Hari Nama Ashrama

One is understood to be an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead 
if he considers himself a servant of the holy name 
and in this spirit distributes the holy name to the world.

                                                                              ~A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

There's a famous old slogan among us devotees of Krishna that is posted in temples all over the world: "Chant Hare Krishna and your life will be sublime." 

The Hare Krishna mantra--Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare--consists of three names: Hara (pronounced in the vocative form "Hare"), Krishna, and Rama.  It is actually a prayer asking God to engage us in His loving service, but the sound vibration itself of these three divine names causes sublime happiness to awaken within the heart of the chanter.  

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare is called the "maha-mantra" or the "great chanting for deliverance from illusion" because it delivers the mind from the illusion of identifying with the body as the self and awakens the natural happiness of the real self--the soul. 

Everyone in the material world is in illusion.  We are all thinking that we are the body that we are riding around in.  But we're not the body.  We're the soul, or the self, inside.  When we chant God's name, our heart becomes purified of the unnatural tendency to identify with the material body.  We become free from the illusion that causes us to identify with our body as our self.  We also become purified of our selfish desires and we become filled with transcendental knowledge.  We gradually come to understand who we really are—pure spiritual entities, eternal servants of God—then our eternal, loving relationship with God is revealed to us by His grace. This is called self-realization.  

Self-realization means realization of the self, the soul. By the process of mantra meditation in Krishna consciousness, the real self, the eternally happy soul, is uncovered and revealed in its original, blissful identity. With self-realization comes spiritual happiness, the kind of happiness that each and every one of us is always seeking.  That happiness can be felt when we chant the holy names of God, either privately or with others.  

In fact, the most powerful method for purifying the heart is called "sankirtana" or the congregational singing of God's holy names.  

"Glory to the Sri Krishna Sankirtana, 

which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years together.  

It is the life of all transcendental knowledge.  

It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss 

and enables us to taste the full nectar for which we are always anxious." 

                                                                                                                    ~Sri Siksastaka 1

My husband and I have made the congregational chanting of God's holy names our life's mission.  That is why we call our home and our blog "Hari Nama Ashrama."  Hari is a name of God which means "He who removes all inauspicious things from the heart." "Nama" means "name."  And "ashrama" means a place where spiritual understanding is cultivated. So that is why we have named both our home and our blog "Hari Nama Ashrama," because our life is dedicated to cultivating spiritual understanding within our own hearts and the hearts of others through the chanting of God's holy names.

To meditate on the sound vibration of God's name is the most highly recommended method of meditation in this particular age, called "Kali-yuga" or the "Age of Quarrel."  In fact, in the Vedic scriptures, it goes so far as to say that chanting God's name is the fundamental religious system in this Age of Kali.

The fundamental religious system in this age of Kali

is the chanting of the holy name of Krsna.

                                                                                                                ~C.C. Antya, 7.11       

This Kali age is characterized by shortened lifespan, illusion, sound pollution, physical, mental and emotional disturbances, laziness, lack of proper guidance and training, ill luck, and quarrel at the slightest provocation.  Some of us become so tormented by such disturbances that we actually suffer from depression and other types of mental and physical illnesses.  "O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed." (SB 1.1.10)  

My dear readers, may I make a humble request?  Please kindly consider incorporating some chanting of God's holy names into your lives.  Whether you choose to chant Krishna's names or some other bona fide name of God doesn't matter.  You will not regret having made the decision to do so, your life will become sublime and you will begin to get a taste of the full nectar for which you are always hankering.