Training in India

In the summer of 1973, the small group of devotees chosen by Srila Prabhupada to pioneer the diorama project arrived in India. Their destination was Sri Mayapur, the holy birth site of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. (Lord Caitanya is Krsna Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He appeared five hundred years ago to teach love of God through the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.) "Srila Prabhupada was staying at our ISKCON headquarters in Mayapur," Baradraja continued, "so of course I went there as soon as my plane landed in Calcutta. When I arrived in Mayapur, I immediately went upstairs to Srila Prabhupada's quarters. It was wonderful to see him there in Mayapur. He was relaxed and very much at home.

"As we talked he began to outline my new work. I was immediately to begin learning all about making dolls. Srila Prabhupada had already chosen a teacher, and I was to attend his classes. As I was leaving Srila Prabhupada's quarters, I ran into a Godbrother I hadn't seen in about four years. I told him what Srila Prabhupada had asked me to do-why I had come to Mayapur-and he started telling me a few things about India. We had stood there maybe five minutes at the most when Srila Prabhupada's secretary ran out and called to me, 'Baradraja, Srila Prabhupada wants to speak with you.' I couldn't imagine why. I had just finished talking with him. I ran back upstairs to his room and offered obeisances. I looked up. Srila Prabhupada was looking at me very sternly. He said, 'So, you can immediately begin this training program. There is so much to do; there will be no time for talking.' I don't know how he could have heard us talking, but from that moment on I knew: I had a lot of work to do, and Srila Prabhupada expected me to get a lot accomplished."

Adi-deva, another pioneer of F.A.T.E., recalls his early experiences in Mayapur-learning the art of doll-making from his teacher and imbibing devotion to Krsna from Srila Prabhupada. "I remember the first thing we made in our class. The teacher had us sit down and make a clay mango. We showed it to him, and he rejected it and had us make another one, and another, and another. I must have made a dozen mangos, but he wanted us to make it exactly like the one he made.

"Once we got over the mango, he had us make a banana. Then an eggplant. Then a squash, and so on. Finally we graduated to making animals. We made monkeys and peacocks-all quite small. It was really tedious, and we sometimes felt like quitting. But the thing that kept us all going was that we knew that one day this work would give pleasure to Srila Prabhupada. Of course, at this time none of us could begin to understand the scope of this project, the vision of our spiritual master.

"In the scriptures it is said that the disciple has to pass the test of the spiritual master. So this was my test: to stay in Mayapur and work only because my spiritual master wanted me to. Srila Prabhupada once told us, 'You should simply make and break.' We'd make a doll very carefully and exactly, and that was the way he wanted us to learn. I can see now it was just like tearing off layer after layer of false egotism. Srila Prabhupada used to come up every morning after his lecture in the temple to see what we'd broken any."