In 1968, The New Vrindaban Community was founded in West Virginia to fulfill Prabhupada's dream of an ideal society based on Krishna Consciousness, or love of God. When Prabhupada set down the first guidelines for such a community, the idea seemed out of reach to the small band of devotees struggling through a hard winter on a small, rundown farm. There was no electricity, no running water in their only building, a battered pioneer shack. But when Srila Prabhupada had a vision of "seven temples on the seven hills," suddenly all obstacles seemed insignificant to his followers.

Srila Prabhupada traveled extensively and in 1972 returned to New Vrindavan. By then the community had expanded from the original 100 acres to 500 acres. In 1973, the devotees decided to build a home for Srila Prabhupada, where he could write all his books and enjoy the clean country air. The location was chosen for its potential beauty, hardly apparent at the time because the land was being used as a dump. The debris was removed, the land was cleared, and construction was started on a simple house. The plan was a rough sketch drawn on a scrap of paper.

But Lord Krishna had his own plan. Somehow or other, at each step, the trial-and-error construction produced something grander than what the devotees had imagined. Bit by bit, cemented, forged, and chiseled with loving labor, Prabhupada's Palace of Gold emerged. How it came about may seem hard to understand: after all, how could these inexperienced devotees build something that surpassed their own expectations? A spiritual force was certainly involved, and those who worked on it were but instruments in the Lord's hands. That spiritual force is inexplicable, beyond words, but is evident in the love that is infused in the Palace.