Darshana: Glimpse into Hindu Civilization-Traveling Exhibition Launch

Sacramento Dharmic Communities hosted “Darshana: A Glimpse into the Hindu Civilization” a colorful overview of Hindu concepts and practices, offering an opportunity to learn about one of the oldest civilizations in the world with continuing global presence today.

The traveling exhibition featured a variety of topics, ranging from yoga and divinity to mathematics and administration, demonstrating how Hindu knowledge has manifested in all aspects of human endeavor.
The Exhibition is created to raise awareness on Hindu thinking, contributions, and common practices. Compiled by a group of Hindu-Americans, it aims to clear misconceptions, introduce some key terms, and inspire further research into the rich culture that has found its home in the United States and globally.
Sacramento Darshana exhibition launch was held on Sunday April 10th @ Orangevale Community Center on the occasion of Hindu New Year (Ugadi) celebration.
The event started with the lighting of the lamp by Swami Prapannnanada, Minister and Teacher at Vedanta Society of Sacramento. Sri Vijay Simha, HSS National Executive Council Member, explained the essence of Darshana Exhibition and breaking the stereotypes.
The event was hosted by HSS, SEWA USA, Hindu Yuva. 12 young adults from the HSS Sacramento answered the questions from the guests in detail showcasing the excellent knowledge they learnt about the culture.
More than 130 people including Bobbie Singh Allen - Mayor of Elk Grove, William Lauritsen - Councilman from Lincoln, Councilman Bret Daniels from Citrus Heights, Kristin Schroeder of Western Sierra Collegiate Academy, Rachel Lyman of Interfaith Explorers, Mike McKibbin - Board member of San Juan Unified Board of Education indulged themselves to know more about the Hindu culture.
Bobbie Singh Allen, Mayor of Elk Grove & a proud Indian American appreciated the event declaring “Exhibitions like this are wonderful opportunities to teach our great community about who we are and where we come from. Please continue to share this so that we all can have better understanding”.
“It's a wonderful celebration of diversity and inclusion” said William Lauritsen, Councilman from neighboring city of Lincoln.
Citrus Heights Councilman Bret Daniels quoted “It was very fascinating, its extremely helpful to have more and more of these exhibitions so that you can educate more people”.

Kristin Schroeder, Humanities Teacher from Western Sierra Collegiate Academy mentioned “It was really interesting to see the different cultures and having kids present the posters was awesome and exhibition was amazing and educational”.
Rachel Lyman of Interfaith Explorer said “We are all one, congratulations on this exhibition and hope we can show this to many many people”.
Kelly Lest of Sacramento, one of the attendees said “amazing, educational and informative, every young adult did an outstanding presentation”.

Dr Bijay Nair, President of HSS Sacramento quoted “This exhibition is an earnest effort by the local residents of Hindu faith to bring awareness of their ancient culture and religion to the wider population of Sacramento”. We believe that there are a lot of shared values between the ethos of this great nation and the Hindu religion. America is great in large part because of its openness to diversity. We uphold this principle in the context of religion. The motto of the United States as proposed by the founding fathers ‘e pluribus unum’ which implies ‘unity in diversity’ is stated in a very similar vein in our ancient scriptures: ‘truth is one, sages call it by various names’.
One of the guiding principles of Hinduism is ‘ahimsa’ or non violence. This inspired Mahatma Gandhi, a keen student of the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita, (meaning the song of the God) to lead a whole nation in successful non violent resistance against an unjust and oppressive regime. This subsequently inspired non violent civil disobedience movements across the world in the second half of the 20th century including in this country under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr.
Hinduism is rooted in the concept of ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ meaning that the world is one family and that we humans have to take care of each other as well as the earth that sustains us.

Vibha Doddipalle, a high schooler & MC of the event stated “It was inspiring to be part of a team that was so passionate and put in hours and hours of hard work into this event. I am so proud to be representing and sharing our Hindu culture with many people from diversified backgrounds and can’t wait for more events such as this one!”

To host this Darshana exhibition in your community, please contact us @ https://hindudarshana.com/contact/
More info @ https://hindudarshana.com/
Audio Tour of the Exhibition is available at https://hindudarshana.com/audiotour/

More pictures and videos of the event @ www.facebook.com/hss.sacramento
Darshana event Videos: