Guest guest Posted December 13, 2005 Report Share Posted December 13, 2005 Posted on Mon, Dec. 12, 2005 Hindu celebration in Livermore embraces all By Tom Lochner CONTRA COSTA TIMES LIVERMORE - On the stage of the Hindu Community and Cultural Center on Sunday, four children -- Shruti Ravishankar, Sujaya Tranquebar, Navneedh Subarraman and Krithika Jagannathan -- performed a skit based on an anecdote from the boyhood of Krishna, the Lord Incarnate. Krishna and his friend, Sudama, were gathering firewood in the forest when a thunderstorm forced them to take shelter under a tree. Both had taken a bag of puffed rice for sustenance. Sudama ate his, and finding Krishna asleep, ate his friend's portion as well. "Life went on," said Dr. Kamala Shankar, a physician and a temple library volunteer, paraphrasing the skit. Sudama became a Brahmin priest, took a wife, raised two children and lived in poverty. Krishna, the king, lived in prosperity. One day, Sudama's wife told her husband to visit Krishna. Having nothing else to offer as a gift, Sudama gave Krishna the rice from a pouch he carried. When Sudama came home, he found his house full of riches. The moral is, "Whatever is given to me with love is more precious than another rich gift," explained Laxmikant Joshi, another volunteer. It is also one of the messages of the Bhagawad Geeta, one of Hinduism's holiest scripture. The skit was part of Sunday's Geeta Jayanti celebration at the Livermore Hindu center, part of a complex that includes the Shiva-Vishnu Temple. Geeta Jayanti marks the day almost 5,400 years ago when the Bhagawad Geeta was revealed to the world. The scripture, in the form of a dialogue between Lord Krishna and epic hero Prince Arjuna, traces the journey of the soul from a state of confusion to the realization of the self through total surrender to God. The celebration began with a recitation from the Bhagawad Geeta, describing "how we can live a peaceful life within the family, the society and nature," said Prabha Duneja, a missionary, pacifist, scholar and teacher who has written several books, including "Bhagawad Geeta: The Gateway to Freedom." It closed with a prayer for peace that Duneja paraphrased as "Oh Lord, may I become the embodiment of peace and carry that peace wherever I go. "In order to have peace in our lives, we have to live in awareness of the divine ... in unity with the source of life," Duneja continued. In between, there were hymns and other devotional music, children's dances and theater performances and vegetarian Indian food. While Geeta Jayanti is a joyous celebration, its celebrants were mindful of the "imbalances" in the world -- the natural disasters and other "un-dharmic events," as Joshi put it. Last year's celebration, on Dec. 26, came as news of the catastrophic tsunami in Indonesia and the devastation it wrought on India's East Coast hit the Internet and newscasts. Earlier this year, the temple raised money for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Kashmir. A month ago, the temple held a ritual with rhythmic recitations of mantras "to please the planet, to calm it down," Joshi said. Hindus believe in reincarnation and the cyclical nature of life. "So many cycles have happened before, when the earth was destroyed," Joshi said. "This cycle will end, too." "But not anytime soon," Shankar said. Built in 1977, the temple has grown to about 24,000 member families. There are plans to build a senior center and children's classrooms. Sunday's celebration attracted Hindus from all over the Bay Area and beyond. "For us, it is an opportunity to get our kids connected to our culture and values," said Dr. Uday Devanaboyina, a Fremont toxicologist and a native of Hyderabad, India. He and his wife, Lalitha, a registered nurse, watched their daughters Pooja, 6, and Vennela, 5, act and dance in a musical skit that celebrated Krishna's love of mankind. To temple president Amrit Duneja, Geeta Jayanti represents "a renewal." For Venkat Kode, it is an occasion to "mix business with pleasure." "We are mixing the business of praying to the Gods with the pleasure of meeting friends and praying together," he explained Prayers implicitly embrace all humanity, as well as other creatures, Kode said. "Even in a personal prayer, you pray for all the beings." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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