Chant and Be Happy: The Power of Mantra Meditation by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Chant and Be Happy: The Power of Mantra Meditation Reviews

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  RoWoSthlm

  The book gave me a basic idea about the Hare Krsna Mantra meditation powers. There are some interesting interviews, but in summary the book is quite boring and repetitive. More history about the movement would have been useful.
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  Adel Fulcher

  Some interesting snippets history. However religiously prejudiced at times and some shameless product plugging. It’s very one track minded in regards to the subject itself and can be a touch insulting.
  The writing itself doesn’t flow well and is horrendously repetitive.
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  Lorraine

  Great conversations with John Lennon and George Harrison, interviewed by His Holiness Mukunda Goswami. Can be read online for free here:
  http://harekrishna.com/col/books/YM/cbh/
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  Lee

  IDK WTF THIS IS
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  Rachel

  I'm not a spiritual person, but after reading Ms. Odell I found myself interested in learning more about Hare Krishna from an academic standpoint because of the influence it had over The Beatles. This past week, a monk was on campus handing out different books on Krishna spirituality. This one seemed the most interesting, so I snagged it in exchange for a small donation.
  
  It's an interesting book and a quick read, but as with most books on spirituality it's incredible repetitive. As short as it is, it probably could have been cut to half of its length without difficulty. It also was somewhat difficult to read with all of the Sandskrit words. If you want to know more about the religion and how it affected George Harrison and the other members of the band, though, this book is a good place to look.
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  Jason Southgate

  This was my very first Krishna Conscious book. It has some Beatles interviews and outlines the basics of chanting the maha mantra. The movement was trying to raise a heap of cash back then. Airports and so on. Trying to grow, and fast. It lacks some background: what are mantras, why they work, comparisons with other mantras, why this one especially. Also how this particular meditation practice compares with other styles. Prabhupada however can defend the bhakti cult like a bulldog and rarely speaks well of other paths. Truth is: There ARE many paths as Krishna himself tries to explain in the Bhagavad Gita if he can slip a word in edgeways. Lighten up, Guru, won't you? Whichever way you paint it, Prabhupada is RIGHT (of course): yoga, karma and ghana don't actually work in the age of Kali. But bhakti does. Laugh and take it all with a pinch of salt. Don't throw the baby out with the dishwater or whatever. It's Prabhupada.
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  Jeff

  This is a good book for an introduction into the Hare Krishna religion. It is a quick read, but as someone had previously mentioned, it is repetitive and could have been about two thirds the length. The interviews with John Lennon and George Harrison are sort of interesting. It was a bit difficult for me to keep all the Sanskrit words together, but I got by just mumbling them as best I could when they passed. Good book explaining Hare Krishna's movement to the West. I just feel like there must be a better book out there on the history of the religion.
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  Dylan

  A little book that explains the simple philosophy of the ISKCON on chanting. While the book is at time repetitive, so too is chanting. The interviews with George Harrison, and other former members of The Beatles give this book testimony on how the movement impacted their spiritual paths. There are also stories that allow you to understand more about the history of the ISKCON. I particularly enjoyed the parts where other religions are compared in regards to the use of sacred language and holy names.
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  Víctor

  Whatever I felt I was going to find in this book, I definitely didn't. It was nice to know more about the Krishna movement and its impact in the western world during the 1960s and 1970s, but that was about as much as I got.
  
  Very repetitive, made it at times hard to focus on the reading, somehow my mind was in the wrong kind of mantra.
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  Sharlane

  I got this book as a parting gift from a good friend of my mum's and enjoyed reading it at the age of 15. I just love going back to this book, read it about 4 times already. ❤️❤️❤️
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  Thy Anonymous

  Interesting. My favourite part was the interview with John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Srila Prabhupada. Would've liked to have read a longer interview and for it not to have been cut off. But alas.
  Brought a new perspective one who were the Beatles, the 60s in the West Northern Hemisphere, and how did the Hare Krisna come about.
  
  Memorable Quotes:
  
  “Vrndāvana is one of the holiest cities in India. It was my most fantastic experience.
  ...
  Unless you’re doing some kind of God conscious thin and you know that He’s the one really in charge, you’re just building up a lot of karma and not really helping yourself or anybody else.
  
