GOURANGA

'Gouranga' (^[1]) is a term popularized by the Hare Krishna movement as a word meaning 'be happy'. It is derived from '''Gauranga''' (IAST ''), literally 'light/golden-limbed', a name of Krishna in Puranic literature, and in Gaudiya Vaishnavism in particular a name of Caitanya Mahaprabhu (considered a reincarnation of Krishna^[2]).
Stickers and fridge magnets with the phrase have been handed out by Hare Krishna monks at music festivals throughout the UK, and signs and stickers have some public visibility in the UK and North America. In 2004 to 2005, there was an e-mail spam campaign involving the phrase.

Contents

In Vaishnavism

Email and ICQ spam

Trivia

See also

Footnotes

External links

In Vaishnavism

The Sanskrit term '' is a bahuvrihi meaning "golden-limbed" or "having a white or yellowish body" (Monier-Williams), from '' "white, shining, beautiful" and '' "limb".
Within Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition it is taken to refer to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's golden skin complexion, and it is said that whoever hears, reads, or speaks the name '' is blessed with fortune and happiness due to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's extraordinary saintly nature.^[3] Caitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Mayapur, West Bengal, in 1486. His activities and teachings are described in detail in the book "Teachings of Lord Caitanya" and the multi-volume ''Chaitanya Charitamrita''.
The term predates Caitanya as an epithet of incarnations of Vishnu-Krishna, appearing in various Vaishna Puranas, for example in the Agni Purana (before 1100 CE),
:''
: "the supreme Self, long-necked / and golden-limbed, surrounded by sages"

Email and ICQ spam

A spate of spam emails have appeared in 2005, and are sometimes known simply as the ''Hare Krishna spam'':
Subject: Gouranga
Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!
In 2005, J. Wein contacted the International Society for Krishna Consciousness about the emails. There was no reply from the organization, but an unknown person responded independently as follows:
Hello Joe,
I am just very enthusiastic person, who wants everybody to be happy.
:)))
The spam can be blocked if desired by filtering out emails from the address NitaiGouranga@aol.com, which, while fake, is used consistently for this purpose.
The same happened on ICQ, so seen on 4th of December 2005. ICQ # 209142623 with the Profile "Username: Gouranga, female, 21 years, located in Ghana" sent the following message:
Call out Gouranga Be Happy...
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga
That which brings the highest happiness!
On November, 21st 2006 another spam was sent out from ICQ #252383686.
Today from ICQ #242581996, - female 44 years.
ICQ#: 256-775-585
Ник: Gouranga
Домашний адрес: Кувейт
Пол: Муж.
Возраст: 66
Дата рождения: 05/03/1941
It was sent to random ICQ users and does not further answer to ICQ messages sent back. It is possible to protect oneself from this by moving this user to the ignore list or by not allowing messages from unknown users (ICQ options).
A variant spam email which replaces the word ''Gouranga'' with ''Neateye'', (in reference to Nityananda) is also in existence, although it is not quite as prevalent. The same NitaiGouranga@aol.com address is linked to both forms of the spam.
On Sunday, February 4, 2007 the message was sent again from:
ICQ Number: 282-508-344
Nickname: Gouranga
Address: French Polynesia
Gender: Female
Birth Date: 10/18/1986
Age: 20

Trivia

The word is involved in one of the many politically incorrect easter eggs in the first of the Grand Theft Auto video game series.
The game displays the text "GOURANGA!" whenever the player runs over a complete group of Hare Krishnas, who are occasionally featured as pedestrians. A related easter egg in Grand Theft Auto 2 is the "ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!" message, displayed when the player runs over a group of Elvis impersonators; and "KEEP LONDON TIDY!" in both GTA: London 1961 and GTA: London 1969. "GOURANGA" is also the name the player has to enter in Grand Theft Auto 2 to enable the cheat mode.
The song ''Twydale's Lament'' by Half Man Half Biscuit features the lyrics "Gouranga, Gouranga yes I'll be happy when you've been arrested for defacing the bridge".

See also

★ Hare Krishna

★ Neateye

Footnotes

1. according to urbandictionary.com (includes an MP3 file illustrating pronunciation)
2. see commentary by Prabhupada on Bhagavata Purana 11.5.32: Gauranga is ''a-krishna'' "not black" = ''gaura'' or ''hari'' "bright/golden", a "chromatic complement", as it were, that is also encountered in the ''hare krishna'' mantra
3. "O infallible and most famous person, whose name, when chanted, spreads all good fortune!" from BhaP 8.17.8. "It should be noted in this connection that the holy names of Lord Krishna and Gaurasundara are both identical with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore one should not consider one name to be more potent than the other." A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada from Chaitanya Charitamrita purport, Adi-Lila, Chapter 8, Text 29. ISBN 0-947259-06-6.

External links

;General

★ "Vedic Encyclopedia" (harekrsna.cz)

★ Urban Dictionary Definitions

★ "Call Out Gouranga!" (citynoise.org)

★ Origins of Gouranga (bbc.co.uk Hare Krishna feature)
;Gouranga spam

★ "Gouranga" spam - who's behind it and what it's about by J. Wein

★ guardian.co.uk reader comments