Aksoja was twenty when the temple became his responsibility. Early in 1972 several of the first pioneers left for assignments elsewhere in Europe, and the young American monk found himself in charge of Bethaniënstraat 39: the worship, the harinam in the streets, the correspondence with Srila Prabhupada in India.
The garage also kept a secret. James Green—Jagannatha dasa—and a Dutch devotee named Eddy had obtained the hardwood, and for months, behind a heavy cloth curtain, the forms of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Subhadra Devi slowly took shape. Few things build suspense like a curtain.
On July 3, 1972, the devotees sent their most daring document: a formal petition to Queen Juliana at Palace Soestdijk and to Amsterdam’s mayor, Arnold Samkalden. Copies of Krsna Book went with it, together with a request for a royal audience for Prabhupada during his European tour.
The palace aside, the practical list was long. The devotees booked a press conference in the VIP lounge at Schiphol Airport, the grand hall of the Krasnapolsky Hotel on Dam Square and the open-air amphitheater in Vondelpark. Everything pointed toward July 28—the day careful plans would meet real crowds.
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