  One by one everybody’s got to escape māyā. Everybody has to burn out his karma and escape reincarnation and all that. Stop thinking that if Britain or America or Russia or the West or whatever becomes superior, then we’ll best them, and then we’ll all have a rest and live happily ever after. That doesn’t work. The best thing you can do is give God consciousness.
  
  Manifest your own divinity first. The truth is there. It’s right within us all. Understand what you are. If people would just wake up to what’s real, there would be no misery in the world. I guess chanting’s a pretty good place to start.” -George Harrison
  
  
  “…the ancient and authorised form of meditation practiced by the Hare Krsna people has a much deeper and more sublime purpose. Although it easily soothes the turbulent mind, it also awakens those who chant it to their original, joyful spiritual nature and consciousness, imparting a genuine sense of pleasure unavailable by any other means.
  The VEDAS, scriptures contain the timeless spiritual knowledge of ancient India, state that such an awakening process is desperately needed because everyone in this material world is in a sleeping, dreamlike condition. We have forgotten our original, spiritual identity, accepting instead a temporary material body composed of physical elements as our real self. The VEDAS compare the material body to subtle forms we experience in dreams. While sleeping, we forget our normal waking identity and may find ourselves enjoying or suffering in different types of bodies. But when we hear the ringing of the alarm clock, we awaken and return to normal consciousness. We remember who we are and what we should be doing. Similarly, by hearing the powerful transcendental sound vibrations of the Hare Krsna mantra, we can gradually wake up to our original self, the soul, which is characterized by eternality and is full of knowledge and ever-increasing pleasure.
  The sages of India therefore tell us that the goal of human life should not be to try to enjoy our temporary dreamlike situation in the material world. Rather, we are advised to awaken to our original, spiritual nature and ultimately return to our true home in the spiritual world, where we may enjoy our eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality Godhead, Lord Krsna.”
  
  “The VEDAS state that conciousness is a symptom of the soul. In its pure condition, the osul exists in the spirtual world; but when it falls down into contact with matter, the living being is covered by an illusion called false egoism. False ego bewilders the consciousness, causing us to identity with our material bodies. But we are not our material body. When we look at our hand or leg, we say, “This is my hand” or “This is my leg”. The concious self, the “I”, is therefore the owener and the observer of the body. Intellectually, this fact is easily understandable, tand by the spiritual realization that results from chanting, this truth can be directly and continuously experienced.
  When the living being identifies with the material body and loses awareness of his real, spiritual self, he inevitably fears death, old age, and disease. He fears loss of beauty, intelligence, and strength and experiences countless other anxieiteis and false emotions relating to the temporary body. But when we begin chanting Hare Krnsa, we soon realize ourselves to be pure and changeless spirit souls, completely distinct from the material body. Because the mantra is completely pure spiritual vibration, it has the power to restore our consciousness to its original, uncontaminated condition. At this point we cease to be controlled by jealousy, bigorty, pride, envy, and hatred.”
  
  
  
  Mentioned Vedic literature:
  brahmanda purana, Kali-Santarana, Upanisad, Agni pUrana, Srimad Bhagavatam
  
• 
  Gaelan D'costa

  I found this to be a really good book explaining the Hare Krsna to Western Audiences.
  
  It starts with a really succint explaination of the religion's crux, which is that the way to achieve enlightenment, or happiness, or spiritual satisfaction, etc.. is to perform devotional chants to Krsna, and through that all good things will follow. This central claim is explained in a really clear way.
  
  It then goes into a couple of interviews with George Harrison from the Beatles, in which through an interview (a self-serving one by the org, admittedly) George discusses his personal relationship to the founder, to the religion itself, and how he works it into his life. There are many ways to analysis this if one is interested in the way westerners of the 60s engaged with India as far as orientalism and general cultural absorption/exporting goes, but the interviews were pretty good about being a tale by someone who adopted something and was generally finding it satisfying.
  
