The festival has deep spiritual and philosophical significance. So next time when you play Holi, don’t reduce it to mere colours, says Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj
A few days back, we celebrated Holi with a lot of passion and high spirits. On this auspicious occasion we met a lot of people and greeted them with wishes. For most of us, Holi has always been about fun, frivolity and colours. Very few know that like all other festivals, Holi too has a great spiritual-cum-philosophical significance.
Holi is a festival which signifies the win of good over evil. Ever since the beginning, the good and the evil have fought for supremacy. Evil has always tried to curb the goodness. No matter how hard the evil may try, truth possesses an innate quality to come out shinning as does the gold from the test of fire.
Holi is intimately linked with the Hiranyakashyap legend. Once lived King Hiranyakashyap, who under the intoxication of his own conceit started considering himself God and wanted everyone to worship him. As usual, there was a long line of the weak and the meek who took no time in worshiping him. For others, however, he was just an ordinary human with an inflated ego. Ironically, his own son, Prahalad, who was a true devotee of lord Vishnu, did not accede to his commandments. Enraged, Hiranyakashyap tried to kill him. But each time an attempt was made to kill Prahalad, the God saved him. Finally, Holika, Hiranyakashyap’s sister who was blessed with protection from fire, took the little Prahalad in her lap to a conflagration. The good still prevailed and Prahalad came out unharmed — and to everybody’s surprise, Holika was burnt to ashes.
Since then, the ritual of burning woods to mark the occasion has continued. On the occasion of Holi, however, we should not only burn the woods, but also annihilate our negative traits. We should commit ourselves to lead the life as has taught to us by various saints and mystics. We should get rid of hatred, deceit, dishonesty and discrimination from our
lives and come out pure.
Another aspect of the festival is putting colours on each other. People wear white clothes and play with colours. There also exists a spiritual significance to this aspect of the festival. White clothing represents the colour that encompasses all other colours. likewise, God is within each one of us and is the source of all creation just as white is the source of all colours.
There is a story of a young couple who had just gotten married. They started out very much in love. However, as the weeks and months passed, they began to get into arguments. The husband was trying to change the wife. The wife was trying to change the husband. When they were dating, they did not notice each other’s flaws. However, once married, they could suddenly find things about each other that they did not like, and they felt it was their right to change the other. The girl’s mother-in-law was concerned with this attitude. One day, she decided to take the newlyweds out to a park. They packed a picnic lunch of tasty treats and delicious beverages. They enjoyed the atmosphere in the park all day. Then, as the sun began to set, the old lady asked the two to sit peacefully and watch the sky. They all took positions where they could lean back and watch the colours of the sky change as the sun set lower and lower. There were luscious blues, pinks, oranges and yellows. There were patches of violet and shimmering flecks of gold. The mother-in-law, being wise, said, “Isn’t this beautifulIJ” All agreed that the sight was fantastic. Then old lady said, “Now, I do not hear any of you saying to God, ‘Why not take some of this orange in the sky and move it to the right, or take some of the pink and move it more to the leftIJ’ I do not hear anyone saying that the sun should glow a brighter red, or turn into a creamier orange. I do not hear you telling God to change the beautiful sunset He has painted for us. If God has created the sunset and we accept whatever that looks like, then who are we to change the basic nature of each otherIJ We all are made by God differently and we should accept it unconditionally.” The couple understood the mistake and thereafter did not try to change each other ever.
Similarly, the colours of Holi create multi-coloured designs on our clothes. We do not try to change the design, but accept whatever comes our way with delight and joy. Similarly, let us take this as a message to love and accept each other. If we are married, we should stop trying to change each other but accept each other in love. And as members of a community or country, we should love and accept others, just as God does.
The festival of Holi should make us introspect and commit ourselves to burn all our vices and come out pure and energised. Also, we must try and accept others as they are and appreciate the goodness of the other, hence contributing in love, peace and harmony among all.
The writer is a spiritual master
