#GetBack To Godhead

“Thank you for still being alive.”

These are very singular words of gratitude that not many of us can hope to hear as we go about our daily business (or, indeed, ever).

When, however, addressed to Shyamasundar das, one of the UK Hare Krishna movement’s six pioneering initiators, this heartfelt sentiment, voiced by an obviously fervent follower, simply expresses what everyone else in the room is thinking.

It’s Friday, 9^th June 2023 and Shyamasundar, 81 years young, has recently flown in from his native USA in order to present to us Volume Three of his autobiographical memoirs, Chasing Rhinos with the Swami.  We are assembled in Soho Street London’s Radha Krishna Temple to witness the sprightly octogenarian introduce the *long-awaited final instalment of his fast-paced trilogy in person. (That *global pandemic didn’t exactly encourage anyone to race across continents, did it?)

Shyamasundar is clearly at home in this sacred space, having carved its resident colourful Jagannath deity trio with his very own hands in the late Sixties.

Jagannath Trinity- Fashioned by Shyamasundar das

He also was instrumental in securing their beautiful Lordships Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara for the benefit of the then burgeoning London temple.

Their Lordships – Still Presiding over London

The senior disciple is patently thrilled that nowadays, Soho Street temple harinam (public congregational chanting and dancing) more often than not successfully brings traffic (human and otherwise) to a standstill in Oxford Street, Europe’s busiest shopping boulevard.

Holding Up Oxford Street

And he’s more than happy that the temple’s affiliated Food For Life charity reliably feeds hundreds of people six days a week.

Reliably Feeding London

But his mission (accomplished) today is one of story-telling, and Shyamasundar das has come duly armed with excerpts, anecdotes and reflections relating to his latest tome.

The veteran spiritual warrior gives us a preliminary insight from his Chasing Rhinos Volume Three

“You become Krishna Conscious by spreading Krishna Consciousness – this is the secret,”

he says, adding

“That’s two for the price of one.”

At Home In London’s Radha Krishna Temple

Having been blessed with a long and, for the main part, healthy life, Shyamasundar has had the luxury of being able to bide his time – at least until he felt his personal perspective was a sufficiently mature one – before knuckling down to spend ten whole years on his three-part labour of love.

We know that the Chasing Rhinos with the Swami series offers up a lively portrait of a tumultuous and rapidly evolving era (late Sixties to early Seventies) as well as delivering a detailed and definitive first-hand account of the world-wide Hare Krishna crusade’s advent.

But how did Shyamasundar go about digging and sifting through his own active and energetic past in quite enough depth to be able to so adroitly lever it up as a still intact gift for the present? And, not just for the delectation of future generations but, perhaps more crucially, to bestow fascinatingly true-to-life chronicles upon a current age-group all too aware that original disciples of international Hare Krishna movement founder AC Bhaktivedanta Swami (known as Srila Prabhupada) are now, like Shyamasundar here, at a certain life-stage. Ergo we had better glean from them whatever knowledge we can while they are still around (and, in Shyamasundar’s case, remarkably larger than life itself)!

Well, for those of us that can remember that far back, didn’t the Sixties see the birth of the good old cassette tape, and, as Prabhupada’s Personal Assistant, Shyamasundar strove to have a never-ending supply of these compact and durable memory-holders close enough by to never miss a vital verbal beat, nor ever fail in securing those strategically important syllables of illuminatingly devout (and practical) dialogue for posterity. Founding guru and close supporters also sent each other methodically dated and fastidiously hand-written letters by what we now sometimes (and somewhat condescendingly), refer to as ‘snail-mail’.  Prabhupada even meticulously fashioned his in triplicate by carbon copy. But look how those now outmoded methods of exchanging indelible missives and memoranda have more than stood the test of time.

Never failing to ‘go with the flow’ in our fast-moving digital age, Shyamasundar is also able to drill through time (the fourth dimension) with that most heavy-duty of modern writing tools, the internet.  Needing to free up any elusive recollections stubbornly wedged in a particular time segment, Prabhupada’s erstwhile right-hand man found that by googling, for instance, a historic weather account for a specific date, he could recall to his mind’s surface reminiscences long lain dormant straight from his own subconscious memory bank. A factual report of stark and dismal rain could refresh and restore to crystal clarity previously faded and forgotten silver-grey images such as a misty walk through an urban park with Prabhupada which, in turn, can yield shiny golden nuggets of priceless conversation once (upon a time) held with his mystical master.

Just as Prabhupada arrived from India to break through into Western culture via a good-sized gap in the window of an era marked by social and cultural change, as well as a disenfranchised generation disillusioned by their parents’ values and looking for answers elsewhere, Shyamasundar and friends came to Swinging London late 1968 to quickly befriend those Kings of the Scene, The Beatles, who were, it so happens, suffering a degree of personal disconnect and seeking spiritual change themselves.

