The story behind the festival, Holi, starts with Holika, the sister of Hirnakashyap the father of Prahalad.
Hirnakashyap had declared himself as GOD
and wanted his son Prahalad to worship him and not Vishnu. When
Prahalad refused to do the same, he was made to sit with Holika in an
open fire. Holika had a boon that she could not be burned even if she
was on live fire. When she was made to sit with Prahalad on the live
fire, the opposite happened. She lost her life and got burned but
Prahalad came out alive from the fire.
The above story has a deep spiritual meaning. Hirnakashyap here represents “EGO” which when takes control; one forgets about his own consciousness and thinks that he is the supreme power. The same symbolic representation is seen with Ravana in Ramayana and Kansa in Mahabharata.
Prahalad here represents a person with
self realization or the son of God or one’s consciousness or one’s true
self. The consciousness cannot be burned, cut, dried or made wet by
anything. It is imperishable and everlasting.
All those people who have acquired self
realization utilizing any of the pathway (Bhakti, Karma and Gnana ) are
in a state of GOD acquaintance and nothing can destroy them.
The obstacles to the pathway of self
realization are mentioned as “attachment, anger, desire, greed and ego”.
When all these negative factors overpower any individual, it leads one
away from self realization or away from God. Holika here represents the sum total of the negative forces in the body which can kill you if not controlled in time.
Getting attached to any of the 5 senses
can end in a vicious cycle and one can get burnt in this ‘chakarvyuha’
of attachments. If you are truthful, and have attained a state of
one-point contemplation on a known truth, all the negative forces will
stay away. All such negative forces if repressed within the body can
burn you out over a period of time and that is one of the reasons why
all negative emotions should never be suppressed or repressed.
The practice of burning Holi a day
before the festival symbolizes burning all your negative thoughts or
emotions embedded in the mind and neutralize all the poison arising due
to the negative feelings. As soon as the negativity is removed from the
mind there is opening of the spiritual vision or the knowledge of the
consciousness. Once this is done, only the positive thoughts remain,
which is celebrated as sharing and loving each other, the next day.
Sharing love is the biggest thing one can do in removing all the above mentioned
5 obstacles to self-realization.
Spreading love reduces anger as well as desires, detaches one from
various attachments, reduces greed, and brings humility in a person. By
burning ones ego and other negative qualities, one also burns the ill
feeling amongst each other and makes everybody a friend.
During Holi, the practice therefore, is
to visit and meet not only your friends but also those people to whom
you are not friendly. The festival therefore, is an opportunity to
spread brotherhood and happiness in the society.
WHO defines health as not mere absence
of disease but a state of physical, mental, spiritual, social and
environmental wellbeing. Holi, therefore, is a classical example or a
custom to create “social healthiness” amongst the general society.
The habit of throwing water on each
other also has a deep spiritual meaning. It basically means removing
dirt from each other. Dirt here does not means bodily dirt but mental
dirt which once removed leads to spiritual cleanliness.
The whole meaning is not to play Holi
superficially or meet each other at a superficial level but to get rid
of the negativity at the level of the mind as well. There is no point in
celebrating Holi and meeting people unless you remove your negative
thoughts about them from the mind.
When you lovingly smear ‘gulal’
(coloured powder) on others, they reciprocate with doubled love and
affection. Similarly, always think of good things about people. Express
your positive thoughts about these friends loudly – not only in front of
them but also in their absence. Don’t you think your heart will throb
with pleasure when they reciprocate?
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