Practicing Kṛṣṇa Consciousness

According to the ancient Vedic literature (which the Krsna consciousness movement publishes, in English) your personality depends on the kind of sound you hear. Loving, truthful, spiritual sound creates a loving, truthful, spiritual personality; self-motivated, materialistic sound creates a self-motivated, materialistic personality. When I thought about it, I realized that perhaps I'd never heard a spiritual sound in my life.

Generally, spiritual sound is called mantra. Man means "mind," and tra means "release." A mantra, then, is a sound vibration that can release the mind from self-centered, material thought processes. Chanting mantras was nothing new to me; for more than four years I had chanted all kinds of mantras. Yet chanting the Hare Krsna mantra-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare-gave me astonishing results. I wanted to cleanse and refresh my mind and heart, and chanting Hare Krsna was like taking a shower on the inside.

Also, I observed how the benefits of chanting Hare Krsna carried over into the everyday lives of other chanters. And my own experience was similar to that of my friend Howard Resnick, who said, "I didn't follow any particular leader. I just saw that chanting Hare Krsna was a bona fide process, and that people who practiced it were becoming happy."

After I started chanting, my personality started developing rapidly. Having chanters as friends helped. Instead of wasting time in small talk, they were thinking about "Who am I?" and "What's the best thing I can do with my life?" The all-embracing scope of Krsna consciousness especially pleased me.

At least seven years earlier, I'd seen how pettiness and the party spirit cause most of the world's conflicts. Now, by chanting I experienced each person as part of a harmonious whole (God). Deep inside I felt the same as everyone else, and at the same time completely unique. I felt more united with other people, and, paradoxically, more of an individual. Instead of being at loggerheads, in Krsna consciousness the group and individual enhanced each other. And I saw that simply by chanting, thousands of people were realizing this ideal in their own lives.

Already, I'd found that almost every theme sounded by progressive thinkers (like Maslow) came in for full development in the techniques and literature of Krsna consciousness. I wanted to share my realizations, so I started lecturing about Krsna consciousness in grammar schools, high schools, and colleges. At first, many of the listeners had their doubts, but after an explanation, the majority found Krsna conscious methods and goals agreeable. Many teachers told me that their students had reacted with more interest to my presentation than to any other class in the semester. Gradually I realized that I was touching upon that missing "something" I'd felt the need for during my own college years.

I asked many teachers to assess the current student mood. They said, almost without exception, that the students of the mid-1970s had turned apathetic. Apparently the questioning, questing spirit of the '60s had gone away. But how could anyone blame the students? Who could they look to-unstable movie and TV stars, unprincipled politicians, unsure teachers, self-destructive revolutionaries, self-indulgent saviors? Old or new, the heroes were tarnished. Still, when I talked with the students about the pleasure of spiritual living, glimmers of excitement played on their faces.

By 1975 I was ready to fill out my personal observations about Krsna consciousness with scientific evidence. Psychology seemed like a natural approach to take, so I invited several psychologists with no prior experience of Krsna consciousness to study the effects of chanting Hare Krsna. The findings of Drs. Allen Gerson and Ronald Huff, along with interviews I conducted, confirmed my impression that chanting produces a state of human health that modern psychology is just beginning to imagine.

Here are some highlights of the research. Dr. Gerson, a practicing clinical psychologist who also specializes in psychological testing, reports that chanters "are more keenly aware and have sharper mental cognitions." Richard Arthur, an instructor of English at Rutgers University, brought to mind Maslow's self-actualized person when he told me, "Chanting makes me more aware of what to do and what not to do. And now, I naturally feel happy about doing the right thing."

In addition, the psychologists found chanters brimming with self-confidence. Art director Nathan Zakheim affirmed to me, "After years of being a closed-in person and trying to protect myself from experiences, now I'm really different. Chanting makes me so exuberant that I sail through situations that used to stymie me." Dr. Gerson notes that chanters are seldom if ever bored, but "are always in a state of discovery that allows them to see things more vividly."

