Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.0.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Chasing Rhinos With The Swami Shyamasundar's New Book ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://chasingrhinos.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/2018/12/22/3286/) - On the afternoon of October 2, not many noticed the tiny, two-propeller DC-3 with BASCO markings slowly steer its way through barricades and wreckage on the runway at Cairo International, dwarfed by giant jets from almost every nation, to park in front of the multitiered transit terminal. Few remarked the small gaggle of Hare Krishna - [Two Volumes To Three](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/2016/06/04/two-volumes-to-three/) - "Chasing Rhinos With The Swami" has grown! Two volumes couldn't contain so many wonderful stories and photos, so we've added a THIRD volume, with jewels like Prabhupad's answer to George Harrison's question, "What should I do with my life?" You will now receive this autographed Collector's Edition of CRWTS in THREE volumes! In addition, Baradraj ## Pages - [Home](https://chasingrhinos.com/) - [Beatles](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/beatles-3/) - [Audiobooks](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/audiobooks/) - [Volume 1](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/volume1/) - [SETS](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/sets/) - [Volume 2](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/volume2/) - [Volume 3](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/volume3-3-2/) - [Excerpts](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/excerpts/) - [Shop](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/shop/) - [Contact](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/contact/) - [Bulk_Orders](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/bulk/) - [Updates](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/updates/) - [About us](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/about-us/) - [Places](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/places/) - [Blog](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/blog/) - Quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. ## Products - ["CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI" Audiobooks](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product/chasing-rhinos-with-the-swami-audiobooks/) - ["CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI" VOLUMES 1, 2 & 3](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product/chasing-rhinos-with-the-swami-volume-1-2-3/) - ["CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI" VOLUMES 1, 2 & 3 IN SLIP CASE BOX](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product/chasing-rhinos-with-the-swami-volumes-1-2-3-in-slip-case-box/) - ["CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI" VOLUMES 2 & 3](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product/chasing-rhinos-with-the-swami-volumes-2-3/) - ["CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI" VOLUME 1](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product/chasing-rhinos-with-the-swami/) - ["CHASING RHINOS WITH THE SWAMI"
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But somehow here I - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4166/) - Optimism is my primary emotion these days as I scan the planet and worldly affairs and weigh your accomplishments to date and picture how the future must unfold…At last your ISKCON has emerged to the sun above all others, a mighty oak standing alone to nourish and guide the world. Prabhupada, you brought the dying - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4165/) - Srila Prabhupada was totally fearless in every circumstance—on the tossing deck of a cargo ship across the rough Atlantic; wandering the mean streets of lower Manhattan with only pennies in his pocket; hanging out with the drug-addled crazies of 1960s America; rubbing shoulders with lords and ladies, bums, rock stars, philosophers, and kings; dropping behind - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4164/) - Oh, please forgive me, Prabhupada, if sometimes I sailed into your room unbowed or jokingly said your tilak’s a mess or laughed when you tried to be serious. If sometimes my deep-seated veneration was overshadowed by a burst of impulsive candor when you asked, “What do you think, Shyamasundar?” I always tried to remember that - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4163/) - Your bedroom-slippered feet glide by, inches from my head bowed to the floor, trailing mustard and sandalwood and roses, and I rise to see your lustrous face, laughing and victorious or dark with purpose, eyes grave and hooded—your eyes slit tight in some deep thought or blooming wide like a child seeing its first elephant. - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4162/) - It’s all so vast! What is this endless cosmic manifestation of spacetime? Does it have a purpose? Does it mean anything? How do I fit into spacetime—me, this tiny being? Am I a blade of grass to bloom and wither in one season?... Enter A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (we call him Swamiji) in the particular - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4161/) - I look across shadowed lawns as early October sun gilds gabled slate roofs and fluted chimneys and slides down the storybook outer walls of Bhaktivedanta Manor, lighting the mullioned windows to rooms upstairs where you so recently played with us. I remember the unusual beauty of your face and mouth, the flowing ease and subtle - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4160/) - Prabhupada leaves for India, the Swiss