What does rama and hare mean?

[Guest guest]

What does rama and hare mean in the holy mantra of lord krishna....

 

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare rama

Hare rama

rama rama

Hare hare

[Govindaram]

 

Srila Prabhupada: Listen

 

'To remember Krishna requires practice, and this is most easily done by chanting Hare Krishna mantra.'

--

So Hare Krsna and Hare Rama. Therefore it is enjoined by the sastra, "Chant these two names: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare." So Rama and Krsna is the Supreme Lord, and Hare means Hara. So Hara means the potency, pleasure potency of the Supreme Lord, Hara. It is addressed as Hare. So Hare Krsna means Radha-Krsna, and Hare Rama means Sita-Rama. So either you chant Hare Krsna or Sita-Rama, it is the same. And this is the only way. This is only. There is no difficulty.

[Dervish]

Loving Search of the Lost Servant Chapter 8:

 

''Gopi, Gopi, Gopi!''

 

A few days before Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa, He was chanting "gopi, gopi, gopi!" Hearing this, a tantric brahmana came to give some advice to the Lord. "Pandit," he said, "You are a scholar;

You know the scriptures. Still, You are chanting the name gopi, gopi?

 

What benefit will You get from that? The scriptures say that if You chant the name of Krsna, You may get some benefit. You will find this in many places in the scriptures, especially in the Puranas. Why then do You chant gopi, gopi?"

 

Angered at the brahmana's ignorance, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in the mood of a follower of the gopis, picked up a stick and began to rebuke him. "You have come from the enemy camp to convert us into followers of Krsna?" He ran after the brahmana to beat him with His stick. In this example, we find that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was chanting "gopi, gopi" and neglecting the name of Krsna.

 

Apparently He was advised to take the name of Krsna and became enraged - but what is the underlying thought there?

 

If we are to understand the effect of someone's chanting of the holy name, we must examine his underlying purpose. Sometimes his chanting may have some effect, but not always. Still, Jiva Goswami mentions the following example as evidence that the holy name may have some effect even if one is unaware of its full meaning. Once, a wild boar attacked a Mohammedan, and the Mohammedan cried, "Harama! Harama!" Harama means "that abominable hog!" On the other hand, Ha Rama means "the Lord," who has allowed a hog to

attack me. Somehow, Lord Rama was invoked, and the holy name had a divine influence on the Mohammedan, who attained liberation.

 

Another example given in the scriptures is that of Valmiki. Before becoming a saint, the sage Valmiki was a dacoit. But the great saint Narada had a plan to benefit him. Narada thought, "This person is the most notorious and heinous dacoit I have ever seen. Let me experiment with him to see the potency of the holy name. I shall ask

him to chant the holy name of Rama." He tried, but Valmiki could not pronounce the holy name of Rama. Then Narada told him to chant mara - the word for "murder" - instead. The dacoit said, "Yes, I can do this. This is just the opposite of the name of Rama." He began to chant

"mara-mara-mara-mara-rama-rama-rama-rama." In this way, after some time, mara became rama. Valmiki began to chant the name of Rama, and gradually his mental attitude changed. So it is possible for the name to have an effect on someone even if he has no proper conception of its meaning. This is called namabhasa: the shadow of

the name. It can effect liberation. But a real devotee is not interested in liberation. He wants to enter the domain of divine service.

 

The sound and its effect depends upon the attitude we accept, and the quality we can conceive, because the actual vaikuntha nama is infinite.

 

In that plane, the divine name is equal to the substance named. When the sound aspect is one and the same with the original aspect of the thing, that is vaikuntha nama. Here in this world, a blind man's name may be Padmalocan - lotus-eyed - but really he may be blind. The name and the figure may be entirely different. But in Vaikuntha, in the

infinite world, the name and the named are one and the same.

 

Yet to experience the vaikuntha nama, one must avoid both nama aparadha, offenses to the holy name, and namabhasa, the shadow of the holy name. By namabhasa, we get some relief from this worldly bondage, and by nama aparadha, we become entangled in this mayik world. But the ordinary physical sound cannot represent the real name, which is supernatural.

 

It is said that one name of Krsna can remove more ignorance and sin than a man has the power to commit. But what is the quality of that one name? We may chant the physical name of Krsna so many times without getting the result of even one real name. There is a great difference between the ordinary sound of the name, the superficial

mayik name, and the pure name. The pure name is one and the same with Krsna, but that descends down to our level only by His grace. We cannot vibrate it simply by dint of our moving our tongue and our lips.

