Hare Krsna Mantra

[Guest guest]

Hari Bol,

 

I had met this person last week who insisted that the mahamantra we chant is

meant tobe chanted as hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare hare krnsa hare

krsna krsna krsna hare hare- and not starting with hare krsna. He said that

the mantra is written this way in the shastra. Is this correct? If yes then

what is the authority for chanting in the mantra starting with hare krsna.

 

Are there any scriptural reference that can shed light on the above issues. I

have faith in our guru parampara and the way in which they have told us to

chant this mantra. I am only asking this so that there is some clarification

for people.

 

Hare Krsna

 

Viraja Krsnadas

[Guest guest]

The Hare Krishna maha-mantra comes from the Kali-santaarana Upanishad, a short

Upanishad of three mantras consisting of a short conversation between Naarada

and Lord Brahmaa. Naarada asks how people in Kali-Yuga can be delivered, and

Lord Brahmaa replies with the Hare Krishna mahaa-mantra, and then speaks of how

there are no hard and fast rules for chanting it.

 

There are at least two different recensions of this Upanishad. In one of the

recensions, apparently more popular in the South, the mantra is "hare raama

hare raama..... hare kR^iShNa hare kR^iShNa..." However, the other recension of

the Upanishad has the mantra in the order with which we are familiar -- "hare

kR^iShNa hare kR^iShNa kR^iShNa kR^iShNa hare hare | hare raama hare raama

raama raama hare hare ||"

 

I'm not really clear on why there are two recensions - either one is improperly

preserved and the other is the original, or there really are supposed to be two

recensions (most shruti texts are supposed to be preserved right down to the

word order). What you need to do to convince your friend about the scriptural

basis for chanting it our way is find a publication of the Upanishads which

contains the Kali-santaarana U. with the mantra in the order that we chant it.

My guess is that such Upanishads might be available in North India. The edition

that Kushakratha dasa translates from has the mantra in this order, but I'm not

sure what edition that is, and anyway you will want to find a "neutral" or

"third party" translation in order to be convincing.

 

I think Motilal Banarsidass publishes an Upanishad compilation that supposedly

has several hundred Upanishads in the original Sanskrit text. Adyar Library in

Madras also publishes a multi-volume set of Upanishads in the original Sanskrit

text.

 

yours,

 

Krishna

[Guest guest]

Viraja Krsnadas wrote:

 

> I had met this person last week who insisted that the mahamantra we chant is

meant tobe chanted as hare rama hare rama rama

> rama hare hare hare krnsa hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare- and not starting

with hare krsna. He said that the mantra is written

> this way in the shastra. Is this correct? If yes then what is the authority

for chanting in the mantra starting with hare krsna.

 

One Vaishnava scholar here in Orissa named Dr Fakir Mohan Das did some research

on this topic. He examined many palm leaf manuscripts of sastras that contained

the maha-mantra. According to him the mantra always begins with "hare krishna".

Although it is true that some manuscripts have the maha-mantra beginning with

"hare rama", he found that they had all been edited by followers of the

Ramanandi Sampradaya who are worshippers of Lord Ramachandra. Hence his opinion

is that those versions have been interpolated.

 

Das anudas, Madhavananda Das