Now I will enchant them with Krishna consciousness

Gargamuni das: Prabhupada invited all the other temple presidents to come and see the L.A. standard and he wanted this standard to be introduced, especially with the Deity worship with the three altars. When we got the building, Prabhupada went room to room and picked out what each room should be used for. Where you walk in now and there's a temple, that actually wasn't the temple that Prabhupada chose. Prabhupada had another vision that wasn't our vision. His vision was to have mainstream America come into that with their shoes on and sit in the pews and hear Bhagavad-gita and kirtan on the stage. We put Prabhupada's vyasasana on the stage, and he had Vishnujan play the organ. I even wanted to take out the stained glass and Prabhupada said, "No, that must stay." He said, "Don't touch anything here." Even where the minister spoke, what is it called? A pulpit, he kept that because he wanted devotees to come and speak too.

It was so surreal to sit in a pew and hear Bhagavad-gita and hear Vishnujan singing Jaya Madhava on an organ. Even Prabhupada would play the organ. We would sit and he would play the organ. I wish there was tape recordings of that. Prabhupada saw that the American people were becoming disenchanted with their churches. He said, "Now I will enchant them with Krishna consciousness." So he thought they are inclined to come to a church, let them come back to this church but hear Bhagavad-gita and hear the kirtan. Prabhupada's vision was totally-he was thinking mainstream America, not hippies. Prabhupada's vision wasn't that we all become monks. He wanted judges and politicians and doctors to come to the temple. They're not going to all become monks and shave up. But we had another vision: come to the temple and shave up. But that wasn't Prabhupada's vision.