Today is the appearance day of His Grace Aindra Prabhu who was one of the foremost disciples of Srila Prabhupada.
He was born on 12th march 1953 in chicago and came into the ISKCON movement in 1973 accidently, after getting attracted to the holy names of the lord that he had heard during a street harinaam sankirtan program.
In 1974, on the auspicious occasion of Sri Nityananda Trayodashi he got formal initiation from his divine grace, and soon became temple pujari in washington.
He used to distribute books daily, dress the deity and whenever he found free time, he used to sing kirtans for the lord. Once he asked Srila Prabhupada that he wished to go to sri vrindavan dham, to which His Divine Grace replied,
"Not now....I will tell you when to go!
In 1975, srila prabhupada started the 24 hour kirtan in our Krsna Balaram Mandir, Vrndavan....and wanted it to continue forever. Sadly in 1977, Srila Prabhupada left his body, and thus never instructed Aindra Prabhu as to when to go to vrndavan.
However one day, in Aindra prabhu's dream, Srila Prabhupada appeared with tears in his eyes, and requested Aindra prabhu to go to Vrndavan Dham and try reviving the 24 Hr Kirtan program.
Taking Guru's Vani as the ultimate truth, Aindra Prabhu left New york city with a few dollars, his slippers, minimum clothes and his japa beads....After arriving in Vrndavan, he single handedly started the 24 Hr kirtan again, and used to sing for 14-15 hours a day to maintain the 24 hr service!
After it was well established, Srila Prabhupada appeared in Aindra prabhu's dream again and with a smiling face, and rested his head on Aindra Prabhu's shoulders and said....Thank you very much!
Kirtan was always considered the background activity or service, while book distribution and preaching was considered a superior activity. Aindra Prabhu strongly refuted this point, and said that its Harinaam Sankirtan which is the Yuga Dharma for Kaliyuga, and that its so important an activity that Sri Gauraanga Mahaprabhu himself came down in this dark age to liberate the fallen conditioned living entities by giving Krsna Prema through the loud congregational chanting of
HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA
KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
Aindra prabhu said that we distribute books....why? so that we can philosophically convince people about the importance of Harinaam in this age. We preach.....why? Only so that we can build people's faith in this process of chanting the holy names, as being the only means of achieving Krsna Prema in this age.
In this way, throughout his life aindra prabhu performed selfless harinaam sankirtan 24 hours a day for 24 such years!!!!!! His kirtans were so powerful that people used to come to Vrndavan dham to attend his evening action packed shuddh naam vibrating kirtans, which purified the whole world. He never stopped chanting....often after intense long 2hour kirtans...he used to say...dont space out...keep chanting!...and then he used to start softly chanting
HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA
KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
Aindra Prabhu was perfect in everything....! Not just kirtans....his taste for naam japa was also very deep...he chanted 128 rounds a day daily apart from his kirtan schedule...(initially he used to chant 16 a day...but when more devotees started singing and helped to keep the 24 hour kirtan going...he intensified his japa and increased his rounds!)
He had this immense liking in just simply staying in Vrndavan dhaam, that he never left dhaam! Once a devotee asked Aindra prabhu...why do you always be in Vrndavan dhaam and never move out..? He smiled and replied back....Because I dont know when I am goin to die!
Apart from all this.... he was greatly known for his deity worship....his room(room no 89 in brahmachari ashram in Krsna Balaram Mandir) is a wonder in itself! 2066 Shaligram shilas, radha gopijanvallabha with asta sakhis, ananga manjari, janhava ma, gaur nitai, srila prabhupada and srila bhaktisiddhanta saraswat thakur( ALL DEITIES!!!!!)
Apart from all this he had, live size Sri Sri Nitai Sachisuta deities!
He spent about 4.5 hours dressing and doing the puja of all his deities.
He used to do his japa, harinaam sankirtan, deity worship, bhagavatam reading and shravan and only then even looked at water!!!!!
Unfortunately, He left this mortal world and went back to Krsna, on 16th july 2010.
But as we know a true vaishnava never dies.....and hence aindra prabhu is eternally present even now through his shuddha naam kirtans, lectures and room conversations.
Due to Aindra Prabhu's sincere efforts, the 24 hour kirtan has never stopped since 1986..and goes on even during the hot summer afternoons, and during the cold winter nights!
So on this most auspicious day of his appearance, we pray to Sripad Aindra Prabhu to bless us with a drop from his ocean of naam ruchi, and we sincerely pray to his Ista Deva...Sri Sri Radha Shyamsunder to give us enough strength to execute bhakti and adhere to our guru's instruction as Sripad Aindra Prabhu did!
Sripad Aindra Prabhu ki jay!
Sri Sri Nitai sachisuta Bhagwan ki jay!
Sri Vrndavan dham ki jay!
Jay Jay Sri RAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SHYAAAAAAAAAAM!
Vaishnav dasanudas,
Amarnath Das
Comments