Madhava Prabhu

Madhava Prabhu, also billed as Madhava Naidoo, is one of the best-known Hare Krishna kirtan leaders in ISKCON. He was born and raised in Mauritius, and he was given his first mridanga at the age of five. He lives in Switzerland and spends most of the year leading kirtan around the world.

At 18 he asked to go to Vrindavan. On his first day there, in January 1992, he met Aindra Dasa, the leader of the 24-hour kirtan at the Krishna Balarama Mandir, who asked him to join. For years he played mridanga for Aindra every day, and he drums on the Vrindavana Mellows albums. Aindra taught him that kirtan is not a performance, and gave him an instruction he still quotes: chant Hare Krishna wherever you go, "even if you have to sing to the four walls."

He moved to Switzerland in 2000 and worked as a carpenter, flying to Hungary or England at weekends to lead kirtan. In 2005 he and friends formed the band Gaura Prema, whose first public kirtan was in a church in Zurich. His chanting at the installation of the Pancha Tattva deities in Mayapur in 2004 made his name across ISKCON. Even Jayadvaita Swami, a strict critic of kirtan, plays his recordings as an example of kirtan done right.

Since 2010 he has led kirtan full-time. He travels with Radhika Dasi and mridanga player Vrindavana Kirtan Das. Highlights include the Bhakti Sangam festival in Ukraine, with over 8,000 devotees, and late-night kirtan for young crowds at Pol'and'Rock in Poland. He returns often to ISKCON Chowpatty in Mumbai and sang at the Mayapur Kirtan Mela in 2015. He closed Radhadesh Mellows in Belgium in 2025 and joined the Times Square Kirtan Festival in New York. In 2026 he released Kirtan Forever: Gold Coast.

A kirtan with Madhava Prabhu is long, steady and deep. He sits at the harmonium with his mridanga player beside him and leads the Hare Krishna maha-mantra in call and response, the room seated on the floor around him. He is known for holding one melody for a long time rather than changing tunes, so the chanting settles and people close their eyes. When the rhythm picks up, they chant and dance. His voice has been compared to silk. At his retreats he also teaches kartal and mridanga, and talks about the meaning of kirtan, so newcomers learn how to join in.