Tribute to Revatinandana Das (Chandra Dasi)

Chandra Dasi:

Remembering my stepfather, Robert Cusimano also known as Revatinandana Das aka Shambhu.

January 20, 1947 - December 16, 2021.

He was a scholar, was offered a scholarship to Stanford but attended UC Berkeley and was a world class astrologer, a musician, a chef, and spent many years living the life of an ascetic monk.

But to me he was ultimately a first class gentlemen.

He had several articles published in the Back to Godhead magazine on the philosophical discourse of the nature of the soul and reincarnation. Most of which I only have read in the last few days. He spoke throughout Great Britain lecturing consciousness to college audiences and left a vast impact on many he met during those days.

He was a prominent ‘Sannyasa’ an ascetic or wandering monk, in the early days of the Hare Krishna movement and spent several years in his early 20’s in a renounced order of life, dedicating his life to learning and preaching about the ancient Vedic culture and spiritual teachings of India. His first cousin was the person responsible for bringing him out of the dirty commune conditions he was at the time living under and into the cleanliness of Temple living. 

Where rising very early in the morning and bathing and offering prayers to the tulsi plants is the norm. Where the temple floors are wiped and mopped down daily. And where fruit and flower offerings are of the utmost importance. His cousin, known as Vishnujana Swami is famous for his melodic voice and kirtans. 

I still to this day will play his album on YouTube where he is singing in Sanskrit in glorification of Lord Krishna and it brings me so much peace of mind.

My stepfather was most humble and singlehandedly cooked a feast for an entire festival. He scrubbed toilets and acted as janitor at the London Temple he served in when everyone around him was more fixated on hobnobbing with the higher ups. He sat and ate with George Harrison of the Beatles and never once boasted about it to us kids, my mother only recently found out herself.

He for one reason or another eventually left his position and ended up in Hawaii where he met my beautiful mother. I admit I was hard on him in the beginning for I was only a young child who had recently had my family ripped apart and was not ready for someone else to take my father’s position. In hindsight I wish so badly that I could have expressed my gratitude for his caring nature. 

To take a family of 4 children with 3 wildling boys and a wallflower shy daughter was no easy task. But he did so with chivalry and grace. There were no doubt times of roaring raging fights between us all but in the end he was most respectful. And I owe him the honor of sharing his story. 

At least the little I know as he certainly left an impact on my life as well as my brothers.

He could make an Indian samosa like no one else spending hours in the kitchen perfecting every batch. It was an absolute delight to bite into one. He was socially awkward like so many highly intelligent folks are and I believe it was hard for him to carry on mundane conversations as his mind was moving at warp speed in a distant realm. He loved music and I can remember how he used to snap his fingers in the most goofy but fun loving way. It made me chuckle every time he’d do it.

He instilled a love of astronomy in my younger brother and a love of astrology in me. I can remember being so utterly in awe and excited hearing my astrological chart calculated and read by him. It was like a map of my life laid out before my young self. I still have the cassette tape that he recorded it on. And I still follow astrology in reverence of the stars and all the mystery and wisdom they carry with them.

He was truly a sannyasa in every sense, for he lived a simple peaceful life in the forests over the last two decades of his life in the most remote part of the Big island of Hawaii and did not own a computer or use a cell phone. There aren’t many souls left like him in this world.

And if I can so humbly share my favorite memory of him I recently came across after my younger brother Dhruva shared it with me. It is taken from an Interview of him describing his experience with the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, his Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada…

So I said “Prabhupada can you answer me a question about the consciousness of a pure devotee?” And he said yes, well he said “ask.” So I said, “Sometimes it may appear that a pure devotee is very very angry or very happy. How does that affect him?”

Prabhupada replied “the consciousness of a pure devotee is very very deep. It is like the ocean. Near the surface of the ocean there may be so many waves that are kicked up but as you go down even a few feet into the ocean you will find that it is very still.”

I understood what he was saying immediately. Prabhupada continued “so in this way the consciousness of a pure devotee is so deep that nothing really disturbs it. There may be some ripples on the surface but underneath it remains very very deep and still.” And I said “is it like that even at death?” And Prabhupada replied “yes.”

All glories to his recent departure, may his spirit carry on into the heavenly realm.