Questions from a Muslim after he read Bhagavad Gita

 

Questions From A Muslim With Answers From Khan August 27, 2009 by khan Filed under Letters, Religion

7 Comments

 

 

I downloaded Bhagvad Geeta from your site and read it. I am extremely impressed and moved by the teachings of Krishana Ji. But being a Muslim, some questions arose in my mind. If you could help me to finding their answers, I will be grateful to you.

 

 

Dear sir,

I downloaded Bhagvad Geeta from your site and read it.

 

I am extremely impressed and moved by the teachings of Krishana Ji.

But being a Muslim, some questions arose in my mind.

 

If you could help me to finding their answers, I will be grateful to you.

 

1. Why different religions, and I am refering specially to Islam and Hinduism, in contradiction to each other? Is it that some are really from God and others not?

 

2. If you are of opinion that all religions are from God, then would you please like to explain the reason of contradictions between the religions.

 

3. Is there any way to act upon the teachings of Krishana Ji, without compromising on the teachings of Islam. For example, being a Muslim I cannot meditate, visualising the image of Krishana Ji.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Sincerely,

 

Muhammad

 

Lahore, Pakistan

 

 

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Dear Muhammed

 

Asalaamulakum and Hare Krishna

 

My name is Khan and I have visited Pakistan. My parents are both muslims. And they like good muslim parents encouraged me in the islamic way of life. I had a firm belief in God and feared the day of judgement so tried to be good. But sometimes I would fail. Other times I would speculate more about what Allah was like and what heaven is like. But when I asked my elder Muslim brothers and fathers they would often tell me not to think of these things and just take what the Quran and hadith say, full stop.

 

At this stage in my life I was of the thinking that only Islam, Christianity and Jeudaism were authentic religions since they were all memtioned in the Quran but the Jewish and Christian scriptures had been changed whilst the Quran had stayed the same. But I thought all the other religions were man made idol worship concotions. My muslim upbringing had showed me that Islam was the last and final religion and that Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) was the last Prophet.

 

But at the age of 17 I, as are you, was most fortunate to come in contact with the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is and Srila Prabhupada’s books.

As I read the BHagvad-Gita and many other smaller books I began to realise that all the religions were actually linked. Each religion would come due to time place and circumstance to elevate those particular people to the level of human beings who would begin to engage their minds on God.

 

“Hinduism” is the oldest then Budhism then Judaism then Christianity then Islam then Sikhism and then Lord CAitanya came. Each had their purpose. You can research each if you want. But when you compare the scriptures of each you will begin to see that there is a common link.

Each believes in ONE ultimate God/Reality and each gives processes on how to reach this final goal/reality.

 

You said in your enquiring message:

 

1. Why different religions, and I am refering specially to Islam and Hinduism,are in contradiction to each other? Is it that some are really from God and others not?

 

2. If you are of opinion that all religions are from God, then would you please like to explain the reason of contradictions between the religions.

 

Well some contradictions that I originally thought of between Hinduism(specifically Bhakti Yoga) and Islam:

 

1)Reincarnation- I always had a strong inclination that reincarnation occurs even before I came in contact with Krishna consciousness. But Muslims believe that after this life one is judged by God to go into heaven or hell to enjoy or suffer forever onwards. Whereas the Vedic literatures teach us that indeed at the time of death one is judged according to the deeds one has done in that life(ie Karma) and given appropriate next life in either heavenly or hellish body based on qualifications and deire. In fact it is some dear servants of God that look after this process not God directly. Why because in doing so they please God in their service. So if you act righteously and do good deeds and desire to go to heven, after death your soul will be transfered to heaven and you will be born into a heavenly planet.

There are different levels of heavenly planets ==7different levels== same as the Islam teaches us in Quran and HAdith that there are 7 levels of heaven. But the real difference in spiritual life of the vedic literatures is that God does not live in the heavenly planets.

