The Kali-Santarana Upanishad (; ), also called , is a Sanskrit text. It is a minor Upanishad of Hinduism. The Vaishnava Upanishad was likely composed before . According to Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, this text's central mantra, known as the Hare Krishna, or Mahā ("Great"), Mantra, was given in the 16th century to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at his initiation in Gaya (though the Sanskrit mantra is absent from his biographies). This mantra, presented in two lines, contains the words Hare, Rama, and Krishna. The word Hare, meaning "O Harā" (the feminine counterpart to Vishnu, sometimes known as Hara), is repeated eight times, while the other two names are Hindu gods and are each repeated four times (or two forms of Vishnu, who is then invoked eight times as well). The text asserts that audible chanting of this mantra is a means to wash away all the tribulations of the current era (Kali Yuga). Nomenclature 'Kali-Santarana Upanishad' means to 'approach or set about crossing over quarrel, discord, and strife': 'Kali' (Sanskrit कलि) means 'quarrel', 'contention', 'discord' or 'strife'. Kali Yuga is the least-dharmic (e.g. least moral or religious) of the four cyclical yugas (ages or epochs) in Hindu cosmology. 'Santarana' (Sanskrit सन्तरण) means "conveying over or across". 'Upanishad' (Sanskrit उपनिषद्) means 'approach' or 'set about'. History The text is one of the Vaishnava Upanishads, completed before about 1500 CE, and includes two verses called the Maha-mantra. The modern era Kali-Santarana Upanishad is the earliest known Hindu text where this widely known mantra appears. It was popularized by one of the Bhakti movement leaders Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the 16th century. The Maha-mantra enunciated in this Upanishad is world-famous through the Hare Krishna (ISKCON) movement. In Vaishnava etymology the word Hare refers to Hara (literally, captivating, carrying away), personifying goddess Radha who is the Shakti of Krishna ("nada shakti") or and remembers her as the one who stole the mind of Krishna. The word Hare, or Radha, is repeated eight times in the Kali-Santaraṇa mantra and is a reminder of her love for the divine Krishna. Popular in Gaudiya Vaishnavism denomination of Hinduism, its devotees assert that the effect of reciting this mantra in Kali-Santaraṇa text is to imbue the pleasure principle emanating from the very innermost part of one's being, feel transcendental ecstasy and revive deep consciousness, remembering the love of God, and to getting rid of the harmful influence of the Kali Yuga.