Bahulasva das: Srila Prabhupada sent Nara Narayan up to design the carts. I remember one meeting that Nara Narayan was walking around the room holding his head, and Srila Prabhupada said what was the matter because you could see Nara Narayan was in anxiety. He told Srila Prabhupada that he needed special empowerment, he felt he needed a special empowerment in order to do these carts, and he told Prabhupada it had to come in a name. So Prabhupada told him, “All right, for this now you have become Viswa Karma, the architect of the universe.” Nara Narayan lit up, and that was all he needed to get his inspiration for figuring out how to build all the three carts because he had to invent the scopes for the domes coming down.
Nara Narayan das: The tops were designed so that the whole Rathayatra car could slip under a 15-foot-high overpass. So the entire part came down. We had it all designed the year before, we just took a pole and lowered it down, but that cart was only 35 feet tall. These were over 60 feet tall. So we just were building it, we didn’t think. Then Srila Prabhupada was in Los Angeles, he happened to talk to Tamal and said, “And how is the lowering mechanism going to be designed?”Tamal said, “Oh, Nara Narayan is working on that. He knows all about it. He’s a genius engineer, he can do it.” So Srila Prabhupada said to Tamal, “So who is checking on Nara Narayan?” Tamal said, “Oh, you don’t have to check on Nara Narayan, he knows what he’s doing.” And Prabhupada said, “Why not ask?” So Tamal phoned up, he said, “Ha, ha, ha, I hate to ask you this, I mean, it’s so silly, but how are you doing the mechanism, how is it raising up?” We said, “Well, we’re just…we’re…uh…” We hadn’t thought of how to do it.
So Locan, myself, Madhudvisa and Jayananda, we all sat there for four days without sleeping, day and night, not able to figure out how to raise the top. Finally, somehow or other it came to me how to make this telescoping tube that could be raised up in increments, which is sort of the model that’s been used ever since except it’s been made much more sophisticated since then, much better design. Then Prabhupada said sternly, “No one should ever be in charge completely of something, there should be committee to make sure.” Because Prabhupada, if anyone, had tremendous confidence in what I could do and Tamal had complete confidence in what I could do, and yet I had made the biggest blunder that could have destroyed the whole festival if we had not stopped and worked that out.
Nara Narayan das: The tops were designed so that the whole Rathayatra car could slip under a 15-foot-high overpass. So the entire part came down. We had it all designed the year before, we just took a pole and lowered it down, but that cart was only 35 feet tall. These were over 60 feet tall. So we just were building it, we didn’t think. Then Srila Prabhupada was in Los Angeles, he happened to talk to Tamal and said, “And how is the lowering mechanism going to be designed?”Tamal said, “Oh, Nara Narayan is working on that. He knows all about it. He’s a genius engineer, he can do it.” So Srila Prabhupada said to Tamal, “So who is checking on Nara Narayan?” Tamal said, “Oh, you don’t have to check on Nara Narayan, he knows what he’s doing.” And Prabhupada said, “Why not ask?” So Tamal phoned up, he said, “Ha, ha, ha, I hate to ask you this, I mean, it’s so silly, but how are you doing the mechanism, how is it raising up?” We said, “Well, we’re just…we’re…uh…” We hadn’t thought of how to do it.
So Locan, myself, Madhudvisa and Jayananda, we all sat there for four days without sleeping, day and night, not able to figure out how to raise the top. Finally, somehow or other it came to me how to make this telescoping tube that could be raised up in increments, which is sort of the model that’s been used ever since except it’s been made much more sophisticated since then, much better design. Then Prabhupada said sternly, “No one should ever be in charge completely of something, there should be committee to make sure.” Because Prabhupada, if anyone, had tremendous confidence in what I could do and Tamal had complete confidence in what I could do, and yet I had made the biggest blunder that could have destroyed the whole festival if we had not stopped and worked that out.
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