{"id":8745,"date":"2010-08-07T13:17:18","date_gmt":"2010-08-07T12:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=8745"},"modified":"2010-08-07T13:17:18","modified_gmt":"2010-08-07T12:17:18","slug":"my-meeting-with-hg-aindra-prabhu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=8745","title":{"rendered":"My meeting with HG Aindra Prabhu…"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Caitanya
\nCaran Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear devotees,<\/p>\n

Please accept my humble obeicanses, all glories to Srila Prabhupada and His Sankirtan Movement.
\nI would like to share with you the photos I made of HG Aindra Prabhu. <\/p>\n

It was in 1999 when I visited Sri Vrindavan Dhama for the first and only time, 3 years after I joined ISKCON. I was living in Amsterdam-temple as a brahmacari, and my temple president at that time (HG Jagadananda Prabhu) asked me to bring a nice clay Mrdanga for our temple. As I walked around the ISKCON temple in Vrindavan one afternoon, I suddenly saw a different looking devotee.. HG Aindra Prabhu was passing by, and I asked him if he knew the best place to buy a Mrdanga. He was very kind and friendly to me, and told me I will show you, come with me.
\nAs we walked the road towards the village it was beautifull to experiance his complete feeling at home there! He greeted the locals and walked barefoot chanting on his beads.
\nWe stopped about 10 minutes walking from the temple by a small hut next to the main road to Vrindavan-village. The salesman made the Mrdanga’s himself there and Aindra Prabhu bargained very friendly and smoothly with him, tested some Mridangas and explained to me why I should buy this particular one.
\nOfcourse he got a great price for it, the salesman seemed to know him well. The Mrdanga was top!
\nAs we walked back he told me about how he made his room in the brahmacari ashram into a hut with cowdung and clay…I was very curious and he invited me to pass by that evening.<\/p>\n

I was feeling very happy because for 3 years I had heared his bhajans and kirtans on cd blasting through the temple almost every day! I had always enjoyed his melodies and now here I was walking around with one of ISKCON’s biggest stars!
\nThat early evening I went with my photo camera to his room which was somewhere on the 2nd floor I think in a corner by the brahmacari ashrams of ISKCON Vrindavan. He had a meeting with some of his close associates who supported him in the 24 hour bhajan group.
\nWhen I walked to his room I saw a sort of flat building with normal rooms, everywhere brahmacaris talking, chanting, dhoty’s and kurta’s were hanging on washing lines. As I looked inside rooms I saw just normal concrete rooms.<\/p>\n

HG Aindra Prabhu’s room was very different! He had his room turned into a temple, it was just amazing! Every spot of concrete was covered by sculptures made with a mix of cowdung and clay. Just how beautifull was the atmosphere in his room, two at least 1 meter sized deties of Lord Caitanya & Lord Nityananda were standing on his altar, there was a big extra altar with his small Srila Prabhupada murti and all The Lords great followers, hundreds of Silas were there! I asked him why he had so many Silas, and he told me, devotees from all over the world come to visit Vrindavan and they bring their Silas when they feel they cant worship Them up to standard anymore..many of them are brought to him and he humbly takes care of the Silas.
\nHe showed me his favorit Sila… he said he found it, and it was clear there was a hoofprint of a cow inside!<\/p>\n

With such great devotion he took care of his Deties. Huge offering plates full of fruits were standing on many places for Their Lordships…Krishna was all around in this artisticly made temple room.
\nAs everyone left, HG Aindra Prabhu talked to me for about 1 hour, giving deep inside in the power of chanting The Holy Name and doing Harinam Sankirtan.
\nHe told me how important it was to read Srila Prabhupadas books daily, and to have a strong Sadhana. He was convinced that if we would spread the chanting as much as we can, the atmosphere of the city’s would change and people would understand our books!<\/p>\n

I asked him if I could make some pictures and he seemed to like it. Such a kind devotee, I felt very welcome in his place.
\nThese are the pictures I made of HG Aindra Prabhu, his Deties and his room in Vrindavan, which he personally plastered and sculptured with cowdung and clay.
\nHe points out if I see the bee-hive,”did you get it on your picture” he says while I shoot the picture. “I made it myself” he said proudly.
\nI loved the short association I got from His Grace Aindra Prabhu, I am so thankfull for it and always remembered it as one my highlights of visiting Vrindavan.
\nA great soul has left the planet, he will be missed but never forgotten because his inspiring Bhajans & Kirtans will be heard daily all over the world in people’s houses, in our ISKCON Temples and on many iPod’s. Listening to his music instantly brings us to Vrindavan.
\nI have been very fortunate to be allowed to personally experiance walking into the Krishna-Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan, hearing the ecstatic 24 hour bhajan spreading from the temple room…seeing this huge group of devotees going out of their minds from bliss, devotees from all over the world sitting around a group of mad mrdanga players and kartel players..and then in the center this special bhajaneer HG Aindra Prabhu…<\/p>\n

y.s. Caitanya Caran Dasa,
\nISKCON Amsterdam,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Caitanya Caran Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was in 1999 when I visited Sri Vrindavan Dhama for the first and only time, 3 years after I joined ISKCON. I was living in Amsterdam-temple as a brahmacari, and my temple president at that time asked me to bring a nice clay Mrdanga for our temple<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}