It is known that I am connected to God – not in the sense of an Abrahamic religion, but in the Vedic sense: I follow Hinduism, which does not (as is often mistakenly assumed) worship many gods, but rather God’s various personified aspects, because God is absolute and therefore infinitely multifaceted. Hindus mostly worship Shiva (the destroyer) or Vishnu (the preserver), but rarely Brahma (the creator), and all worship Krishna (the attractor of all things). Mantras are used for worship, and besides OM, the Maha Mantra is the most important – almost everyone has heard it: „Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare – Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.„
Mantras can be spoken aloud or silently, or sung – this is called chanting or kirtan. Mantra recitation is often sweet when sung, but usually dry when spoken, sometimes even bordering on chant. One might like one form, the other less so, and for Western ears, Indian music takes some getting used to, occasionally even being unpleasant. Since God (Krishna) is absolute and infinitely diverse, all people, as his creatures made in his image, are also infinitely diverse, and I myself have long felt compelled to interpret the Maha Mantra in a very modern way, quite different from previous forms. The impetus for this was the somewhat unsynchronized and sometimes even chanting recitations on the YouTube channel VEDAVOX, which I often follow – may Paramshreya forgive my directness …
Since I really like modern electronic music, it seemed natural to try my hand at a corresponding musical setting of the Maha Mantra with chanting, and this is what came of it:
Konzept & Making off
Every Hindu is familiar with the epic Mahabharat and the sacred scripture Bhagavad-Gita. These texts recount the Battle of Kurukshetra, in which God, in his incarnation as Krishna, directly participates. In early times, mounted troops were among those involved in battles, and thus the sound of horses‘ hooves became the first element of the aforementioned mantra – Ajurna, as the victorious warrior, and Krishna, as his charioteer, rush towards the battlefield. Their arrival is announced with a conch shell, the second element of the mantra. To further emphasize the arrival of God (Krishna) in our time, a female voice speaks as the third element of the mantra: „Joy to the world – The Lord is come“ – incidentally, a Christmas carol set to music by Georg Friedrich Händel and widely known in the English-speaking world. The fourth element of the mantra is the Maha-Mantra, recited alternately and also together by a female and a male voice …
The entire score was overlaid with selected sound elements produced by AMPIFY. The approximately 12-second horse hooves were sourced from Sound-Illusion, the triple conch shell from PIXABAY sounds, and the voices were semi-automatically generated online using text-to-speech online.
This modern interpretation of the Maha Mantra has now evoked controversial reactions – just as controversial, or rather, multifaceted, as God (Krishna) himself is in his absoluteness – and that was the original intention – Hare Krishna.