Just this morning when Srila Prabhupada arose from bed, He spoke to me about how He had held Rathayatra early in His childhood. He recounted as follows: “When I was five or six years old, any carpenter I saw I would ask him why don’t you make a Rathayatra cart for me. ’Yes, why not,’ they would say. I would have my father take me to the carpenter shop, but none of them would make it. One old lady saw me crying on the street because I could not have the Rathayatra cart built. She asked my father why is he crying and my father explained because he wants a Rathayatra cart but no carpenter is making it. I have got one, said the old lady, and my father purchased it from her. He bought oil paint for me and I painted. I was also preparing fireworks for the occasion. I saw little books how to do it. My father gave me anything I wanted and thus put my mother into anxiety. And I was very persistent. All day friends and children would help me and I was never lazy. From my birth I was never lazy neither dull. Neither was I ever defeated by anyone. Whatever I would order to my parents or friends must be obeyed. Krishna has given me always leadership. How I a poor Indian, have leadership of the Europeans and Americans? And amongst the authors of the world I am also the leader.”
From a letter by Tamala Krsna Goswami to God-brothers and God-sisters of New Dvaraka-dhama