"The Kartamasayi deity was a deity that somehow came to New York and also to San Francisco. He is about two teet tall, and is a boyhood Krishna standing with his hand delicately on his hip with long beautiful hair and a very nice face.
Govinda dasi saw this deity in San Francisco, and asked me if I could make plaster castings. She was in love with Him!
Srila Prabhupada agreed that she could, and I drove to San Francisco and more or less kidnapped the original Kartamasayi and brought him to our temple in LA on La Cienega ave. (This was a year before New Dwarka on Watseka).
So, I made a latex mold, and I found out that the original was made from papier mache. So I made seventeen Hydrostone castings of Kartamasayi, (until the mold began to warp). This equaled one for each temple that we now had around the USA. So I cast them, and Govinda dasi painted them, and they were exquisite! (She sponged reddish pink on his bright blue cheeks!)
When I finished the mold, I returned the original to San Francisco....they were so relieved and happy to get him back!
(In 1973 in Ahmedabad) India, I was staying with Srila Prabhupada with a family who had a Kartamashi deity, so I have some reason to believe that this form originated in Gujarat.)
So as I was working on the castings in a tented off area at the LA temple in nineteen sixty nine, I heard a commotion around me as I was deeply concentrating. Finally I looked up, and there was Srila Prabhupada's hugely radiantly smiling face a few inches from mine!! ...He was surrounded by devotees who were laughing and smiling at my utter surprise and delight.........That was a very high moment in my life.
A few days later I had completed the seventeen murtis, and was visiting Srila Prabhupada in his apartment. He asked how the production was going....I told him that we were completed, and that we had one Kartamasayi murti or each temple.
He said that I should continue to make them and sell them to karmis.......I was horrified. I said " if we sell them to karmis, then they might put them on their front lawn as a lawn ornament!".....SP said, "If one karmi buys one Kartamasayi murti and puts Him on their lawn,.......THEN OUR WHOLE MOVEMENT IS A GLORIOUS SUCCESS"!
So, that is my experience with Kartamasayi."
Your servant
Nara Narayan Vishwakarma dasa
