Livermore Hindu Temple Invites Community to Celebration of Krishna's Birth

August 23, 2005

Source: The Mercury News / Contra Costa Times

htt p://w ww.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/12455889.htm

On August 23, 2005 the Contra Costa Times reported, "Prabha Duneja [author, lecturer and organizer of this event] describes Livermore's Shiva-Vishnu Temple as one of the largest religious organizations in Northern California. Even though it doesn't have members as such, she estimates 20,000 Hindus from all over the East Bay are regular attenders. And the efforts of the temple -- also known as the Hindu Community and Cultural Center -- to reach out to the community at large remain a top concern. So Friday night's 'Janmashtami' celebration marking the birth of Krishna, an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, is designed as part spiritual celebration, part feast and part open house... The basic message [of the celebration] -- the divinity within all people and the need for its awakening -- was central to the god Vishnu's Holy Sermon of Bhagavad-Gita, one of the most well-known and influential texts of Hinduism first delivered 5,092 years ago."