Question: What is the secret behind the Hare Krsna mantra?

Jayapataka Swami: (Guru maharaj gestured and put his finger to his mouth a few times!!). If I tell you, it won’t be a secret! But the sruti tells us, the sastra tells us that the name of Krsna is not different from Krsna. So if we chant the name of Krsna, then we get the same effect of associating with Krsna. If we chant some mundane name like water, water, water, we don’t get our thirst quenched. When we chant the name of Krsna we get spiritual bliss! Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! There was Ajamila who named his son Narayana, but he left his wife and did many illicit things, but somehow he was always chanting his son’s name. ‘Narayana! Come to me walking, Narayana! Narayana, come on take your prasad with me!’ In this way he was chanting Narayana, Narayana many times. So at the time of death, the Yamadutas came to take him away. And he called his son, Narayana! Then he remembered that Narayana was the name of the Supreme Lord so the Visnudutas came and saved him. Because he chanted the name of Narayana! So like this, the name of the Lord, even if chanted accidentally, has an effect. Lord Caitanya said, He was worried how the meat eaters, the fishermen would be delivered? Haridas Thakur said, ‘don’t worry! Even the yavanas when they are attacked by the boar, they chant, Haram Haram! Because they are chanting Ha Ram, that means oh my Lord Rama! Although they may be thinking something else, they are saying the name of Rama.’ Hare Krsna.
05-JULY-2019 KOLKATA, INDIA