computer watch still dangling from his wrist. This past nine weeks has been the highest point, the perfection, of my years with Srila Prabhupada. Dancing with Prabhupada from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square; relaxing with the lord of the Manor on his English estate; delighting in his conversations with - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4159/) - “Hare Krishna!” says Pete Ham, lead singer and guitarist for Badfinger, as he breezes into the Manor parking lot and climbs out of his van…From the stage it must have looked like a cozy English summer evening lawn party. A dozen elegant, small round tables covered in white cloth—and jeez, candelabras—and matching wrought-iron chairs. We’ve - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4158/) - Prabhupada is in a joking mood, so I say, “Srila Prabhupada, you looked just like Lord Shiva today, sitting on your new throne.” The sides of his smile begin to tremble. He chuckles, and softly we begin to chuckle with him. Then he laughs aloud, pointing at me, “You ...” but he can’t say more - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4156/) - I savored the perfect somnambulant summer afternoons when Prabhupada sat on his saffron shawl on the vast lawn in front of the Manor, chanting japa as Srutakirti softly read to him from Caitanya-caritamrita. Sometimes I sat with them, quiet, listening to the ancient words, humming bees, faint quack and rustle of ducks on the lake, - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4155/) - [With historian Arnold Toynbee:] They laugh a lot, these two great historians, enjoying each other’s company. To seize this rare opportunity I ask, “Srila Prabhupada, what is your view of the future—the future of history?” Prabhupada: That is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Governmental power will go to the rascals and thieves, rogues. And their only - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4154/) - This July 9 conversation with David Wynne was just the first of nearly fifty conversations recorded with Srila Prabhupada during his 1973 summer in London…These London conversations together form the most intense body of recorded dialogue during Prabhupada’s years with us…They will demonstrate Prabhupada’s expertise on any subject, his tact, and his ability to match - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4153/) - After seven years with him—and especially during the past two years being with him nearly every day—I began to see Srila Prabhupada as the action hero in a blockbuster transcendental film. His life, everything around him, was a movie. His activities were extraordinary, almost mythical, and they flowed from scene to scene in perfect transition. - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4152/) - Prabhupada looks so good! You can’t take your eyes off him—he’s shirtless and glistening from his morning massage, fresh clay tilak daubed on his arms, chest, and belly, leaning back, his head resting on a pillow and his feet thrust out, ankles crossed, toes pink and scrubbed. Gone was the tension, the overquick response to - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4151/) - Prabhupada said, “Tomorrow we must sell the gold. They [my GBC godbrothers] are objecting. Apart from that, price seems to be staying the same”…Herr Schriber sold our gold at $89.75 a troy ounce, and credited Srila Prabhupada’s new account with $25,967.17, a profit of $2,329.07—nearly 10 percent in just twelve days…His new Swiss Credit Bank - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4150/) - George looked good in his neck beads, his face glowing, unencumbered by mustache and beard. We talked about Piggot’s Manor. George was thrilled, and said, “Yeah, I wanted you Krishnas to have a place like Friar Park, something in the countryside. I promised Prabhupada. You can chant as loud as you like and no one - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4148/) - I thought, Prabhupada, you said you’ll always be with me wherever I am. I thought, too, of unlimited horizons, of reaching my fist deep into the earth and, Srila Prabhupada, watching your eyes light up at the gleaming sun-red gems—and buying you a Rolls-Royce, maybe a satellite to broadcast your glories around the world. I’ll - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4147/) - “Lie to some, not to others, that is not a good philosophy. Rather the brahmanas are always truthful, even to their enemies....That art you must develop, not art of lying. Convince them to give by your preaching the Absolute Truth, not by tricking, that is more mature stage of development of Krishna Consciousness.” All paradoxes - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4146/) - His face cracks open in a laugh, eyes opening very wide in surprise. Then he shuts them tight and his cheeks stretch back to impossible limits, and his head bobs up and down in a full belly laugh. His eyes are open again now, moist with delight, as he contemplates the strangeness of our high-speed - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4145/) - For the next seven weeks we would act out the dramatic but classic struggle between good and evil: ISKCON vs. Nair. We’d be immersed in the insanity of litigation in post-British India, where the transplanted precepts of Blackstone’s law battled the lethargy and corruption of an ancient, old-boy tradition. Nothing had ever gotten under Srila - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4144/) - One afternoon shortly after we arrived in Hyderabad, three of Prabhupada’s army-vet surfer disciples hijacked Mr. Pitti’s classic 1956 Chevy V-8 convertible and took it for a joyride around town! When Prabhupada heard about it he was