Beautifully dressed and garlanded Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, of ISKCON Brisbane, 32 Jennifer st, Seventeen Mile Rocks QLD 4073, Australia. Head pujaris are HG Krishna-Bhavana Devi and her husband HG Ranchor Prabhu. All glories to their expert and steady service!
When we wake up at one or two AM in the morning, we don’t take sleeping drugs to induce further sleep. Some other people chose to participate in radio talkback show at this early morning hour. We instead wisely chant
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
We chant on 108 beads and this is called Japa. There is a 109th bead, which represents Krishna. We don’t chant on Him. We go back and forth from one side of the Krishna bead to the other, without jumping over the Krishna bead. In fact, we never “jump” over anyone of superior stature. That is offensive and of very bad taste.
Early rise is excellent for spiritual life and very much conducive to spiritual advancement of life. Later in the day if required, we may of course, catch up on some sleep. This human form of life is meant for spiritual advancement only. If we miss this golden opportunity, we may, in our next life, regress to a less advanced form of life, such as an animal form.
The Vedanta Sutra says:” Athato brahma jijnasa”
“Now is the time to enquire about Brahman.”
“Now” refers to this human form of life opportunity.
Dogs and cats cannot make enquiries about the meaning of life. But the human form of life is specifically designed for existential enquires. In a parallel way, we find that only humans have advanced materially intelligence as well. We do not find that animals are building skyscraper or airplanes.
Even from a practical point of view the HARE KRISHNA MAHA MANTRA is so very useful!
It can relieve us from a headache or from the stresses of everyday life. What better feeling and satisfaction than to just switch off and forget about everything else and chant
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
What a relief! What a welcome break!
Chanting Hare Krishna is safe. Chanting Hare Krishna is free of charge and chanting Hare Krishna is of untold benefit to the body, to the mind, to the intellect and ultimately to the soul.
We are not these bodies, we are not these minds, we are not these intellects. Each living entity-not just human- literally every living entity, human, animal and plant is a pure spirit soul, part and parcel of the Supreme Spirit. We are spirit souls. This is our real identity. This is the real platform of freedom, equality and fraternity.
Other perceived identities such as “I am Australian,” “I am French,” “I am American”, “I am Russian or Indian”, “I am white,” “I am black,” “I am male,” “I am female” are artificial impositions. Just like in the psychiatric ward someone may thinks he or she is Hitler or Napoleon and behave in such an imitative way. But it is nothing but the product of a wild, probably diseased imagination.
Now someone may ask where do we get this information from? The basics of Sri Krishna’s teachings are given in His book called the Bhagavad Gita, originally spoken in Sanskrit some 5000 years ago, in a place called Kuruksetra, some 150 air kilometres north of New Dehli, India. At this time, i.e. 5000 years ago, New Delhi was called Hastinapura, the city of the elephants, (Hasti means elephant) and was in fact the world’s administrative capital. At this time the world was one. And now it has become divided into some 195 countries. Just see the influence of the time factor! Because we are no being taught these things in our educational institution, we may say that we are being passively brainwashed about the history of the world. Instead we are being “brainwashed” again about such foolish things as the Big Bang (with capital letters, please) and other such fantasies. Has someone ever seen a creation coming out of a big bang? Big bangs are usually used to destroy things and not to create them.
There are about 650 different presentations of this book, just to give you an idea about its popularity. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna consciousness or in short the Hare Krishna Movement, has presented his version of Bhagavad Gita and he has called it Bhagavad-Gita As It Is (BGAII). He found that most other presentations of Bhagavad-Gita were motivated by some personal interest and He has attempted to present a “transparent” translation of Bhagavad-Gita with great integrity, as if we were reading the Bhagavad Gita in its original Sanskrit text. His presentation is very clear and honest in the sense that he presents in respective order, the Sanskrit text, a transliteration, a word for word translation, a translation and finally a purport or explanation. Because of his vast erudition in Vedic knowledge and His bona fide and authoritative status, He is also qualified to presents things in their proper perspective.
His presentation is complete as well. He presents all 700 verses, whereas some other renditions will only contain a certain proportion of the 700 verses.
In the Bhagavad-Gita will shall find such statements as follows:
“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.” BGAII 2.12
“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” BGAII 15.7
In both cases Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is speaking to His devotee-friend Arjuna, on the battlefield of Kurukestra.
Simultaneous to the existence of this transcendental knowledge, there is a school of experts called Acaryas or a line of disciplic successors, who represent, practice and teach the knowledge. Swami Prahupada comes legitimately in this line of authority. He has thousands of initiated followers. The author of this article is one of them.
This Hare Krishna mantra has been specifically designed for this age of Kali. This age of Kali is characterized as follows:
“O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men almost always have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.” Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.10
In previous ages, the atmosphere was better suited for self-realization and the means were given accordingly. The general trend is one of cyclic depreciation. In Satya-yuga for example, when people used to live one hundred thousand years, the recommended means of self-realization was meditation. It is reported that Valmiki, the author of Ramayana, meditated for sixty thousand years. Who lives for sixty thousand years nowadays? Perhaps some yogis in India live for a few hundred years. But that is the greatest extent of our Kali-yuga lives. It is also mentioned that a great saint of the name Bilvamangal Thakur lived for seven hundred years in Vrindavan, the birth place of Lord Krishna.
Therefore there is need for a special allowance. The allotted special allowance is the Hare Krishna maha-mantra:
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
And it should be noted that the very same benefits can be derived from the chanting, as were derived from other processes in previous ages. What a wonderful higher arrangement! Who will not want to take advantage of this special offer?