Even the Quran says that God created the Earth and the Heavens which means that He existed before the Heavens and therfore these are not His eternal abode. So not only do the Vedic LIteratures explain about what the heavenly planets are and how to get there it also explains about Gods abode and how to get there. This is the SPIRITUAL WORLD. In fact there is a HAdith that explains that when Prophet Muhammed ascended to God he penatrated all 7 layers of Heaven. So in fact the aim of life in both religions is to get to God and help serve Him, not simply a paradise were you can enjoy your senses more.

 

The issue of reincarnation is about realisation really. If you come to the understanding that you are not the body that is constantly changing but rather you are pure spirit soul covered in the materialism then this is a start. (concept of soul is in Islam). But the next stage is to realise that the soul is not the same as the body. It is eternal. But then you may argue that only God is eternal.

But God is the eternal master (allah hu akbar) and we are the eternal servants. How can you be a master if there is noone to master over. So the real understanding I have gained is that the soul was not created, we are part and parcel of God. But simultaneously different.

 

2)Vegetarianism- Now many Muslims almost think that it is faraz(a

must) to eat meat to be a muslim. This is simply wrong. At that time remeber the civilisation was quite degraded and the majority of the people would be eating meat, intoxicating on alcohol and gambling and so many other corrupt things. If you study the Quran it will show in the earlier time that the Prophet allowed alcohol in moderation, but later verses do not allow. This is due to at that time place and circumstance to slowly raise the level of the people. Similarly although meat eating is allowed it is not necesarry. In Islam when you kill an animal the halal you must look the animal in the eye and recite Quranic verse and offer 6/7ths of the animal to the poor and eat the rest with your family. Who does this now? In England they have big slaughterhouses. Even Muslim ones and they have a tape player of an Imam saying the payers that recirculates agian and again while the animals are killed one by one in a profit business fashion. I am vegetarian and would only eat meat if necesarry.

 

Muslims would even ask me about Eid and HAjj, shouldnt you eat meat then? But lets look at the story behind this. When Prophet Abraham was about to sacrife his son due to God asking him in dreams God stopped him and allowed him to sacrifice a sheep instead. But does this really mean that every muslim to celebrate this day should kill a sheep and enjoy and laugh and have party and dress in new fashionable clothes?

Or is the moral of the story that on this day we should be prepared to sacrifice something that we are attached too much to(like TV or pop music or so on)?

 

3)Deity worship- In Prophet Muhammeds time there was an ancient Vedic culture in ancien arabia. But this had become corrupted. And instead of worshipping God people were woshipping stones for some material benefit. MAny idols of many so-called Gods were present. THe general society was degraded—women and men dancing naked around the Kaba and alcohol drinking and gambling and so many other degrading acts.

 

So at that time place and circumstance a system needed to be introduced to change this society into more of human civilsation. So the Prophet came with Quran and began to win many followers and destroy all these idols and degraded society. Islam would preach no Idol Worshipping, drinking and gave a social structure where women would be honoured.

 

But Diety worship is not the same as idol worship. Dieties are the authentic forms of God. Just as in the Quran there are many different names of God (for to Him belong all the beutiful names) at least 99 showing His different attributes. So similarly in the VEdic scriptures there are many different forms of God. No one says that since the muslims call Allah by so many different names then they believe in so many different Gods. So if you begin to see Hinduism in this light then you will realise that even the Hindus believe in only one God.

 

You also asked:

 

3. Is there any way to act upon the teachings of Krishana Ji, without compromising on the teachings of Islam. For example, being a Muslim I cannot meditate, visualising the image of Krishana Ji.

 

For me personally it helps me to think of Krishna better when I can see a picture of Him rather than reading a name like Allah or Krishna.

But remeber even the names are so spiritually powerful. Because Allah is absolute that means His name, form and voice are non-different.

Remember often in the Quran it says that prophets heard God say this or that. So if you can hear God what is the difficulty in seeing God.

God is on the absolute platform. So if you can keep the beutiul names of Allah on your lips all the time then you will be spiritually successful.

 

Even in the Quran there are references of God’s personmal features.

These I can give you. Where it mentions that God has eyes,hands, face etc. Remember this is not a material limited body like ours. When a devotee sees a picture of Krishna the picture acts as a spiritual tool because straight away he is reminded of God. So I recommend that you continue to remeber God in the best way you can. If this means keeping His names on your lips then this is also very perfect.