 

The pure name of Krsna is not lip deep, but heart deep. And it ultimately goes beyond the heart and reaches the land of Krsna. When Krsna comes down, the name Krsna comes through the heart and moves the lips and tongue. That vibration is the holy name of Krsna, Krsna nama.

 

Negative Power

 

When Krsna in the form of sound descends from the transcendental world into the heart, and from the heart, controlling every aspect of the nervous system, comes to the lips and begins dancing there, that is Krsna nama. The initiative is in the transcendental world. That sound

is not produced from the physical plane. The spiritual sound has to come down into this plane; He can come down, but we cannot so easily go up there. He is the Supersubject; we are an object to Him.

 

We cannot interfere with His independence. Only by the negative power of surrender can we attract the Supreme Positive to come down to our level.

 

And so the holy name is not a production of our senses. It can be

realized only when we approach Him with a very intense serving

attitude. At that time, Krsna Himself may come down by His grace,

being attracted by our serving nature. Then He can influence this

element and produce transcendental sound and dance within the

mundane plane. That is the holy name, the vaikuntha nama, the real

name of Krsna. We cannot produce it with our lips. The sound we

create with our physical or mental production is not Krsna. He is

independent from whatever sound we may produce, and yet, because

He controls everything, He can appear anywhere, in any form, in any

plane, in any sound.

 

And this is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (4.6). Krsna says, "When I

come here by the power of My internal potency, I remove the external

potency's influence and appear anywhere and everywhere." The

mundane wave is forced back, just as a plane rides in the sky and

pushes back the influence of air and wind as it forcibly passes. By

removing the influence of the material waves, He appears within this

world by the strength of His own force.

 

The Lord says, "I have My own potency, and by the power of that

potency, I remove this gross material energy. And so I live and move

here in this world." The laws of material nature cannot apply to Him.

He has special power. And with the help of that special power, He

subdues the laws of material nature and comes here. He does whatever

He wants with His own potency. Wherever He goes, the laws of

material nature withdraw from that place and give Him His way. In

this way, He can appear within the realm of sound as the holy name.

 

The real importance of the name is not to be found merely in the

arrangement of its syllables, but in the deep meaning within that

divine sound. Some scholars argue that in the Kali-santarana

Upanisad, Lord Brahma says that the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is

properly pronounced only when the name of Rama precedes the name

of Krsna: "Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare/

Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare."

 

Krishna Nama

 

In the Kali-santarana Upanisad, the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is given

in that way. But to say that the name of Rama must precede the name

of Krsna in the mantra is a superficial understanding. It is said that

because it comes from the Upanisads, the Hare Krsna mantra is a

Vedic mantra, and therefore, because the ordinary people may not

have any entrance into Vedic mantras, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu

readjusted this mantra by reversing the order of the words. In that

way, it is said, the concern that it is a Vedic mantra is thereby

canceled, and so Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave it to all without

breaching the injunctions of the Vedas. Some devotees in Uttar

Pradesh who have great affection for Sri Caitanyadeva like to give this

opinion.

 

But our faith is that the mentioning of "Hare Rama" first is only

superficial. It concerns the idea that since the Rama avatara appeared

first and the Krsna avatara afterwards, the name of Rama, "Hare

Rama," should come first in the maha-mantra. A deeper reading will

consider that when two similar things are connected together, the

priority will be ordered not on the basis of historical precedent, but in

consideration of the most highly developed conception. The holy

name of Krsna is higher than the holy name of Rama. This is

mentioned in the Puranas: three names of Rama equal one name of

Krsna. The name of Krsna is superior to the name of Rama. Where the

two are connected together, the first position should be given to the

one that is superior. Therefore, the name of Krsna must come first in

the maha-mantra.

 

This is one point. Another point is that within the eternal plane,

everything is moving in a cyclic order. In an eternal cycle, which is

first and which is next cannot be ascertained, and so, in the eternal

plane of lila, it cannot be determined whether Krsna is before Rama or

Rama is before Krsna. So from that consideration also, since the

names of Krsna and Rama are eternal and unrelated to any historical

event, we may begin the mantra from any place.

