India is a land of diversified culture, traditions and religions, still when it comes to joyous festival celebrations; they appear as an amalgamated homogeneous group symbolizing only one family. All differences melt away smoothly when happiness and joy that accompanies a festival celebration capture the hearts of all the participants.
Observing this wonderful trend of bridging different cultures, some of our PEACE CC members (Mr. Millindar and family and Prema) took initiative to celebrate Janamasthami that brought together different groups and tradition consisting of youth, women, men, senior citizens from Sikh, Hindus and parsis.
As Janamasthami signifies the advent of Lord Krishna, the celebration included bathing the Deity of infant Krishna with specific sacred ingredients. While all assembled participants joyously performed this ritual in small groups, some of them played melodious bhajans in the background using cymbals, harmonium and mrdanga. The atmosphere was thus surcharged with soothing sacred sound vibrations that naturally awakened one's intrinsic connection with Lord.
As the celebration also signifies the acceptance of The Lord as the ultimate Beneficiary of entire creation, there was also reading from the sacred book, Bhagavat Gita to know its relevance for world Peace and also to guide mankind advance in human birth. This was followed by prayers for peace and harmony and later an elaborate aarthi was performed with different ingredients to welcome the Lord. The articles used in Arati represent the material elements in their pure form and correspond to the sense objects. In other words, the Arati articles are satisfying to the senses and represent our offering all the elements in the Lord’s creation back to the Lord for His satisfaction.
Finally a grand feast was served for all and later it was also distributed outside for poor people.
