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Shri Chaitanya Sridhara Sangha
The Maha-Mantra
Meditation is a fundamental activity for those who wish to be happy and free from the anxieties of material life. To meditate does not mean to abandon or neglect one's activities and daily commitments; rather, it means to live them with more balance and with a higher awareness. Meditation means concentrating the mind on a single point. According to the authoritative scriptures of yoga, the supreme object of meditation is God, the Supreme Person. To help the mind in this purpose, we use the Mantras.
In Sanskrit, manas means “mind” and traya means “to free.” Therefore, a mantra is a combination of sounds that frees our mind from all anxieties.
God has different names, revealed in various religious traditions, such as Krishna, Rama, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, and others. Reciting or singing the Names of God through a Mantra is a very purifying activity that elevates us to a level of transcendental consciousness (that is, to a higher level than the material one, where duality and temporariness reign).
The names of God, as well as everything that refers to Him, are of a spiritual and absolute nature and therefore have the power to connect us with the Higher Reality, made of eternity, happiness, and knowledge, of which we are also a part, beyond matter.
Every living being is a spiritual being who has entered a material body. The bond between the spiritual being (the soul) and the body is established thanks to consciousness which, emanating from the soul itself, pervades the whole body and gives it life.
In this particular historical period where hypocrisy and discord predominate and the spiritual qualities of concentration and use of intelligence are very weak, the Lord Krishna, through His golden incarnation, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, advises us a simple method of meditation and liberation from all fears and anxieties: the chanting of the following Mantra, which for its importance in the Gaudya-Vaishnava tradition is called the Maha-mantra (the principal Mantra):
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Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
The name Krishna means “He who attracts everyone”, the name Rama means “He who gives pleasure to everyone” and the name Hare is addressed to the devotional energy of the Lord. So the Maha-mantra means:
"O Lord who attracts and gives pleasure to everyone, O energy of the Lord, I beg You, engage me in Your service of love and devotion".
When the Mantra is recited or sung with a devotional attitude of humility and readiness to serve, it very quickly reveals its effectiveness. In daily practice, the spiritualist performs this type of meditation at every moment of the day, both individually (intimate and personal) and congregationally (collectively).
Srila Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaj in this regard lovingly tells us:
“Try to correct yourself through sound, the subtlest element of this plane. Through sound proceed and cultivate your spiritual life, and this must be done with an attitude of service, otherwise it will be futile. We are recommended to approach the Divine through the subtlest element of this gross plane. Although apparently now it is nothing, the Divine is everything for us! So accept the subtlest thing. But if real life is absent our search will be futile. Learn to give yourself, learn to die and to embrace that so-called death at every moment.
Even in this world we find the motto "do or die", in politics, in work, in duty and at every step there are those who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause. If someone embraces this motto "do or die", he will surely progress intensely and achieve great success.”
And again, about the effects of transcendental sound, he clarifies for us:
… Sat Gurudev (the authentic Spiritual Master) pronounces the holy Name of God (Mantra).
Our material ears hear some sound that resembles the transcendental name of God. Our eardrum moves the liquid in the ear inside, half water and half air, which makes the ethereal element vibrate and touches our mind. At this point the soul has not yet been touched and there has been no genuine spiritual experience. Listening to the impressions of the mind, we enjoy the sound of the cymbals, the rhythm of the music, the pleasant company and the effect of singing and listening. But it does not stop there. Penetrating the mind, the original sound pronounced by the Guru moves our intellect and at this point we consider the transcendental philosophy. For millions of years sages sang this on the banks of many sacred rivers.
Ideas flow everywhere to overflowing about the possible effects of the Mantra. When one is happy it is not spiritual revelation in the true sense of the word. Beyond intelligence there is the spiritual element: the soul, myself. That sound, having passed through my senses, including the mind and intelligence, makes the most refined feelings of my true existence vibrate. This is the perception of the Mantra on the spiritual plane with my spiritual ear. Then the soul, inspired, summarizes and sends the vibration back to the intelligence, then to the mind, etc., up to my tongue and we say, "Krishna". That Krishna is Him! And we dance in ecstasy.
Sounds, sounds, sounds; capture the sounds! Grasp the sound waves that travel in the ether and your happiness in spiritual life is assured!
... Capture the sound waves that are the cause of every element of existence and saturate them with the name of God. The result will be the total transformation of energy!"