How can chanting Hare Krishna solve all problems?

From: jugal

many times srila prabhupada says that chanting hare krishna will solve all problems. can you explain its practicality?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Jugal Prabhu, many times Sri Prabhupada says that chanting Hare Krishna will solve all problems.
Can you explain its practicality? Answer, if we consider chanting Hare Krishna as a maya religious ritual involving utterance of some sound vibration, then certainly the idea that such utterance can solve all problems will seem preposterous and unbelievable. But if you understand the principle, Krishna is the Supreme Lord, and chanting Hare Krishna is a means of praying to him to engage us in his service, then we will start understanding how this will contribute to the solution of the world’s problems. The essential problem of the world is disharmony.
There is disharmony between people, there is disharmony within people, there is disharmony between countries and communities and even between species. Whereas in Krishna’s kingdom, there is harmony because everyone is united, centered around Krishna. So if we start chanting Hare Krishna with the mood of serving him, then we start cooperating with Krishna’s plan.
We start harmonizing at least ourselves with Krishna’s plan. When we start harmonizing with Krishna’s plan, then this world is like a hospital and Krishna is like the master physician, the chief doctor in the hospital. So everybody is sick, but those people who are sick and who don’t cooperate with the doctor, then they create more and more problems in the hospital.
But if those who are sick start cooperating with the doctor, then gradually they start healing themselves and they help in the healing of others. So I’m giving a series of classes on how to constitute a solution to all problems. The first class on corruption is already given, that will give a slightly more detailed idea, but apart from the principle that Krishna has a plan for the creation and to the extent we harmonize with that plan, to that extent we will be contributing to this solution, otherwise we will be contributing to the problem.
This principle is universal. Now we can also see at a more immediate and practical level that often we are overrun, we are overpowered or dominated by impulses to act in ways that turn out to be wrong for us. And when we later think about the ways we acted, we chastise ourselves, why did I do that at all? So, at the very least, if we start chanting Hare Krishna, we will gain the inner strength, the inner connection with Krishna, that will enable us to resist the actions of our impulses.
And when we in this way resist our impulses, then we can act in more prudent, more farsighted, more intelligent ways. So, at the very least, we can say that we will not complicate situations in our life if we chant Hare Krishna, because we won’t act impulsively, we will learn to act thoughtfully and intelligently. And again, so this is from an individual approach, from a group of uncontrolled desires.
Rape and all sexual violence originates in lust, corruption, and all financial scams originate in greed. And murders and wars, they largely originate in anger. So there is an article on the website called Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, which talks about how lust, anger and greed are the primary sources of problems in the world.
So now, why do people succumb to lust, anger and greed? Because everybody needs happiness, everybody wants happiness and when people don’t know how to find spiritual happiness, they look for material happiness. And lust, anger and greed promise material happiness to people. So when we chant Hare Krishna, as we experience spiritual happiness, we don’t feel so allured overpoweringly by material promises of happiness.
And that’s how when the lust, anger, greed decreases, definitely the problems in the world will decrease. And this is also one way in which we can understand how chanting Hare Krishna can help us, even at a social level. If people are not greedy, then the business people who are in the grains industry will not hold grains.
If they don’t hold grains, then grains will be freely available to circulate in the economy and to reach the needy. And famine and starvation will decrease substantially. If lust is lessened, then so many of the tragic and heartbreaking violences that happen will decrease substantially again.
So in this way we can understand that many of the problems can be solved by the minimization of lust, anger and greed. So from these two perspectives, one is on a positive side, we will cooperate with Krishna’s plan by chanting Hare Krishna and thereby be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem like being the assistants in your hospital. And on the other side, at least we will be by chanting Hare Krishna not contributing to the problems too much because we will not act under the influence of short-sighted and harmful impulses.
So this way we can understand, get some broad understanding how chanting Hare Krishna can solve the problems. But the important principle is that when we harmonize with Krishna’s plans, then we become a part of the solution. Individually and specifically how this will happen will vary according to time, place, circumstances.