Mystical systems
Hare Krishna Mantra
Direct answer
Hare Krishna Mantra: The Hare Krishna mantra, or maha-mantra, is a sixteen-word Sanskrit chant made of three divine names, Hare, Krishna and Rama, sung and repeated by devotees of Krishna.
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At a glance
- Also called
- maha mantra, mahamantra, hare rama hare krishna
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Kirtan, Japa, Mantra, Bhajan
The Hare Krishna mantra, or maha-mantra, is a sixteen-word Sanskrit chant made of three divine names, Hare, Krishna and Rama, sung and repeated by devotees of Krishna.
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What does the Hare Krishna mantra mean?
The mantra runs: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. It has sixteen words and thirty-two syllables and contains nothing but names. Krishna and Rama are names of God in the Vaishnava tradition. Hare is read either as a call to Hari, another name of Vishnu, or as a call to Hara, the divine energy identified with Radha, Krishna's beloved.
Devotees hold that the name and the one named are not different, so that chanting is itself contact with the divine and needs no other rite. It is practised in two ways: sung aloud in a group with drums and hand cymbals, which is kirtan, and murmured alone on a string of one hundred and eight beads, which is japa. Initiated members of the Hare Krishna movement vow to complete sixteen rounds of the beads each day.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Sound and mantra.
What sets Hare Krishna Mantra apart
This mantra asks for nothing and states nothing; it is three names in a fixed order, and the theology around it says the names are enough. That makes it open in a way most Vedic mantras were not: Chaitanya's followers sang it in the streets, to anyone, without initiation or regard to caste. The Upanishad that gives it begins with the Rama half, and the followers of Chaitanya put the Krishna half first. It is called the maha-mantra, the great mantra, within the tradition.
- Length: sixteen words, thirty-two syllables
- Names used: Hare, Krishna and Rama
- Text: Kali-santarana Upanishad
- Populariser: the saint Chaitanya, born in Bengal in 1486
- Western movement: ISKCON, founded in New York in 1966 by Prabhupada
- Daily vow: sixteen rounds of 108 beads for initiated members
Often mistaken for something else: Kirtan is a way of singing, in call and response, that can carry many texts; the Hare Krishna mantra is one particular text, sung in kirtan or counted silently as japa.
The story behind Hare Krishna Mantra
The words appear in the Kali-santarana Upanishad, a short late text that recommends them for the present age. The Bengali saint Chaitanya, who lived from 1486 to 1534, made public singing of the names the centre of his movement. In 1966 A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York. A recording of the mantra produced by George Harrison reached the British charts in 1969, and the chant became one of the sounds of that decade.
Why Hare Krishna Mantra matters
Hare Krishna Mantra is the mantra most people in the West have actually heard, and a clear example of devotion carried by sound alone.
How to read Hare Krishna Mantra
Followers sing it together in kirtan and count it privately on beads; others meet it in music, from temple recordings to pop songs of the 1960s and 1970s.
Hare Krishna Mantra in practice: an example
A chanting party on a city street, with a drum, cymbals and saffron robes, is singing these sixteen words and no others.
Where readings of Hare Krishna Mantra go wrong
Hare Krishna Mantra belongs to a living faith with its own vows and teachers, and is best approached with the respect due to a prayer.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- hare krishna, maha mantra, mahamantra, hare krishna mantra meaning, hare rama hare krishna
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does the Hare Krishna mantra mean?
It is a string of names of God: Krishna, Rama and Hare. Devotees explain it as a call to the Lord and to his energy, asking to be engaged in loving service.
Where does the Hare Krishna mantra come from?
Its words are given in the Kali-santarana Upanishad. It became a popular chant through Chaitanya in sixteenth century Bengal and reached the West through the movement founded by Prabhupada in 1966.
Why do devotees chant it 1,728 times a day?
Initiated members vow to chant sixteen rounds on a string of one hundred and eight beads, and sixteen times 108 is 1,728 repetitions. It usually takes between one and a half and two hours.