 

Rama Means Krishna

 

But above these considerations, our sampradaya has given another,

higher consideration. A deeper understanding will reveal that the Hare

Krsna mantra is not at all concerned with rama lila. In the name of

Rama within the Hare Krsna mantra, the Gaudiya Vaisnavas will find

Radha-ramana Rama. That means "Krsna, who gives pleasure (raman)

to Srimati Radharani." In our conception, the Hare Krsna mantra is

wholesale Krsna consciousness, not Rama consciousness. Sri

Caitanya's highest conception of things is always svayam bhagavan,

krsna lila, radha-govinda lila. That is the real purpose of Sri Caitanya

Mahaprabhu's advent and teachings. In that consideration, the Hare

Krsna mantra does not mention the rama lila of Ayodhya at all. There

is no connection with that in the highest conception of the Hare Krsna

mantra.

 

And the inner conception of the mantra is responsible for our spiritual

attainment. When one pronounces the name Rama, if he means

Dasarathi Rama, his attraction will take him there, to Ayodhya; if he

means Parasurama, he will be attracted to another place. And if Rama

means Radha-ramana Rama, he will go to Goloka. The inner

conception of the devotee will guide him to his destination.

My original name was Ramendra Candra. When I was given initiation,

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura gave me the name Ramendra

Sundara. I asked him, "What is the meaning of Ramendra?" He told

me, "In our consideration, Rama does not mean Dasarathi Rama or

Lord Ramacandra, the son of King Dasaratha. It means Radha-ramana

Rama - Krsna, the lover of Radharani."

 

The name "Hare" may also mean different things according to one's

conception. That the meaning of the word Hare in the mantra is taken

to mean Radharani is also determined according to the spiritual

development or qualification (adhikara) of the chanter. When one is

firmly established in conceiving of Radha-Krsna in the background of

everything - when one finds svayam-rupa, the original form of

Godhead, underlying all sorts of conceptions of all things good - then

only will he find that sort of meaning and nothing else.

 

For beginners, the word "Hare" in the Hare Krsna mantra can be

conceived to mean Hari. That is one meaning. It may also mean

Nrsimhadeva. And just as "Rama" can mean Dasarathi Rama, "Krsna"

may refer to different types of Krsna. There is also a Krsna in

Vaikuntha, where the vaibhavas, or extensions of the Lord, number

twenty-four. In Vaikuntha, first there is Narayana, and then four

extensions: Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha. Each

of these four has five agents, making twenty-four in all. One of these

is the Krsna of Vaikuntha. Then there is the Krsna of Dvaraka and the

Krsna of Mathura.

 

In this way there are various conceptions of Krsna. But the highest

conception of Krsna is Krsna in Vrndavana: Radha-Govinda. When

one cannot remove himself from that plane, he will conceive of

divinity only as Hari-Hara. He will see nothing else but Radha-Krsna.

Those who are completely and perfectly installed in madhura-rasa -

who have the highest kind of divine vision - cannot come down from

that plane. If they do, it is only for the interest of Radha-Govinda. In

that case, the devotee may go anywhere, but his real interest is under

lock and key in Vrndavana. Only on behalf of the service of Radha-

Govinda will a devotee leave Vrndavana.

 

For those who are followers of the Vrndavana line, "Hare" in the Hare

Krsna mantra can only mean Hara: Srimati Radharani. Hara means

"Radha, who can even snatch the attention of Krsna, Hari." The word

harana means "to steal. " One who can steal the mind of He who is

most expert in stealing - who can steal even the mind of Krsna - She is

Hara. Stealing in its highest capacity is shown by Radharani. And

"Krsna" means "He who is most attractive in the absolute sense."

They are both represented in the mantra.

 

Rupanuga Nama

 

The followers of the rupanuga sampradaya can never deviate from that consciousness in their chanting of the maha-mantra. And with this conception, they go on with the service of Hari-Hara, Radha-Krsna.

 

They absorb themselves in radha dasyam. They cannot think of anything else but that. And once having fully attained that plane, they can never come down from that level, from the interest of Radha-Krsna. They cannot allow themselves to be out of that circle.

 

That is the position of our highest aspiration, and according to a devotee's adhikara, or spiritual qualification, that sort of meaning will awaken in one's mind. It will be awakened, discovered by sadhana. At that time the covering of the heart will be removed and divine love will spontaneously spring up from the fountain of the heart as the inner function of the soul.