Photos By Jason Matthew Walker
By The High Springs Herald
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.