(Kadamba Kanana Swami, November 2014, Mayapur, India, Youth Class Lecture)
I was invited by Ganga Prabhu for some Italian lunch. I was in his house and then at one point, he started to talk about the making of the Panca Tattva deities. He described that at that time, the sthapatis of South India said, ‘No, we do not make any statues, we make only deities.’
Ganga said, ‘But these are the deities.’
‘No, Narayana and Visnu, we can make. Krsna, we can make but only the Supreme Lord. We do not make any acharyas or anything like that.’ The sthapatis would not do it. So then it is said that Atma Tattva Prabhu went down to South India and for one week and produced different quotes from scriptures and then finally, the sthapatis agreed. Then they starting making Lord Caitanya, they were casting the Panca Tattva deities – refining it, carving and hammering to make it all perfect.
So, during the process, one of the workers was sitting on the Lord and working in the middle. Then the sthapatis came and said, ‘What! You are sitting on the Lord! Get down…’ So they had really accepted that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That was a big victory in the South, the fact that Lord Caitanya was accepted as the Supreme Lord. Now, Sri Sri Panca Tattva stand here in Sri Dham Mayapur to be accepted as the Supreme Lord and we provide the evidence, we provide the stories, we provide the meaning of the Panca Tattva, of Sri Dham Mayapur for all these people who come here so that they also can share in the mercy and then their life can become meaningful.
