Maybe you have seen members of the Hare Krishna movement on the street, dancing, distributing books, sometimes dressed in clothes that look foreign outside of India, but always chanting or fingering beads.

"What are they chanting?" you may wonder. If you ask them, they will tell you that the chanting is the key to understanding the oldest and most mysterious scriptures in the world.

The main scripture of the Hare Krishna movement is called Bhagavad-gita. It was narrated by a great sage named Sanjaya 5,000 years ago, and it contains a conversation between Arjuna, a warrior-prince about to go into battle, and his friend Krishna, a great king known for his many victories and for the superhuman feats he had performed, even as a child, when he lifted a mountain at the age of seven.

Arjuna is overcome with grief. Many of his beloved relatives are in the opposing army, and he will have to kill them to win back a kingdom that was wrongfully taken from him. He turns to his friend Krishna, who has agreed to drive his chariot. "I am your disciple now," Arjuna says. "Please help me."

Krishna smiles. True knowledge, He explains, begins with knowledge of the soul. "You are lamenting for what is not worthy of grief," Krishna says. "The wise man laments neither for the living nor the dead. The soul is eternal. It has never been born and can never be killed, not even when the body is killed."

But there is still more knowledge to come.

"This knowledge is the king of education," Krishna says, "the most secret of all secrets, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is eternal and joyfully performed."

But by the time Krishna speaks of a secret, he has already given the secret to Arjuna, more than once. "One who knows the transcendental nature of My birth and activities," He has said, "does not come back to this material world after leaving his body but attains My eternal abode."

And again: "There is no truth superior to Me. All these worlds are strung on Me as pearls are strung on a thread."

Can Krishna really be telling Arjuna that He is God, the Absolute Truth? How does Arjuna react to these words?

"All the great sages have said this of You," Arjuna says, "and now You Yourself are telling it to me."

In fact, it is not only the great sages who declare Krishna to be God, but other scriptures as well. "There are many incarnation of God who have come to this world," says Srimad Bhagavatam, "but Krishna is the original form of God."

But what does all this mean to the yogi, to the seeker of Absolute Truth? If Krishna, the person, is the Absolute Truth what is the meaning of attaining Truth, and how is Truth attained? How can one attain a person?

Krishna explains that the means of attaining Truth and the goal of attaining Truth are the same. The highest state is the eternal relationship of love between the individual soul and Krishna.

"I am explaining this science to you," Krishna tells Arjuna, "because you are My devotee and My friend."

And again: "Of all yogis, My devotee is the highest."

"To those who are constantly devoted and worship me with love," Krishna says, "I give the knowledge by which they can come to me. Out of compassion for them, I dwelling within their hearts, destroy the darkness born of ignorance with the shining lamp of knowledge."

But why does Krishna say all of this is a secret if He states it so clearly? To understand why, one has only to look through the many commentaries on Bhagavad-gita available today. They all turn the reader away from Krishna, saying that the truth is hidden inside of Krishna or that we are all God or that truth has no name or form.

But there is one exception. In 1965 an elderly Indian monk sailed from Bombay to New York. His name was A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, and he was later known as Prabhupada. He began teaching the truth of Bhagavad-gita, and in the summer of 1966, with the help of a few disciples, he founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Shortly thereafter, he published Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the only modern edition of the book with explanations that stress the importance of Krishna Himself.

In the years that followed, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness established branches and temples all over the world, and Prabhupada published many books, most of them translations of scriptures, all with explanations stressing the importance of Krishna.

Prabhupada left this world in 1977, and his work is being carried on by his disciples and grand-disciples.

But what about the chanting? First, in Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says that he is personally present in the recitation of His names. And there is another scripture, Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, where the congregational singing and dancing play an important part.

Sri Caitanya Caritamrta was written by a great devotee of Krishna named Krishna Das Kaviraj. And whereas Bhagavad-gita tells of Krishna as He appeared in this world 5,000 years ago, Sri Caitanya Caritamrta tells of Krishna coming again more recently, only 500 years ago, shortly before the book was written.

But Krishna did not show Himself as Krishna this time. He showed Himself as a devotee of Krishna, a follower of Bhagavad-gita. His name was Sri Caitanya, and He inaugurated the public chanting of Krishna's names, based on a verse from scripture stating that in this age, the only way to approach Krishna is through the chanting of His names.

The appearance of Sri Caitanya is predicted in Srimad Bhagavatam, where it is stated that Krishna would come again, but this time His complexion would not be blackish, as it was 5,000 years ago, and He would chant and dance in the streets to spread love of God all over the world.

Sri Caitanya is also known as the Golden Incarnation because of His golden complexion and the scriptures say that He came into this world to show everyone how to attain the goal of Bhagavad-gita: love of Krishna.

And there is another reason. Bhagavad-gita says that the process of knowing Krishna is joyful. This joy, in fact, is so great, that even though Krishna is Himself the source of all pleasure, He still desires to know the unlimited pleasure felt by His devotees.

There are many so-called spiritual paths that claim to help the practitioner become God. But according to Bhagavad-gita, the nature of the soul cannot change. If you are not God today, you cannot become God tomorrow; and the all-knowing God cannot become an ignorant man.

So do not waste your time trying to become God. From the life of Sri Caitanya, we can understand that even God himself wants to be a devotee of Krishna. And we can follow in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya by chanting the mantra that He chanted constantly: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Take the path of Bhagavad-gita: "Wherever there is Krishna, the master of mystics," says Sanjaya, "and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion."

© Umapati Swami