chant! and be happy! -g. harrison
prabupadaacarya (spiritual master) of the hare krsna movement told me once that we should just keep chanting all the time, or as much as possible. once you do that, you realize the benefit. the response that comes from chanting is in the form of bliss, or spiritual happiness, which is a much higher taste than any happiness found here in the material world. that's what i say that the more you do it, the more you don't want to stop, because it feels so nice and peaceful.
the word hare is the word that calls upon the energy that's around the lord. if you say the mantra enough, you build up an identification with god. god's all happiness, all bliss, and by chanting his names we connect with him. so it's realy a process of actually having a realization of god, which all becomes clear with the expanded state of consciousness that develops when you chant. like i said in the introduction i wrote for prahupada's krsna book some years ago, 'if there's a god, i want to see him. it's pointless to believe in something without proof, and krsna consciousness and meditation are methods where you can actually obtain god's perception.'
"the vedas informs us that because god is absolute, there is no difference between god the person and his holy name; the name is god."
so when i say that 'i see god,' i don't necessarily mean to say that when i chant i'm seeing krsna in his original form when he came five thousand years ago, dancing across the water, playing his flute. of course, that would also be nice, and it's quite possible, too. when you become real pure by chanting, you can actually see god by chanting, you can actually see god like that, i mean personally. but not doubt you can feel his presence and know that he's there when you're chanting.
"now what's the difference between chanting hare krsna and meditation?"
it's really the same sort of thing as meditation, but it has a quicker effect.
"the maha-mantra was prescribed for modern times because if the fast-paced nature of today. even when people do get into a little quiet place, it's very difficult to calm the mind for long."
that's right. chanting hare krsna is a type of meditation that can be practiced even if the mind is in turbulence. you can even be doing it and other things at the same time...it keeps me in tune with reality, and the more you sit in one place and chant, the more incense you offer to krsna in the same room, the more you purify the vibration, the more you can achieve what you're trying to do, which is just trying to remember god, god, god, god, god, as often as possible.
but part of krsna consciousness is trying to tune ina ll the senses of all the people: to experience god through all the senses, not just by experiencing him on sundays, through your knees by kneeling on some hard wooden kneeler in the church...that's the nice thing about your movement. it incorporates everything--chanting, dancing, philosophy, and prasadam. the music and dancing is a serious part of the process, too. it's not just something to burn off excess energy.
without their really being aware of what's happening, people are being awakened spiritually. of course, in another sense, in a higher sense, kirtana is always going on, whether we're hearing it or not.
because once you realize something, then you can't pretend you don't know it anymore.
whne you're open to something it's like being a beacon, and you attract it. from the first time i heard the chanting, it was like a door opened somewhere in my subconscious, maybe from some previous life.
krsna consciousness was especially good for me because i didn't get the feeling that i'd have to shave my head, move into a temple and do it full time...i just changed my consciousness, that's all.
healthy, wealthy, and wise has proper foods, good balanced stuff, and it's fresh. even more important, it's made with an attitude of devotion, which means a lot. when you know someone has begrudgingly cooked something, it doesn't taste as nice as when someone has done it to try and please god, to offer it to him first.
people are simply screwing up when they go out and buy beefsteak, which is killing them with cancer and heart troubles.
the thing that always stays is his [srila prabhupada] saying 'i am the servant of the servant of the servant.'...i always like his humility and his simplicity...none of us are god--just his servants.
even though he was seventy-nine at the time, working practically all through the night, day after day, with very little sleep, he still didn't come through to me as though he was a very highly educated intellectual being, because he had a sort of childlike simplicity.
he's the one who explained to me how we're not these physical bodies. we just happen to be in them.
even compared to someone like shakespeare, the amount of literature prahupada produced is truly amazing...he would sit up all night, translating sanskrit into english, putting in glossaries to make sure everyone understands it, and yet he never came off as someone above you.
you can't understand the first thing about god unless you love him.
