Dear Readers,
Holi is the festival of fun and frolic; it is the spring festival of India when everybody comes together on to the platform of love and harmony. Forgetting all the past animosity, differences, or friction, people celebrate this festival embracing one another exchanging greetings – ‘Happy Holi’.
March is typically the month we celebrate Holi. But have you ever wondered what the true meaning of Holi is and why we celebrate this festival? We’ll detail the article later. Find out the basics of Holi festival in our previous articles:
This year, Holi is going to be celebrated on March 21, 2019. Today, ‘Holika Dahan’ would be performed by evening all over the country. Burning of Holika, a character in Prahlad’s story, indicates the burning of enemies. Enemies are not from outsides, but also it resides within us. Infact, our MIND is our biggest enemy. He can do everything with you. It may give you the gain or loss. Basically, Our mind is polluted with material contaminations. To wash it off completely, one must choose the spiritual path. This is the only route to cleanse off the dusts from MIND. Hence, Holi is the symbol to protect yourself from these evils and enter into the world of love and peace. So the holi is burned and played throughout the country.
Real secret behind its celebration
The only secret behind its origin is to give the authentication for presence of Shri Krishna. You all are well aware of the story of Prahlad. Holika sits with Prahlad on fire but as resulting, she burned herself and prahlad was saved (by Krishna). Later, her father tried many ways to kill him but failed everytime. Atlast, he ask prahlad that your God is not seen by my eyes, where is your God? Is he within this pillar? Yes! Prahlad replied. His father brakes the pillar and then the krishna appeared as Narsingh incarnation and killed his father.
Thus Krishna quoted to devotees, not to raise the questions further about the presence of him. On that time and in kaliyuga, devotees reads in scriptures that God is omnipresent. Ramayan says, Hari Vyapak Sarvatra samana, Prem Te Hohin Prakat Main Jana.
So somewhere, devotees is/was not accepting the fact. Krishna proves his presence everywhere. Through this incarnation, the victory over evils also emerged and accepted by the world. Krishna only helps his devotee if he takes his shelter all the way, like Prahlad. There is much to say further about his surrendership devotion, but we will try to conclude all the things in our upcoming post of Surrender to God. It was also the request from many of our readers.
HOLI MADHURI
शिशु बनि करु क्रंदना, भज्यो आवे नँदनंदना ।
Weep for Him like a helpless child and Nandanandana will come running to you.
वृन्दावन, धूम मची होरी ।
The festival of Holi is being celebrated with great enthusiasm in Vrindavan.
सखन सखिन को, सखिन सखन को,
लै पिचकारिन रँग बोरी ।
The sakhas (cowherd boys) and sakhis (cowherd maidens) are spraying color on each other using their water guns, drenching one another with colored water.
लली लाल मण्डल बिच ठाढ़ें, दुहुँन दुहुँन किय सरबोरी ।
Radha Rani and Shree Krishna are standing in the middle of the circle. They too have colored each other from head to toe.
लाल गुलाल लाल भये बाद, लाल लाल भइ ब्रजखोरी ।
There is so much red ‘gulal’ being thrown around that even the clouds and all the lanes of Braj have become red.
स्रस्त व्यस्त सबके पटभूषन, करत परस्पर झकझोरी ।
In the hustle of Holi, everyone’s clothes and ornaments have become loose and messy.
तब ‘कृपालु’ कह, साँझ भई अब, कालि होय होरी हो री ।
Says Shree ‘Kripalu’, “It is evening now, hence the play of Holi should be stopped, and tomorrow we will again play Holi here.”
Festival of Holi is celebrated in the commemoration of God coming to protect His devotee. It is a celebration of faith and a reaffirmation in the protection that God offers to those who take His lotus feet as their only shelter.
“Now thoroughly mix the saffron colour of your devotional sentiments, and using the pichkari of attachment for Him, play Holi with Him. Shower Him with the arrows of flirtatious glances, effortlessly immersing yourself in the bliss of love for your Beloved.
O Sakhi!” Play Holi with Syamsundara with sentiment of love. Wake up now. The night of material existence is over and the daybreak of true knowledge has come… (PREM RAS MADIRA)
True happiness lies in knowing God
This is an excerpt from Shree Maharaj’s speech on the significance of Holi.
You people have celebrated many Holis, but there might only be a few people who have thought about and discussed the festival of Holi in detail. Why do we celebrate Holi? What is the secret behind it? We will discuss this now.
The principle is that everybody does every work for a reason, for a cause. No work is without a reason. Every personality whether a human, or a God-realized Saint, or God himself-the work of all of them is done with a purpose. Even we people have a purpose-it is not just related to celebrating Holi – but think about all your works. What is the purpose? We have done all our works with only one goal – to attain happiness. Nevertheless, we kept receiving pain and sorrow. The more we run towards happiness, the more pain and sorrow we receive.
