For inspired mindful Hare Krishnaring
Happily, those on the path of mindfulness these days are more and more possessed of the useful appreciation that efficiency and money aren’t everything that matters in life. I say useful, because whilst we’re all trying to get ahead, or even ‘getting ahead,’ there are inevitably times when we experience acute fish-out-of-water syndrome, to the extent of finding any number of available material comforts/achievements failing to placate that old inner sense of UN-ease. At such a time, there might arise a sense of helpless floundering, perhaps resonant of the hapless flappings of the desperate proverbial fish, so much that identity quests may begin to take shape…
Here’s where the practise of effective interventional mindfulness meditation comes in, potentially linking us to a higher state of being, that soars way above clouds of negativity.
But, before I earnestly advocate singing Hare Krishna as the most effective means of attaining objective mindfulness, might I proffer that it may behove readers to suspend cartoonish representations they may have of tambourine-wielding Hare Krishnas, and bear with me in a titter ye not fashion! For, in actual fact, the thirty two syllables I am about to quote you comprise the most powerful mantra that there ever was! I refer, herewith, to the
MAHA mantra, for which, the English language equivalent would be “GREAT deliverance.” When mana meaning “mind”, and tra meaning “to free,” are joined, they form the Sanskrit word mantra – “mind-free-er.” Thus, the maha mantra enables “superlative mind-freeing.”
Grand Spin-offs.
The kind of research into meditation undertaken at Wharton shows just how positive the benefits of good meditation are in effectively enhancing the likes of organisational ability and communication skill through dramatic stress-level mitigation. Specifically, this is because through meditation, you stand back, as it were; you retreat into a sanctuary of inner peace that is remarkably unaffected by the dualities of success and failure, and where the mind is safely objectified. Jedi-like, as it were, one negotiates all endeavours with Self-assurance, with a capital ‘s’. It’s not by chance the ancients of the mystic East highlighted the many marvellous spin-offs of getting in with the brahma, or, the spiritual-level! Par example:
shama, dama … arjava … kshanti
peacefulness, self control … honesty … tolerance
Bhagavad gita 18.42
Here (Allen Ginsberg – for it is he) and here (Marion Williams) are a couple of famous strong votaries of the superior spiritual merits of Hare Krishnaring at work, with a particular take.
The likes of Alice Coltrane, Tony Scott, George Harrison, Tenacious D, Kula Shaker, Boy George, Ruth Copeland and KRS-one, etc are on the same page with their incorporation of Hare Krisharing (q.v.)
NOTA BENE: there are no rules whatsoever regarding Hare Krishnaring. This greatest of mantras may be warbled, trilled, choired, hymned, incanted at leisure, murmured in a quiet place, chorused, or belted a la Freddie!
All together now:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare
Kalisantarana Upanishad (400CE)
Arjundas Adhikari