each individual has to burn out his own karma and escape from the chains of maya (illusion), reincarnation and all that. the best thing anyone can give to humanity is god consciousness. then you can really give them something. but first you have to concentrate on your own spiritual advancement; so ina sense we have to be selfish to become selfless.
life is like a piece of string with a lot knots tied in it. the knots are the karma you're born with from all your past lives, and the object of human life is to try and undo all these knots. that's what chanting and meditation in god consciousness can do. otherwise you simply tie another ten knots each time you try to undo one knot. that's how karma works. i mean, we're now the results of our past actions, and in the future we'll be the results of the actions we're performing now. a little understanding of 'as you sow, so shallyou reap,' because then you can't blame the condition you're in on anyone else. you know that its by your own actions that you're able to get more into a mess or out of one.
well, first of all, 'hallelujah' is a joyous expression the christians have, but 'hare krsna' has a mystical side to it. it's more than glorifying god; it's asking to become his servant. and because of the way the mantra is put together, with the mystic spiritual energy contained in those syllables, it's much closer to god than the way christianity currently seems to be representing him. although christ in my mind is an absolute yogi, i think many christian teachers are misrepresenting christ. they're supposed to be representing jesus, but they're not doing it very well.
hallelujah may have originally been some mantric thing that got watered down, but i'm not sure what it really means. the greek word for christ is kristos, whish is, lets face it, krsna, and kristos is the same name actually.
when i first came to this house, it was occupied by nuns. i brought in this poster of visnu [a four-armed form of krsna]...when we came back in the house, they all pounced on me saying, 'who is that? what is it?' as if it were some pagan god. so i said, 'if god is unlimited, then he can appear in any form, whichever way he likes to appear. that's one way. he's called visnu.' it kind of freaked them out a bit, but the point is, why should god be limited?
chanting hare krsna can make a person a better christian, too.
"you said at one point, 'everybody is worried about dying, but the cause of death is birth, so if you don't want to die, don't get born!'"
for all i know, ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer!
stop thinking that if britain or america or russia or the west or whatever becomes superior, then we'll beat them, and we'll all have a rest and live happily ever after. that doesn't work. the best thing you can give is god consciousness. manifest your own divinity first. the truth is there. its right within us all. understand what you are.
the word hare is the word that calls upon the energy that's around the lord. if you say the mantra enough, you build up an identification with god. god's all happiness, all bliss, and by chanting his names we connect with him. so it's realy a process of actually having a realization of god, which all becomes clear with the expanded state of consciousness that develops when you chant. like i said in the introduction i wrote for prahupada's krsna book some years ago, 'if there's a god, i want to see him. it's pointless to believe in something without proof, and krsna consciousness and meditation are methods where you can actually obtain god's perception.'
"the vedas informs us that because god is absolute, there is no difference between god the person and his holy name; the name is god."
so when i say that 'i see god,' i don't necessarily mean to say that when i chant i'm seeing krsna in his original form when he came five thousand years ago, dancing across the water, playing his flute. of course, that would also be nice, and it's quite possible, too. when you become real pure by chanting, you can actually see god by chanting, you can actually see god like that, i mean personally. but not doubt you can feel his presence and know that he's there when you're chanting.
"now what's the difference between chanting hare krsna and meditation?"
it's really the same sort of thing as meditation, but it has a quicker effect.
"the maha-mantra was prescribed for modern times because if the fast-paced nature of today. even when people do get into a little quiet place, it's very difficult to calm the mind for long."
that's right. chanting hare krsna is a type of meditation that can be practiced even if the mind is in turbulence. you can even be doing it and other things at the same time...it keeps me in tune with reality, and the more you sit in one place and chant, the more incense you offer to krsna in the same room, the more you purify the vibration, the more you can achieve what you're trying to do, which is just trying to remember god, god, god, god, god, as often as possible.
but part of krsna consciousness is trying to tune ina ll the senses of all the people: to experience god through all the senses, not just by experiencing him on sundays, through your knees by kneeling on some hard wooden kneeler in the church...that's the nice thing about your movement. it incorporates everything--chanting, dancing, philosophy, and prasadam. the music and dancing is a serious part of the process, too. it's not just something to burn off excess energy.
