Royal White Marble Altar for Iskcon Miami Deities

July 8, 2003

HISTORY OF THE MARBLE ALTAR

The original plan to construct a marble altar for the Deities at ISKCON Miami was conceived some time in 1991. For many years various circumstances had forced the temple to move repeatedly. Traditionally, once installed, the Deity in a temple should not be moved at all, so with the full intent of never moving our Deities again, we wanted to build a very special altar for their Lordships.

After much consideration whether to order a marble Simahasana or a wooden one, ISKCON Miami temple president Kalakantha Prabhu, along with Vijaya dasa and Abhirama Prabhu concluded that the best choice would be to offer a marble altar to our Deities.

The special opulence of marble and its natural cooling effect made a hand-carved white marble Simhasana the ideal alternative for our Deity's permanent throne, especially considering Miami's predominately tropical climate.

Kalakantha d. and Abhirama d. arranged with Tosan Krishna Prabhu to have the Simhasana designed and carved in India by the same people who built our marble ISKCON temple in Bombay and Srila Prabhupada's marble Samadhi in Vrindavana. The original design was to be much more intricate, and was significantly toned down to save in production time and expense.

The plan called for the work to be ready for shipping within eight months, but many obstacles caused considerable delay. We had difficulty keeping the payment schedule, causing the work to be put on hold for several months. When we were able to make the payment, the work was held up by heavy rains and consequent flooding of the marble quarry. After the marble quarry was pumped out, there were further delays due to Muslim holidays. Throughout the years of carving the marble altar, communication with the appropriate people in India was also a major problem.

When the marble work was reportedly ready for shipping, we made necessary arrangements for its safe delivery to Miami. They explained that the workers were taking special care that each adjacent piece of marble would fit together tightly. Normally this craftsmen would transport their work to the construction site where they would assemble it and then do the finishing touches in site. Since our Sringasana was going overseas, those finishing touches needed to be completed first.

The Simhasana arrived from India by ship in Savannah, GA on May 9, 1995 and then was transported by train to Miami, arriving on May 16. Following the Vedic tradition, on May 10, 1995 we installed a Deity of Ananta Sesa and place Him on the ground below where the altar would be built. A few days later it was transported in its two twenty-foot shipping containers to the temple. A team of about one dozen devotees and friends worked for two days to move the 139 heavy wooden crates of marble into the temple room.

We had been advised by Acyuta d. to not open any of the boxes until the craftsmen came from India. However, after several months, his attempts to arrange for those workers to come to Miami remained unsuccessful. Finally we started opening the crates and fitting together the hundreds of pieces of carved marble. After several weeks of work, we have assembled nearly all of the parts of the Simhasana and Vyasasana, still with no word from India about the workers.

We were meeting regarding the altar construction and temple renovation. We decided that we should arrange to have two or three marble craftsmen come from India to assemble the Simhasana. Acyuta das tried to arrange for the marble workers to come to Miami, but with no immediate positive response. The reason to bring special craftsmen from India were twofold. First, they were experienced in assembling solid marble structures, an art which is not known to most western construction workers. Second, if a need arose to make fine repairs or adjustments on the marble work, these craftsmen would have the tools and the expertise to do so. We also received a letter from Tosan Krishna with information regarding bringing the special craftsmen who had carved our Simhasana, to Miami to help assemble it.

>From 1995 and after many delays in August of 1998 we decide to start the construction with our devotees that have some experience in marble. Actually, Lord Krishna does everything in His own time. Although we have sincerely wanted to assemble the Altar for a long time, it is only now becoming a reality by the grace of the Lord. And with the help of Hariananda Prabhu, Indradyumna das, Ekaraja Prabhu and Radha Gopala das and by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada we started the construction with great faith in Guru and Gauranga.

Special thanks to all devotees that worked directly or indirectly in this project: Ambarisha Prabhu, Patita Pavana d.(Dr Chokshi), Dharma d., Hariscandra d.and the all well-wishers of ISKCON Miami.

Kesava Swami

Miami Mandira