His Grace Madhudvisa das

By Pusta Krishna das

His Grace Madhudvisa das was one of the first bhaktas to join Srila Prabhupad’s mission in the West. He once related that as a new devotee, he was the temple president in LA. He was honest and admitted how little he knew of Krishna consciousness at the time, but he served in his own infectiously happy mood. He and I spoke rather honestly and openly about our own frailties in life. He never tried to portray himself as a “big, big” self-important person. Rather, he was a salt of the earth kind of person. Very simple hearted. His place in the history of sankirtan is very well established by his own peculiar style of sankirtan chanting of the Holy Names. He was the first to chant the Holy Names very rapidly in a style that became more common throughout the world with the passage of time. I witnessed in Melbourne when I accompanied Srila Prabhupad there that during 1976 that some of those kirtans, Srila Prabhupad would smile gently and pleasingly. After all, there are no hard and fast rules for chanting the Holy Names, and Madhudvisa Prabhu was to chanting as Sudama Prabhu was to dancing in the temples during sankirtan. His expressive style was unique and refreshing, and he will be remembered by all who knew him.

Srila Prabhupad used to say that his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad, sent the early devotees to help him in fulfilling his own desire that the Sankirtan Movement would be spread to every town and village in the world. Srila Prabhupad gave personal attention to these devotee-disciples. He encouraged them when they were strongly engaged with the favorable breezes of Lord Chaitanya’s grace, and he supported them when any challenge would come to disrupt the flow of devotional service. Most of all, Srila Prabhupad had full faith that devotional service when it is inspired by that Lord, Sri Krishna, Who is beyond our material senses, is causeless and cannot be broken by anything. Always give encouragement to others whether they are strong in their devotional service, and even more so if they might stumble. That is a lesson that Srila Prabhupad displayed in his guidance of Madhudvisa Prabhu, and one that we can all benefit from in this brief life. We will meet again prabhu, I will recognize you by that unique style of kirtan that came from the depths of your joyous heart.

Pusta Krishna das