Hare Rama also refers to Lord Ramachandra

Anandamaya Dasa: There is one nice incident during Tamal Krishna Goswami’s lecture there. In short, maybe I can mention "The meaning of the Hare Krishna mantra" in his lecture, 1971, in Secunderabad in Mahbub College. It was well attended, four thousand people attended the function. That was the first public programme held by Hare Krishna's in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. But Tamal Krishna Goswami explained that Hare Rama Hare Rama - Rama is also Krishna, that is also Krishna's name. Rama means the Supreme enjoyer, like that he explained. 

But at the end of the lecture, from the audience, somebody raised their hand and asked a question, "You see everybody knows Hare Rama, Hare Rama and everybody understands that this Rama means Ramachandra, Lord Ramachandra. Hare Rama, Hare Rama - we pray to Lord Ramachandra." Tamal Krishna Goswami did not accept this and he was very emphatic. He said, "No, this is not Lord Ramachandra, this is Lord Krishna’s name." He was very strong. So in the audience, we could understand that some uneasiness is there. 

The next day, in the newspaper, there was an unfavorable article in the reader’s column against the Hare Krishna disciples: 'They have no knowledge. They do not know who is Lord Ramachandra. They do not know what is Hare Rama Hare Rama, they do not know.' That gave a wrong impression to the public. So Tamal Krishna Goswami, when he met Srila Prabhupada again after some time, he mentioned this incident and immediately Prabhupada corrected him, "Why did you enter into this argument? It was not necessary to enter into this argument. You should have accepted. 'Yes Lord Ramachandra that is also, it means Lord Krishna. It will also mean Lord Ramachandra. There is no difference.' Like that, we should not have any such argument in public... that had a negative reaction." 

When Prabhupada was writing the commentary on Chaitanya-charitamrita this incident is mentioned in one of the purports by Srila Prabhupada, in the Adi-lila where Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami mentions about the names of God and that all names of God are equal. We should not discriminate. And Prabhupada wrote in the comment and purport to this that sometimes we had arguments, so now we should understand clearly that we should not argue on that. All names of God, all Krishna’s name are all equal. So that’s mentioned in Chaitanya-charitamrita. So this connection is there. Then the programme, November 22 went on very well. And so that was the beginning of Prabhupada’s mission in Hyderabad. Gradually it became more and more, I mean important.