Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare, Hare
Hare Rama, Hare
Rama, Hare Rama, Hare, Hare
A 1982 Interview with George Harrison
In the summer of 1969, before the dissolution of the most
popular music group of all time, George Harrison produced a hit single, “ The
Hare Krishna Mantra”, performed by George and the members of the London
Radha-Krsna Temple. Soon after rising
to the Top 10 or Top 20 best-selling record charts throughout England, Europe,
and parts of Asia, the Hare Krsna chant became a household word-especially in
England, where the BBC had featured the Hare Krsna Chanters, as they were then
called, four times on the country’s most popular television programme, Top of
the Pops.
George Harrison was the impetus for the Beatles’ spiritual
quest of the sixties, and up until his death in 2001, the chanting of the Hare
Krsna maha-mantra “Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare, Hare / Hare
Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare, Hare” continued to play a key role in
his life.
In this conversation with his long-time personal friend
Contemporary Vedic Library Series editor Mukunda Goswami (MG), taped at
George’s home in England on September 4, 1982, George reveals some of the
memorable experiences he had chanting Hare Krsna and describes in detail his deep
realisations about the chanting.
He explains what factors led him to produce “The Hare
Krishna Mantra” record, “My Sweet Lord”, and the LPs All Things Must Pass and
Living in the Material World – all of which were influenced to a great extent
by the Hare Krsna chanting and philosophy.
He speaks open and lovingly of his association with His
Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder – acarya of the Hare
Krsna movement.
George also speaks frankly about his personal philosophy
regarding the Hare Krsna movement, music, yoga, reincarnation, karma, the soul,
God and Christianity. The conversation
concludes with his fond remembrances of a visit to the birthplace of Lord Krsna
in Vrndavana, India, home of the Hare Krsna mantra, and with George discussing
some of his celebrity friends’ involvement with the mantra now heard and
chanted around the world.
Below are excerpts of the interview by Mukunda Goswami
(MG) and George Harrison (GH):
MG |
Oftentimes you speak of
yourself as a plainclothes devotee, a closet yogi or “closet Krsna” and
millions of people all over the world have been introduced to the chanting by
your songs. But what about you? How did you first come in contact with
Krsna?
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GH |
Through my visits to
India. So by the time the Hare Krsna
movement first came to England in 1969, John and I had already gotten a hold
of Prabhupada’s first album, Krsna Consciousness. We had played it a lot and liked it. That was the first time I had ever heard the chanting of the
maha-mantra.
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MG |
In your recent published
autobiography, I, Me, Mine, you said your song “Awaiting on You All” is about
Japa yoga, or chanting mantras on beads.
You explained that a mantra is “mystical energy encased in a sound
structure”, and that “each mantra contains within its vibrations a certain
power”. But of all mantras, you
stated that “the maha-mantra” (The Hare Krisna Mantra) has been prescribed as
the easiest and surest way for attaining God realisation in this present age. As a practitioner of Japa Yoga, what realisations
have you experienced from chanting?
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GH |
Prabhupada told me once that we
should just keep chanting all the time – or as much as possible. Once you do that, you realise the
benefit. The response that comes from
chanting is in the form of bliss, or spiritual happiness, which is a much
higher taste that any happiness found here in the material world. That is why I say that the more you do it,
the more you do not want to stop, because it feels so nice and peaceful.
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MG |
What is about the mantra that
brings about this feeling of peace and happiness?
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GH |
The word Hare is the word that
calls upon the energy that is around the Lord. If you say the mantra enough, you build up identification with
God. God is all happiness, all bliss,
and by chanting His names we connect with him. So it is really a process of actually having a realisation of
God, which all becomes clear with the expanded state of consciousness that
develops when you chant.
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MG |
Can you think of any incident
where you felt God’s presence very strongly through chanting?
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GH |
Once I was on an airplane that
was in an electric storm. It was hit
by lightening three times, and a Boeing 707 went over the top of us, missing
us by inches. I thought the back end
of the plane had blown off. I was on
my way from Los Angeles to New York to organise the Bangladesh concert. As soon as the plane began bouncing around
I started chanting “Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare, Hare /
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare, Hare”. The whole thing went on for about an hour and a half or two
hours, the plane dropping hundreds of feet and bouncing all over in the
storm, all the lights out and all these explosions, and everybody
terrified. I ended up with my feet
pressed against the seat in front, my seat belt as tight as it could be,
gripping on the thing, and yelling Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Hare,
Hare at the top of my voice. I know
for me, the difference between making it and not making it was actually
chanting the mantra. Peter Sellers also
swore that chanting Krsna saved him from a plane crash.
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Source: |
Excerpts from the book “Chant
and be Happy The Power of Meditation.
Based on the teachings of his Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada.
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YouTube |
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