He performed the installation ceremony by pouring ladles-full of the liquids over the Deities. The milk, ghee and honey cascaded down Their curved bodies, collecting momentarily in the ridges of Their eyes and the folds of Their carved clothing. Then Yamuna, Gurudas, Tamal Krishna and I moved the Deities behind the curtain and onto Their marble plinth. Then Prabhupada joined us, having finished the fire ceremony, and directed Yamuna how to dress the Deities in Their new clothes. The rest of us were trying to position a purple silken canopy over the Deities’ altar. It was to rest upon four turned wooden columns that were painted silver.
The problem was that the pillars slipped and slid all over the altar the minute we tried to place the canopy’s aluminum frame on top of them. We tried once again to place the canopy on the pillars, only to have it slip toward the Deity of Krishna. Prabhupada sprang onto the marble altar and caught the cupola an instant before the aluminum frame crashed onto the Deity’s head. We all exchanged looks – standing on the altar was something none of us would dare to do, but the look on Prabhupada’s face was that of someone rescuing his child from being crushed.
“Take it out,” Prabhupada said to me, holding the frame in both hands, “Take this out.” I decided I would try to make it look like part of the ceremony. I emerged from the Deity room being careful not to part the curtain and expose the Deities to the crowd, and picked my way through the seated crowd, which grudgingly parted to let me pass. From the back of the room I saw that the curtains had parted and Yamuna was twirling three smoking incense sticks the way Prabhupada had shown us in the first months we had known him. The arati ceremony progressed while Prabhupada stood with folded palms before his Lords.
