Chant and dance! – Indradyumna Swami Nectar

Chant and dance! – Indradyumna Swami Nectar

Over Memorial Day weekend, over 2,000 devotees gathered at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, North Carolina,  for the Sadhu Sanga Kirtan retreat that His Holiness Indradyumna Swami organized with the help of his disciples.

At the retreat, there was a disciples’ meeting on Saturday, which has become an annual event for the disciples of Indradyumna Swami. At that time, the vyasa puja ceremony for Indradyumna Swami was carried out and the Swami also read his most recent diary entry, entitled: “He did his time” and available on his facebook page and on his Traveling Monk website. The diary entry discusses a little bit about Indradyumna Swami’s time in the Marines. He is pictured in his uniform below.

The Sadhu Sanga kirtan event was attended by many disciples of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and kirtan leaders included Govinda Swami, Badahari das, Madhava Naidoo, Niranjana Swami, Vaisesika das, Jahnavi Harrison, Agnideva das (a surprise!), Indradyumna Swami, Radhanath Swami, and others.

Soon, the retreat organizers will send out recordings of the blissful kirtans that had everyone up and dancing. A highlight of the event took place when Vaisesika das invited all of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada in attendance to go to the stage to chant and dance up there with him.

Ananta Vrindavan das, one of Indradyumna Swami’s disciples captured the event in video and photography, as usual, and his album can be found here on his facebook page.

In his diary post, Indradyumna Swami quoted Srila Prabhupada at the end.

“A Vaisnava is always a well-wisher to everyone. The Six Gosvamis, for example, are described in this way: dhiradhira janapriyau. They were popular with both the gentle and the ruffians. A Vaisnava must be equal to everyone, regardless of one’s position. Atmavat: a Vaisava should be like Paramatma. Isvara sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati. Paramatma does not hate anyone … As the moon never refuses to distribute its pleasing rays even to the home of a candala, a Vaisnava never refuses to act for everyone’s welfare.”

[Srimad Bhagavatam 7.4.32, purport]