How to Chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra

The Vedic scriptures recommend the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra as the easiest and most effective means of spiritual realization in this age.

Before beginning to chant on your beads, reverently chant the Pancha Tattva mantra three times:

sri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda

"I offer my obeisances to Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasa and all others in the line of devotion."

If you are going to chant more than one round of japa, then, without chanting on the Krishna bead, turn the strand around and begin the next round. Continue pulling beads towards you, as before.

If you have a string of counter beads tied to your bead bag, you can keep track of the number of rounds you have chanted by moving one counter bead for each round.

Chant clearly and try to hear the holy names with attention. Some chanters find that looking at the mantra or a picture of Krishna helps them concentrate. If that works for you, that's fine. But remember that the goal is attentive hearing.