Summer 1973. It’s 8am, and already Washington, DC is bustling with activity, as everyone hurries to work. A group of ISKCON devotees also leave their temple, crossing Q Street and heading towards Connecticut Avenue, a heavily populated business district. But their job is different: as they walk, they sing kirtan, an ancient Vedic call-and-response style of chanting God’s Holy Names.
Suddenly, a young fellow appears out of nowhere, a flute tucked under his arm and long red hair streaming out behind him as he runs as fast as he can, trying to catch up with them. The devotees are surprised and delighted.
Then, just as he’s almost reached them, the young man loses one of his flip-flops. The devotees indicate to him that he should go back and get it, they’ll wait for him.
But he refuses. There’s no way he’ll risk losing them or miss out on even a few seconds of kirtan.
He joins the kirtan party, and that very day, he moves into the temple.
The young fellow’s name is Eddie—better known to ISKCON devotees all over the world as Aindra Dasa—and from that day on, he never stopped chanting Hare Krishna.

Discovering the Music of the Spiritual World
Growing up in Haymarket, Virginia in the 1950s and ‘60s, Eddie Striker was a jack-of-all trades artist from early on, painting, drawing, and doing his own embroidery. But it was music that was closest to his heart.
His was a musical family—his father gigged with bluegrass groups, his mother played the harp, and his brother was a bassist. Eddie, for his part, loved Jimi Hendrix and was partial to the electric guitar.
So when his family broke up in 1971, and he moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, it was the guitar that he turned to, playing with a number of bands and beginning to make a name for himself.
“But he always had a spirit that was beyond the mundane life he was living back then,” says his brother, John. “It wasn’t long before he’d seen enough of the rockstar life and what it led to—Jimi Hendrix’s death was a particular blow to him—and he knew that there was a hole that needed to be filled by the spiritual, not the material.”
Discovering the very different music of the spiritual world, Eddie moved into the ISKCON temple in Washington, D.C. And soon after, in February 1974, on the auspicious day of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai’s installation and Lord Nityananda’s Appearance, he was initiated by ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada and became Aindra Dasa.

Although his father was angry at this drastic change in his life, Aindra’s little brother was happy for him and excited that he had found his calling.
“I was only nine or ten, but when he visisted, he’d bring me Bhagavad-gita and other writings, and these beautiful posters,” says John. “My room had Krishna stuff all over it. Several times he brought his drum and cymbals, and we would play together and chant. He was already a spiritual leader even then, because he made me aware of other things beyond the agnostic way we were raised, and opened me up to my own spiritual path.”
Back at the temple, Aindra became known as a rather erudite preacher—he joined everyone else in book distribution on the streets, loved speaking to guests at the weekly Sunday Feast, and was always looking for a way to spread Krishna consciousness.
His unique mood and love for kirtan also emerged early on. “Our neighbours used to complain about our 4am Mangal Arati kirtan,” says Jagara Dasa, who also served at the D.C. temple in the 1970s. “But when Aindra led the chanting—which he often did—he had the necessary constraint to keep the kirtan where it needed to be so that the police who sat outside would not come in and give us a big fine.”

Inaugurating the 24-Hour Kirtan
Later, Aindra became a priest for Radha-Madhan Mohan and Gaura Nitai, and would play around with the harmonium in between services, soon working out his first melody: Bhaktivinode Thakura’s short song Jaya Radha Madhava.
He continued to practice, and his skill and love for kirtan grew. Moving to New York City, he converted a truck that would open out into an ornate golden temple. He acquired sound permits and would drive to different parts of the city where he would set up his truck and perform kirtan for eight hours a day. His
performances were impactful, inspiring several people to join ISKCON.
Eventually Aindra decided he would like to try organizing a kirtan program in India. Travelling to Lord Krishna’s birthplace of Vrindavana in 1986, he learned the story of the Krishna Balarama Mandir’s 24-Hour Kirtan program. It had first been introduced in 1975 by ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada—but without proper management, it began to fade, and by 1978, a year after Prabhupada passed on, it had ground to a halt.
Aindra decided to dedicate himself to the project. He began to soak up the atmosphere of Vrindavana, connect with other kirtaniyas, and learn Indian classical music or ragas, teaching himself the traditional melodies by ear. And eight years after the 24-Hour Kirtan had faded away, he reconstituted it as its own department, organizing a core group of kirtan enthusiasts to ensure its continuance.

