Day: 13 March 2013

Chicago IL: Hari Om Mandir locked at 6N020 Medinah Rd, Medinah, IL celebrated Mahashivaratri on Sunday, March 10, 2013, with bhajans from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Despite heavy rain and thick fog, devotees had been trickling in before then to perform worship of the Shiva linga on this auspicious day when the ascetic god finally awoke from his deep meditation to marry his consort Parvati for the welfare of the world. As the rain died down, more families arrived and the hall was almost full by the time a temple committee member attired in the ascetic garb of Lord Shiva appeared, wielding the trident and playing the damaru (small hourglass-shaped hand-drum), with his wife as Parvati dressed in auspicious red, to receive worship and bless the assembly seated before them. Devotees queued up to worship the linga at two different locations within the temple: at the separate shrine to Shiva and Parvati behind the primary sanctums dedicated to the manifestations of Lord Vishnu and at another temporary linga that had been specially installed in front and to the right of the main shrines. The latter had large cardboard backdrops of the snow-covered Himalayas to transport the devotees to his abode […]

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Lemont IL: Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago (HTGC) at Lemont, IL, celebrated the Lord of Dance (Nata-Raja) on Mahashivaratri with a cultural program that saw wide participation from across Chicagoland, even all the way from Iowa. Classical styles from both South and North India were represented, as also old devotionals rendered through contemporary fusion. Performers ranged from six-year old kids to mothers dancing with their adult daughters. As befitting this festival of ascetic Shiva’s awakening from the depths of prolonged meditation to the world of the senses, most items portrayed the god deploying his limbs in ecstasy (tandava), sometimes accompanied by consort Parvati’s gentle (lāsya) dance. Following a dhun (folkish melody) from HTGC cultural committee, there was a tabla ensemble performed by Hersh Pathak, Darsh Kapadia, Shiven Gupta, Akhil Ghosh, Ayush Panda, Dhruv Chepakasseril, and Amogh Raula from Jugalbandi Academy of Tabla and Kathak Dance in Naperville. Founder and choreographer Bindu Pathak has been teaching in Chicagoland since 1995. This was followed by “Om Namah Shivaya” a Kathak performance featuring Shreya Surti, Sahej Sharma, and Anusha Singh. Tabla ensemble comprising Athyun Nagelli, Amal Ghosh, Shivansh Padhy, Hersh Pathak, Harsh Sharma, Amogh Raula, and Pragya Mahishweri then performed together (jugalbandi) with […]

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