{"id":23292,"date":"2016-01-07T12:11:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T11:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dandavats.tumblr.com\/post\/136807340786"},"modified":"2017-01-27T12:50:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T11:50:31","slug":"chasing-rhinos-with-the-swami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=23292","title":{"rendered":"“Chasing Rhinos With The Swami” – excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cCHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI\u201d – Excerpt.
\nShyamasundar Dasa: For the past one month I have been cloistered in Mumbai, editing the huge manuscript of \u201cChasing Rhinos With The Swami.\u201d The work is going well, and within a couple more weeks, I should have all 20 chapters edited as much as I can do them. By mid-February I am hoping to have everything readied for lay-out and printing. The following is an excerpt from Chapter Two.
\n(Chapter Two, in SAN FRANCISCO:)
\n\u2018The Swami comes in. While everybody\u2019s chanting he starts building the fire, and smoke begins to fill the room. The four of us sit on the floor opposite the fire from Swamiji, and it\u2019s getting hotter by the second; I discard my coat and loosen the tie. Devotees are chanting on every side, edging closer to the flames to catch the Swami\u2019s words. He motions for us to take a few grains of rice and throw them whenever he says, Sva-ha! \u201cSva-haaa!\u201d and we toss the rice at HIM, four handfuls of rice all over his gleaming head and robes. Unfazed, the Swami shakes his head and points to the fire. Oh, rice goes in the fire. Slow, but we\u2019re catching on.\u2019
\nHis accent was still quite thick in those days-or we just hadn\u2019t
\nlearned to hear him yet-and he\u2019s asking for bananas? Someone hands us bananas and we start to peel them-no, no, the Swami gestures, put them in the fire. Man, then the smoke really starts pouring out: four bananas smoldering, everyone coughing, eyes watering-along with rice, lentils, flowers, grapes, flour and, yes, more butter, which Swami ladles profusely over the flames between rounds of cryptic Sanskrit slokas ending with
\nSva-ha! None of this bothers the Swami at all. He chants on our beads, hands them back with our new names, which we don\u2019t understand-(wait, I got that one, Harry-das, that\u2019s Harvey)-and devotees come forward to tie our neck-beads on with a knot.
\n‘Then the Swami says \u201cBo dun\u201d, and we\u2019re trying to figure out what he\u2019s saying-Harry-das thinks he has it figured out and he rolls onto his knees, leans forward-so we do the same thing\u2013and he blows on the fire. We all start blowing on the fire, hard as we can\u2013a cloud of smoke flies in the Swami\u2019s face, and his eyes get big as saucers.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

“CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI” – Excerpt.
\nShyamasundar Dasa: For the past one month I have been cloistered in Mumbai, editing the huge manuscript of “Chasing Rhinos With The Swami.” The work is going well, and within a couple more weeks, I should have all 20 chapters edited as much as I can do them. By mid-February I am hoping to have everything readied for lay-out and printing. The following is an excerpt from Chapter Two.
\n(Chapter Two, in SAN FRANCISCO:)
\n‘The Swami comes in. While everybody’s chanting he starts building the fire, and smoke begins to fill the room. The four of us sit on the floor opposite the fire from Swamiji, and it’s getting hotter by the second; I discard my coat and loosen the tie. Devotees are chanting on every side, edging closer to the flames to catch the Swami’s words. He motions for us to take a few grains of rice and throw them whenever he says, Sva-ha! “Sva-haaa!” and we toss the rice at HIM, four handfuls of rice all over his gleaming head and robes. Unfazed, the Swami shakes his head and points to the fire. Oh, rice goes in the fire. Slow, but we’re catching on.’
\nHis accent was still quite thick in those days-or we just hadn’t
\nlearned to hear him yet-and he’s asking for bananas? Someone hands us bananas and we start to peel them-no, no, the Swami gestures, put them in the fire. Man, then the smoke really starts pouring out: four bananas smoldering, everyone coughing, eyes watering-along with rice, lentils, flowers, grapes, flour and, yes, more butter, which Swami ladles profusely over the flames between rounds of cryptic Sanskrit slokas ending with
\nSva-ha! None of this bothers the Swami at all. He chants on our beads, hands them back with our new names, which we don’t understand-(wait, I got that one, Harry-das, that’s Harvey)-and devotees come forward to tie our neck-beads on with a knot.
\n‘Then the Swami says “Bo dun”, and we’re trying to figure out what he’s saying-Harry-das thinks he has it figured out and he rolls onto his knees, leans forward-so we do the same thing–and he blows on the fire. We all start blowing on the fire, hard as we can–a cloud of smoke flies in the Swami’s face, and his eyes get big as saucers.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23292"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41367,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23292\/revisions\/41367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}