Krishna Balarama Mandir’s 24-Hour Kirtan has been running non-stop, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, ever since.

Someone Who Truly Cares
There was no denying the program’s austerity, and so Aindra chose men for his team that, like him, would stick it out through all conditions.
The temple room lay next to an open courtyard, and the “kirtaniyas”—mostly celibate students known as brahmacharis—had to endure Vrindavana’s unforgiving climate: its sweltering summers, with temperatures rising as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), and its cold winter nights.
As the Department’s sixteen men still do now, they slept on the floor or on basic bunks in the Vrindavana International School, in rooms with walls plasted with cow dung. They kept all their personal items on one shelf. In those days, they didn’t even have air conditioning. All they had was Lord Krishna’s name.
And kirtan was their life. Full-time members did (and still do) six hours of kirtan every day, as well as chanting Hare Krishna on their japa beads for two hours.
They would each take two of the 24-Hour Kirtan’s three-hour shifts, which start at 1am and run continuously. The kirtan even ran during temple services such as arati offerings and lectures, with kirtaniyas softly chanting “japa kirtan” on their prayer beads.
Madhava Dasa, a second-generation devotee who now travels the world both solo and with his Gaura Prema bhajan band doing kirtan, was amongst the
Department’s earliest members, joining when he was only eighteen years old.
“Aindra Prabhu was everything to me: a father, a mother, a guru,” he says. “And he taught me so many valuable lessons. When I first started, I had a lot of energy and ego and thought I was the best mridanga drum player. He would chastise me about it constantly, for literally two or three hours a day. I thought he was being too harsh on me, and finally said, ‘Aindra Prabhu, you find another mridanga player—I’ll play kartals.’
“But he replied, ‘No, I want you to play mridanga, and so do Radhe Shyam. I’m only doing this for your own good—if you listen to what I say, you’ll go far in your kirtans.’ I agreed to try and sacrifice my ego, and after that, kirtan with Aindra Prabhu became very sweet. Some people didn’t like Aindra because he was very heavy, but I appreciated his straightforwardness and honesty, and lack of superficiality. When he was heavy with me, I thought, ‘Wow, here’s someone who truly cares for me.’”

The Kirtan Revolution
Aindra and Madhava became a tight-knit team. “Those were the best years of my life, the most beautiful kirtans,” Madhava says. “They were all about the proper mood. I learned from Aindra that kirtan is not to impress anyone—it’s our way to express our heartfelt feelings for Radha and Krishna and Srila Prabhupada, and our gratefulness at being able to do kirtan and connect with our only shelter.”
Madhava believes that this approach to kirtan was what made the albums that followed so powerful. First came the double album Chintamani Nama Parts 1 and 2. Next, came the first “Vrindavana Mellows” album.
“With the very basic technology available in Vrindavana, and the frequent power cuts, others might have gone to record in a studio in Delhi,” says Madhava. “But Aindra wanted to record Vrindavana Mellows in Vrindavana. He said that every kirtan held in Vrindavana is a thousand times more powerful than kirtan held anywhere else, and he wanted to give Vrindavana to devotees around the world.”
It took six months to record Vrindavana Mellows Part 1, but when it finally came out in 1993, it took the devotee world by storm and created what Madhava calls “a kirtan revolution.”
“Those albums changed everything,” says Madhava’s friend and fellow second-gen devotee Gopala Dasa, who has been part of the 24-Hour Kirtan since 2000.
“Before them, the old-school, 1980s, one-two-three style of kirtan pervaded. Vrindavana Mellows introduced a more classical approach in line with basic Gaudiya Vaishnava standards—one with more different varieties of rhythms, karatala playing, and raga melodies.”
Vrindavana Mellows Parts two and three followed in ’94 and ’95 , inspiring many devotees to join the 24-Hour Kirtan in Vrindavana and to take kirtan more seriously than ever before.

