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By Shyamasundar das<\/strong><\/p>\n Writing \u201cChasing Rhinos With The Swami\u201d 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\u2014and 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\u2019d look out the window\u2014What? It\u2019s already dark outside!\u2014I\u2019m still in my pajamas–and maybe I\u2019ve 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\u2026<\/p>\n 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 \u201cChasing Rhinos With The Swami\u201d 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! \u201cFrom Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness,\u201d 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\u2014then I\u2019d pick up a book and flip to a random page, or hear a scratchy old lecture, or google \u201cLondon weather may 1969\u201d\u2014and there it would be: the hint, the clue: Ah, yes! That\u2019s what happened! And the story would tumble from my brain.<\/p>\n \u201cChasing Rhinos\u201d 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\u2014from cosmic philosophy to making sure there was fresh ink in his fountain-pen\u2014all 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\u2019s pleasant breath breathing across their shoulders when they read \u201cChasing Rhinos With The Swami\u201d.<\/p>\n
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By Shyamasundar das<\/strong><\/p>\n