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His preaching efforts were very succesful and managed to convert many to Krishna Consciousness. Srila Prabhupada was said he sung like a "gandharva" (celestial musician), and that "he can make the whole world chant Hare Krishna". Srila Prabhupada loved his kirtans and often expressed appreciation for their purity and also his musical skill.
Vishnujana Swami left our mortal vision in 1976.
Born on June 2, 1948, in San Jose, California. At the age of seventeen he moved to San Francisco along with his long-term girlfriend, who he married in 1966. It was also in 1966 that Vishnujana first came into contact with the Hare Krishnas, and by 1968 he had received initiation from Srila Prabhupada and was a full-time member of the movement. On July 20, 1970, Srila Prabhupada had awarded Vishujana the order of sannyasa.
Vishnujana was especially well known within ISKCON for his singing voice, and skill at playing instruments, such as the Harmonium and Mrdanga. Musical recordings of Vishunjana would later be released in 1995 and are still popularly distributed within ISKCON today. Recordings of his lectures and singing are included in the official audio archive collection of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
In 1973, Vishnujana Swami headed up a team of devotees traveling on a bus across the USA which became famous within ISKCON as one of its most successful preaching parties. The team was named after the deities which travelled with them in the bus, called Radha-Damodara. This bus, filled with ISKCON devotees, would travel from city to city, performing sankirtan, and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books. Vishujana Swami continued, last year with his close associate Tamal Krishna Goswami travelling with the Sankirtan Party in this way until 1976.
In 1976, during the Gaura Purnima festival in India, Vishnujana Swami mysteriously disappeared. Some believe that he chose to leave his body at the confluence of several sacred rivers at the Ganges. During a walk some days earlier it is believed he had mis-heard a general statement by Prabhupada concerning the duty of a sannyasi which could have led to him taking his own life, but as Vishnujana is not recorded to have disclosed his thoughts to anyone before disappearing it is not known for certain if this was the case.
Viṣnujāna Swāmi ISKCON'S first Kirtan legend
About Padyavali
Starting chanting the Maha-mantra Hare Krsna on my own, (with no beads) and following the regulative principles because of a book I was given in a park at a very young age "The Teachings of Queen Kunti" what a marvelous way to surrender to complete dependence on the almighty! The perfection of poetic expression! I thought, and just the right book for me to be able to digest...
At this time I still didn't know that devotees had a center around there, actually very close to Chapultepec park and close to the zoo also where I was given the book. this great soul mataji, after learning I didn't have any money, she still let me have it.
(One section of Chapultepec park is now a holy dhama since Srila Prabhupada was there and devotees chant japa regularly there too)
Until one glorious day, when I finally met the devotees in Harinam... Me and my friends where hanging around in the streets, like most days, no particular place to go and not a productive thing to do really, just barely living and at the same time thinking what a great life this is!
It was mumbled at first, due to the everyday roar of downtown in the biggest city in the world (in that time) Mexico City... I kept on following this sound, thinking: 'I know I've heard this before somewhere' but still barely making out the words in the crowded streets... soon it began to make sense, little by little, yes, those were the words I have been chanting all along! only this time they were accompanied with a very particular and catchy tune... lala lala, lala lala etc... And then they were, flying sikhas in all their splendor! saffron robes, colorful saris, and mrdangas! Wow! what a sound!... I've always liked percussions, drums was my thing! (my sister is a concertist)
I immediately joined the party, before the bewildered eyes of my young friends that were hanging out with me... they surely thought I've had gone mad for sure this time, just by the look on their faces, and I'm thinking: "this is highly embarrassing for them" but since they've always thought I was a weirdo anyways, I knew I had nothing else to loose anymore...
Poor kids! They've been putting up with my eccentric personality for way to long: always reading 'weird' books instead of the usual: pop and magazines I supposed... countless hours secluded in a library while I see them playing outside and taping on my window so I can come out and play... and even tolerated my recently acquired habits: new diet, new philosophy, and the most unusual habit of all, the habit of always repeating this strange combination of foreign words: hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare. hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare... and now THIS!... it was to much to bare for their young minds... they were truly; mortified...
Seeing me jumping up and down in front of the "Palace of the Fine Arts" El Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Spanish (frequented mostly by intellectuals) in downtown Mexico City and surrounded by all these saffron sheet-wearing-weirdos putting on the most unique dance show and surrounded by all these people that by now they were already pointing at me, laughing at me (perhaps thinking I was high on something)... I had to admit; it was quite socking... and it was indeed to much, to much for them to bare!
