Lord Krishna’s birth celebrated with great fanfare

Lakshmi Iyer
India Post News Service

FREMONT, CA: On Sunday September 2, the Fremont Hindu Temple was transformed into a mini Mathura/Vrindavan for the celebration of Lord Krishna’s birth, also known as “Janmashtami”.
Occurring on the eighth day (‘ashtami’) of the waning phase of the moon (‘Krishna paksha’) in the month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar month of ‘Bhadrapad’ (or the lunar month of ‘Shraavan’), the miraculous birth of the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, is celebrated by Hindus all over the world.
Incidentally, the Fremont Hindu Temple was founded on Janmashtami in the year 1983. Dr. Romesh Japra, the Founder of this temple and FIA/FOG, announced this during his address.

Astrovaastu Solutions founders Vaneet and Nisha Sharma sponsored the Janmashtami celebrations and Preeti Bhoj. The couple is very talented, too. They sang a lot of ‘Bhajans’ with Vaneet Sharma playing the harmonium, and led a choir of devotees.

There was a cradle set up and decorated beautifully with a lot of tinsel and rich finery. The idol of baby Krishna was seated on it and worshippers lined up to pay their respects and gently rock the cradle.
There was a little girl dressed up as Krishna and everyone found her to be adorable. People brought in sweets and other food items to be offered as ‘prasad’, so there was a continuous stream of offerings.
At midnight, a baby dressed up as Lord Krishna, was placed in the cradle. Close to midnight, the celebrations came to a grand finale with dancing, drum beats, singing and chanting. An ‘aarti’ wrapped up the event.

Veteran FIA/FOG member and Temple Trustee, Manorama Joshi, was instrumental in setting up the decorations for the occasion.
Sanjeev Bhardwaj of AB 24 covered the event.