Word: altars
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...large, jewel-draped case in between two smaller cases also containing figures. The cases are supported by a three-tiered, brown marble platform covered with white and yellow flowers, jade elephants and pictures of spiritual masters who have died, or left the material world. On either side of the altar are stained glass windows of Krishna and Radha...
...devotees fly to the altar clutching their instruments, the congregation swelling behind them. A devotee with a mrdrunga or drum, sets a slow simple tempo and begins to chant in Sanskrit. The congregation answers the leader's prelude and sways with the slow tempo. The devotees dance closest to the altar, beating mrdrungas or kartals, small high-pitched cymbals, and leading the rest of the congregation in the singing and dancing...
...mrdrunga pattering becomes a solid roar. Alongside the altar a devotee waves a large white-haired brush. The kartals crash as devotees bound to and fro, somehow avoiding a collision. They hop and leap, pony tails bobbing, mouths agape, chanting, "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare..." The energy ripples through the congregation. A man violently rocks from his waist up, glazed eyes bobbing above a limber neck. A swaying woman, dressed in a sarong, catches a red carnation. She closes her eyes, smells the flower, grins and flings it to someone else. A woman devotee bounces with...
...temple, the growing beat and deafening volume of the drums and kartals, the sweet incense and the glistening altar seem to inspire the devotees into uncontrolled gesticulations. They are thrown into a frenzy of twirling orange robes, red ribbons, flashing kartals and airborne sweat. The entire congregation leaps on the floor, shouting the mantra, "Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare..." At the end, they fall to their knees...
Once again they press their foreheads to the floor. They answer the Sanskrit words of a devotee, confirming their love of Krishna. Another devotee salves the altar with a wet cloth...