Due to the kindness of Gaura Keshava das I have obtained 6 DVDs of raw footage of the opening of the current temple resided in by Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Candra. He was the priest at the opening ceremonies when RVC moved from Bahulaban to the then new temple. Sri Nathji and the large Gaura Nitai deities were also installed at that time.

I have given them to Nitai to copy so the temple could have a set. Hopefully at some point a single DVD could be generated hitting the high points as this July 4th represents the 25th anniversary of the temple opening. There are whole fire sacrifices with lectures and everything included so lots of room for condensing.

It is interesting watching and seeing my own reactions to the DVDs. I find that while I have some interest in the ceremonies themselves and the Deities involved, I am most keenly interested in the crowd shots of the people. I am seeing lots of devotees I haven’t thought of for years or decades, and have forgotten I even knew. Of those I do remember well, they are much younger and, usually, thinner.

The shots where my own family are involved are especially interesting to me, as we have no current footage of ourselves from back in the day. The sequence where the curtains to the altar are opened for the first time, shot from two different angles by two different cameras simultaneously, is one example.

The first things brought in were meant to be be auspicious. There were large piles of rice in a line going down the center of the temple room with all the devotees in the wings. On the top of the rice mounds, small fires were burning. There was a parade that entered from outside, then walked in front of the altar.

First a murti of Srila Prabhupada was brought in and carried to his vyasana, then a tulasi plant. Next came Ambarish leading a cow and I was behind him with a calf (as previously mentioned here). What I had forgotten was that next came a bunch of little girls and there in the film is Manjari, aged 7, escorting Vraja, aged 3, right behind the calf.

There is some footage of Vidya decorating the Yajna shalla at the temple prior to the fire sacrifices held there, with Madhu watching. There is more of her decorating the teakwood chariot at Bahulaban before RVC got on and were pulled the 2.5 miles (4 K) to the temple. Manjari is both seen and heard in that one. Marken is present in the picture because Vidya is clearly pregnant with him. He was the first baby born after the new temple opened.

Once the chariot got underway, there was kirtan for the entire procession. For the first part Indradyumna Swami is leading it, and there are a few minutes of that before he hands it off. There is footage of Radhanath Swami helping prepare the three fire pits in the yajna shalla for the fire sacrifices. He is applying what I believe is cow dung to the bricks that formed them. At another point he is shown walking out of the temple and to the yajnashalla with his danda, looking all Radhanathesque as he is prone to do.

Bhakta Tirtha and Prahladananda Swamis fans will also be able to catch a glimpse of them at the restaurant having a conversation.

Hopefully we can get these 25 year old clips of these guys from 1983 excerpted and posted on the internet for the pleasure of the devotees. I will let you know when that happens.