Also, Dr. Gerson detected that chanting promotes creativity in all spheres of life. "I'm astounded," he said, "with the percentage of creative people among chanters." Daniel Clark, a thirty-five-year old filmmaker who has been chanting Hare Krsna for ten years, told me how chanting affected his creativity. Clark said, "Before I started chanting, I thought myself limited to films, but now I see that I have a talent for writing, lecturing, acting. You can do anything, in a sense. You don't become a superman, but all your hang-ups go away. Then you find that your capabilities as a spiritual person are very great."

Robert Grant, a successful young publishing executive, says that chanting even improves business aptitude. "Now I'm doing all kinds of things-management, publishing, working with artists-things I've never done or displayed any skill for. I find that chanting Hare Krsna gives me the insight on how to do it."

As housewives like Mrs. Stephanie Lindberg have found, chanting inspires people to give their daily routines a creative touch. Mrs. Lindberg related to me, "Now my mind is bubbling with new ideas. By chanting I experience a freedom that makes my life more creative and stimulates me to use my talents in ways I never thought of before." Mr. Grant reported a similar feeling to me when he said, "I feel some connection with God that makes me do things in a spontaneous, joyful, uninhibited way." It's interesting to note how these experiences recall those of the ancient sages. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam Dhruva Maharaja delights, "Krsna, You have enlivened all my sleeping senses-my hands, legs, ears, touch sensation, life force, and especially my speech."

The psychologists verify that chanters enjoy a strong sense of identity and uniqueness. Dr. Ronald Huff (a clinician with an extensive background in bio-feedback) notes "greater individuality in the way chanters relate to the external experience, indicating greater uniqueness." After more than fifty case studies, Dr. Gerson concludes, "Chanters have a clear sense of identity. They know who they are in relationship to the universe, where they're going, and how they can improve themselves and the world around them."

A secretary, Heather Payne, disclosed to me that chanting allows her "to overcome any prejudices I may have felt toward people." Here, both psychologists score the Krsna conscious process highly. Says Dr. Gerson, "The democratic character structure [the ability to treat people fairly] comes through strongly in chanters."

With this greater tolerance, chanters naturally have more ability to love. Richard Arthur told me that in his better moments of chanting, "I relate to people on the basis of love, and I can feel them pick up on it." Judy Guarino, an illustrator in her early thirties, remarked, "I experience affection for people I've never known before. Now I'm able to be a better friend." According to Dr. Huff, "Parents who chant enjoy more expressions of mature and meaningful affection with their children." Dr. Gerson describes chanters as "open, friendly, warm, and outgoing as a group, as well as individually."

In fact, chanters report that their love approaches what Daniel Clark called "cosmic-a love of the whole world with all its human beings, animals, and plants, and ultimately for God."

So research shows chanting the Hare Krsna mantra to be a scientific, effective means for liberating human potential. Chanting works for men and women, young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Oriental and Westerner. Also, as the record demonstrates, chanting has brought people self-realization for thousands of years.

What's been so convincing for me is that whereas other processes always turned stale, the Krsna conscious experience keeps getting fresher and fresher. Every other process I tried seemed to yield results at first, but I always reached a point where I couldn't or wouldn't go any further.

In Krsna consciousness the progress has been steady without any signs of stopping. Krsna consciousness has given me a deep feeling of self-satisfaction and contentment. Often I check my progress, and it always amazes me how well my body, my emotions, my mind, my intelligence, my soul, all of me-feels about chanting Hare Krsna.

If you find something good, you want to share it. And Krsna consciousness is the best thing I've found. Of course, as Srila Prabhupada says, it's inevitable for mankind to evolve to higher consciousness. Yet, as he also says,

That makes sense to me. And, as progressive thinkers past and present have discovered, giving yourself to this kind of work is sheer pleasure.