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THE UNVEILING OF THE BRONZE BAS RELIEF PANELS DEPICTING THE LIFE, WORKS AND MISSION OF HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA FOUNDER-ACHARYA OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS

TOOK PLACE AT THE KRISHNA BALARAMA MANDIR IN THE DIVINE SAMADHI AT RAMAN RETI, VRNDAVANA, DT. MATHURA, U.P. ON 29 OCTOBER 2011, 5 P.M.

Nothing of this magnitude, import and beautiful artistry has ever been produced before anywhere in the world at any time. They are around half ton of metal each and will outlast the building for thousands of years. These golden bronze bas reliefs are exquisitely crafted, the likes of which have never been seen in Art History books. Created by our own esteemed American sculptor Bhaktisiddhanta das, it will make an historic landmark in the art world as well as the culture of Vrndavana, Land of Krishna. Present for the ceremonies were the donors and Mrs. Gita Sharaf (the original donor of the ISKCON property) who all received Prabhupada's beautiful golden lotus feet crafted and donated by Akhilananda das of Desire Tree. Gopal Krishna Maharaja, Padmanabha Goswami, Bhaktisiddhanta das and Parvati devi dasi spoke a few words about the import of Prabhupada's preaching and the relevance of this great work of art. Mukunda Datta das performed the aroti, and the ecstatic kirtan led by our Temple President Pancagauda das, and prasada was distributed afterwards.

The first panel is entitled SRILA PRABHUPADA, AMBASSADOR FROM THE SPIRITUAL WORLD and depicts Srila Prabhupada bringing the entire spiritual universe to the material world through his books and instructions. He lays the foundation for the entire world to live peacefully under the banner of Krsna consciousness. His greatness lies in the fact that he gives the world the Maha Mantra as predicted in the Vedas, by the huge varieties of activities His Divine Grace sets into motion with festivals, temple worship, prasad distribution, kirtan, book distribution, gurukulas, farms, etc. This beautiful relief was made possible with donations from Meera Khurana, Manu das, Kamalasundari devi dasi and Bhaktsiddhanta das.

The second panel is entitled SRILA PRABHUPADA'S TRIUMPHANT MARCH DOWN FIFTH AVENUE, NYC, 1976. Srila Prabhupada arrives in New York City in 1965 with nothing but a dream, but his mark on society will live on for the next 10,000 years. In 11 years he conquers New York City, bringing the Ratha carts of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Lady Subhadra down Fifth Avenue, the most important street on earth. Rathayatra is now held in every major city worldwide to help fulfill Lord Caitanya's message, "In every town and village My name will be heard." This intricate bas relief was made possible with donations from Pranavallabha devi dasi, Hamsapriya devi dasi, Parvati devi dasi and Samika Rsi das.

Bhaktisiddhanta das is a sculptor and an illustrator. He worked on the Los Angeles FATE exhibitions, and organized all the artwork, paintings and sculptures, bas reliefs, etc. for the Delhi project. He did the artwork for Satsvarupa Maharaja's comic book on Srila Prabhupada. He also published a Mahabharat with his original paintings.

He started in the concept of the bronze bas reliefs in 1978 as a GBC project, but the funding was not forthcoming at the time. He ultimately began work in 2007 with wax and clay models which all melted in the summer. He had to do everything again and refrigerate each piece completed. From these he made fiberglass figures for the molds, then recast into the bronze. After the finishing touches on the figures, he melted the metal onto the background with equipment donated by Ambarish das. You have to see them to believe it. They are stunning.

Bhaktisiddhanta prabhu still has a bit of touching up to do but they are quite a fantastic sight to behold. Below, he describes the whole history of the Samadhi panels.

SAMADHI PANELS HISTORY The panels began in the summer of 2008 following the kind donation of Ambarish Prabhu to establish a foundry in Vrindaban for future use with the Mayapur Planetarium. Later Parvati DD collected enough funding from a host of donors to make the panels happen.

The original design for these two panels was done back in '78 just after Srila Prabhupada left this planet. Surabhir Maharaja invited me to make a front view elevation showing his ideas on the Vrindaban and Mayapur Samädhies. Little was done on paper because the GBC committee overseeing the Samadhi designs wanted something immediately. The drawings I made were submitted to the GBC committee and the authorization came straight away for both Samädhies. At this same time I was able to follow up with two drawings for these two future bronze panels meant for the ground floor area on the Vrindaban Samadhi. These panels took the last four years; most of this time I felt my hands working automatically as Srila Prabhupäda was pulling the strings to make the work happen.