very upset, dressed us all down, and demanded that we mind our manners. - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4143/) - As dawn touches pink the ancient crowns of temples around us, devotees wiping sleep from their eyes, some with wet hair from early ablutions, and maybe a dozen local Vrajbasis huddle under blankets and chadars, Prabhupada taps the microphone, clears his throat, and speaks…Little wisps of vapor emerge from his mouth as the sun slowly - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4142/) - Prabhupada leans back on a cushion—tiny burp—takes a toothpick to his teeth, and calmly asks, “So, what are the affairs in London and Bombay?” Suddenly the frantic events in England and Juhu seem so far away, so miniscule, compared to seeing Prabhupada and what he’s doing here in Vrindaban. After such dread and uncertainty, feeling - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4140/) - For six days Prabhupada thrilled us, building a palpable connection to our own ancient history. His voice rose from deep silence on that hilltop, above the chirping of crickets and the lowing of cows somewhere in the dusk, and transported us back into time immemorial when the Absolute Truth was revealed to submissive ears…His mobile - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4139/) - Once in a while I peek over to see the wedge-shaped top of his head, large in back and tapering forward like the prow of this 747 knifing through space—his short gray sikha in a little curl—looking to see if he might need anything, and my heart goes weak with affection. I’m not exactly his - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4138/) - I set up my typewriter and took a deep breath, pondering Prabhupada’s anger. At one point that afternoon in the temple, when I’d timidly asked if we should fetch some fruits, he had yelled at me, “Don’t tell me what to do!” and it still stung. But when I stole back down the stairs and - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4137/) - Srila Prabhupada has been in Britain nearly five weeks this summer. He loves the English high manners, the intelligence and open-hearted sincerity of these young boys and girls who’ve pushed themselves to the limit to serve Krishna …And one of Prabhupada’s unseen but foremost achievements on this UK trip: he has planted the seeds of - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4136/) - That afternoon, George shows up at Bury Place…Prabhupada beckons George to sit next to him again, and by the time I arrive they’re deep into a discussion about George’s personal life. What should he do? Should he shave his head and don the robes? Wear tilak, give up his music?...“No, no,” Prabhupada says. “You remain - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4135/) - Prabhupada sits in an armchair in the half light, and there is, yes, a bluish aura around him—around us. Time is suspended in the gloaming, as Prabhupada gives us transcendental vision and takes us with him into the spiritual world…We sit silently for many minutes as the sun winks out—a quick glance at my watch - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4134/) - The full-length French doors are open, and perfume from fresh-mown lawns mingles with some special agarbatti George has found and wants me to try. For a long time we don’t speak, just gaze out at gentle summer rain falling on layers and layers of green—the yellow green of willows, the blue-green of spruce trees, and - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4133/) - Shyamasundar: “Nanda Kumar’s very tired. Last night, on the plane from New York, that Charlie Chaplin film kept us up all night. [laughter]” Prabhupada: “Hm. That was nice. [laughter] He is really funny man. [laughs] All his comic play has got some originality, that is the beauty. How he invented! [laughs] As sober man, he - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4131/) - These new devotees—most of them far more qualified for spiritual life than I—could go on for hours about a smile they saw on Prabhupada’s face or a single look, one piece of prasad received from his hand, a garland they gave him—even a single blossom they retrieved after he’d stepped on it on his way - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4132/) - Over the previous ten days, our seventy-six-year-old Srila Prabhupada has traveled to seven cities in two countries and given twenty-one lectures. He’s appeared on TV and radio programs, initiated dozens of new devotees, touched the hearts of thousands in very deep ways. How fast all this is going. How intense and wonderful it all is: - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/4130/) - Next morning, Saturday, June 10, Prabhupada called me into his room. We discussed last night’s program, and then he said, “But one thing, next time we should not go so fast. I was watching. You were going 110.” Busted. (Later, I thought probably this is the fastest Prabhupada has ever traveled in a car, and - [Mexico](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/mexico/) - When we get back to the temple [about 10 pm], Chitsukhananda mentions to Prabhupada that he had recently appeared on Mexico’s most-watched TV show, 24 Horas, and that the host really wants Prabhupada to be on the show while he’s in town, “So which night would be most suitable for Your Divine Grace?” Prabhupada: “How - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3315/) - From mid-1966 to mid-1970, in just four years’ time, Bhaktivedanta Swami built his International Society for Krishna Consciousness into a major spiritual force in North America and Europe. On August 2, 1970, Srila Prabhupada flew from Los Angeles to Tokyo to commence his first round-the-world preaching