On Monday Sept 02, 2019, Shree Krishna Janmotsav/ Janmashtami was celebrated by the students of MIT Origins Club and Harvard University at the MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA with much devotion and a beautiful medley of cultural extravaganza. The event conveyed spirituality of MIT and Harvard students who were interested in celebrating Sri Krishna Janmashtami in more traditional way with Vedic Mantras, Kirtans, Abhishekam and Arati. Also showcased the hidden talents of students, and provided enjoyment and fun to the audiences that even comprised of a large non-Indians in the festival. 

This spiritual festival enlivened everyone's hearts with divine chants, devotional music, Indian classical music & dance, devotion induced worship and spiritual reflection. The celebration began by offering homage full of devotion to Lord Krishna through Carnatic style singing of devotional songs by Ms.Harini Darba and group and 'Govardhana Giridhara Govinda' by Ms. Tara a Computer Science PhD student at Harvard and working at MIT media lab. Ms. Anagha Sundarajan, a lawyer by profession presented a beautiful Kathak dance. Mr. Vinayak, who is a PhD student presented a beautiful Mohan Veena performance with Ashwin form Connecticut) on table.  This was followed by a Kuchipudi dance describing Lord Sri Krishna's activities by Preeti Krishnamani a freshman at MIT. 

After an enlightening talk by Sadananda Dasa on the importance of knowing about Lord Krishna's appearance, activities and the importance of the celebrations, Abhishekam – a devotional and beautiful ceremony where Sri Radha and Lord Krishna were bathed with different traditional juices, milk, curds, honey, and special sacred waters.  Then Mangal Aratis with different kinds of lamps were done to the deities. Different kinds of flowers were showered on Baby Krishna in the midst of chanting of melodious and energetic Hare Krishna Mahamantram.

During Baby Krishna’s special Alankarm, a lovely Violin piece was played by Mr. Aniruddh -a PhD Student at MIT along with Mr. Kumaresh on Mridangam. This was followed by a Bharatanatyam dance by Rujul Gandhi an undergraduate student at MIT describing how Vrindavan changes on hearing Lord Krishna's flute. MS. Shriya Srinivasan, PhD student at MIT sang Carnatic songs that described the glories of Lord Sri Krishna. Ms. Sutikshna performed the last dance piece describing how Lord Krishna protects His devotees. She showed through her fine dance mudras and eye expressions how Gajendra the crocodile and Draupadi were protected by Lord Krishna.

Gorgeously decorated Baby Krishna in a beautifully decorated swing appeared on the stage to bless everyone. All the devotees lined up to swing Lord Krishna with much devotion. Sadananda Dasa, Vaishnava Hindu Chaplain at MIT and the disciple of His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada organized and lead the entire event along with students of MIT ORIGINS club and Harvard. A delicious 11 item Indian Maha Prasadam cooked by the devotees of India Heritage Foundation, Boston was served to all the devotees of the event.

|