Tens of thousands of young adults, mostly teens and twenties, clamor toward the stage at the spring Festival of Colors in Los Angeles. From a diversity of backgrounds and cultures and beliefs (or no belief at all), they gather to celebrate Holi, to reenact the color play of Radha and Krishna, the supreme Hindu expressions of divinity and the enchanters of the world. Radha and Krishna’s love play is relived and remembered in the crowd’s joyful playing of colors. As they throw chalky, brilliant handfuls of the multi-colored Holi powder at each other, attendees become disguised in vibrant colors: differences of age, race, and ethnicity, their previous identities, erased.
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare!!” The mahamantra (the most significant chant) of the Hare Krishnas reverberates throughout soccer fields, parks, and their own temple grounds as the …
From one perspective, the undulating and gyrating masses (thousands upon thousands at any given time and throughout the weekend) could have been observed at any number of places: a rock concert, a dance club, or a college party. …
In 1978, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) published a statement on the state of world religions declaring that the world’ “The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, …
“This is a revival!” festival organizer Caru Das declared from the main stage. Repeatedly throughout the two days of the Spanish Fork Festival of Colors at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, Das took the microphone to frame …
Dr. Deepak Sarma, professor of South Asian religions and philosophy at Case Western Reserve University, is the author of Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader (2011), Hinduism: A Reader (2008), Epistemologies and …
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Daisy Vargas holds a Masters degree from the University of Denver in Religious Studies and is completing her doctoral studies at UC Riverside. Her expertise …
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Matthew Casey earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Religious Studies at the College of Charleston (2009) and the University of California, Riverside (2011). At Riverside, …
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Principal InvestigatorJennifer Scheper Hughes directs (with Amanda Lucia) the ISIR festivals project funded by a grant from the Luce Foundation: Religions in Diaspora and Global Affairs …
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Principal InvestigatorAmanda J. Lucia (PhD, University of Chicago, 2010) is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Riverside. Her research …
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Cristina Rosetti, graduate student in Religious Studies at University of California, Riverside. Rosetti’s research focuses on American religious history and contemporary religion in the United …
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“Spencer Dew is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Centenary College of Louisiana. A literary critic and scholar of American and new religious movements, his …
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