 

PLease keep reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. They are not ordinary books. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. So many people are converting. But those who convert from Islam, it takes something really powerful to do this. For me I have found this in the Vedic literatures. But remeber you don’t have to give up or throw away anything. You can still pray 5 times a day, go to Masjid and celebrate Eid. But if you want to increase your spirtual life even further then please my Muslim brother take advantage of the knowledge in these books. And distribute it to as many people as you can. After all Muslim means one who submits to the will of Allah.

 

Please let me know if there are more confusions. Remeber spiritual life is a process of realisation. It may not happen overnight.

 

Please take care and thank you very much.

 

Khud Hafiz and Hare Krishna

 

Khan

Vegetarianism qoutes by famous people

 

 Vegetarianism Quotes

A vegetarian is a person who won't eat anything that can have children.   --David Brenner

Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.     --George Bernard Shaw

How can you eat anything with eyes?  --Will Kellogg

Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child, as it is to the caterpillar. -- Bradley Miller

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. --Paul McCartney

I do not like eating meat because I have seen lambs and pigs killed. I saw and felt their pain. They felt the approaching death. I could not bear it. I cried like a child. I ran up a hill and could not breathe. I felt that I was choking. I felt the death of the lamb. --Vaslav Nijinsky (dancer and choreographer)

Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore. -- Franz Kafka-Novelist (to the fishes in his aquarium)

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times. --Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904- )

For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. --Pythagoras (6th century BC)


A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.  --Leo Tolstoy

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own. --Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Recognize meat for what it really is:  the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.  ~Ingrid Newkirk, National Director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.  -- Samuel Butler, Note-Books, 1912

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. --Albert Einstein

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own.  -- Robert Louis Stevenson


The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined.  If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital.  --Neal Barnard, M.D.

We all love animals.  Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?"  --k.d. lang

Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with almost human-like compassion.  Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it.  Please give our respects to its family. --Berke Breathed, Bloom County Babylon

We pray on Sundays that we may have light/To guide our footsteps on the path we tread;/We are sick of war, we don't want to fight,/And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead. -- George Bernard Shaw


We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could.  --James Cromwell


If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch.  --k.d. lang

A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.  --George Bernard Shaw

As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields. --Leo Tolstoy, author

The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion. --Mahaparinirvana (Buddhist)

I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants. -- Gandhi

I will not eat anything that walks, runs, skips, hops or crawls.  God knows that I've crawled on occasion, and I'm glad that no one ate me.  -----Alex Poulos


One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.  --Henry David Thoreau


Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn!  You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak!  Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay.  --George Bernard Shaw


My situation is a solemn one.  Life is offered to me on condition of eating beefsteaks.  But death is better than cannibalism.  My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarfs in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures.  --George Bernard Shaw


I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.  --Isaac Bashevis Singer, quoted in You Said a Mouthful edited by Ronald D. Fuchs

Suppose that tomorrow a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth, beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals. Would they have the right to treat you as you treat the animals you breed, keep and kill for food? --John Harris (1946- )


Heart attacks... God's revenge for eating his little animal friends.  --Author Unknown

Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind. -- Albert Einstein

Our task must be to free ourselves... widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. -- Albert Einstein

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. -- Gandhi

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalist for the same reasons. -- C. S. Lewis

Among the noblest in the land - Though man may count himself the least - That man I honor and revere, Who without favor, without fear, In the great city dares to stand, The friend of every friendless beast. --Henry W. Longfellow

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral. -- Leo Tolstoy


Tongue - a variety of meat, rarely served because it clearly crosses the line between a cut of beef and a piece of a dead cow.  --Bob Ekstrom

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth? --George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)


Coexistence... what the farmer does with the turkey - until Thanksgiving.  --Mike Connolly


A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows.  --George Bernard Shaw
 

It is strange to hear people talk of Humanitarianism, who are members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to children and animals, and who claim to be God-loving men and women, but who, nevertheless, encourage by their patronage the killing of animals merely to gratify the cravings of appetite. --Otoman Zar-Adusht Ha'nish (1844-1936)

