Why should we chant this mantra instead of all other mantras and spiritual techniques which are available?

In this age of Kali-Yuga, people's minds are very feeble and unstable. Therefore, this mantra helps them to firmly establish the proper mental concentration necessary for spiritual advancement.

Other mantras and techniques belong to other ages, and they may or may not work for most people. However, it's granted that this one will work for everyone.

What are the effects of chanting this mantra?

If one chants this mantra very seriously on japa mala beads, he'll be cleansed from all his sinful activities, and after death, he'll leave the material universe and cease the cycle of births and deaths.

Why the Hare Krishnas are different from all these bogus guru movements in the West?

Because we do not teach neither mental especulation nor means for increasing material wealth. Our aim is to teach the true message of the Vedas as it was transmitted in an unbroken line of disciplic sucession.

Who are some great and legitimate spiritual masters in this lineage?

Srila Prabhupada, Danavir Goswami, Jayadvaita Swami, Bhakti Vikasa Swami, and Bhakti Raghava Swami.

Should we use psychedelics and still chant this mantra?

No. Srila Prabhupada, one of our greatests gurus, was famous for getting people to stop taking LSD and magic mushrooms and then take up pure devotional service.

There are four kinds of spiritual seekers: the karmis, the jnanis, the yogis and the pure devotees.

Karmis are perpetually looking after gross sense gratification. Their whole life is centered around accumulating wealth, mating with beautiful women, eating delicious foods and sleeping for long hours. Through fruitive activities, their aim is to be elevated to heavenly planets, where they'll enjoy higher and more intense material pleasures. Even if they avoid the hellish planets, they won't be on the heavenly planets forever; after the credit they accumulated from their fruitive activities is over, they'll have to take rebirth as humans in this same planet.

Jnanis are seeking liberation of an impersonal kind. They want to cease the cycle of births and deaths; however, their aim is to reach an empty space, where their consciousness will be empty. They're fundamentally atheists, and their liberation can only be temporary. Because their aim is to reach a more elevated condition and to become their own God, they're still after sense gratification, although it's a lot more subtle than the one karmis are seeking. For that reason alone, they'll have take rebirth again, although in the position of great sages or demigods.

Yogis, or siddhis, they are after mystical powers. Pantanjali says, Janmaushadhi mantra tapah, samaadhi jaah siddhayah: Siddhis are born of practices performed in previous births, or by herbs, mantra repetition, asceticism, or by samadhi.

Through psychedelic herbs, yogis can attain clairvoyance, telepathy, and many other mystical powers. Their consciousness can also travel to other planets of the material universe, and they will also see and hear things which are usually impossible to see and hear while they're imprisioned in material bodies; some can communicate with demigods and beings inhabiting other material planets.

However, all of this is only a material experience; and as such, yogis are always attached to the material world, where they can enjoy their mystical powers and experiences. They'll take rebirth in higher and higher planets, maybe they can even become demigods, who are perpetually enjoying their mystical powers. However, they won't ever be free from the never-ceasing cycle of births and deaths, and they'll perpetually oscillate between higher and lower forms of life, from plant to animal to human to demigod and then back to human and animal all the way over again.

Psychedelic herbs cannot save one from heavy sense gratification; one can take them as much as he likes and still remain as a karmi. However, even if one is serious about renunciation and he takes up the path of herbs, at best he can become a great siddhi.

So what is the use of taking such plants? Better is to take up Krishna consciousness and become a pure devotee of Vishnu. Such devotees are the only ones who will never return to the material world. Because they aren't seeking neither sense gratification, nor liberation, nor mystical powers, the devotees of Vishnu are the only ones who can directly serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the Vaikuntha planets, which are situated outside the material world and are freed from the threefold miseries of the material existence: those arising from mind and body, those inflicted by other living beings, and those inflicted by demigods through natural catastrophes.

Another good idea:

Since Rama is the avatar of Vishnu, eating Rama instead of butter gives you a jumpstart in the holiness ranking.



If you eat Rama for 10 years and chant SHREE RAM JAY RAM JAY JAY RAM 108 times per day, you'll leave Samsara straight and achieve instant Nirvana.



Rama is vegan btw.

i got this far



never mind eh

Well I totes respect Hare Krishnas for their philanthropic work with the poor, but it's just another dogmatic religion teaching sexual repression and unthinking obedience, so not for me really.

"All devotees, especially brahmacaris and sannyasis, have to follow a set of rules and regulations that would surprise a materialist: rising before 4:00 a.m., attending services, bowing down before the Deities, and so on throughout the day. “It’s brainwashing,” the anti-cultists scream, “for weak-minded morons only.” It’s a fact—our minds are weak before maya, and following the rules and regulations of Krishna consciousness protect us from her onslaught. The Bhagavad-gita (2.64) describes that by following the regulative principles of freedom, one can control his senses and obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.

Beginners in Krishna consciousness may have apprehensions about so many restrictions. Such neophytes need not be forced to follow all the subsidiary rules, but may be requested to simply chant, dance, take prasada, and hear about Krishna. Rupa Gosvami advised that if somehow or other nondevotees can be brought to Krishna consciousness, then all the rules and regulations can be introduced later.

To become successful in Krishna consciousness, we must accept the devotional syllabus given by the previous acaryas. Shrila Prabhupada: “No one can be situated in an exalted position without having undertaken a regulative life of rules and regulations.” (SB 2.9.40) When an aspiring devotee comes to realize this, he will happily take up the practice of Krishna consciousness strictly. Forcing austerity on new and unwilling candidates is not a good policy. But those who have submitted themselves for initiation must be serious, otherwise their initiation is meaningless.

Shrila Prabhupada: “Krishna consciousness is not difficult but determination is difficult. That determination comes by tapasya and therefore we have rules and regulations. If you follow the rules and regulations then you’ll be determined, otherwise you will be a victim of maya, The rules and regulations are there just to keep you fixed up in your determination. But if you don’t follow then you fall down.” (Conversation, 10/01/74)"

Brahmacharya in Krishna Consciousness