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Gaura Dasa: Installation and opening of ISKCON Hyderabad 1976. TTD Astana Vidvan M.R. Sampat
Kumara Bhattacharya (left), Yasodanandana Swami (bearded for caturmasya), Srila Prabhupada and
another Sri Vaisnava priest from the arcaka party performing Homa. Bottom left Pradyumna's son
Aniruddha is seen partially.

Prabhupada wrote in Chaitanya Charitamrita that he did not like the priests that installed the Deities
in 1975 in the ISKCON Vrindavana opening (Bhimasena Sastri and his party). The next year Mahamsa
Swami (GBC for South India) asked Prabhupada if he could invite leading Ramanuja Vaisnava priests to
help perform the installation and opening of ISKCON Hyderabad. Prabhupada agreed. Prabhupada was
very happy with the Vaisnava priests and they also were very appreciative of him. Prabhupada asked
Yasodananda and Pradyumna to learn from M.R. Sampat Kumar Bhattacharya, so that his disciples
could perform these installation ceremonies themselves. Sampat Kumar continued to perform
ceremonies at other ISKCON temples including in New Vrindavana, USA. He also gave a salagrama to
Srila Prabhupada that Prabhupada gave to Pradyumna to worship. This was the beginning of salagrama
worship in ISKCON.
Reference : FB post of Gaura Dasa
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Yamuna: During our stay in Visakhapatnam, there was a daily morning walk along the Bay of Bengal,
and the atmosphere was surcharged with the presence of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. En masse-I
don't think he ever excluded any of us from those morning walks on the beach-all of the devotees knew
what time Srila Prabhupada would be taking his walk, and they would come from their different
quarters and all follow him down to the seashore. The walks were brisk and refreshing and full of
transcendental Krishna katha. Somehow or other we were all able to hear Srila Prabhupada speak.
Reference : Yamuna Devi – A Life of Unalloyed Devotion
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Yamuna: During our stay in Visakhapatnam, Anand Prabhu (Srila Prabhupada’s godbrother) was
supervising all the cooking at this time for the assembled devotees, and also he was cooking for Srila
Prabhupada. So there are some wonderful photographs of His Divine Grace during this period. His
health was strong, his bodily luster brilliant and illuminating, and he would often appear with just his
outer covering tied at his shoulder, and no shirt. And he would walk about frequently looking at the
different activities in the temple and listening to the devotees' kirtanas.
Reference : Yamuna Devi – A Life of Unalloyed Devotion
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Yamuna: During our stay in Visakhapatnam, when we assembled in the mornings at about 11:30 for
prasadam, all the devotees would line up on the veranda outside Srila Prabhupada's quarters in the
temple compound-the men on one side and ladies on the other side. And as Anand Prabhu would
distribute the prasadam down the center, Srila Prabhupada would sit in a wooden chair with his japa
beads, simply observing the devotees take prasadam. This pastime went on for many days. So of course,
the combination of the loving exchanges between Anand Prabhu and Srila Prabhupada, partly in Bengali
and partly in English, was not understood by the devotees, yet we could perceive the ecstatic mood. It
felt like a pastime out of the pages of the Chaitanya Charitamrta-two devotees serving and sharing in
great ecstasy.
Reference : Yamuna Devi – A Life of Unalloyed Devotion
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Yamuna: During our short stay in Visakhapatnam, our party was escorted to a very great temple located
seven miles from the modern city of Visakhapatnam, the beautiful temple of Sri Simhachalam. Champa
[plurneria] trees were growing nicely throughout the entire compound. There was a beautiful scent
filling the air, and one devotee, I believe Nanda Kumara Dasa, picked one of these lovely golden yellow
flowers and handed it to Srila Prabhupada as he was standing under the banyan tree. The photograph
taken of that moment in history has been lovingly captured by our godsister Visakha Devi, and is printed
on the back of the Krishna Book, where Srila Prabhupada is seen holding the flower to his beautiful
face. After Srila Prabhupada smelled the flower, he commented, "This flower is the color of Lord
Chaitanya, and is most loved all over India. The flower is beautiful to look at and beautiful to smell."
And he carried the small saffron-gold flower between his forefinger and thumb throughout the rest of
the entire morning at the temple.
Reference : Yamuna Devi – A Life of Unalloyed Devotion
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Visakha devi: In Visakhapatnam, where we stayed in B. V. Puri Maharaja's Gaudiya Matha ashrama, a
small group of us, including Yamuna, would walk on the clean, wide beach every morning. The
atmosphere was intimate, relaxed and ecstatic. We all relished this time with Prabhupada, knowing
that it was a rare chance to be with him in such a setting, and Yamuna was especially grateful and most
attentive to Srila Prabhupada's words and mood.
Reference : Yamuna Devi – A Life of Unalloyed Devotion