare Krsna mantra and the purpose of its chanting (Dated 20 October 1966 from Wikimedia). This recording was originally from the LP titled Krishna Consciousness, which is also referred to by devotees as The Happening Album.
Transcription:
The transcendental vibration by the chanting ofHare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is the sublime method for reviving our Krishna consciousness. As living spiritual souls, we are all originally Krishna Conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness is now poluted by the material atmosphere.
In this polluted concept of life, we are all trying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we are becoming more and more entangled in her complexities. This illusion is called maya, or hard struggle for existence for winning over the stringent laws of material nature. This illusory struggle against material nature can be stopped at once by revival of our eternal Krishna Consciousness.
Krishna Consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original, natural energy of the living entity. When we hear the transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. This simplest method is recommended for this age (Kali-Yuga). By practical experience also, we can perceive that by chanting this maha-mantra, or the Great Chanting for Deliverance, one can at once feel a transcendental ecstasy from the spiritual stratum. When one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind and intelligence, oneis then situated on the transcendental plane.
This chanting of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare is directly enacted from the spiritual platform, surpasses all lower status of consciousness—namely sensual, mental, and intellectual. There is no need of understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need of mental speculation, nor any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such, anyone can take part in this transcendenral souind vibration without any previous qualification and dance in ecstasy.
We have seen it practically… even a child can take part in the chanting, or even a dog can take part in it. The chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of non-devotees should be avoided as much as milk touched by the lips of a serpent causes poisonous effects.
The word Hara is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord. Both Krishna and Rama are forms of addressing directly the Lord . And they mean the highest pleasure of the Eternal. Hara is the supreme pleasure potential of the Lord, this potency when addressed as Hare helps us in reaching the Supreme Lord.
The material energy, called as maya, is also one of the multi potencies of the Lord as much as we are also the marginal potentials of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior energy to mater . When the superior energy is in contact with the inferior energy, it becomes an incompatible situation ; but when the superior marginal poterncy is in contact with the superior potency , Hara, it beomes the happy, normal condition of the living entity.
The three words, namely Hare, Krishna and Rama, are the transcendental seeds of the maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His eternal Energy Hara, to give protection to the conditioned soul. This chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother. Mother Hara helps in achieving the grace of the Supreme Father, known as Hare or Krshna, and the Lord reveals Himself to such a sincere devotee who chants this Mantra sincerely.
No other means, therefore, of spiritual realization is as effective in this age as chanting the maha-mantra:
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
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