'Love Thy Neighbor' – Hare Krishna-style

October 21, 2006

High Springs Heralds - High Springs,FL,USA

Live music, dramas, dance performances and complimentary food marked the 2nd

Annual "Love Thy Neighbor Festival" held recently by the Hare Krishna

community in ...

'Love Thy Neighbor' – Hare Krishna-style

Photos By Jason Matthew Walker

Live music, dramas, dance performances and complimentary food marked the 2nd

Annual "Love Thy Neighbor Festival" held recently by the Hare Krishna

community in Alachua.

(Photos, starting at top left, moving clockwise) Visitors were able to see

many holy objects, including paintings. For more than 15 years, Poondai Singh,

72, has showed her devotion by presenting herself to Krishna every day.

With a live band in the background, Mohini Chacon, 16, dances in front of the

temple's shrine to Krishna. "My main goal," she said, "is to meet new people.

What we follow is what we believe in, and I never want to be anything else."

Radha Maldonado, 6, patiently waits as cat features and Hare Krishna markings

are drawn onto her face. In addition to face painting, the event also featured

coloring stations, a bounce house and a chance to pet "Mali," an 8-year-old

female cow.

Jaya Gopal airbrushes a portrait of Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami on a slab of

drywall. Swami was the firector of the Bhaktivedanta Institute and has

organized the first ever World Conference for Synthesis of Science and

Religion.

Mrkanda das Fitch, a member of the board of directors and an assistant in arts

and entertainment, freestyles a tune on his flute. Beside Fitch is a painting

of Krishna on his farm with his goddess, Radha Rani, at his side.

Students of Anapayini Jakupo, the founder and director of the Bhakti Kalalayam

Dance Academy, perform the Bharatanatyam, which is a classical South Indian

dance style.

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