Yajur Veda · Krishna Yajurveda — Vaishnava Upanishad group · 5 mantras
Kalisantarana Upanishad
Kali-Santaraṇa Upaniṣad
Central theme: The Maha-Mantra of sixteen names of Hari as the sole means of crossing the age of Kali.
The Kalisantarana Upanishad — literally "the Upanishad for crossing Kali" — is one of the shortest in the entire corpus, comprising only five mantras, yet it occupies a foundational place in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the global Hare Krishna movement. Set as a dialogue at the end of Dvapara Yuga between the celestial sage Narada and his father Brahma, it asks the single most practical question of the coming dark age: by what means may a person traverse the wheel of samsara when virtue is failing and life is short? Brahma replies that simply by uttering the names of the Primeval Person, Narayana, the seeker sheds the bondage of Kali. He then reveals the thirty-two-syllable, sixteen-name mantra: Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. He declares that no rule of place, time, purity, or initiation binds this mantra — it works for anyone, anywhere, at any time. The Vedas, Brahma adds, have searched exhaustively and found no other means equal to it in the Kali age. The text thus stands as the scriptural locus classicus of nama-sankirtana, the yoga of chanting the divine name, later expanded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu into a worldwide bhakti movement.
Kalisantarana Upanishad — Mantra 3
हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे । हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे ॥
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare, hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
O Hari, O Rama; O Hari, O Rama; O Rama, O Rama; O Hari, O Hari. O Hari, O Krishna; O Hari, O Krishna; O Krishna, O Krishna; O Hari, O Hari.
In the darkest age, one Name kept on the tongue is the entire ferry across.