Possibly the most enthusiastic recipients of this gift were ISKCON’s second generation, known as gurukulis.
“We grew up doing kirtan—it’s in our blood,” says Madhava. “And we found in Aindra a kindred spirit, someone who loved kirtan as much as we did. But we also found someone we could take shelter of, a father figure. We loved him. There was always a bunch of gurukulis surrounding him, playing mridanga and kartals and chanting. He changed our lives.”
This love was also reciprocated by Aindra. After four more albums—the spontaneously recorded live album Kirtan is Our Bhajan, 1996’s Prayers to the Dust of Vraja, and 1998’s Vraja Vilasa Parts 1 and 2—and seven years with the 24-Hour Kirtan, Madhava finally went to Aindra’s room to tell him he would be leaving to get married and start a family.
“There were tears in his eyes,” Madhava recalls. “He said, ‘I trained you up, and now you’re leaving me.’ I told him, ‘Aindra Prabhu, you’ll find someone else.’ He said, ‘Yes, but I’ll never find someone like you.’ Then he told me to chant Hare Krishna wherever I went, even if I had to sing to the four walls. And, because many gurukulis love kirtan but don’t like to chant their japa (meditative chanting), he added, ‘Make sure you chant your sixteen rounds a day, otherwise your kirtan won’t have any power.’”
“Do As Many 24-Hour Kirtans As Possible”
Now living in Switzerland, Madhava continued to keep in touch with Aindra over the years, and continued to receive many such instructions, including the very last one, during a Skype Call on July 16th, 2010.
“I was about to embark on two back-to-back 12-hour kirtans leading up to the Ratha Yatra festival in Toronto, Canada, and I asked him for his blessings,” Madhava says. “His last instruction to me was, ‘Please go ahead and do as many 24-hour kirtans around the world as possible.’”
The very next day, Madhava received the shocking news that Aindra had passed away in Vrindavana, while worshipping his Deities.
“It’s very hard for me to digest,” he says now. “I will miss him for the rest of my life. But he will live forever in his kirtans, and in his instructions. I’m trying to follow his last instruction to me by doing 24-hour kirtans all over the world: We’re doing one at New Vraja Mandala in Spain on August 13th and 14th, one in Peru on September 25th and 26th, and one in Alachua, Florida, this November. And of course many other devotees are also holding 24-Hour Kirtan festivals and events around the world.”
Madhava has also pledged to participate in the original Vrindavana 24 hour kirtan for one month every year for the foreseeable future. “I encourage other devotees to also sacrifice whatever time they can every year to fulfill Aindra and Srila Prabhupada’s mission,” he says. “Now that the father is gone, it’s the real test for the children to show our love for kirtan, and our love for Aindra Prabhu.”

He reasons ill who says that Vaishnavas die,
When thou art living still in sound!
The Vaishnavas die to live, and living try
To spread the holy name around.
--Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur

Author’s Note: The information, dates, and accounts herein are the most accurate that I could present within the short time available to submit this article. They were given to me by the people quoted, and I have presented their words as faithfully as possible. Many thanks to Padma-Malini Dasi for her story about Aindra’s first encounter with devotees.
 
 

Dearest Aindra prabhu,

Please accept our most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

We, the members of the Festival of India in Poland, would like to express our extreme sorrow and lamentation over your untimely departure from this world. We know that the Lord has a plan for all His devotees, but nonetheless we are finding it most difficult to accept that you are no longer here.

For many of us, especially the ISKCON youth, you were a shining example of a true kirtaneer: one who relishes chanting the holy names. You nurtured that attraction by careful and attentive japa throughout your devotional career.
You further increased your ardent desire to chant the holy names by engaging in many years of sankirtana before coming to Vrndavana in 1986. In the holy dhama you took Srila Prabhupada's desire as your life and soul, and you took charge of the twenty-four-hour kirtana in front of your beloved Sri Sri Radhe-Syama.

Because of your purity of purpose, those kirtanas became legendary. Each year, during the month of Kartika, devotees would come from all over the world to chant with you and your kirtana crew. It is said that the main purpose of visiting the holy dhama is to associate with the saintly persons living there. You were one of those saintly persons because you relished chanting and you made others chant and become mad after the holy names.

During the early days of our movement, whenever you and I would meet we would talk about our favorite activity: the loud chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra, and we would enjoy sharing the new melodies we had learned along the way. I remember sitting in your room in the gurukula one morning as you taught me a melody you had just learned from a visiting sadhu. You told me to lead the kirtana that evening and introduce the melody to the devotees.

Sometimes I would visit your room and talk with you about deity worship. Because of your eagerness to serve and your pure heart, the Lord came to you in many forms:  Gaura-Nitai, Govardhan silas, and an uncountable number of Salagrama silas. Devotees would often bring you silas, sometimes because they had lost the taste for worshiping them, and you would never refuse. You accepted each and every one that came your way, and what's more, you worshiped each and every one with undivided devotion.