  Afterwards there are more practical entries on how to chant, a much friendlier (and less in-depth) primer on cosmology and framework and terminology than the book
  The Matchless Gift, and then some claimed histories and morality tales. They are ultimately religious texts that assume you've already bought into the framework, but they seem like positive ones which will enable you to work within that framework, as a beginner.
  
  A thing I appreciate about this text over
  The Matchless Gift is that it actually gave a clear decent explanation for how the enlightenment/absolute truth/etc... cannot come via pure rational exporation because those are finite attempts to describe the infinite/inefrfable, and that the devotional chants and mindspace and conduit that opens up is necessary. From a religious framework, this is reasonable, and much nicer than the "world is rank, here's a bunch of foreign terminology and proof via authority of said authority's claims" confrontational and outsider-attacking areforementioned book.
  
  So far, if one wanted a book making the case for Krishna Consciousness, I'd recommend this one, it seems a nice balance of testimonial, primer, and some contextualizing literature (although as always, this is in no way an academic source and be mindful when an org writes an book about itself (no differently then when Vatican Cardinals write explanations of Catholic concepts ... it'll be educational but there's a presupposed narrative)
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  Em Peterson

  Wanted to read this book for the interviews with George Harrison and John Lennon. That turned out to be the most boring part of the book. If you want to learn about the history of chanting or Krisha Consciousness just read the chapters about Swami Prabhupada and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life. Those chapters were interesting, but the rest of the book was repetitive. Topics: Religion + Music
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  Tania Bradkin

  Quick read. I'm ambivalent about this read with much to learn but wanted to include it on my list to share how it can be wonderful to delve into the reality of others and make decisions for yourself. I enjoyed the music portion of this book and the history re:meditation.
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  Drew Budds

  i got given this book by a monk in the street about 2 years ago. i have only recently gotten round to reading it and honestly it doesn't interest me. it was nice learning something new about another religion but it hasn't gotten me interested in joining
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  Cinnamon

  My favorite book this and Utopia. I almost always have them on me.. I read them all the time!!
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  Ranganathan Msd

  Very refreshing and informative at the same time.
  
  My sincere respects to H.H. Sri. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
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  Yogesh Dubey

  Top book
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  Johnny

  Good read on their feelings at that time
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  Faith

  I'm giving this a 4, because that's how interesting I found it. I really loved reading it. I also found myself constantly thinking what a shame it is that the Hare Krishna movement(which based on this history and explanation of its practices and philosophy, is a not only genuine but beautiful spiritual path) has come to be characterized as nothing more than a dangerous, creepy, brain-washing cult. The interviews with the Beatles were fascinating, as was hearing the story of the Hare Krishna movement coming first to New York and then to San Fransisco, and the effect that it had on the young people there. It's just as much about the power of music, the power of community, and the power of love, as it is about God (which is the same thing anyway). It's the story of young, disillusioned people actually having a vibrant and powerful spiritual experience, and totally freaking out everybody around them.
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  Dev

  George Harrison says, Life is like a piece of string with a lot of knots tied in it. The knots are the karma you're born with from all your past lives, and the object of human life is to try and undo all those knots. That's what chanting and meditation in God consciousness can do. Otherwise, you simply tie another ten knots each time you try to undo one knot. That's how karma works.
  
  Chanting is really important, only if you want to truly realize who you are. Not even that, in this age of hypocrisy, the only means to escape is through chanting.
  
  All glories to Srila Prabhupada, for who are we to know about such deep matters of inner bliss and unlimited joy.
  
  Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
  Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
  Hare Rama Hare Rama
  Rama Rama Hare Hare.
  
  Read Prabhupada books, chant this simple Maha-Mantra and see the miracles, that follows.
  
  Hare Krsna.
• 
  Nicole Miles

  june 2014
  I had hoped this would be an interesting little read about mindfulness and meditation and maybe a little bit of history? But it just kept going on about how much each of The Beatles got into Buddhism/chanting and how George Harrison was super into it and also John Lennon was pretty into it too, but they had their differences and blah blah blah. Maybe if I were the type of Beatles fan who cared about all the gossip this would have been more interesting and I would have actually finished it.... (A confession: I could not finish this.)
  But no harm done; it was free from a monk I met in town so I can't really complain too much I guess.