by Steven J. Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa)

As a teenager coming of age in the 1960s, I was preoccupied with spirituality. I had become disinterested in the mainstream religion of my forbears, and I was passionately looking for a path that spoke directly to me as an individual.

Human beings are physically unable to perceive certain portions of the known vibratory spectrum. While extremely sensitive to sound waves of about 1,000 to 4,000 cycles per second (cps),

For countless ages, seekers have journeyed to the Ganges, or to similar holy places, to absorb themselves in sacred mantras, hymns that have been passed down for generations. These same seekers would often perform kirtan, celebrating special mantras with song and dance. Much to our good fortune, through the Herculean efforts of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, these mantras have finally come West, and kirtan now contributes to the rhythms of modernity. As a result, an exotic musical movement is emerging worldwide, turning age-old sacred chants into a new cultural phenomenon.

The Maha-mantra

The Hare Krishna maha-mantra—Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare—is known as the greatest (maha) of all mantras because it contains the potency of all other spiritual sound.