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My Sweet Lord

Sirona

Sirona

Hindu Wannabe
The Sum of Awe said:
This is so trippy. What is the meaning of this song and video??
Click to expand...

Is this a joking question or serious?
;)

This song popularizes the Hare Krishna mantra, which is used to invoke the Hindu deities:
  • Hari (Vishnu), Krishna and Rama /
  • or Krishna who gives joy (rama) to his girlfriend Radha (Hara),
depending on the view. The mantra originates from Bengali Vishnuism, also called Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which was started in the 16th century by a saint named Chaitanya. An elderly gentle(?)man named Prabhupada, a former distributor of pharmaceutical products who had become a monk, brought the teaching to America in the 1960s and founded an organization called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which (rightly) carries the stigma of being a cult, on the one hand because they were or are engaged in dubious practices, and on the other hand because, as a relatively popular Hindu religion, it wonderfully fits into the negative scheme of pagan religions (worshipping a "false" god and committing "idolatry" by worshipping statues). Hare Krishna is therefore ashamed of the "Hindu stigma" and calls its teachings not Hinduism, but "Vedic religion", although strictly speaking, the Vedas are not read, and many ISKCON followers probably do not even know what the Vedas actually are. Hare Krishnas also consider themselves monotheist.

The Hare Krishna mantra often appeared in popular rock and pop songs during the counterculture period of the 1960s/1970s, e.g. in the musical "Hair", but George Harrison's version was probably the most successful.

The verse at the end translates as: The Guru is the Creator (Brahma), the Guru is the Preserver (Vishnu), Gurudeva is the Destroyer (Shiva or Maheshwara), the Guru is the absolute Lord himself, Salutations to that Sri Guru.

In the 1990s Boy George released another song with the Hare Krishna mantra, but ISKCON still kicked him out for being gay.


As for the video for "My Sweet Lord," I have no idea. "All things must pass" is the title of an album by George Harrison, which contains "My sweet Lord". For the rest, I can only interpret the cinema, which I would consider as a metaphor for the deceptive illusion (Maya) or in the sense of the cave allegory. But maybe the video has no other message than just wanting to be "trippy".
 
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The Sum of Awe

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Sirona said:
Is this a joking question or serious?
;)

This song popularizes the Hare Krishna mantra, which is used to invoke the Hindu deities:
  • Hari (Vishnu), Krishna and Rama /
  • or Krishna who gives joy (rama) to his girlfriend Radha (Hara),
depending on the view. The mantra originates from Bengali Vishnuism, also called Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which was started in the 16th century by a saint named Chaitanya. An elderly gentle(?)man named Prabhupada, a former distributor of pharmaceutical products who had become a monk, brought the teaching to America in the 1960s and founded an organization called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which (rightly) carries the stigma of being a cult, on the one hand because they were or are engaged in dubious practices, and on the other hand because, as a relatively popular Hindu religion, it wonderfully fits into the negative scheme of pagan religions (worshipping a "false" god and committing "idolatry" by worshipping statues). Hare Krishna is therefore ashamed of the "Hindu stigma" and calls its teachings not Hinduism, but "Vedic religion", although strictly speaking, the Vedas are not read, and many ISKCON followers probably do not even know what the Vedas actually are. Hare Krishnas also consider themselves monotheist.

The Hare Krishna mantra often appeared in popular rock and pop songs during the counterculture period of the 1960s/1970s, e.g. in the musical "Hair", but George Harrison's version was probably the most successful.

The verse at the end translates as: The Guru is the Creator (Brahma), the Guru is the Preserver (Vishnu), Gurudeva is the Destroyer (Shiva or Maheshwara) the Guru is the absolute Lord himself, Salutations to that Sri Guru.

In the 1990s Boy George released another song with the Hare Krishna mantra, but ISKCON still kicked him out for being gay.


As for the video for "My Sweet Lord," I have no idea. "All things must pass" is the title of an album by George Harrison, which also contains "My sweet Lord". For the rest, I can only interpret the cinema, which I would consider as a metaphor for the deceptive illusion (Maya) or in the sense of the cave equation. But maybe the video has no other message than just wanting to be "trippy".
Click to expand...
It seemed like they were searching for something. Then at the end they get in the car, didn't find anything, and the lady asks "What were they watching?" and the guy admitted he didn't know, he didn't think of that. Then the radio turns on and its that song playing. I wonder what they were searching for with that light probe thing, and why it was so important that he didn't notice what they were watching in the cinema.
 
Sirona

Sirona

Hindu Wannabe
The Sum of Awe said:
It seemed like they were searching for something. Then at the end they get in the car, didn't find anything, and the lady asks "What were they watching?" and the guy admitted he didn't know, he didn't think of that. Then the radio turns on and its that song playing. I wonder what they were searching for with that light probe thing, and why it was so important that he didn't notice what they were watching in the cinema.
Click to expand...

I don't want to get onto slippery ground by "preaching" but here, I probably have to give an answer based on my faith. According to Prabhupada, the souls aimlessly wander through the world ruled by Illusion (Maya) until they start worshipping Krishna (who grants liberation from Maya) with the Hare Krishna mantra as their "wake-up call". But I think this is a very strictly religious interpretation, and a possible Hindu equivalent of the Christian "God-shaped hole in the heart". So I fully understand if somebody doesn't buy this interpretation. And maybe every individual searches for something different so it's not probably adequate to give one and the same answer for all.

However, as the song is roughly about wanting to be in the company of God, the creators of the video were maybe exemplifying how people deal with the question of searching for him. Some search via science, some search for God in other people, some silence the quest for God by turning to mind-numbing entertainment instead. That's how I'd interpret the video in context with the song.
 
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