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Prabhupada establishing the Anantasesha in 1972

Nara Narayana Dasa : This is Prabhupada establishing the Anantasesha in 1972. He had told us to dig a pit, and we dug a pit about 15 feet deep and probably around 6 to 8 feet wide with a bamboo ladder going down inside. He said he was going to set the cornerstone. We had no idea what setting a cornerstone was going to be like. But apparently his friend and godbrother, Puri Maharaja, had come bringing a little solid 24-carat gold Anantasesha. He was about an inch-and-a-half high.

So Prabhupada was going down into the pit and Ashokamrita was holding the ladder. Then somebody came, "Prabhupada wants you." "What?" "He wants you to go down into the pit. Prabhupada wants you to go down into the pit." I saw Prabhupada walking down the ladder, and I came over and I went down in the pit with Srila Prabhupada. To me it was symbolic enough. I'm in a pit with a ladder and Prabhupada - what more do I want?

We gather an accumulation of bricks, and then a bucket comes down with mortar and a trowel. So I didn't know what to do, and Prabhupada just gestured. "We are building a temple here," he said like that. So I pick up a brick and I butter it with mortar and I set it down, then I put another one, and I start to set it just very nicely like a chimney or something of that sort. Prabhupada said, "No, no, no, not like that." And I said, "How?" He said, "Every which way." When he said "Every which way," he meant randomly. And I started building and I built this thing and there was a gap in the middle, and then Srila Prabhupada came and placed the Anantasesha and said, "Put more." After I'd pretty well hidden the Deity with bricks, he told me to go up and others came down.



Reference: Yamuna Devi - A Life of Unalloyed Devotion