Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The Indian teaching, through its clouds of legends, has yet a simple and grand religion, like a queenly countenance seen through a rich veil. It teaches to speak truth, love others, and to dispose trifles. The East is grand - and makes Europe appear the land of trifles. ...all is soul and the soul is Vishnu ...cheerful and noble is the genius of this cosmogony.

Global Hindu Heritage Foundation is extremely happy to inform you that Ajay Varma organized Muggulu / Rangoli competition in five villages and distributed prizes to the winners. Our Associate, Ajay Varma, who volunteered to participate in this effort has a long history of propagating the richness of Hindu Dharma. He has a very rich background in Hindu Dharma. He has deep knowledge of the traditions and has the ability to explain all our customs. For example, he can talk about the significance of Tilak on the forehead, and the reason to wear bangles, nose buds, earrings, toe rings, and so on. People get surprised to know the inner meaning of these age-old customs. From childhood, he worked as a priest in their heritage Hanuman Temple and used to do all kinds of Pujas, conduct homas, Satyanarayana Pujas, and many festivals bring bringing everybody to these festivals. He is very enthusiastic about propagating and preserving Sanatana Dharma and gives lectures at different Temples depicting the greatness of our culture and age-old traditions. He also has experience of knocking on the doors of Christian families in and around Kakinada. He met them wherever he was able to approach and talk to them. Some of them he met at their houses, and some met in the neighborhood.

Muggu / Rangoli

Muggulu / Rangoli Art is the Traditional art of India. It is believed that having Rangoli Design in front of your house brings good luck apart from decoration purposes. Houses are decorated and Rangolis are drawn in front of the houses to welcome Gods and Goddesses into the house.

Our Pracharak, Ajay Kumar talked to villagers and requested them to decorate in front of their houses with Rangoli. He even invited Christians to participate in the Rangoli competition. Many of them hesitated and said that their Pastor got mad and told them that they will burn eternally for participating in Hindu festivals. Still, some of the Christians participated and drew a beautiful design. In fact, two Christian ladies won first and second prizes in one of the villages.

Usually, Rangoli Designs can be created using colored rice, paints, flowers, and colored sand, etc.  Rangoli’s prominence has been left unaltered over the years.

People do Rangoli/ Muggu/Kolam Designs with various colors and even competitions are held to encourage the old and young artisans. During auspicious occasions, people make amazing colorful patterns and designs in front of the houses, the main door, and in courtyards, etc.

Makara Sankranti is celebrated for three days. In Andhra, it is celebrated for four days. It is a harvest festival and is celebrated with immense devotion, fervor and cheerfulness from North India to down in South India. This festival is celebrated on 14th January and is possibly the only Indian festival whose date always falls on the same day each year based on the solar system. The first day is Bhogi. North India is known as Lohri. The second day is Sankranthi which is dedicated to worshipping Surya (the Sun god), Varuna (the rain god), and Indra (king of gods). The third day is Kanuma which is dedicated to cleaning cows, farm animals, and farm equipment and offering prayers to them for helping with a successful harvest season. The fourth day in Andhra is called Mukkanuma – where they visit friends and exchange gifts.

Hindus across the country engage in different activities such as taking a holy dip in the river / seawater at the auspicious time of Sun transition (uttarayana punyakalam), offering special prayers to the Sun, and doing charity by giving alms to the poor and needy. There is a belief that water gets energized by receiving solar energy during the transition time. And taking a holy dip in waters helps in energizing the body. Mainly Surya Bhagawan i.e Sun god is worshiped on this day. Many Hindus chant Aditya Hrudayam and similar stothrams. 

These three / four days the streets of many different neighborhoods in South India look amazingly colorful with different designs of rangolis. Rangoli (Kolam, Muggu) is an art of drawing with dots using dry rice flour. Women wake up early in the morning to decorate their courtyards.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Ghar Waapasi is going uninterruptedly. We also celebrate the festivals, support them, and also inspire them to conduct all the festivals. We appreciate it if you can help in hiring more Pracharaks who can go to these villages to do Ghar Waapasi. We have employed twenty-six Pracharaks working in Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana, and Assam. More people we hire more villages can be covered to welcome them back and also create Chaitanya (Awareness) among the students and villagers.

1) Donate any amount to help the Dharma Pracharaks to work at the ground level.

2) Sponsor one Pracharak: In order to expand our base and hire one Pracharak, it would cost approximately $3000 - $3500 per year. We have five anonymous donors who sponsored Assistants.

DONATIONS

PayPal Method: To donate visit our website: savetemples.org. Click on the Donate button, then press the Purpose category, and select the General Donation category.

By Check: Or you can send a check payable to: GHHF, . It is tax-deductible.

By Zelle: ghhfusaorg@gmail.com

By Rupees, please contact us by either phone or email.

For more information, call Prakasarao V Velagapudi 601-918-711; 1Email: ghhfusaorg@gmail.com