Remembering Aindra Prabhu

AN OFFERING OF THE HEART by Radhanath Swami

As the effulgent sun of Sri Aindra Prabhu’s divine personality has risen in the spiritual world of Goloka Vrindaban, the sun of his physical presence has set in Gokula, the Vrindaban of this world. And we cry in separation.

The glorious life of Aindra Prabhu personifies determination and devotion, all aimed exclusively for the pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundara. His heart floods like the Yamuna while being inundated by the monsoon of Srila Prabhupada’s Divine Grace. His love for Vrindaban is the life of his soul.

Aindra Prabhu was infinitely beyond being a musician. He passionately renounced all of the charms of the material world to exclusively dedicate his heart and soul to chanting the Holy Names of God. Day and night his entire being was engrossed in the names of Radha Shyamasundara. He breathed for kirtan. His heart beat for kirtan. Lord Chaitanya empowered his kirtan with an inconceivable sweetness, power and musical skill that attracted our hearts like no other. While singing kirtan Aindra Prabhu’s emotions would erupt like a volcano of devotion that inundated and mesmerized our hearts.

I believe every stone, brick and pillar of Krishna Balaram Temple and every tree and particle of sacred dust in Raman Reti is permeated with the sound vibration of Aindra Prabhu’s devotion. If we open our hearts we will hear. Aindra Prabhu exported the sweetness of Vrindaban’s love throughout the world and we are forever grateful.
As thousands of devotees cry upon the realization of his physical loss, I feel at a loss for words. Aindra Prabhu was so dear a friend and Godbrother to me. The kindness, love and encouragement that he always showered upon me are a treasure that I pray to remember forever.

Aindra Prabhu, your beloved Lordships, Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundara have now brought you into Their eternal pastimes. We celebrate your life with tears of gratitude.

Parents Of Spirit

This material world has so many promises. I remember growing up and feeling like I could be anything I wanted. Teachers and parents encourage you to strengthen your abilities so that one day you can use them in a profession to make lots of money. Will I do this with my daughter? Will I focus on her material assets more than her spiritual growth?

Parents who are following spiritual traditions want their children to also take part in their tradition. If the children decide to go somewhere else to receive spiritual knowledge than the parents become frustrated and sometimes even reject them. Often the children leave the tradition because it is not relevant to them or the parents want the children to be more serious than themselves.

I realize that I have to strengthen my daughter's talents and at the same time give her spiritual knowledge that will be relevant to her life. To do that I myself must have a strong practice and deep knowledge of the culture in which I am receiving spiritual knowledge. Isn't that kids have many questions that adults cannot answer and then that creates disappointment in learning from the adults?

In the Srimad Bhagavatam it is stated, "One who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a father, a husband, a mother or a worshipable demigod." 5.12.12
Today it seems that parents want somebody else to impart upon their children values and spiritual teachings.

A spiritual culture starts with spiritual parents. I have to look at myself when I get up and ask myself am I being a spiritual parent.

God Is Love

I've been reading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dosteovsky for the last week. It is a beautiful book that is making me think deeply on many subject matters. I wanted to share an excerpt with all of you that I found very moving.

The setting is a monastery where the hero Alyosha is meeting with his family to discuss things with the elder Zossima. Father Zossima is excused from the family to attend to some guests that are waiting for him. The visitors are peasant women from various places. He meets a few and they tell him their stories and sins. The excerpt is from their meeting:



But the elder had already noticed in the crowd two glowing eyes fixed upon him. An exhausted, consumptive- looking, though young peasant woman was gazing at him in silence. Her eyes besought him, but she seemed afraid to approach.
“What is it, my child?”

“Absolve my soul, Father,” she articulated softly and slowly, sank on her knees and bowed down at his feet. “I have sinned, Father. I am afraid of my sin.”
The elder sat down on the lower step. The woman crept closer to him, still on her knees.
“I am a widow these three years,” she began in a half-whisper, with a sort of shudder. “I had a hard life with my husband. He was an old man. He used to beat me cruelly. He lay ill; I thought looking at him, if he were to get well, if he were to get up again, what then? And then the thought came to me—”

“Stay!” said the elder, and he put his ear close to her lips.
The woman went on in a low whisper, so that it was almost impossible to catch anything. She had soon done.

“Three years ago?” asked the elder.

“Three years. At first I didn’t think about it, but now I’ve begun to be ill, and the thought never leaves me.”

“Have you come from far?”

“Over three hundred miles away.”

“Have you told it in confession?”

“I have confessed it. Twice I have confessed it.”

“Have you been admitted to Communion?”

“Yes. I am afraid. I am afraid to die.”

“Fear nothing and never be afraid; and don’t fret. If only your penitence fail not, God will forgive all. There is no sin, and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin which could exceed the love of God? Think only of repentance, continual repentance, but dismiss fear altogether. Believe that God loves you as you cannot conceive; that He loves you with your sin, in your sin. It has been said of old that over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heaven than over ten righteous men. Go, and fear not. Be not bitter against men. Be not angry if you are wronged. Forgive the dead man in your heart what wrong he did you. Be reconciled with him in truth. If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner, even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and expiate not only your own sins but the sins of others.”

He signed her three times with the cross, took from his own neck a little ikon and put it upon her. She bowed down to the earth without speaking.

Against The Grain

In this world, the norm is to be self centered. I'm sure someone will disagree with me and start an argument, but allow me to present my case.

We are born. Everybody shows us affection and kindness. People buy us many different things so that we can be comfortable. From blankets to toys we are given the necessities and more. As we grow, our individuality develops and our likes and dislikes are more clear. Relatives and friends then struggle to meet the demands of your likes and keep you from your dislikes.

