The maha-mantra is God's transcendental sound descending to awaken forgotten spiritual consciousness in the material world.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: [leads kīrtana] [prema-dhvani]. All glories to the assembled devotees. All glories to the assembled devotees. Gaura-Premanandi.
Prabhupāda: The door is open? You can keep the door open. Yes. Īśvara... Just try to cite, recite this.
[18:22] [devotees repeat each word] īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam [Bs 5.1] [Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.] Now, some of you members have asked me to explain the meaning of this chanting, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
Now, this sound is transcendental sound, transcendental sound, incarnation, sound incarnation of the Absolute Truth. Just try to understand what is incarnation. Incarnation means... The Sanskrit word is avatāra, and that is translated into English as "incarnation." Of course, the root meaning of incarnation I cannot exactly explain to you, but the root meaning of the... [aside:] Somebody stop. Yes. The root meaning of avatāra is "which comes from the transcendental sky, the spiritual sky, to the material sky." That is called avatāra.
Avatāraṇa. Avatāraṇa. Just like... Avatāraṇa means "coming from up to down." That is called avatārana.
And avatāra is understood that when God or His bona fide representative comes from that sky to this material plane, that is called avatāra. So this sound, this Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, is the sound representation of the Supreme Lord. The sarvaṃ khalv idaṃ brahma [Chāndogya Upaniṣad 3.14.1], the whole thing, either material or spiritual, whatever we have got experience, nothing is separated from the Supreme Absolute Truth. Nothing is separated. Everything has emanated from the Absolute Truth. [aside:] Come on.
Sit down. But just like... The example... Just like earth. Earth, then from earth, you have got wood, fuel.