tour, returning to L.A. in late June 1971, having - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3314/) - Being with Prabhupada was like being in an endless movie. One moment you were part of an epic adventure-thriller like Ben- Hur or Where Eagles Dare, and the next moment you were in a newsreel, a documentary, or an evocative travelogue. You went from sidesplitting comedy to deep tragedy in a few frames of time. - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3313/) - On May 6 we took an early flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. Srila Prabhupada was in high spirits after his recent victories: three huge temples underway in India, two in Australia, New Zealand, now a strong foothold in Japan…He said, “On this Hawaii island how many beautiful things, flowers, trees, and fruits — it is - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3312/) - On May 4, we returned to the Dai Nippon offices [in Tokyo], where Prabhupada finalized arrangements for the printing of the Indian BTG and some books in Hindi. After his meeting, Prabhupada sat patiently for an hour while a young Dai Nippon dentist fitted him with a pair of solid gold teeth, cleverly bridged to - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3310/) - China! To be with my Indian swami in China was like the realization of a childhood fantasy. Of course, in April 1972 no one could really go to China; Mainland China was a closed Communist country. The British colony of Hong Kong was as close as you could get, but it was still China, the - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3309/) - The [Cistercian] monks eat it up, seeing that our faith and practices are so similar to theirs, even down to the shaved heads and exotic robes. There is a feeling of instant brotherhood, cross-institutional familiarity. Prabhupada is the dynamic authority, delivering the gospel in a way they understand…We follow with kirtan, which quickly moves from - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3308/) - Prabhupada just wouldn’t stop talking. Since we had left the Bombay airport on Friday evening, March 31, 1972, more than twenty-four hours earlier, he hadn’t slowed down a bit. Now he’s sitting late at night in an upstairs room in a borrowed white terrace house at 26 Renny Street in the Paddington district of Sydney, - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3307/) - I think about everything that’s been happening. In less than one month Srila Prabhupada has done the impossible: he’s laid the cornerstones for his main three temples in India, despite all odds: Naxalite bandits, floods, cold, heat, lack of money, envious opponents, unsupportive godbrothers, caste goswamis, a communist-leaning central government under martial law with strict - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3306/) - Just ten days earlier, Prabhupada had conducted the first movement of his India Temple Symphony — the Mayapur Sonata — in allegro, to a full house in the middle of a rice paddy in rural Bengal. Now he would dig deeper into his theme and calmly conduct the second movement in a slower tempo, in - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3305/) - While workmen are busy finishing the pandal, Prabhupada leads the Mayapur organizers out into the field behind the pandal. He paces off the four corners of a huge, four-story residence-guesthouse, the first building he wants to erect here. He instructs devotees to pile clods of dirt to mark each corner. Then Prabhupada shows them where - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3304/) - We had experienced so many exciting adventures with Prabhupada, dashing from place to place in such rapid order — now it feels like a holiday, a vacation from crowded cities, reclined at Prabhupada’s feet while he sprawls in his easy chair on the front porch [in Vishakhapatnam] and laughs and kids with his buddies, watching - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3303/) - About an hour after the Madras Mail chugged out of Bombay’s Victoria Station — and after fifteen or twenty devotees cleared Prabhupada’s first-class AC sleeper cabin to find their own seats in second-class coach — the conductor appeared and punched our tickets. The door’s slammed and latched against the noisy corridor, and I’m suddenly a - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3302/) - In Vrindaban, Srila Prabhupada is more relaxed and intimate than I have ever seen him: greeting and preaching (maybe bragging a bit) to old friends in his quarters or on the street, during meals and massages — yak, yak, yak in the pleasant winter sun. He is so elegant, graceful, friendly, carefree, wise, practical, and - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3301/) - The largest and perhaps most entangled government bureaucracy in the world is ruled from New Delhi, with more than six hundred million lives in these officials’ hands. Early on the morning of November 10, 1971, we flew Indian Airlines from Calcutta to Delhi, arriving at Palam Airport at 8:30 a.m. to a VIP reception on - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3300/) - All over Calcutta, radical Bengalis were trying to instigate the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. It was the perfect time and place to discuss Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Tse-tung. Shyamasundar: “So Karl Marx made a manifesto called the Communist Manifesto, which lists ten points for social reform. The first one - [George Harrison](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/george-harrison/) - George Harrison said, “Shyamsundar! Hare Krishna! Hey, what a great surprise. It’s really good to see you.” “Well, Prabhupada just happened to be passing through