So they inconspicuously tried their best to withdraw themselves from me as not to be identified or been alienated with me... to late... devotees stop them faster than they could run and started dancing around them too... it was quite a sight to see how their faces turned very rapidly from pale to red in a split second... they had their share of mercy too, only they didn't know it yet
After kirtan, I was invited to go visit the temple and since I didn't want to lose anymore time I handed out my bike to my friend and jumped in the Harinam van with my backpack, before the now bewildered devotees... they were just looking at each other not knowing what to do with me, and then I've noticed that at one point they all looked at a very tall figure holding a saffron stick... (I was hoping he won't beat me with it) but this very tall devotee (Guru Prasad Svami) simply smiled at me, and I knew then I got away with it... (GPS, I later found out, had just came back from Brazil where he had just taken sannyasi) something about him made me feel extremely comfortable and peaceful and I knew right away he was a very special person and that I was safe. (Later on, he became my well-wisher and the only father I've ever known, took me under his wing and played a big role in me staying in the ashram at such a young age)
So, at this point, I told my friends I was coming back soon (a white lie) but they knew me better than that, so they went and told I had 'run away with a bunch of shaved heads, (pelones in Spanish) wearing sheets.'
When I arrived at the temple, for the first time in my life! and I was able to see the magnificent beauty of Sri Sri Radha-Madana-Gopal; I knew right there and then, that I had found my real home... I stayed for the evening programs, ate prasadam, and remain in the temple room even after all other visitors were gone.
Brahmacaris didn't know what to do with me and directed me to the head Sankirtana mataji that was living for the ashram and she let me stay in the ashram that night - probably thinking I was a homeless child (there are plenty in such a big city as Mexico city.)
And I was indeed; literally homeless, I didn't have a home, I choose not to... I wasn't living with my family anymore, my situation at home was unbearable and recently run away, I stayed with different people that I found in different schools of thought, (I went to plenty) anywhere from spiritualism, mediums, healers, mysticism etc., that kind of thing...
That is why it was so easy for me to understand Srila Prabhupada's book of "The Teachings of Queen Kunti' because she describes so many pains and tribulations, indeed, my own language...
I stayed in the ashram that night... and the night after... and the next... and never left for the streets again or back home... I was fourteen at the time... young body, old soul...
I take the dust of the feet of all those Sankirtan and Harinam devotees that no matter what, always go out there and deliver these souls day after day with determination and full compassionate heart... I humble myself to these great souls.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Biography of HG.Padyavali Devi Dasi - Inspiring!!!
Lord Krsna told Arjuna,those who are My direct devotees are actually
not My devotees,but those who are the devotees of My servant(devotees)
are factually My devotees-CC.Madhya 11.28
Devotees of My Devotees are My Real Devotees-Lord Sri Krishna
A Continuous Dedication in Devotional Service Posted: 28 Jul 2011 12:43 PM PDT (Kadamba Kanana Swami, 2011) Later, the focus of our movement shifted somewhere in the mid eighties to a more individual based movement. I sometimes compare it to the renaissance, because in the renaissance people came out of the middle ages, where you were told to think in a certain way. In the renaissance people broke out and began to think along individual lines. Well some thing like that happened in Iskcon in the mid eighties. Everyone started to think: "Well in my spiritual life how am I experiencing it….how am I feeling it and what is my propensity? How should I express my bhakti?" Things like this became very relevant and that has kind of survived into the present day, which is still there. Whereas in the earlier era of Iskcon the spirit was, simply to get involved and take up service, which was a sign of advancement. Anyone who was dragging his feet was in maya and he was also told that! So one's Krishna Consciousness was directly linked to how much service one was doing. Nowadays, it may not always be seen like that. There was an element of truth in that earlier approach, because that leads to spiritual advancement. It is not automatically that one who takes on a lot of responsibility is spiritually advanced because some take responsibility (and we found out about that) out of material motives…for name fame and glory, and ambitious people… people with material ambition can sometimes do service for quite a while, and then they run out of steam. So it is not necessarily that it is fuelled by spiritual advancement, but it is a fact that if one keeps on dedicating himself to devotional service in this movement, then one will become spiritually advanced, and I do want to make this point that there is a need for devotees in this day and age to come forward to take some service! |
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