Gouranga, Be Happy

On the 2 December I recieved this spam.

Call out Gouranga be happy
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga!
That which brings the highest happiness…

The subject was “Gouranga” (naturally!). Now I get lots of spam but this one got me curious. Gauranga (Gouranga) is one of the names of an Indian monk Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He founded the branch of Hinduism that was brought to the west during the 20th century by ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) aka the Hare Krishna.

The word has also been used as graffitti on stickers and on moterway bridges in north west UK. The Urban Dictionary write: “It’s only purpose to annoy drivers who are left with a nagging curiosity for the rest of their day until the next day when it ceases to become important ever again.”

Another variation of Gouranga is an easter egg which appears in Grand Theft Auto where if you ran over a line of Hare Krishna the word Gouranga appeared. As in Dude!! I just ran over all those Hare Krishnas and got a GOURANGA!