Radha-Madhava's Installation.

Shaunaka Rishi Das, the (21 year old) temple-president of Dublin at this time, remembers how Radha-Madhava's installation came about.

SRD: "The Deities had been brought from India over a month before and had been standing in my office covered in cloth. One day, I suddenly got a phone-call from our leader Prithu das in India, he said that His Holiness Satsvarupa Maharaja would be visiting Ireland at the end of the week, and we would install the Deities then. This was completely unexpected! We had less than a week to prepare for this momentous event and were immediately plunged into intense activity, to get everything together in time. There was so much to do: There were no clothes for the deities to wear, so we brought expert seamstress Bhakti-lata dasi over from England and a team of sewers worked day and night. There were also curtains and backdrops to be made. The deities were unpainted and Saksi-Gopala carefully and painstakingly painted Their features, hands and feet. He and Aniruddha also did carpentry work, preparing the altar where the Deities would reside. We had quickly to send out invitations to guests and the media, order a marquis, scrub the temple from top to bottom, prepare a menu and shop for a huge feast and many other things."

The installation ceremoney took place in a big marquis in the grounds of the temple. Installing a deity means that Radha and Krishna are personally invited to enter the deity form, so that They are actually present before the worshipper. It's not a statue that we are seeing and serving, but God Himself, who has kindly come there to enable us to develop our intimate relationship with Him.

A large crowd gathered to witness the event. His Holiness Satsvarupa Maharaja performed the ceremony gravely and with devotion, to the accompaniment of enthusiastic kirtan. Nitai-sachinandana remembers:

"I had spent several hours shining up the brass paraphernalia for the occasion - brass pots to hold milk, honey, water and other ingredients, lamps, bells and trays. It had been glorious weather for the previous few days, but on the day of the installation it poured with rain. My strongest memory is of seeing Radha-Madhava being carried into the marquis with umbrellas held above Them. They looked very beautiful; Saksi-gopal had painted Them exquisitely and it was hard to take your eyes off Them!

After the ceremony, Radha-Madhava were brought from the marquis to Their altar in the temple, where they were dressed in a rich-looking red velvet outfit and adorned with flower garlands. When the curtains opened, Satsvarupa Maharaja offered Them Their first arti and there was a really ecstatic kirtan. Everyone was swept up by the chanting and the atmosphere was spiritually charged. Everyone remarked on it, even people who had only come to a temple for the first time. It was tremendous." The occasion wound up with a sumptuous prasadam feast - the first cooked offering to Their Lordships.

Sri Sri Radha-Madhava presided over the Dublin Temple for over a year, until circumstances became difficult for the devotees in Ireland and arrangements were made for Them to move to Belfast. Here They stayed temporarily in Wellington Park, until we found a suitable place for Them. In 1985, They came here to Their temple, "Brooklands" in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast, where They are the joy of the Vaishnava community in Belfast. All glories to Their Lordships, Sri Sri Radha-Madhava!

The pictures here are sketches by Padma-malini from photos of the actual event. They show Satsvarupa Maharaja installing Radha-Madhava.