All glories to Aindra Prabhu !!!

As I heard of the disappearance of His Grace Aindra Prabhu, so many thoughts flooded through my mind. Reading through the offerings of his various godbrotheers, was so touching and reiterated my own thoughts about Aindra Prabhu !

Ever since the first time I heard Vrindavan mellows, Aindra prabhu's style has defined kirtan for me, although I did realize that there was no scope for me to sing like him - neither by way of singing ability, nor by way of bhakthi. However, he has continued to inspire me over the years and the 7 days I spent in Vrindavan and listening to his kirtan everyday will forever remain etched in my memory.

Aindra prabhu has influenced people around the world with his wonderful kirtan. I remember the good old days when myself, Padmanabh Nitai, Pradyumna Krsna, Debarshi Gauranga and others sitting in the ashram deity room with our harmonium, kartal and mrdanga and singing Aindra prabhu's tunes for hours together. Most of my kirtan memories are connected with Aindra Prabhu one way or the other. Prabhu has left, but his kirtan remains !!! So many more will hear him and continue to drive inspiration....

Aindra prabhu ki jai !!!

Panihati festival in Guruvayur

As the program was decided about a month ago that Panihati chida dahi festival will be celebrated somewhere close to Guruvayur on 27 June, everyone was looking forward to it very eagerly. I had to leave Guruvayur couple of days before on some urgent personal business and the hartal on 26th didn’t help matters much. Somehow, I had made up my mind to attend this festival, as I have very sweet memories of Panihati festival in Krishna Katha Desh. My bus was speeding towards Guruvayur and the rain was coming down hard. All my hopes were almost gone , with the sky completely dark with pregnant clouds showering non-stop and heavily, too. I said a silent prayer to Guruvayrappan asking the Lord to intervene and tell Indra to stop his army of clouds from showering over Guruvayur temporarily. My bus reached East Nada, and bang !!! , the rain stopped.

As I reached the ISKCON Complex, devotees were milling around busily getting things ready. The program was to be held at Panchavadi beach, about 6 km from Guruvayur. Devotees were transported in four trips to the beach as the bus was small and there were too many devotees. The bathing festival at the beach started at around 11.30 a.m., with Ram Govinda Prabhu and Rasanidhi prabhu bathing their Lordships Gauranga and Nitai, accompanied by the thunderous kirtan of Vichitra Chaitanya Das. The nearby local temple, the Thiruvathra Karthyayani temple was to be venue for the rest of the program. The sankirtan party from the beach went in a procession to the temple, loudly chanting the holy names, immersing the whole area in the heavy rain of hari-nama !

The temple held a surprise for many as there was a big crowd of local people in the temple hall, eagerly waiting for our program. This was due to the efforts of the temple priest who is a well-wisher of ISKCON and attends many of our programs. There are 500 houses around this temple and he had printed and distributed notices to all the local people informing them about our festival. Lord Gauranga and Nityananda was exhibiting their mercy in their customary way !!! The program included abhishekam, maha arati, bhog offering and a short lecture followed by mahaprasadam. The program was very well received by the local people, who were very happy to be introduced to Lord Chaitanya, the golden avatar and the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Sukrthi Prabhu from Mathuradesh spoke on the significance of the festival. Ram Govinda Prabhu enlightened the audience about Srila Prabhupada and his worldwide movement. Matajis and prabhus had gotten together and prepared many varieties of chida to be offered to the deities. 23 items were offered in all ! The festival which began as a celebration for ISKCON devotees became a huge outreach preaching program, I guess it was Lord Chaitanya’s plan, after all !

Indra and his team stayed away, just until the festival got over. In fact, they started right after that !!! Of course, we do understand that Guruvayurappan is the Supreme Controller, whether its rain or sunshine !!! Once again, the Lord showed who is the Boss…

It also afforded me the opportunity to meet Radhakanta prabhu, the sweet and gentle devotee from Ayalur. I was also meeting Rasanidhi prabhu after sometime. The only thing everyone missed was the association of H.H. Bhakti Vinoda Maharaja.
Nityananda Prabhu showed mercy on Raghunatha Dasa Goswami at Panihati and ordered him to hold the chida-dahi festival. The Lord also brought Mahaprabhu to the festival by meditating on Him. So many years later, Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu continue to shower mercy on patitas through the same festival. The ways of the Lord are so wonderful and beyond our comprehension !
Saci mata prana dhana Gauranga Mahaprabhu ki jai !

Nityananda Rai ki jai !