Inaugural rites in Hyderabad

Hari Sauri : In Hyderabad, August of 1976, the pomp and ceremony did not end even when we arrived at the temple. Prabhupada was led to the site of a sacrificial fire where he took a seat on a kusa grass mat facing the fire pit. For the next half hour a variety of inaugural rites were performed by Sampath Kumar Bhattacarya and his contingent of South Indian brahmanas. At one interval in the proceedings, Srila Prabhupada was given a multiple strand of pavitras to wear; then a ring of kusa grass was placed on his finger; and finally a bracelet made of burnished aluminum wire was placed around his wrist.

Srila Prabhupada gave a short address to conclude the ceremonies. He directed it to the brahmanas who were all prominent Vaishnavas from the Sri-sampradaya. Through their contact with Yasodanandana and Acyutananda Swamis, they have developed a great respect for Lord Chaitanya's sankirtana movement, so now Srila Prabhupada solicited their help and encouraged them to overlook any deficiencies in the execution of yajna by his Western-born disciples.