It was in Los Angeles at this time that devotees began a full day’s schedule of āratis and offerings of prasādam to the Deities, just as in the great Vaiṣṇava temples of India. Jīva Gosvāmī, a great scholar and follower of Lord Caitanya’s teachings, had written that although chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa was sufficient in itself for going back to Godhead, because people in the present age are restless, they should also worship the Deity, for purification. Since the Deity worship involved sewing dresses for the Deities, decorating and cleaning the Deities’ altar, and cooking for the Deities, Prabhupāda turned to some of his women disciples who seemed particularly inclined.

One of them was Śīlavatī. She was older than most of the other women and had joined the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement with her two sons. When Prabhupāda saw her eagerness to help him establish the Deity worship, he asked her to come to his apartment, where he explained to her the system of worshiping the Deity with six daily āratis.

The first ārati, maṅgala-ārati, should be held one and a half hours before sunrise. But the Deities must first be awakened, then offered milk sweets and fruit, and then, at ārati, consecutively offered burning incense, burning camphor, water in a conchshell, a clean handkerchief, a fragrant flower, a yak-tail whisk, and a peacock feather fan. The devotee offering the articles was the pūjārī. The pūjārī would ring a bell in his left hand while offering each object with his right hand, moving the article in clockwise circles before the Deities.

Breakfast is offered to the Deities a few hours after maṅgala-ārati; afterward, all the devotees can take the remnants of that offering as the Deities’ prasādam. Then another ārati is performed at noon, after which the devotees take the remnants for lunch. And there are three other āratis – at four in the afternoon, at seven P.M., and another at nine P.M. Then the Deities take rest. Understanding that the Deity is actually the Lord and the proprietor of the temple, the devotees should serve Him just as a king is served in his palace. By doing this, the devotees would naturally increase their Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But it had to be done with enthusiasm. Prabhupāda cautioned that if enthusiasm waned, it could turn into drudgery and become like idol worship. The disciples would be sorry they had ever begun it.

After being instructed by Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śīlavatī returned to the temple to prepare for the new worship procedure. Next Sunday, when Prabhupāda visited the temple, he stood and watched Śīlavatī offering ārati. Afterwards, when Śīlavatī joined the other devotees in Prabhupāda’s room adjacent the temple, Prabhupāda greeted her by saying, “Now we will have ārati.”

Śīlavatī looked surprised. “Oh,” she said, “but I just had ārati.”

“No you didn’t,” Prabhupāda said.

“It wasn’t good?” she asked.

“No, it wasn’t good.” Prabhupāda then went into the temple and asked the devotees to bring him the various articles for offering ārati. Standing before the altar, Prabhupāda called out, “I want camphor.”

“What’s camphor?” the devotees asked. “Where do we get camphor?” Someone immediately ran out to buy some. Then Prabhupāda asked for flowers. Item by item, the ārati paraphernalia came together, as Prabhupāda, standing before the altar, directed the devotees to bring him each item. When everything was finally assembled, Prabhupāda demonstrated how ārati should be done. Then again he turned it over to Śīlavatī. He had shown them, and now they should continue with enthusiasm.

When Prabhupāda first introduced festivals and spiritual observances for the holidays on the Vaiṣṇava calendar, the devotees in Los Angeles were delighted. They would plan many of the Sunday festivals around a particular event. A butter-churning festival commemorated Kṛṣṇa’s activities as a cowherd boy; the celebration of Govardhana-pūjā observed Kṛṣṇa’s pastime of lifting Govardhana Hill; and festivals observed the appearance of Lord Rāma and Lord Nṛsiṁha, etc. These were not new ideas for Prabhupāda, but now for the first time he had facility and enthusiastic helpers to implement them.

In February, on the appearance day of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, Prabhupāda came to the temple and cooked potatoes and cauliflower, sweet rice, halavā, and purīs. While the devotees crowded in the doorway, watching, Prabhupāda cooked with silent concentration, cleaning the stove and sink after each step.

One day Śīlavatī discovered a bud on one of the 108 rose bushes. She excitedly called some devotees to see. Soon the other bushes would bloom with flowers to offer to the Deity, and the devotees knew Prabhupāda would be pleased.

Śīlavatī: Jayānanda planted 108 rose bushes, and we were all very anxious for the bushes to bloom. One day I found a little rosebud, and I was really excited. It was a yellow rose. I knew from the bud that the bush was going to be yellow and would have a particular fragrance like that flower. I felt that way about our temple. Maybe there were other temples that were bigger and grander, but the essence of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision was expressed in that temple. Just like with the rose bush you could tell the color and aroma of all the flowers on the bush, so from that temple we could derive the essence of this movement, what went on there.

The devotees were aware that their activities were successful model beginnings of what Prabhupāda would institute throughout America and the rest of the world. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa had organized Back to Godhead magazine distribution so that the devotees, while out chanting in the streets, regularly sold an unprecedented one hundred magazines a day. Viṣṇujana was wonderful, singing and playing mṛdaṅga all day long. Prabhupāda said he could lead kīrtana like a Gandharva. And Viṣṇujana’s puppet shows and dramatic skits for the Sunday festivals were something new to ISKCON and well appreciated by the guests; they made the Sunday program not just a feast but a festival. And now Prabhupāda had introduced a higher standard of Deity worship.