It is simultaneously simple and sublime. It is simple because it is only composed of three different words: Hare, Krishna and Rama. And all one is required to do is to repeat these words in proper sequence, a certain number of times and with proper concentration. What could be easier? These three words of course, have got special meaning and special power. I shall explain this later.
It is sublime because its proper practice will help us achieve the greatest perfection of life: that is to be reinstated in our original, blissful and eternal status of servants of God, Krishna, in the spiritual world where everything is just unimaginably easy and blissful. In the spiritual world for example there are no birth, death, old age and disease, the cardinal faults of this material world
The theology of the holy name is fascinating and there is a book called Sri Namamrita that explains it very nicely and in a very inspiring way. It is a collection of quotes from the various publications of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivadenta Swami Prabhupada such as Bhagavad-gita as It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya Caritamrta and some of His smaller books as well, such as Science of Self-realization etc… The basic principle is that Krishna and His innumerable names are absolute. Krishna is not different from his innumerable names. It is very nicely summed up in prayer number two by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His Sri Sri Siksastaka:
“O My Lord, Your holy name alone can render all benedictions to living beings, and thus You have hundreds and millions of names, like Krishna and Govinda. In these transcendental names You have invested all Your transcendental energies, and there are no hard and fast rules for chanting these holy names. O My Lord, You have so kindly made it easy to approach You by Your holy names, but I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for them.”
Mantra is a Sanskrit word, which can be divided into two parts. Man and tra. Manah refers to the mind and tra means to deliver or to set free. So mantra is that sound vibration which if chanted regularly, brings us freedom from the material conditioning and ultimately freedom from the laws of material nature. At least in Australia, there is also a chain of hotels that have chosen the word “mantra” as their business name. The effect of the mantra chanting is exemplified in the first stanza of the prayer called Gurvastaka.
Because the spiritual master gives the mantra it is said:
“The spiritual master is receiving benediction from the ocean of mercy. Just as the cloud pours water on the forest fire to extinguish it, so the spiritual master extinguishes the blazing fire of material existence. I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.”
The point being that the mantra received from the spiritual master helps us to pacify and control our minds even though we are facing the blazing fire of material existence, where there is always some kind of antagonism and confrontation in progress. It not only helps us to pacify the mind but it also helps us to make the mind a reliable and effective ally in the daily struggle for existence. The mind can be either an enemy or a friend as confirmed in Bhagavad-Gita As It Is 6.5:
“One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.”
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His contemporary associate Lord Nityananada of sixteenth century India are the great prophets, revivers and advocates of the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. Their words / preaching and activities are described in the glorious Caitanya Caritamrta published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and available from this website. All other books mentioned in this article are available from this website as well. If you wish to order, simply drop us an email: ajm108@gmail.com.
Here is a brief description of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu:
“The religious practice for the Age of Kali is to broadcast the glories of the holy name. Only for this purpose has the Lord, in a yellow color, descended as Lord Caitanya.”CCA3.40
” The luster of His expansive body resembles molten gold. The deep sound of His voice conquers the thundering of newly assembled clouds. CCA 3.41
““His tongue is always chanting the holy name of Krishna, and from His eyes tears incessantly fall like the flowing Ganges.” CCM 17.111
““Sometimes He dances, laughs, sings and cries, and sometimes He roars like a lion.” CCM 7.112
““His name, Krishna Caitanya, is all-auspicious for the world. Everything about Him—His name, form and qualities—is unparalleled.CCM17.113
And here is a brief description of His associate and equal, Lord Nityananada Prabhu:
“He had a glossy blackish complexion, and His tall, strong, heroic stature made Him seem like Cupid himself.” CCA 5.184
“He had beautifully formed hands, arms and legs, and eyes like lotus flowers. He wore a silk cloth, with a silk turban on His head.” CCA 5.185
He wore golden earrings on His ears, and golden armlets and bangles. He wore tinkling anklets on His feet and a garland of flowers around His neck. CCA 5.186
His body was anointed with sandalwood pulp, and He was nicely decorated with tilaka. His movements surpassed those of a maddened elephant. CCA 5.187
His face was more beautiful than millions upon millions of moons, and His teeth were like pomegranate seeds because of His chewing betel. CCA 5.188
His body moved to and fro, right and left, for He was absorbed in ecstasy. He chanted “Krishna, Krishna” in a deep voice. CCA 5.189
His red stick moving in His hand, He seemed like a maddened lion. All around the four sides of His feet were bumblebees. CCA 5.190
His devotees, dressed like cowherd boys, surrounded His feet like so many bees and also chanted “Krishna, Krishna,” absorbed in ecstatic love. CCA 5.191
Please chant:
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE.
and benefit!
Thank you very much!
Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard from Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralization of management, taxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at all approve of such plan. Do not centralize anything. Each temple must remain independent and self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very beginning, why you are thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do something centralizing with your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the whole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits, centralization—these are all nonsense proposals. Only thing I wanted was that books printing and distribution should be centralized, therefore I appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it. Otherwise, management, everything, should be done locally by local men. Accounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that should be each temple’s concern, not yours. Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they do nothing but beg from you and you provide. No. Never mind there may be botheration to register each centre, take tax certificate each, become separate corporations in each state. That will train men how to do these things, and they shall develop reliability and responsibility, that is the point. 721222LET.Karandhar
--The Australian Society for Krishna Culture. AUSKCULTURE, operation start 1984 -- ABN 65 231 425 870. 