Hare Krishna Mahamantra
The sixteen-name mantra, given in the Kali-Santarana Upanishad.
Kali-Santarana Upanishad 1edition
Sanskrit · संस्कृत
No verified recitation yet. We publish audio only with a named reciter and a recorded licence, rather than files of unknown provenance.
Meaning
An address to Hari, Krishna and Rama by name, repeated — a mantra of calling rather than of statement.
This rendering is by a DharmSetu editor, not a quotation from a published translation.
A Hindi meaning has not been written for this mantra yet. Hindi is authored by a named editor rather than machine-translated, so it arrives more slowly.
How to recite
- Repetitions
- 108
- Mala
- tulsi
Pronunciation key — sounds commonly got wrong
- ट ठ ड ढ ण · ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ
- Retroflex — the tongue curls back and touches the roof of the mouth. Distinct from the dental त थ द ध न, where the tongue touches the teeth.
- श ष स · ś ṣ s
- Three different sounds: ś as in “shy”, ṣ retroflex and further back, s plain. Collapsing them changes words.
- ः · ḥ (visarga)
- A soft outward breath echoing the preceding vowel — not a hard “ha”.
- ं · ṃ (anusvara)
- Nasalises the vowel; the closing sound follows the consonant that comes next.
- Long vs short vowels — a / ā, i / ī, u / ū
- Vowel length is meaningful in Sanskrit. Hold the macron vowels roughly twice as long.
- Aspirated consonants — kh, gh, ch, th, dh, ph, bh
- A distinct puff of breath. ph is an aspirated p, never an English “f”.
Context
Recited at / traditionally recited for
Classified as Pauranic — From the Puranas. Most widely recited deity mantras belong here. Basis for this classification.
Related mantras
Gayatri Mantra
The most widely recited Vedic verse, addressed to the light of the sun — Rigveda 3.62.10.
Om Namah Shivaya — the Panchakshara
The five-syllable Shiva mantra. The phrase occurs in the Shri Rudram of the Krishna Yajurveda.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
The twelve-syllable Vishnu mantra that opens the Bhagavata Purana.