GEETHA PATIL
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: Sri Krishna Janmashtami was celebrated by the students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Origins Club and Harvard University at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge September 2 much devotion and a cultural extravaganza
The event was held in the traditional way with Vedic mantras, kirtans, Abhishekam and arati. Also showcased were the hidden talents of students, and provided enjoyment and fun to the participants that even comprised of a large number of non-Indians.
The celebration began with Carnatic style singing of devotional songs by Harini Darba and group and ‘Govardhana Giridhara Govinda’ by Tara, a computer science PhD student at Harvard.
Anagha Sundarajan performed a Kathak dance. Vinayak, a PhD student, gave a Mohan Veena performance with Ashwin from Connecticut on the tabla. This was followed by a Kuchipudi dance describing Lord Sri Krishna’s activities by Preeti Krishnamani, a freshman at MIT.
After an enlightening talk by Sadananda Dasa on the importance of knowing about Lord Krishna’s appearance, activities and the importance of the celebrations, Abhishekam, a devotional and beautiful ceremony where Radha and Krishna were bathed with different traditional juices, milk, curds, honey, and special sacred waters was held. Then mangal aarati with different kinds of lamps were done to the deities.
Different kinds of flowers were showered on baby Krishna in the midst of chanting of melodious and energetic Hare Krishna mahamantram.
During baby Krishna’s special alankarm, a lovely violin piece was played by Aniruddh, a PhD student at MIT along with Kumaresh on mridangam. This was followed by a Bharatanatyam dance by Rujul Gandhi, an undergraduate student at MIT describing how Vrindavan changes on hearing Lord Krishna’s flute.
Shriya Srinivasan, a PhD student at MIT, sang Carnatic songs that described the glories of Lord Sri Krishna. Sutikshna performed the last dance piece describing how Lord Krishna protects his devotees. She showed through her fine dance mudras and eye expressions how Gajendra, the crocodile, and Draupadi were protected by Lord Krishna.
Sadananda Dasa, Vaishnava Hindu Chaplain at MIT and a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, organized and led the entire event along with students of MIT ORIGINS club and Harvard
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