Upstairs the eight bronze panels were installed in 1986 with no fanfare, we had to reinvent the wheel different times since this kind of work is not done here in India. When we were working on these first panels all the bronze casters functioning in the lost wax process here in India happened to come to Vrindaban for a sculptor's camp. So the day we were pouring our first bronze pieces these 5 men came to our foundry for the first pour. Initially we knew nothing about casting so the local murti wallas did the first pour. Instead of asbestos suits which are the fashion in all other foundries in the organized world these two men were bare footed and wore only a thin cloth around their waists. We were in the midst of our hot summer and working around the white hot crucibles justified their code of dress. The first rule you learn about casting is that you never let the white hot crucible touch anything wet. These local men redefined the standard for casting, the first thing they did was to pack wet sand around the neck of each mold opening and then set the white hot crucible down on the cold wet sand. Immediately I ran for cover expecting the inevitable explosion which would rock the entire foundry area. Nothing happened! I saw the astonished expression on all the other bronze casters who were watching every move being made. Finally the dispersal of white metal was finished with the exact amount being poured into the waiting molds. Just after the pour the first piece was broken open. I was told that the casting shouldn't ever be opened immediately for fear of cracking the piece with rapid cooling especially on large pieces. Prematurely these men cracked open the first mold; normally the cooling takes place over night. I expected the piece to be full of cracks being exposed to the air so quickly. When the first piece was cleaned it came out flawlessly with full detail intact. The leader of this group came over to me and said; "Now I believe in God, for you to get this kind of result in the manner of what we just saw there must be a God; otherwise not possible!" The entire casting for the eight panels came out perfectly the first time around which is unheard of in this kind of process. This ancient wax process itself is nearly lost in India. Soon after our first pour one old lady entered my studio and looked at this first piece; she dropped it on the counter and ran out not saying a word. A few hours later she came back again with her two sons who were the other murti wallas (brass casters) in town. They had never seen this wax process which gives perfect detail and no finishing is required. All the work in Vrindaban and also in all of India is now done in sand casting; the end result is a blob of metal which is unidentifiable from the original piece; therefore it has to be re-worked to again put in detail.

Parvati the Samadhi in charge was pushing me hard to get these panels finished by Srila Prabhupada's disappearance festival Oct. 29th at 5pm. Therefore we had to press one year of work into 3 months. Foundry work means grinding and polishing until your arms are too tired to lift. I pressed on re-doing all the work four times over. First came the initial clay work which was done in the midst of the summer of 2008, so each clay piece when finished was frozen in my frig then sent down to my workers to be cast in a plaster mold then later a fiber glass copy was made in order to do the final bronze casting. For various reasons in each stage of this process detail was lost and I had to keep reworking each piece. Each morning I would walk to the studio and start work around 6am and finish around 2pm or until the summer heat was too much to bear. My entire body was on fire with a perpetual rash which came with being constantly covered with fiber glass powder. Then each day from grinding and polishing each piece in the metal stage I was sand blasted with bronze grit powder until my face and arms impacted this permanent rash that covered most of my body.

"APP BHUHUT GANDA HAY" each time I returned to the house I would get this same greeting by all my neighbors, which means; "Oh, how dirty you look." I was constantly covered in black grime from the grinding. The grime dug deep into my ears, eyes, nose and mouth, for days I kept coughing up black mucus. Still, looking back it seemed effortless like it self-manifested. It was definitely Srila Prabhupäda's mercy to complete this near-impossible task.

In the first panel we show Srila Prabhupada bringing down the entire spiritual world to this earthly realm dancing in kirtan. On the bottom right side is a portion of the earth planet with a large tilak covering the planet. This icon is meant to touch on the mission of Srila Prabhupada; one religion, Krsna Consciousness, one mantra the maha mantra, one book the Bhagavat Gita; this symbolizes Srila Prabhupada's undertaking to make the entire world happy in Krsna Consciousness. Baby Krsna is dancing on top of the world and Srila Prabhupada offering arotik to Radha Shyamsundar. On the other panel we see a precious moment in Srila Prabhupada's life the Ratha Yatra festival down Fifth Avenue. This is like the triumphant march of Julius Caesar returning to Rome; Srila Prabhupada's ride down Fifth Avenue was much the same. Here is a brief description to grace the side of the panels: SRILA PRABHUPADA THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL WORLDS. Srila Prabhupada brings to us the entire spiritual world to bless this material planet; through his books and instructions he has laid the foundation for the entire world to live peacefully under the banner of Krsna Consciousness. His mark on society will live on for the next 10,000 years; his greatness lies in the fact he gave the world the Maha Mantra; Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare.

SRILA PRABHUPADA'S TRIUMPHANT MARCH DOWN FIFTH AVENUE, NYC, 1976. In 1965, Srila Prabhupada arrived in New York City with nothing but a dream; in 11 years he conquered New York City by bringing Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama, and Lady Subadra on Their Ratha carts down Fifth Avenue, the most important street in the world. Because of Srila Prabhupada's vision Ratha Yatra is now held in all the major cities in the world to help fulfill Lord Caitanya's message that; "In every town and village My name will be heard:" Hare Kåñëa, Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Räma, Räma Räma, Hare Hare.

These panels are meant to last the next 10,000 years of this golden period whereby Srila Prabhupada's books will become the law for spiritual life. The true worth of a sculpture is to endure time and to inspire all future generations to carry the message that Srila Prabhupada demanded, that the walls should preach and each view will continually evoke new realizations into one's own spiritual life forever.

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