When, in January 1969, Shyamasundar took up George Harrison’s invite (having only first met him three weeks prior to that) to go along to Twickenham Studios where the Fab Four were rehearsing and recording deep within a cavernous indoor space in front of rolling cameras for a 1970 album and feature film (both entitled ‘Let it Be’), the American Krishna devotee was, as yet, blissfully unaware that the world’s greatest pop-band was on the verge of breaking up.

Striking Up a Friendship – George Harrison and Shyamasundar das

Nor could our speaker for tonight have had so much as an inkling, as he settled himself as unobtrusively (and invisibly) as possible against Twickenham Studio 2’s darkest back wall, that 52 years later, he would be streamed (by Disney) in close-up high definition on millions of screens. A seated Shyamasundar das became an integral part of opening scenes created from the miraculously rediscovered and immaculately restored footage that constitute multi-award winning 2021 Beatles documentary series ‘Get Back’. Did a roaming camera just happen to pick up on him as he quietly endeavoured to lie low? Or was it somehow predestined that film director Peter Jackson would home in on the chanting, self-contained and wholly well-intentioned Hare Krishna to kick-start his revealing film by subtly (but distinctly) illustrating how the Beatles were at spiritual and existential cross-roads in their lives and career-paths at that very point?  

Were the Big Fabs, in fact, essentially ripe for self-realisation, ready to ‘Get Back to where they once belonged’ and return to Godhead?

Whatever you choose to believe, the Beatles were definitely listening when Shyamasundar put his (transcendental) case to them in their lunch-break that day. To the extent that John Lennon not only invited the Hare Krishna troupe to stay at his Tittenhurst estate for a while, but, when Prabhupada finally hit this sceptered isle in September 1969, the musical genius from Liverpool also sent his white Rolls-Royce to Heathrow to pick the Swami up and bring him safely into the UK fold. Mr Harrison, of course, became a life-long friend and advocate of the Hare Krishna community.

So why don’t we fast-forward again (no, not with that same old tape-recorder) to early 2020’s, where, as it turns out, documentary hashtag #GetBack was racking up mega-hits on social media just as Shyamasundar’s printed memoirs were fully materialising.  It all adds up, doesn’t it?

The scene for Chasing Rhinos Volume One is set on both sides of the pond in San Francisco and London.  Volume Two plays out wider on a global stage spanning India, cold-war Russia, and, like a whirlwind, taking in more than it leaves out with Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Europe and America. Volume Three (yet to be consumed!) opens with Prabhupada’s visit to Mexico, North America, Europe and India before moving swiftly as a hurricane to UK Hare Krishna headquarters Bhaktivedanta Manor (donated by George Harrison in 1973) to shine the spotlight on a sequence of detailed discussions between Prabhupada and various (significant) partners in conversation during that year’s glorious summer.

“You will be able to relate to this section, as it is mainly set in the UK” Shyamasundar assures us. 

So who are these people of note? Well, no spoilers given here.  Apart from perhaps a couple of rock-stars, lords, ladies, priests and theologians, the odd politician and maybe even the local village policeman, but you will have to read the book yourself to find out….

Chasing Rhinos Volume 3 – A Must-Read

If leading a solitary and undisturbed life in a forest is every working wordsmith’s dream, then Shyamasundar das has lived precisely that for the last four years (even if his then work-in-progress was rudely interrupted in Autumn 2020 by a widespread Oregan wildfire that reduced his writing-cabin to ashes). He, true to form, escaped nicely with both computer and accumulated research, and got right back to the task in hand once the dust had settled.

As for his technique in creating polished and professional prose – because there’s no real time for writer’s block, even in what is supposed to be a peacefully unpressured and calming natural environment (preferably without wildfires!) – Shyamasundar confides that he ‘limbers up’, in literary terms, for 30 minutes or so by reading texts crafted by renowned authors. This not only gets word rhythms up and running and sentence patterns all set to go, but generally helps the syntax flow……

If, as he professes, recent years of leafy verdant solitude have made him less adept at public speaking, then in no way does it show this evening. In a closing Q&A you get the impression that Shyamasundar could continue to give swift but considered responses to each and every question put to him for quite some time.

A young and notably enthusiastic devotee asks how, when out in the street selling devotional literature, she is to cope with random knock-backs from the public without becoming too despondent. Shyamasundar says that everything we experience is by Krishna’s design to teach us lessons. Prabhupada maintained that the degree of unbridled mirth precipitated by any given situation is a reliable indicator of the difference between the result we hoped for and what actually happened in the end (despite our best endeavours).  We have absolute faith that Shyamasundar and his comrades laughed as long and hard as they always worked.

As we bag our prized and signed copies of the sumptuous Chasing Rhinos set, we only hope Shyamasundar’s warm laughter rings out for many moons to come.

Get Back (soon) to Soho Street

For more information, check out:

http://chasingrhinos.com/