Happiness is called that which is unlimited in scope, lasts forever, and pain or sorrow can never overcome it. You are happy one moment and sad the next, then happy, then sad… what kind of a disease is this? Darkness can never reign over light. It is an indisputable principle. Then how can pain rule over happiness? That happiness which can be overruled by pain, that happiness which can be snatched once we have received it, that is not happiness; it is an illusion; it is deceitful, it is confusing. This kind of illusory happiness exists everywhere that Maya rules-all the way upto Brahmalok!
Happiness is not of one kind, it is of five kinds: see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. That’s it! Material happiness is of five kinds; there can be no sixth. The world is also like this. We first ask where we think we will get a lot of happiness, we got it too, but next time it is less, and then even less, and less and less until it finishes. Then we go as far as to say, “To see that girl for whom he (a boy) would drive around for hours on end, when that girl married him, so slowly slowly it got to the point that ‘I don’t even want to see her anymore. I’ve got such a witch!'”
“This is the same witch for whom you would go driving circles around her home?”
“Yes, she is the same but there was confusion.”
This disease is without any limits. Whatever objects are there in this world, they all are ruled by these five kinds of happiness: sound, touch, sight, taste, smell. All the happiness that is mayic or belongs to this mayic world is small, even within limits is small, is limited in scope, and even their duration is limited; they are destructible. That’s why this is not happiness. In other words, the happiness we are seeking is something else. The happiness we are seeking is addressed by the name Brahm. That same happiness is also called paramatma, khudah, God, etc. You give it many names. So removal of pain is not our goal. Our goal it is to obtain true happiness.
For example, no one wants the end of poverty. He keeps thinking, ‘money should come, money should come…” Why? To end poverty, so that poverty goes away. He is stressed day and night about two rotis and still didn’t get any today. He is worried about two sets of clothes but still didn’t get any. Concerned about one room but still sleeping on the footpath. This is poverty. This is he is unhappy. So he wants money. He wants an end to poverty. He does not want an end to poverty. “Then what?” He wants material happiness (bhog sukh). This is a fact. Once he gets the money, he will buy a house, a car, nice clothes to wear, good food to eat, he will see good things… meaning he wants satisfaction of the material senses.
We understand now that we are getting this happiness daily so then what is the matter? We also understand that the happiness we are experiencing is mayic, kalpanik; it is a shadow of the bliss. The bliss that we desire, upon acquiring which there is nothing else left to acquire; no other desire is created; no wish is left unfulfilled, that becomes complete. This happiness exists forever.
We have experienced the happiness of Brahmalok unlimited times; unlimited times we became the king of heaven, Indra, as well but we came down anyways. That was only for a few days; it was all temporary.
So the happiness that is true happiness is Brahm, God, paramatma. Using that knowledge, we will get knowledge of everything and all ignorance will be destroyed. And once we attain the purpose of that knowledge, we achieve our goal.
The summary then, is that our goal is God. Once we know him, the ignorance is gone, attachment is also gone, the three guṇas (sattva, rajas, tamas), three types of karmas (sanchit, prarabdh, kriyanman), three types of dosh (mael, vikeshep, avaran), five types of pain (panchakalesh: avidya, asmita, rag, dwesh, abhinivesh), five sheaths (panch kosh: anandmaya, vijnanamaya, manomaya, pranamaya, annamaya), dualities (dwandh) – all finish.
Such was the devotion of Prahlad. While still in his mother’s womb, he received the spiritual knowledge from Sage Narad and became a devotee of the Lord. The Lord protected him each time his father, Hiranyakashipu, tried to kill him. Finally, the Lord descended as Nrsingh avatar to protect his devotee and rid the earth of the evil that had been tormenting for ages.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It would be better and helpful in the path of devotion if you first apply the colors on the face and feet of Radha Krishna’s idol. After that start thinking about putting and applying colors with Radha Krishna. Choose the perfect place, play holi with Radha Krishna and other gops/gopis. There should be the flow of tears of divine love. Such activity should be in the imagination of a devotee.
Rang do shyam sundar and radha rani ko adbhut prem ke rang se…! Koi bhi limit nahi hai sharnagati me…!!
This is called RoopDhyan and is a must step in the path of devotion to attain supremd bliss. You can watch colorful prem holi on television, youtube etc.
Watch Latest Holi Episode on Star Bharat and Hotstar…
जहां-जहां राधे वहां जाएंगे मुरारी | Radha Krishna | Holi Episode | STAR BHARAT | HOTSTAR
हरि संग सब खेलते हैं फाग – सूरदास के पद
PLAY SAFE, ECO-FRIENDLY AND DIVINE HOLI !
May God shower the colors of happiness and prosperity over you! Best wishes of Holi!
Credit: JKP and Sagwara Ashram !