The devotees were inspired to serve together in Prabhupāda’s presence, and they worked long hours together, not with an attitude of pride in their own achievement, but with an ésprit de corps. They worked hard, but it was all recreation; they saw their engagements as eternal devotional service, even though performed in the temporary setting of the one-story wooden church in the metropolis of Southern California.

But crucial to the success of the Los Angeles temple was Prabhupāda’s personal presence there. Only because he was there was everything so successful. Although the devotees only saw him once a week, they knew he was at his apartment on Hayworth Street, and they would soon see him again.

Prabhupāda had been living in Los Angeles four months now, and almost since his arrival he had been considering leaving. He regularly received invitations from sincere disciples inspired with the “divine spirit” – the impetus to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That spirit had led disciples to different parts of the world as missionaries of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Śrīla Prabhupāda, as the source of that spirit for his disciples, wanted to go be with them, to help them, and to strengthen whatever they had begun. He couldn’t remain in one place very long. He had to keep moving and, like a flying, dancing spark, ignite the fire of Kṛṣṇa consciousness wherever it would catch and in as many hearts as possible.

This spirit had especially manifested in Prabhupāda since his return to America in December 1967, after recuperating in India from his illness. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement only really began, he said, after he had returned to the United States. When he had come for the first time, he had been successful in beginning centers in New York and San Francisco; he had seen that young people would take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But then a heart attack had almost cost his life. He had at that time seemed a retired person returning home to India. But Kṛṣṇa had somewhat restored his health and allowed him to return to America. So now, with a new aggressiveness and with much more deliberate, active planning, he would open as many centers as possible.

At La Cienega Prabhupāda had finally received permanent residency status in the United States, recognized by the U.S. Immigration Department as an “Ordained Minister of Religion,” and he was now free to come and go. So Prabhupāda was eager and prepared to travel not only in the United States, but abroad. On Gaurasundara’s invitation he had been ready to go to Hawaii as early as December. But Tamāla Kṛṣṇa had pleaded with him to stay in Los Angeles and continue to inspire the saṅkīrtana party. In January Prabhupāda wrote to the devotees in London.

I have received a letter from a man in Guyana, and he has invited me to go there. There is an invitation to go to Hawaii also, but above all I am very much anxious to see a London temple established first.

Śyāmasundara had written that Prabhupāda’s visit to London would be “the biggest event in London since the time of the Roman invasion.” Prabhupāda replied,

Actually this will be so. This time, however, there will be no invasion, but if England is prepared, they will receive something sublime which they cannot produce in their own country, neither in Manchester, Glasgow, or Edinburgh.

But Prabhupāda’s London preachers had not even managed to establish a center. They had been forced by circumstances to live separately, in different parts of the city. They had no place for Prabhupāda to stay. So Prabhupāda planned to visit other places, but he was most eager to go to London and declared himself fit in health and prepared for any climatic condition in England.

From correspondence with Hayagrīva, now teaching English at Ohio State University, Prabhupāda learned of their newly formed Kṛṣṇa Yoga Society. Hayagrīva wanted to arrange a program for Prabhupāda to chant with Allen Ginsberg before a large group of students. Prabhupāda told Hayagrīva to set a date. He would go anywhere to preach.

On February 13 Prabhupāda wrote to Kṛṣṇadāsa in Germany: “I can immediately go to Germany. What is the temperature there now? The only problem is it should not be too cold for me. I am an old man.”

During February Prabhupāda also suggested that his French-speaking disciple, Janārdana, go to Paris and start something there among his scholarly associates.

In Buffalo Rūpanūga had written Prabhupāda of his successful student center and the seventy-five students regularly attending his classes in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Prabhupāda wrote to Rūpanūga, “Regarding your desire to take me there for some time, it is long overdue, and if the climate is suitable, I can go even now if you think it is necessary.”

Gradually, Prabhupāda formed a full spring itinerary. “Considering the local climate as presented by you,” he wrote to Kīrtanānanda in New Vrindaban, “I think I shall postpone it until the end of April.” Similarly he promised Brahmānanda and Satsvarūpa to visit New York and Boston in the spring. From Hawaii Govinda dāsī promised the end of the rainy season, the beginning of the mango season, and local interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So by late February, Prabhupāda had a scheduled tour of about a dozen places, starting in early March with Hawaii.

During Prabhupāda’s five months in Los Angeles, many devotees had joined. All of them had learned firsthand how, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, everything centered around Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotee, the spiritual master. Having had their spiritual master with them for so long, the thought of his absence was painful. He had taught them everything except how to continue without him. But Prabhupāda assured them that their service to him in separation was even higher service. Just as they wanted him to stay, so he also wanted to stay. But this traveling and preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness throughout the world was his duty to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī – even at the risk of slackening his writing pace and leaving the ideal Kṛṣṇa conscious setting, where his 108 rose bushes were just beginning to bloom.