Nipu Shah's face is decorated with color, part of the festival's playful side.
Joy renews spirits
Holi festival at Hindu temple in Hockessin welcomes spring with playful splashes of color
By GARY SOULSMAN, The News Journal
Dancers at the Delaware Hindu Temple in Hockessin celebrate Holi, a festival that marks the arrival of spring.
Radhika Malhotra dances during the celebration.
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The News Journal/GINGER WALL
Drama, dance and play mixed joyously at the Delaware Hindu Temple near Hockessin last Saturday as members celebrated the Festival of Holi and the coming of spring.
Early in the afternoon in the temple basement, morality held sway with students enacting a tale of youthful spiritual devotion. Then students with a love of Bollywood tried out the latest movie dances.
In the parking lot, play took center stage. Children and adults splashed each other with water and colored talcum and chalk, said Patibanda Sarma, president of the temple association.
"Holi is a spring festival with religious significance, but it is mostly a cultural celebration," Sarma said.
Spring brings color to the world and Holi is an invitation to celebrate with water as well as paints and talcum.
"As a kid in India, I don't think I looked forward to anything more than Holi," says Tia Mukerji, a teacher at the temple. "It was a scream, and I still remember the excitement."
Several religious stories are attached to the festival. In one, Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu, splashes color as a playful blessing on his consort Radha and others.
In another, the sister of a demon king is asked to kill a devout young follower of Vishnu. She steps into a fire, thinking she will be preserved. Instead, she is consumed, and Vishnu's devotee is spared.
The sister, Holika, lends an abbreviated version of her name to the festival. Metaphorically, the Holi Festival is a reminder that Hindus are called on to burn impurities, such as selfishness, hatred and lust.
"We have the divine and the demonic in us," says Mukerji. "The main fight is always within. And we tell stories to instill optimism and faith in the good."
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பொங்கும் மங்களம் எங்கும் தங்குக!
இந்துமதம் உலகெங்கும் செழித்து பரவுகிறது.. எல்லோருக்கும் இறைவழியையும் ஆன்மீக உணர்வையும் அது தருகிறது.
நன்றி
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List of converts to Hinduism
From Christianity
Agehananda Bharati (born Leopold Fischer) - academic Sanskritist, a prolific author about religious subjects, and a Hindu monk in the Dasanami Sannyasi order
Alice Coltrane - American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, and composer
Larry Coryell - American jazz guitarist
Alain Daniélou - French historian, intellectual, musicologist, Indologist
Ambarish Das (born Alfred Ford) - American businessman, great-grandson of Henry Forda disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founder of ISKCON
Bhagavan Das (born Kermit Michael Riggs) - Western Yogi
Urmila Devi Dasi (born Edith E. Best) - leading female disciples of Srila Prabhupada specializing in primary and secondary education
Roy Eugene Davis - American kriya yoga teacher
Krishna Dharma - British author and convert to Gaudiya Vaishnavism under ISKCON
John Dobson - astronomer and telescope designer
David Frawley - author on Hinduism, Yoga and Ayurveda
Heather Graham - American Actress
Kelli Williams - American Actress
George Harrison - popular English guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer, and film producer, best known as a member of The Beatles who passed away chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra in the company of monks from ISKCON. He is also known for donating Bhaktivedanta Manor, a Hindu temple to the Hare Krishna community in Britain
Jon B. Higgins - American musician, scholar, and teacher known for his rare skill as a foreigner in the field of Carnatic music
Lex Hixon - poet, philosopher and spiritual practitioner and teacher
Aldous Huxley - English writer who emigrated to the United States, author of Brave New World
Christopher Isherwood - Anglo-American novelist
Stephen Knapp - American author and convert to Gaudiya Vaishnavism and member of ISKCON [1]
Swami Kriyananda (born J. Donald Walters) - direct disciple of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda
Joe Don Looney - professional American football player
John McLaughlin - jazz fusion guitar player
Crispian Mills - English musician
Savitri Devi Mukherji (born Maximiani Portas) - French woman who became enamoured with Hinduism and Nazism, trying to synthesise Hinduism with Nazi philosophy and racial ideology
Swami B. G. Narasingha (born Jack B. Herber) - American Hindu monk, author, photographer, videographer, and documentarian
Sister Nivedita (born Margaret Elizabeth Noble) - Anglo-Irish social worker, author, and teacher
Raimon Panikkar (born Raimundo Pániker Alemany) - proponent of interreligious dialogue
James Pomerantz - senior sitar disciple of Ali Akbar Khan of the Baba Allauddin Maihar Gharana
Deva Premal - musician known for New Age meditative music
J. D. Salinger - American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (born John E. Favors) - American Hindu leader and disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Kenneth R. Valpey - Gaudiya Vaishnava Theologian who studied at Oxford University, St. Cross College
Ma Jagattarini Devi - (born Janne Wesly) former hollywood actress
Shaunaka Rishi Dasa - born into an Irish Christian family and founder of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
From Judaism
Krishna Das (born Jeffrey Kagel) - singer who performs Indian chants called kirtans
Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) - professor of psychology at Harvard University
Hridayananda Goswami (born Howard J. Resnick) - American spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Tamal Krishna Goswami (born Thomas G. Herzig) - governing body commissioner of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Nina Hagen - German singer
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