Berkeley Center of ISKCON

HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

Once you've heard it , you'll never forget it. You may not know what the words mean nevertheless there's something captivation about the Hare Krsna chant. Is it the catchy tune, or the fascinating way in which the words are repeated and reversed ? People who chant Hare Krsna say both contribute to its appeal. But they know that the secret of the chant's attraction is the quality of the sound itself.

Anyone can take three words and make a song out of them, combining them in a clever way. But can that concoction be meditated on all day and night? Would the chanters of those words report, as do the chanters of Hare Krsna, that the practice is freeing them from anxiety, opening up their minds to a liberated view of themselves, and investing them with blissfulness? No, of course not. The invented litany would only drive its creators to distraction

But the sound of Hare Krsna is so enriching that a whole culture has been founded on it. Furthermore, the people who chant Hare Krsna are developing good character, gaining knowledge of both the material and spiritual worlds, and helping other people to be free from pain. There is, then, a special quality to the sound of Hare Krsna. What is it ?

The words Hare, Krsna and Rama have a special quality because they are seeds of pure spiritual consciousness. They are not a product of an earthbound language changing through the centuries. They are names of God, a ceaselessly energetic as God Himself. When you pronounce these sounds, you are propelled into your eternal position as a particle of spiritual energy, a person living in a transcendental nature. Hare Krsna reveals to you the person you really are.

Read more about Krsna consciousness in this issue of BACK TO GODHEAD.