Festivals and
Celebrations

HSO brings the color, vibrancy, and sense of home of various Hindu festivals and traditions to Columbia's campus. In the Fall, HSO collaborates with Columbia's Raas team to host a Garba-Raas event during Navaratri, and works with CU Sewa, Columbia's Sikh organization, and CU Ahimsa, Columbia's Jain student organization, to hold a Diwali celebration in November. We also organize a massive Holi celebration on Columbia's campus in the spring.

Varied Programs

Every year, HSO creates programming that reflects the community of the moment. In recent years, we've held a lecture panel between a professor of Islamic studies, a Hinduism PhD student, and a professor of rabbinic literature; a Hindu Awareness Week featuring a talk by Pandit Gadhadara Das and yoga taught by the professor of Indian classical dance at Barnard; and hosted a talk by a swami from India. We further hold an annual Indian classical arts showcase featuring Columbia students, and a day of service in the name of Gandhiji.

Weekly
Services

HSO holds bhajans (Hindu prayer services) every Friday at 6p.m. in St. Paul's Chapel basement. Anyone is welcome to come and sing, lead, or simply be present. Every alternate Friday, we also hold a bhajans workshop to help newcomers become more familiar with the bhajans we sing or for oldcomers to learn new songs.

Bhajan Book

Please feel free to look through our 2012 Bhajan Book to find the most current listing of our prayer songs.


Our previous 2008 Bhajan Book is also available.

Click here to see our current board!

Click here to view our old boards!

Contact Us

Send us an email at hso@columbia.edu anytime! We'd love to hear your feedback, ideas, or questions.


Meet us online through Facebook


Meet us in person any Friday during the semester at bhajans at 6pm in the basement of St. Paul's Chapel on Columbia's campus.

Join HSO

HSO's events are always free and open to all students in the Columbia community.


Subscribe to our general body listserv and get updates about our upcoming events and important dates.


To join our planning board, which consists about 20 students from any of Columbia's four undergraduate schools, talk to us at the beginning of each academic year.

We hold interest meetings at Columbia's Activities Fair on Low, the mixer Club Zamana holds for South Asian groups within the first two weeks of school, and our own Information Session (typically held on the second week of school).

If you're interested in joining, sign up for an interview at any of the start-of-year events. During the very relaxed 10-minute interview, we ask you a few questions about yourself and your interests in HSO, and you have a chance to ask us anything you're wondering as well.

And don't worry if you're not sure if you consider yourself a "Hindu" - the uniting factor is an interest in being a part of what we do.