Tamal Krishna : I came to England in September of 1969, and Srila Prabhupada said that we would open the London temple in December, but at the time there were no deities. We asked Srila Prabhupada, “Where are the deities?” and he said, “You have to arrange for deities.” How could we arrange for deities? He wanted Radha-Krishna Deities but we hardly knew what deities were. We were in tremendous anxiety and were constantly searching for deities. We set up Janaki’s phone number as a hotline so that anybody who had any information about deities could call. The date was getting closer, there were no deities, and Prabhupada was determined to open the temple. Prabhupada even made the entire menu for the celebration feast and he had me make an invitation card. On the card I wrote that everybody was invited to come and eat prasadam. Prabhupada corrected me. He said, “You don’t eat prasadam, you respect prasadam.” We printed the menu and invitation card, but still there were no deities. At that time sankirtan was very difficult. The police had stopped us on the streets so we were having programs in many different homes of Hindu families. Every night we would go for three or four hours and get one pound from each of them. It was excruciating to sit for hours in people’s homes and at the end of the night come back with only three or four pounds. Finally, in October or November, someone called our deity hotline and said, “You can find deities in a certain Hindu center.” So Mukunda and I went to that place. The man we met there said, “I do have some deities.” We said, “We’d like to see Them.” He said, “They’re over there.” We didn’t see anything. He said, “Under that cloth.” The man went over to the cloth, pulled it up, and there was Radha-Londonisvara. We were amazed to see these deities and we immediately bowed down. The man said, “For various reasons we have no use for these deities.” We said, “We have to ask our spiritual master.” We went 2 outside and from a phone booth we immediately phoned Prabhupada at his furnished apartment on Baker Street next to Regent’s Park. Prabhupada was resting at the time, but when he woke up and heard the news he said, “Take me there at once.” Prabhupada took Shyamasundar, Mukunda and me with him. By that time it was evening. Prabhupada sat down in the man’s sitting room. The man said, “So, Swamiji, you are interested in our deities?” Prabhupada said, “Where are you from? Where is your family from? Let me meet your wife. Let me meet your children.” The man paraded his family before Prabhupada. I couldn’t understand what Prabhupada was doing. As far as I could see Prabhupada spent 30 to 45 minutes wasting time talking to the man. The man was eager to pull the cloth off again to show Prabhupada the deities but Prabhupada had no interest in seeing the deities. Finally the man said, “Look, are you interested or not?” Prabhupada said, “What is that?” The man said, “In the deities.” Prabhupada said, “Let us see the deities.” Then the man lifted the cloth up. Prabhupada’s face was placid ? he didn’t react or respond. The man became anxious, “Don’t you want these deities? Your disciples said you were looking for deities. Don’t you want these deities?” Prabhupada was just looking at Them. The man started to encourage Prabhupada, “You should take these deities. You must take these deities.” Prabhupada asked me, “See if you can pick up this deity.” I went over to Srimati Radharani, tilted Her back and picked Her up. I said, “She’s not that heavy.” Then Prabhupada asked Shyamasundar, “See if you can pick up the other deity.” Shyamasundar picked Him up and said, “He’s not that heavy.” Prabhupada said, “Okay, let’s go.” We picked up the deities and walked out of the house and the man said, “Wait, Swamiji, wait, wait.” He wanted to discuss the price of the deities but Prabhupada said, “It’s okay, They’re not that heavy, we’ll be all right.” Prabhupada had us put the deities in our van. The man was there with his wife and children and he was trying to beg Prabhupada to wait and discuss and negotiate some money for the deities. But we were all in the van and Prabhupada said, “Drive.” We drove one or two blocks and then Prabhupada said, “Stop the car.” We stopped and Prabhupada said, “Now let me see the deities.” Then he started to chant the Brahma-samhita to Sri Sri Radha-Londonisvara and he said, “Krishna has appeared.” He was so happy. He was so, so pleased.
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint – Volume 4 by Siddhanta Dasa