I admired you for your zeal in sharing the holy names with others, but also for your internal mood of awakening your own Krsna consciousness. You were absorbed in Vraja bhakti and were never too shy to say that you wanted to serve the Lord one day in the mood of a gopi. Some may have said that it was premature, but I could see that you had understood the siddhanta of our process and were determined to achieve it.

And I miss you especially because you showed yourself to be a kind and loving friend. When my disciples celebrated my Vyasa puja several months ago in the Krsna-Balarama Mandir, you went and spoke for a long time about my service and my success in Krsna consciousness.

I assure you that I am not at all the devotee you thought me to be, but I thank you for encouraging me to become so by your kind words. I heard that you then led a long and blissful kirtana to honor me.

Now it is my turn, and the honor goes to you, but the circumstances are different. Never again in this lifetime will any of us have the good fortune to see you in your rightful place: at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radhe-Syama, singing your heart out to Them in intense devotion. My dear godbrother, the month of Kartika in Vrndavana will never be the same without you and your rickety old harmonium, surrounded by an expert group of kirtaneers hanging onto your every note of the mahamantra.

My dear Aindra prabhu, how we all miss you! Though you were often outspoken, even fiery on issues within our movement, you were detached from management and politics. You were loyal and independent - very much an ISKCON man, very much a Prabhupada man - with an understanding of the essence of Krsna consciousness: that after all is said and done, ISKCON and Krsna consciousness means chanting the holy names with every fiber of one's body, with as much devotion as one can muster, for as many hours as possible each day. You embodied that spirit in your kirtanas, and that is why the young people looked up to you so much. That is why we all looked up to you so much. That is why we are all lamenting today.

I have no doubt that you are now in Goloka Vrndavana. You once told me that someone who is born in Vrndavana, lives in Vrndavana, or dies in Vrndavana is immediately transported to Goloka upon leaving the body. Because you yourself lived and died in that holy dhama, you have surely achieved the highest destination.

But I know you have achieved that goal mostly because you made the Hare Krsna mantra so popular all over the world. And you did it by sitting in one place. That's the amazing thing: you made kirtana and bhajana popular just by sitting on the marble floor of the Krsna-Balarama Mandir, not far from the sacred tamala tree in the courtyard. You inspired us all with your endearing melodies, along with the intense drumming and kartala playing.
Because of your devotion-filled voice, the whole world became captivated by those kirtanas. I know, because I hear your kirtanas in temples all over the world.

You have left a void in our hearts that can never be filled in this lifetime. We can only pray to have the good fortune to serve with you again if you decide to take another birth. In the meantime we will try to follow in your footsteps and develop a genuine attachment for the holy names, our worshipable deities, and the holy place of Sri Vrindavan dhama.

Please look kindly upon us devotees here on the Baltic Sea Coast this summer. We too are trying our best to give the holy names to others. If you, from your transcendental position, are merciful to us, we may succeed in our efforts.

We submit this letter to you, confident that it will reach you through some transcendental medium, and we hope you have heard our glorification and prayers.

Your servants,
Indradyumna Swami and the members of the Festival of India in Poland 2010.

Jul 20, 2010 — BANGALORE (SUN) — I have been disturbed ever since hearing of Aindra Prabhu's untimely disappearance yesterday morning. As one God-nephew pointed out regarding Aindra Prabhu's pure influence:

"I'm amazed at how much influence he had on the world of ISKCON, more so than many initiating gurus put together. And yet he didn't initiate anyone…"

Purity really is the force.

I have spent hours at a time listening to his kirtans and bhajanas since 1991. Every time I went to Vraj I relished spending time listening to the 24 hour kirtan. Srila Prabhupada was right, there is actually no need to leave our compound when there is 24 hour kirtan.

The last time I was in Vraj an incident took place that indicated the impact of Aindra Prabhu's 24 hour kirtan. I was sitting in Srila Prabhupada's samdhi chanting japa when a South Indian brahmana from the Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya came in. On enquiry I found out that he was from the Ahobilam Matha Asrama in Hyderabad. He said he had visited the temple several times. I asked him if he liked it. He said he did, and with tears welling up in his eyes he told me "I especially love the kirtan, it is so beautiful." He said it all.

