What Is The Effect Of Chanting The Mahā-Mantra?

There are three stages of elevation in the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra. In the first stage, the chanting polishes the mirror of the mind. Like a mirror, the mind has reflective power. It is meant to form clear pictures from the sensations that strike it. But because contact with matter has covered our minds with material contamination, just as dust might cover a mirror, our reflections are no longer clear. The transcendental sound of the holy name of God cleanses the dust from the mirror of the mind, and this automatically brings one to the second stage in chanting.

In the second stage, the chanting frees one from the symptoms of material existence, namely, hankering and lamentation. In material life one hankers for what he does not have-"I want a car, I want a wife, I want money"-and he laments for what he has lost: "I've lost my car, I've lost my wife, I've lost my money," etc. Regularly chanting Hare Krsna frees one from such twofold anxieties and elevates one to the liberated stage described as follows in Bhagavad-gita (18.54):

"One who is transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Spirit. He never laments nor desires to have anything. Being equally disposed to every living entity, he attains the highest devotional perfection."

In the third stage of chanting, one attains an all-blissful life (anandamayo 'bhyasat). When situated on this platform, one is never disturbed by anything. Bhagavad-gita describes this as follows: "In the stage of perfection called samadhi, or trance, one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of the greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact." (Bg. 6.20-23)