Japa in flower-bearing spring. Sign on a bumper sticker: “Life Is Good.” Put the Hare Krishna mantra on your bumper sticker. Most people won’t relate to it, but it’s good for them to see. Allen Ginsberg wrote of the Hare Krishna mantra in one of his poems in a somewhat disparaging way. The poem was about all the mail he gets. Some Hare Krishna devotees knew he was favorable to Hare Krishna, so he sarcastically wrote that many of them send him letters that say, “Dear Allen: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.” Despite his sarcastic intention, it was good that he wrote the mantra in his poems. Even if the mantra is spoken sarcastically, it is beneficial.
(_Japa Transformations_)
They say Krishna consciousness is
a tacked-on canon I use to
resolve a poem that really should stay in the
sensual, compassionate poet’s realm.
No, it’s the center of all people and poets
and government control. It’s the difference between
untruth and reality, love and oppression. It’s
understanding, both sides of the dual
wrongs and partial rights of this world –
seeing everything in Krishna. Do you think
He’s a Hindu god, you
fine poets? As if you,
Yevtuschenko, are yourself the forger
of the human soul.
(_Gentle Power_)