By Dhirasanta dasa
The Hare Krishna chant is not a sectarian practice but a mantra, which delivers to the chanter life's highest perfection. There are so many problems in the world today, and ultimately all come from our lack of God consciousness. Stopgap political, social and economical measures are just that; they don't reach the underlying disease. If we chant God's name and obey His laws, that will be a practical therapy for civilisation in this era when God consciousness is neglected by the leaders of nations.
Even Napoleon, as worldly-minded leader as he was, admitted, “The sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”
We don't advertise it much, but in times of distress most of us, even avowed atheists, turn to God.
A few years ago in Atlanta, when a Krishna devotee ran for mayor on a platform of God consciousness, the editor of a noted newspaper carped that chanting God's names couldn't solve man's problems. Then one day it happened that the editor was kidnapped, locked in to a car trunk, and held for ransom. When finally he had been freed and reporters asked him what he had been thinking about during his confinement, he said “I prayed to God”.
This is natural. If a man at all believes in the Supreme Lord then he will call upon Him at least in crisis. But why wait until the last gasp? Sometimes a person near death prays to God to let him go on living for just a few more years ... in defiance of God's laws.
A Hindi proverb says man prays to God in difficulty, but if he would only pray to God when he is well situated, then he wouldn't fall into difficulty, whether during this present life or the next.
The Vedic scriptures say that all of us are spiritual souls, originally God conscious entities; but due to our association with matter since time immemorial, our consciousness is now adulterated. And the Hare Krishna mantra is a sublime method for reviving our transcendental consciousness.
We are living in illusion, trying to master nature, although actually we are under the grip of her stringent laws. By working to exploit the resources of nature, we have become more and more entangled in her complexities. Despite our hard struggle to conquer nature, we are even more dependent on her.
This illusory struggle against nature can at once be stopped when we revive our eternal Krishna consciousness; and the Hare Krishna chant is the transcendental process for reviving this original, pure consciousness. By chanting, we cleanse our hearts of the false mentality, “I am the lord of all I survey.”
Because Krishna consciousness is the original, natural energy of the living being, when we hear the transcendental vibration of Krishna's names, our original consciousness is revived.
Of all forms of religious meditation of study, chanting God's name is both the simplest and the most effective. Even in the beginning, we can feel transcendental ecstasy beyond the material concept of life.
Calling on the names of God does not require that we change our religion or nationality or social status. Anyone can take it up, provided he is properly guided.
With proper guidance, we can live in accord with the proverb “simple living and high thinking,” satisfying our material needs without artificial industries and complicated urbanised life, saving time and energy for understanding our eternal relationship with God; and at the time of death we can return to the spiritual world.
Please chant these names of God:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Hare Krishna Mantra