Sriman Aindra Prabhu displayed Vaisnava humility in the true sense of the word, as explained in the following quotation from Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, Volume 2, section entitled "Compassionate Belligerence and Genuine Humility" by Bhakti Vikasa Swami:

"Among Bengali Vaisnavas, humility was ranked as the prime symptom of the saintliness so much esteemed in the highly religious culture of India—hence the curious phenomenon of persons quite lacking genuine humility deliberately mimicking meekness to attract praise and respect. Typically, prakrta-sahajiyas were well practiced in making shows of treacly humility, and deemed such displays the main lineaments of a Vaisnava, even if the performer's personal habits were abominable. Srila Sarasvati Thakura declared as outright deception these sanctimonious caricatures of piety, maintaining that such religious impostors were concealing huge mountains of pride within their hearts. He described prakrta-sahajiyas as "hellish living incarnations of cheating humility." He noted that "a mere show of humility will not work, for only after duplicity has been given up can there be bhakti," and that "bhajana actually begins when one's outside and inside are the same."

Continued…

"Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura offered a uniquely meaningful definition of Vaisnava humility:

"The transcendental conception of thinking "I am dust at the lotus feet of my spiritual master; I am the servant of guru and Krsna" is what is meant by trnad api sunicata (becoming lower than grass). Jive daya (compassion toward all living entities), name ruci (taste for the holy names), and Vaisnavaseva—these are Mahaprabhu's three teachings. The meaning of trnad api sunicata is not disingenuousness, merely flaunting a show of humility; it means actual eligibility for kirtana by name ruci and considering oneself a servant of the holy name. Service is the gateway to name ruci; service to guru and Vaisnavas is trnad api sunicata. We should not become subordinate (nicata to nondevotees, but to devotees, from whom we should beg mercy and show respect. The mahajanas instructed us not to display humility before everyone. To show humility toward envious atheists like Ravana and the pretentious brahmana is not Vaisnava-seva or trnad api sunicata. If we transgress this instruction we will never become qualified to chant the holy name or attain name ruci; rather, our actions will result in becoming envious of others. Rama-bhakta Hanuman's burning of Lanka is real trnad api sunicata…"

…"Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati would respond that real humility is inseparable from adherence to truth, and that it is the duty of Vaisnavas to state the truth and caution truthseekers that epigones are not and could never be actual Vaisnavas."

I trust that at this time, Aindra Prabhu is relishing ecstatic kirtans with the Panca Tattva and Their associates. May he be kind enough to bless me to join him.

Your humble servant,
Shyamasundara dasa

krsne matir astu
www.ShyamasundaraDasa.com

Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
It is with deeply sad hearts that we have come to know about the sudden passing of His Grace Aindra Prabhu.
There is possibly no devotee in the entire world of ISKCON who has not heard one of Aindra Prabhu’s kirtans, either live or from a recording, and has been left wondering whether this celestial singing was coming from this earth or from another world.
Even before going to live in Vrndavan, Aindra Prabhu’s dedication to propagating the Holy Name inspired many, many souls. Throughout his years of dedication to the 24 Hour Kirtan program in Vrndavan, his singular focus on glorifying the Mahamantra has drawn untold numbers of souls closer to the realm of devotional service by giving them a taste of Nama Prabhu. Aindra Prabhu’s vision and his unwavering determination in maintaining the 24 Hour Kirtan in Vrndavana has been a vivid example for every member of the Gaudiya Sampradaya. He is such an inspiration for us all.
For this service he has rendered to Srila Prabhupada and his ISKCON we are all deeply indebted to him.
Those who knew Aindra Prabhu well know that he had a fiery side to him as well. While there might have been differences from time to time regarding some philosophical or organizational points of view between what Aindra Prabhu and what others viewed as Srila Prabhupada’s presentation over the years, all of those concerns and exchanges fade far into the distance as we remember the overwhelming ecstatic waves of kirtan that filled the Krsna-Balarama Mandir and our hearts - the manifestation of which was certainly the fulfillment of a primary desire of His Divine Grace.
Thank you Aindra prabhu for your wonderful gifts of service to our Founder-Acarya Srila Prabhupada and to his entire society of devotees.
We fervently pray to Srila Prabhupada to take you back home, and that one day we may be together again, hearing your heartfelt kirtans in your personal association.
Hare Krsna.

Your humble servants, The members of the GBC Executive Committee

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