We continue to grow up. The rest of the adult life is spent focusing your career and marriage. Within the realm of that life you are again struggling to make things as comfortable for yourself as possible. All this time we are meditating on ourselves. True there are spurts of charity and renunciation in between but that is mostly out duty or trying to prove to yourself and others that you're a good person.

What I am trying to get at is that people deep down truly want to be selfless. The problem is that the world is pushing us towards selfishness. The great souls who have struggled on the path of enlightenment have shown us that we must go against this world. Lord Jesus, Lord Buddha, Lord Chaitanya, and many others have told us that we must go against the world. Jesus has spoken, "My kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36. He also told us to be in the world but not of the world.

We should understand that anybody who is sincerely seeking love of God, is not in this world. They are jiva-mukta, or liberated even in this life. They are not on the material plain. Therefore they are not affected by the propaganda of selfishness. Because they have love, real love, not lust, they have compassion and empathy.

Something that came to mind is that people want to be compassionate and loving but want to leave God out of the equation. They want Jesus without the Father, or Buddha without Nirvana. If you think of the people who are the kindest and most gentle in the world what automatically comes to mind? Those who are religious or spiritual. Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama, or Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.; all these great souls are God Loving.

The sneaky propaganda now is that we can be atheistic and yet have the qualities of saints. Rather, if we do not realize that everything is meant for Krishna's service, then we will exploit whatever resources we have. Even renunciation cannot fully purify the heart, please read Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 5, Text 2 purport. If we think we can renounce anything that is illusion because everything is actually God's property.

So by surrendering unto the Lord and His servants we are able to cleanse the heart from selfishness. But to do so we must go against the grain.

Holy Names

By chanting the Holy Names of the Lord we are able to purify our hearts. By purifying our hearts we are able to understand who we actually are. Some people are prone to visiting psychiatrists to learn more about themselves. I am not against this because in some cases people need someone to really guide them and listen. But if we want to know our true selves, then we must cleanse the mirror of the heart.

By karma we have been given a certain body with traits that reflect our desires carried over from our past lives. We identify with this material body. When we wake up and look in the mirror most of us say I'm looking at myself. But in truth we are only looking at the vehicle that the soul is riding in. Yantrarudhani mayaya- or the machine in which the soul is seated. This is the false ego.

The chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare is the sacrifice for this age. What is sacrifice? The main sacrifice in this day and age is time. People are busy either in sense gratification or gaining money. Time is seen as valuable if you're engaged in these two activities. So, the chanting is sacrificing your time for the Lord. Instead of using your time for your own selfish agendas, you take the Holy Names.

To those who see sacrifice as a burnt offering or throwing grains into the mouth of Lord Vishnu, the sacrifice of the Holy Names is offering our minds and hearts unto the Lord by concentrating on His Names which are non-different than Him.

So by chanting the Holy Names we sacrifice our time to be with the Lord and by associating with the Lord we are able to establish our true ego- the eternal servant of God. The example given is the iron rod. If you place an iron rod in fire it will become like fire. Anything you touch it to will be burnt. If you place it in the cold, that rod will be cold. So by associating with the Lord we will be placed in our spiritual nature.

How do we receive inspiration for chanting? By associating with the Lord's devotees who are the representatives of Lord Krishna. So really everything depends on association. If we are truly introspective, we will use our intelligence in knowing what is good association and bad association. And we will know when to give our association to help others.

To really surrender to the Holy Names we must cultivate the six symptoms of surrender, which are: accepting that which is favorable for our Krishna consciousness, rejecting that which is unfavorable, knowing that the Lord will give protection, knowing the Lord is your guardian, full self surrender, and humility. And by surrendering to the Holy Names, Krishna will reveal everything to us.

Darshan

Here is an excerpt from a lecture by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura that I read and thought I should spread it to others. It is dated November 10, 1936:

"I see the statue"- this kind of thinking is in the spirit of enjoyment, whereas "THe deity sees me, my uncovered pure self" is deity darshan. I f in the same way that I see a movie, drama, or gymnastic display or hear a song I think, "I can see the deity with my eyes and fathom Him by my intelligence," such an attempt will be on the material platform. One will derive no benefit from such inclinations not meant for satisfying the Lord's senses. Faith in the Lord entails not having faith in mundane enjoyment or renunciation. If one has faith in this world, then that is bhoga (enjoyment): "The objects of the world are for my enjoyment." Such a mentality is due to not having initiation and spiritual knowledge.

Worldly people are completely different from devotees. Difficulties occur when one thinks that He who is to be served should serve oneself: "O Lord, take notice of me. I am coming to collect dues from You in the form of dharma-artha-kama-moksha for sense gratification." Hiding this inner intention, a person says, jagannatha svami nayana-patha-gami bhavatu me and other such delerious karma-kandiya words. This is not bhakti. "I went and saw the holy place. I went and saw the tree. I went and saw Jagannath. I went and saw the sadhu. Bestowing upon them a degree, I have dismissed them and come here"- all of this is a matter of enjoyment and cannot at all be called service. If the consideration of "Who am I?" has not entered the heart, and if sambandha-jnana concerning my eternal object of worship never arises, then how will sraddha and saranagati develop?

Witout faith one cannot have darshan of the Lord or His devotee. Instead, malice and envy will appear. Why envy? One will become envious when another person rises higher than himself. In the opening of Bhagavatam, bhagavata-dharma is called the dharma of those sadhus who are without envy. All humanity is careering around only with the concept of dharma-artha-kama-moksha.

The Essence of Religion

Today I was meditating on how violence and racism is being spread by so called religious people. Rather than coming together and helping one another we are working against each other. Because of this atheism is actually spreading. I thought to write a blog about this and then I saw this video by my spiritual master. Please watch it and then pass it on to others so that we can all be inspired to spread love, compassion and tolerance.