Brother Bhaktananda relates the story of how the temple’s beautiful stained-glass windows were acquired.

Stained-Glass Windows

One day the contractor asked Parmahansaji, “What kind of windows do you want? What kind of doors?” The Guru didn’t have any instructions for him at the moment. However, in the morning he called me on the intercom and said, “Get in the pickup truck and follow my car. Divine Mother is going to give us stained-glass windows.” So I followed his car.

When we arrived at the building-supply yard, Guruji asked a salesman, “Do you have stained-glass windows?” The man said “No, I have worked here four years and I have never seen any. I’m sure we don’t have any.” But Guruji persisted. “Will you please go to the office and see if anyone there knows anything about stained-glass windows?” The man went to the office.

In the meantime the Guru started walking down one of the aisles, and we followed him. He paused, and began to poke curiously a t one of the piles, thick with dust and dirt. He was still there when the yardman returned and said “We don’t have any. No one knows anything about stained-glass windows.”

Guruji said, “What is back in this pile?” The man began to scrape the dirt away. A one-inch thickness of clay came off, and the yardman said “Yes, there is such a window here.” Out of that pile came all the stained-glass windows for the Hollywood Temple - big ones, little ones - from a supply yard that had no stained-glass windows! But as Guruji had said: “Divine Mother is going to give us stained glass windows.”