without their really being aware of what's happening, people are being awakened spiritually. of course, in another sense, in a higher sense, kirtana is always going on, whether we're hearing it or not.
because once you realize something, then you can't pretend you don't know it anymore.
whne you're open to something it's like being a beacon, and you attract it. from the first time i heard the chanting, it was like a door opened somewhere in my subconscious, maybe from some previous life.
krsna consciousness was especially good for me because i didn't get the feeling that i'd have to shave my head, move into a temple and do it full time...i just changed my consciousness, that's all.
healthy, wealthy, and wise has proper foods, good balanced stuff, and it's fresh. even more important, it's made with an attitude of devotion, which means a lot. when you know someone has begrudgingly cooked something, it doesn't taste as nice as when someone has done it to try and please god, to offer it to him first.
people are simply screwing up when they go out and buy beefsteak, which is killing them with cancer and heart troubles.
the thing that always stays is his [srila prabhupada] saying 'i am the servant of the servant of the servant.'...i always like his humility and his simplicity...none of us are god--just his servants.
even though he was seventy-nine at the time, working practically all through the night, day after day, with very little sleep, he still didn't come through to me as though he was a very highly educated intellectual being, because he had a sort of childlike simplicity.
he's the one who explained to me how we're not these physical bodies. we just happen to be in them.
even compared to someone like shakespeare, the amount of literature prahupada produced is truly amazing...he would sit up all night, translating sanskrit into english, putting in glossaries to make sure everyone understands it, and yet he never came off as someone above you.
you can't understand the first thing about god unless you love him.
each individual has to burn out his own karma and escape from the chains of maya (illusion), reincarnation and all that. the best thing anyone can give to humanity is god consciousness. then you can really give them something. but first you have to concentrate on your own spiritual advancement; so ina sense we have to be selfish to become selfless.
life is like a piece of string with a lot knots tied in it. the knots are the karma you're born with from all your past lives, and the object of human life is to try and undo all these knots. that's what chanting and meditation in god consciousness can do. otherwise you simply tie another ten knots each time you try to undo one knot. that's how karma works. i mean, we're now the results of our past actions, and in the future we'll be the results of the actions we're performing now. a little understanding of 'as you sow, so shallyou reap,' because then you can't blame the condition you're in on anyone else. you know that its by your own actions that you're able to get more into a mess or out of one.
well, first of all, 'hallelujah' is a joyous expression the christians have, but 'hare krsna' has a mystical side to it. it's more than glorifying god; it's asking to become his servant. and because of the way the mantra is put together, with the mystic spiritual energy contained in those syllables, it's much closer to god than the way christianity currently seems to be representing him. although christ in my mind is an absolute yogi, i think many christian teachers are misrepresenting christ. they're supposed to be representing jesus, but they're not doing it very well.
hallelujah may have originally been some mantric thing that got watered down, but i'm not sure what it really means. the greek word for christ is kristos, whish is, lets face it, krsna, and kristos is the same name actually.
when i first came to this house, it was occupied by nuns. i brought in this poster of visnu [a four-armed form of krsna]...when we came back in the house, they all pounced on me saying, 'who is that? what is it?' as if it were some pagan god. so i said, 'if god is unlimited, then he can appear in any form, whichever way he likes to appear. that's one way. he's called visnu.' it kind of freaked them out a bit, but the point is, why should god be limited?
chanting hare krsna can make a person a better christian, too.
"you said at one point, 'everybody is worried about dying, but the cause of death is birth, so if you don't want to die, don't get born!'"
for all i know, ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer!
stop thinking that if britain or america or russia or the west or whatever becomes superior, then we'll beat them, and we'll all have a rest and live happily ever after. that doesn't work. the best thing you can give is god consciousness. manifest your own divinity first. the truth is there. its right within us all. understand what you are.