By Shyamasundar das
Writing “Chasing Rhinos With The Swami” was a labor of intense love. Not that it started out that way. I thought I could knock out seven years of memories in about six weeks, ten at the most. But then Srila Prabhupad came into my life again, called me to his room, made me laugh, began those fun, intense conversations—and soon he accompanied my every waking moment. Even in dreams he came, and I put pad and pen by my bed to scratch in the half-light a memory he had sparked in the ten-minute span between sleep and awake, hoping I could decipher it later. I would rush to the computer, and the day would fly by; often I’d look out the window—What? It’s already dark outside!—I’m still in my pajamas–and maybe I’ve described these many hours without a bite of food or a small drink of water just a five-minute prank Prabhupad played, or a half-page of some amazing conversation…
In this way Srila Prabhupad took over my life these past two years; I researched and worked two to twelve hours nearly every day, and “Chasing Rhinos With The Swami” is the result. How wonderful now, 42 years since we parted, to live again at the perfumed silken side of my beloved Friend and Master! “From Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness,” Krishna says, and I have realized this as fact. So many times I would struggle with what happened on a day so long ago, so lost in a million other actions—then I’d pick up a book and flip to a random page, or hear a scratchy old lecture, or google “London weather may 1969”—and there it would be: the hint, the clue: Ah, yes! That’s what happened! And the story would tumble from my brain.
“Chasing Rhinos” is necessarily long, nearly 1000 pages (it could have been 2000), because Srila Prabhupad himself was long, and deep, infinitely complex, so perfect in every detail. Everything we experienced together: the action, the comedy, the thrills, the dramas—from cosmic philosophy to making sure there was fresh ink in his fountain-pen—all came tumbling forth to be captured in this rhino of a book. I pray all devotees, now and for generations to come, will feel Prabhupad’s pleasant breath breathing across their shoulders when they read “Chasing Rhinos With The Swami”.
For information about the book, or to pre-order a copy, please go to http://chasingrhinos.com/
Yr eternal servant, Shyamasundar das