New York. He’s over at the Brooklyn temple, and I –” Chris O’Dell waves from across the room. “Hare Krishna, Chris! How’re ya doin’! Anyway, George, I heard you were - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3297/) - And that was the joy and the lightness: the laughter in all of this. Prabhupada just tickled my funny bone with so many things he said and did. I found myself cracking up in his conversations with others, and even in his lectures. Sometimes, together, we acted almost like the American TV duo, Johnny Carson - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3298/) - George was still in America putting together the film of the Bangla Desh Concert. He had asked me to check on Eric Clapton as soon as I got back to England, to “give him a little Krishna love,” deeply worried about Eric’s addiction to hard drugs. So on August 10 I asked Prabhupada for an - [](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/3299/) - But as we jaywalked across Ngong Forest Road and threaded our way through the Kibera slum toward Kamukunji Park to conduct the first public sankirtan in Africa, even stalwart Brahmananda looked scared. Me — I was shaking like a leaf! Just yesterday I had seen a guy in a breechcloth walking down the street with - [Iron Curtain](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/iron-curtain/) - In June 1971 the world was divided into two opposing ideologies, capitalism and communism. The Western bloc of capitalist nations was separated from the Eastern bloc of communists by a geographic line drawn north-south through Europe called the Iron Curtain. It was a Cold War. Both sides were hesitant to risk all-out nuclear holocaust, so - [chase the rhinoceros](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/chase-the-rhinoceros/) - I could see he was a little skeptical, but he encouraged me, told me to “chase the rhinoceros,” and I was more determined than ever. I could sense that some devotees considered my big plans just another of “Shyamasundar’s wild schemes.” I also sensed that most of the devotees just wanted to stay in Prabhupada’s - [Spiritual father of india](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/spiritual-father-of-india/) - We began to see Prabhupada as a great saint here in his homeland, relaxed, the true spiritual father of India, taking his place on the balcony to address flushed and excited devotee crowds like the Pope at St. Peter’s, his forehead plastered with sandalwood paste, the rooms and halls behind him suffused with the aroma - [lads, let’s go to the beach](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/lads-lets-go-to-the-beach/) - As we near the river, yogis appear, lining the path and doing tricks. “What! Malati, d’you see that?” There’s a boy-man lying on a wooden plank with a dozen foot-long spikes penetrating his torso, his eyes focused on eternity. The wounds are long-healed – must be something he’s done most of his life. There’re more - [Mesmerized](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/mesmerized/) - We were mesmerized as Prabhupada spoke on those golden mornings over the raucous cawing of crows outside, coo-cooing of pigeons in the courtyard. Changing expressions moved across his golden face, like the play of cumulus and sunlight over a varied landscape. One moment he was from our world and the next from a world we - [Dancing white elephants](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/dancing-white-elephants/) - Prabhupada. Always keeping things in perspective and enabling us to see the world through his eyes of rare wisdom, spoiling forever our impulse to gratify the body’s senses. Next he tells us that in earlier times, the maharajas would keep elephants as a symbol of their great wealth. “And above all precious elephants, the white - [oblivious to war](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/oblivious-to-war/) - On the afternoon of October 2, not many noticed the tiny, two-propeller DC-3 with BASCO markings slowly steer its way through barricades and wreckage on the runway at Cairo International, dwarfed by giant jets from almost every nation, to park in front of the multitiered transit terminal. Few remarked the small gaggle of Hare Krishna - [We’re on our way to India!](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/were-on-our-way-to-india/) - “We’re elated, and start making preparations, like getting visas and shots. Gurudas buys a slide projector. We’re allowed one suitcase each, so we pack a few clothes (no pants—dhotis only), kartals, a toothbrush, a couple of books. Malati insists we bring her giant “Prabhupada’s World Sankirtan London” banner, so we roll that up and stuff - [Prabhupad!](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/twenty-different-cities/) - On the train back to Bombay that night, I have a chance to weigh all that has happened: We had traveled together to twenty different cities in the past six months, on four continents, camped beneath a couple dozen different roofs. Keep me talking, he said, and I had tried to keep him talking--not just - [Dark Continent](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/freedom-tree/) - Then Prabhupad really put us on the spot: “It is not sufficient, some few people coming to the temple—you must go out, have samkirtan in the public places.” But as we jay-walked Ngong Forest Road [in Nairobi] and threaded our way through the Kibera slum towards Kamukunji Park, to conduct the first public samkirtan in - [The Iron Curtain Will Fall](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/cannot-rule-by-fear/) - While we unpacked and settled into Prabhupad’s room [in Moscow], we heard military music from the street outside, and from his window we watched, passing below: