The chant
‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare
was chanted thirty lakh times in a day by Haridasa Thakur making it the ‘Maha Mantra’ of the bhakti movement of GaudiyaVaishanavism.
Profile
Haridas Thakur was born either in 1450 or 1451, the year is not confirmed. He was born into a Muslim family in Buron which is now in Bangladesh. Haridas was a contemporary of ChaitanyaMahaprabhu but was older by 35 years. AdvaitaAcharya, another Krishna devotee,recognized the divinity of Haridas and he was the one who gave him the name Haridas. His Muslim name is not known. AdvaitaAcharya was scoffed by many Brahmins for allowing a Muslim into the fold but he was not perturbed. It is believed that AdvaitaAcharya and Haridas Thakur prayed ardently for the incarnation of the Lord and that ChaitanyaMahaprabhu was born. On seeing ChaitanyaMahaprabhu they knew their prayers were answered and Haridas’ life centred on ChaitanyaMahaprabhu. Haridas had to face many insults from the Brahmins and from the Muslim authorities as well. But he outlived all of them with his devotion. There is apopular story of a prostitute who was given the task of tarnishing the name of Haridas. The reverse happened. She tried to lure him for about three days and every time she waited there, she listened to the chants and eventually she left her ways and became a great devotee of the Lord. ChaitanyaMahaprabhu, towards the end of Haridas’ life, took him to Puri and asked him to stay in a house there and looked after all his needs. As he was ageing his chants became slow and on the day of his reunion with the Lord, Haridas took the feet of ChaitanyaMahaprabhu and placed it on his chest and breathed his last. ChaitanyaMahaprabhu carried his body to the seashore, dug the place on the shore and did all the rites himself.
Philosophy Propounded
Devotion is the core of the Gaudiya movement. According to Haridasa ‘namabhasa’ (the stage of pure chanting) leads the chanter to liberation through ‘prema’, pure love for god.
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
Haridas Thakur’s devotion and unbroken abidance in bliss transformed many people; some of them were scoundrels too. The very presence of a Mahatma is enough to transform the society. The life of Haridasa Thakur was so inspiring that even the incarnation of Krishna, ChaitanyaMahaprabhu, danced in ecstasy in his presence and even in his death.
