Importance of Deity worship...

Satsvarupa: It's Prabhupada installing Radha Krishna (now called Radha Gopivallabha) in Boston in July of 1971. That's a long time ago. I was still dressed in white. The installation ceremony was simpler than was done in later years. Prabhupada supervised it and told exactly what paraphernalia to use, so it is a bona fide installation even though lacking some of the ingredients and procedures used nowadays. Only two people conducted the yajna. Prabhupada reads from the Gaudiya Matha edition of the Brahma-samhita, the Sanskrit prayers of Lord Brahma. He has come to Boston for a few days in the midst of worldwide quick-stop travels. Despite the simplicity, the ceremony is clean and neat and the Deities are very beautiful. The temple room is effulgent in late morning sunlight. Prabhupada has personally selected the Deities in India, identical to Radha Madhava in Mayapur.

I pour milk and yogurt on the Deities. The temple is filled with devotees, approximately twenty of whom will be initiated by Prabhupada on a next day. Boston is no longer a big, important temple with ISKCON Press having moved to Brooklyn, but Prabhupada has kindly come to the city at my repeated requests. He has recently been to Moscow and Paris and he will next go to Brooklyn. He is most affectionate and caring to have stopped to perform this installation, and he impresses us with the importance of Deity worship, that he personally took the trouble of coming and that he allowed me to assist him as priest.