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. We feel better about ourselves and better about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain.
--Paul (1942- ) and Linda McCartney

You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit.  If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. --Harvey Diamond

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.--Leo Tolstoy

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy. --Plutarch (c.AD 46-c.120)

Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act, which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. -- Leo Tolstoy

Flesh eating is unprovoked murder. -- Benjamin Franklin

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. --Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. --Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

We stopped eating meat many years ago. During the course of a Sunday lunch we happened to look out of the kitchen window at our young lambs playing happily in the fields. Glancing down at our plates, we suddenly realized that we were eating the leg of an animal who had until recently been playing in a field herself. We looked at each other and said, "Wait a minute, we love these sheep--they're such gentle creatures. So why are we eating them?" It was the last time we ever did. --Linda and Paul McCartney (musicians)

"Those who, by their purchases, require animals to be killed have no right to be shielded from the slaughterhouse or any other aspect of the production of the meat they buy. If it is distasteful for humans to think about, what can it be like for the animals to experience it?" --Peter Singer

"My dream is that people will come to view eating an animal as cannibalism." --Henry Spira

In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. --T. Colin Campbell, PhD Professor of Nutrition, Cornell University (letter dated 3/29/98)

"Awareness is bad for the meat business. Conscience is bad for the meat business. Sensitivity to life is bad for the meat business. DENIAL, however, the meat business finds indispensable." --John Robbins, Diet for a New America

"There will come a time...when civilised people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that preceded it: the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say "meat-eaters!" in disgust and regard us in the same way we regard cannibals and cannibalism" --Dennis Weaver

"The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger after sweet and gentle creatures who harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of their service" --John Jacques Rousseau

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of `real food for real people,' you'd better live real close to a real good hospital." --Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, D.C.

"When we kill the animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings." --William C. Roberts, M.D., editor of The American Journal of Cardiology

"All red meat contains saturated fat. There is no such thing as truly lean meat. Trimming away the edge ring of fat around a steak really does not lower the fat content significantly. People who have red meat (trimmed or untrimmed) as a regular feature of their diets suffer in far greater numbers from heart attacks and strokes."
--Michael Klaper, M.D., Medical Director, EarthSave Foundation, Santa Cruz, California

"If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero."
--Walter Willett, M.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, director of a study that found a close correlation between red meat consumption and colon cancer.

"Usually, the first thing a country does in the course of economic development is to introduce a lot of livestock. Our data are showing that this is not a very smart move and the Chinese are listening. They are realizing that animal-based agriculture is not the way to go.... We are basically a vegetarian species and should be eating a wide variety of plant food and minimizing our intake of animal foods.... "Once people start introducing animal products into their diet, that's when the mischief starts." --T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., of Cornell University, director of a study of 6,500 Chinese that found a close correlation between meat consumption and the incidence of heart disease and cancer.

"The thousands of people who have suffered food poisoning after eating beef will, no doubt, appreciate that their beef was aesthetically acceptable, even though it made them ill. `Lovely to look at, dangerous to eat' is not a standard that is likely to help beef sales." --Carol Tucker Foreman, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture during the Carter administration, commenting on the inadequacy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Streamlined (Meat) Inspection System (SIS).

If man wants freedom why keep birds and animals in cages? Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. -- Leonardo da Vinci

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. -- Albert Einstein

Men dig their graves with their own teeth and die by those fated instruments more than the weapons of their enemies. -- Thomas Moffett

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery. -- Charles Darwin

When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. -- Ingrid Newkirk

If experiments on animals were abandoned on grounds of compassion, mankind would have made a fundamental advance. -- Richard Wagner

For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. -- Pythagoras

It were much better that a sentient being should never have existed, than that it should have existed only to endure unmitigated misery. -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

What I think about vivisection is that if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit for their cruelty. -- Leo Tolstoy

I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. -- Ecclesiastes

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. -- St. Francis of Assisi

I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual improvement to leave off eating animals. -- Henry David Thoreau

Your choice of diet can influence your long term health prospects more than any other action you might take. -- Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop

Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. -- Albert Schweitzer

If you have men who will exclude any of god's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewisewith their fellow men. -- St. Francis of Assisi

Basically we should stop doing those things that are destructive to the environment, other creatures, and ourselves and figure out new ways of existing. -- Moby

Plant life instead of animal food is the keystone of regeneration. Jesus used bread instead of flesh and wine in place of blood at the Lord's Supper. -- German Composer Richard Wagner

It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. --Mark Twain

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever does. -- Margaret Mead

We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions and organs with our own, and fill the slaughterhouses daily with screams of pain and fear. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the suffering of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands (now billions) of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime. -- Romain Rolland--Nobel 1915

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. -- Thomas Edison

To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana. -- Buddha

40 years ago on the set of Gunsmoke I read the book The Holy Science. Since then I have not eaten meat. -- Dennis Weaver

Since visiting the abbatoirs of S. France I have stopped eating meat. -- Vincent Van Gogh (in a letter to his brother Theodore)

The most energetic workers I have encountered in my world travels are the vegetarian miners of Chile. -- Charles Darwin

I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question to right of humans to eat other sentient beings. -- Cesar Chavez (pacifist head of the United Farm Workers)

Love animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent. Man, do not pride yourself on superiority to animals; they are without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it, and leave the traces of your foulness after you-alas, it is true of almost every one of us! -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that's the essence of inhumanity. -- Isaac Bashevis Singer

It is man's sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man. -- Dr. Albert Schweitzer--Nobel 1952

Hare Krishna in music

During the Hare Krishna explosion in the late 60s, saw many famous musicians incorporate the "Hare Krishna" maha-mantra in their music. If you were around at that time, see if can identify some of the artists. And for those late comers:) it will confirm what impact the "Hare Krishna Movement" had in the music industry.

   

• The Hare Krishna mantra can be heard sung by George Harrison in his song "My Sweet Lord" within the backing vocals.

• The mantra was released as a single by the Radha Krsna Temple on The Beatles' Apple Records label (see Apple Records discography)

• The words "Hare Krishna" are included in the lyrics of several of The Beatles and John Lennon songs, such as " Give Peace A Chance" and "I Am the Walrus". "Hare Krishna" can also be heard in the backing vocals of Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy", which was produced by George Harrison and co-written by Starr and Harrison (although credited to Starr).

• Kula Shaker include various Vedic mantras and names of Krishna in their songs, especially in the famous 'Govinda' track.

• The song Hare Krsna is on Husker Du's album, Zen Arcade, and includes the mantra.

• Boy George's track "Bow Down Mister" includes the Hare Krishna mantra and other references to the Hare Krishnas.

• The Hare Krishna mantra can also be heard on Stevie Wonder's song "Pastime Paradise" from his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life in the background vocals.

• Rapper KRS-One was influenced by the Hare Krishna movement as a young man. His name derives from "Krishna".

• When recreating Eric Clapton's Gibson ES-335, there was a Hare Krishna sticker that had to be reproduced on the back of the headstock.

• Also heard in the Original Broadway Cast Hair in the song, "Be-In", although used in a context of marijuana use at which the Krishnas would look askance.

• Nina Hagen has included the mantra on a number of songs, including "I Love Paul" from the 1983 disco-punk Fearless album.

• Tenacious D have created a song they played live about the Hare Krishnas, called "Hare Krishna".

• Placebo have included the mantra in a song called "Hare Krishna", a b-side to the "36 Degrees" single.

• In his 1992 album Relentless, stand-up comedian Bill Hicks refers to the Hare Krishna followers as "the fifth largest army in the world".

• Undrop's single "Train" features the Hare Krishna mantra at the end of the song.

• The Hare Krishna mantra makes a short appearance in the Jedi Mind Tricks song "Books of Blood: The Coming of Tan" on The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness.

• Dayton, Ohio melodic death metal/crust punk band Hare Krishna derive their name from it.

• The mixed Scottish/Hungarian Hare Krishna band known as 'The Gouranga Powered Band' use the chant frequently throughout their records.

• The Auteurs have a song called Sick Of Hari Krisna on their album How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, in which the title is sung repeatedly.