a 100-foot-long ICBM rocket marked with Red Star--supported by four trucks end-to-end--followed by rows of goose-stepping soldiers, tanks, and huge wheeled artillery. We were speechless. After the half-hour parade - [Secretary!](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/biggest-dream/) - Prabhupad said, “Then you shall go with me, as my secretary. Aravinda will go as servant, you will go as personal secretary. We shall fly to Moscow, and then we shall fly to Paris. Just make that arrangement.” Whoa! My biggest dream was coming true: to scout the frontier with Prabhupad! I tried to hide - [INDIA!](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/krishna-culture/) - We were on fire: Prabhupad has come to change all this! From day one, our mission was fixed: demonstrate to India the glories of their own Krishna culture as taught to us by their realized native son, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. You got the sense that Vedic society was still there, just under the surface, and - [Prabhupad Arrives in Britain](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/conquering-with-love/) - The timing is perfect. The Swami’s movement has a strong foothold in Britain; Krishna’s name is being heard daily – over the radio, on the telly, in newspapers, and in periodicals – by millions of people throughout the land. Swamiji landed in the UK to greet his old disciples and meet his many new ones, - [Meeting George](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/the-famous-four/) - Finally, one by one, Paul, John, and Ringo each stick their head out of one of the doors and then bolt for the exit, not pausing to speak to anyone. A few minutes later, George pokes his head out too, and those famous, intense, dark eyes scan the room and alight on me. Before anyone - [Jagganath Appears](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/down-down/) - Whenever you came to the Swami’s door, your heart was in your throat. (This feeling never left me, even after a thousand trips to that door.) There was a heightened sense that something marvelous was about to occur, a tingling in the blood. You never knew what to expect, just that it would be a - [From Prologue](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/the-prologue/) - Blood flew from its four-inch fangs as the feeding jaguar roared, just feet from my startled face. I wheeled and ran with my Venezuelan guide crashing through thick jungle certain the enraged 300-pound beast would be on us in a moment. “Krishna! Krishna! Krishna!” I yelled from fear-filled lungs, not stopping till we’d scrambled to - [My Sweet Lord](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/my-sweet-lord/) - From the tower I watched late-spring cumulus make shadow plays across the rolling, checkerboard Chiltern Hills and dreamed of another rhino chase with Prabhupad, over the far horizon. What was I doing? Why was I at Friar Park? Why wasn’t I out with the other devotees spreading Krishna consciousness like I should be? 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Spirit is - [Cornerstones](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/cornerstones/) - In less than one month, Srila Prabhupad had done the impossible: He’s laid the cornerstones for his main three temples in India, despite all odds: Naxalite bandits, a near-Communist government, floods, cold, heat, lack of money, envious opponents and god-brothers, caste goswamis, a central government under martial law with strict rationing of construction materials, shaky - [10% in just 12 days](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/10-in-just-12-days/) - On April 4th morning we returned to the Swiss Credit lobby [in Zürich], watching the price-display for an hour or so, as gold continued to hover at $90 an ounce. Then Prabhupad rose and said, “I want to open one account here. We shall sell the gold and put into my account.” Herr Schildknecht was - [Jaya Prabhupada!](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-item/jaya-prabhupada/) - I looked across shadowed lawns as early October sun lit gabled slate roofs and fluted chimneys and slid down the story-book outer walls of Bhaktivedanta Manor, lighting the mullioned windows to rooms upstairs where you so recently played with us: I remembered the unusual beauty of your face and mouth, the flowing ease and subtle ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/category/uncategorized/) - [news](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/category/news/) - [volume2](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/category/volume2/) ## Tags - [updates](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/tag/updates/) - [news](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/tag/news/) ## Product categories - [VOLUME1](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product-category/volume1/) - [VOLUME2](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product-category/volume2/) - [Uncategorized](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product-category/uncategorized/) - [VOLUME3](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product-category/volume3/) - [AUDIOBOOKS](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/product-category/audiobooks/) ## Testimonial categories - [part1](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-types/part1/) - [vol1](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-types/vol1/) - [vol2](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-types/vol2/) - [vol 3](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-types/vol-3/) - [volume2](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-types/volume2/) - [volume3](https://chasingrhinos.com/index.php/testimonial-types/volume3/)