9 November
In my childhood, Krishna was never a master of intellect as he is for me presently but a vague village guy who always played with the village girls. But a Sunday morning I remember, on the Aastha channel a man was singing Krishna bhajans with immense devotion. He started crying while singing and the audience also started crying including my father who was watching this on the TV. For me it was a first experience listening to such a bhajan full of reverence. That “Hare Krishna” bhajan had an emotion of immense will of Krishna’s darshan.
Seeing those tears, the only question that strike my head was, “Who is this man? So anxious to meet a simple village boy?” My father had the answer to my anxiety. “Vinod Agarwal”, he told me. He started learning music from the age of 12 years. Since his parents were also Krishna bhakt, he started understanding Krishna and naturally started loving that divine personality. At the age of 20, he luckily married another Krishna devotee and gained support from every aspect of domestic life.
That auspicious year was 1978 when he started Hari Naam Sankirtan at his elder brother’s office in Bombay and the very next year, he took diksha from his Guru Sri Mukund Hari Ji Maharaj. Maharaj ji urged Sri Vinod to spread the Hari Naam around the globe through his supernal bhajans. Following his Guru’s wish, Vinod ji started travelling around the country and organising Bhajan Sankirtans without charging any fees. The whole world became follower of this great Shyam lover. Sri Vinod organised above 1800 Bhajan Sandhyas all over the world including America-Europe. In fact, people had to wait for over two years for him to come and sing Bhajans at their place.
Vinod Agarwal ji not only took the great tradition of Bhajan Gayan to the world stage but also promoted Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu languages through his Sankirtan. He also received a numerous award including the title of “Sankirtan Samrat” but never gained satisfaction. His bhajans never get lacked of unquenchable will of the Almighty’s darshan. His tears reflected the great Bhakti Kaal. He in fact expressed his will to die in Krishna’s nagari Mathura and Krishna awarded him this chance too. He reached Mathura to organise a Sankirtan when he felt chest pain and left this physical world after spending two days on life support system. All the Krishna devotees and Vinod Agarwal lovers are praying for Hus arrival in the lotus-feet of Sri Hari.
