Every evening at 6:30, Crocs, Skechers and flip-flops join the shoes piling on a powder-blue porch where people shed them before stepping over the threshold onto the Krishna House's checkered temple floor.
The shoes belong to Krishnas, non-Krishna Hindus, UF students, Gainesville residents and out-of-towners, who sit on gray and blue mats to worship, learn or just watch and listen as the Krishnas pray, chant, sing, dance, and discuss the Bhagavad Ghita, a sacred Hindu text.
The Krishna House is home to students who are in the Institute for Vaishnava Studies, which teaches Vaishnavism, one of the most prominent sects of Hinduism.
Andres Salim, a UF senior, lives in the blue Krishna House and learns alongside other students to live by four principles: cleanliness, austerity, truthfulness and compassion.
Salim, who was raised Catholic, began eating Krishna lunch his freshman year and moved into the house after months of learning from teachers at the institute.
Krishnas believe in one God and worship through Krishna, "the blue god," as the supreme personality of God because of his all-attractive nature.
Salim said that Krishna is inviting to everyone because he possesses all qualities that are pleasing to people.
Though the Krishnas represent only a part of Hinduism, people from all different lifestyles and religions participate in their classes, which are held mornings and evenings during the week, Salim said.
"That's something that's really cool about our society," he said. "There's no secrecy."
There are fewer than 50 International Society for Krishna Consciousness centers in the United States, and two of them are in Alachua County: the Krishna House and a temple in Alachua, which is part of a Krishna community that expands across 127 acres. They are the only Hindu temples between Orlando and Jacksonville.
Some non-Krishna Hindus worship at the temples despite not identifying as Krishnas, and according to religion department chair Vasudha Narayanan, many Hindus do not consider themselves part of a specific sect.
Aside from worship, some followers of Hinduism go to temples to socialize, and "one can be a perfectly good Hindu without ever going to a temple," she said.
Diversity is a hallmark of Hinduism, which recognizes hundreds of millions of gods and goddesses.
In her book, Narayanan said that to be Hindu is to be engaged in a sense of pluralism and recognize the many gods as manifestations of the supreme being.
"There are many ways one can be Hindu. You can follow the traditions you feel most comfortable with," she said.
"Some speak about meditation and an inner journey, and others speak about social action. Others speak about devotion to the divine. There are many paths by which one can reach the supreme."
The most prevalent concept in Hinduism is moshka, meaning liberation from the cycle of life and death, which Hindus believe is repeated endlessly until the soul achieves liberation, according to a chapter Narayanan wrote for "The Illustrated Guide to World Religions."
Dharma, which encompasses duty, truth, justic, law and righteousness, is also a universal concept in Hinduism.
Performing arts are celebrated in Hindu culture, and children often learn about Hinduism by immersion in traditional song and dance, Narayanan said .
"I think that's the most important thing you can say about Hinduism here. In India, people learn Hinduism by being there-absorbing, observing and participating," she said. "Here, you have to articulate what the religion is about."
Nikita Kathuria, an active member of UF's Hindu Students Council, was raised in a non-sectarian Hindu family.
She attends a non-sectarian Hindu temple in Orlando while she's at home, and she and other Hindus she knows worship at the local Krishna temples while at UF, Kathuria said.
"I do my prayers every day and try to go to the temple as much as I can," she said. "We believe in Krishna, so the Hare Krishna temple is perfectly fine, too."
It's not difficult to maintain her faith at school, she said, because followers are free to choose their own methods of expressing and developing their spirituality without restrictive guidelines.
"I feel like Hinduism is a very personalized religion," she said. "You do what you can to best understand yourself."
