Holi is a perfect time to move from negativity towards positivity. This night holds within itself the phenomenal power to burn away negativity, says Yogi Ashwini
Holi is the day when Holika, who had the boon to remain unscathed in fire, took Prahlad on her lap and sat in fire. lord Vishnu came to Prahlad’s aid and as a result, Holika burnt while Prahlad remained unharmed.
The stories from Puranas appear to be mythological tales to a layman as the incidents described in them often refer to things that seem supernatural or surreal, for example, the power to remain unscathed in fire or the invocation of energy called Vishnu.
Puranas are, in fact, chronicles of real events that occurred with our ancestors, who inhabited this planet many thousand years ago. These ancestors were not aliens or super-humans, they were humans like you and me, only they were able to tap into the phenomenal potential that a human being has. Majority of us, on the other hand, leave that force within us unused.
The physical creation is a manifestation of the five elements in their various permutations and combinations. These elements come together to form a body because there is an impurity or dosha. As per Ayurveda, these doshas are vata pita and kapha, as per other Vedas, it is a selfish/negative thought.
The dosha along with its action tendency determines your prakriti or basic nature. The level of impurity reflects upon the thought process of a person. The purer the elements, the higher the thoughts; more the impurities, the grosser thoughts one catches from the environment.
Our body is because there is dosha and it is these doshas that cast us into the whirlpool of diseases, imbalances, emotional congestion and an overall negative approach towards life. If there is dosha (negativity) in the body, the body will remain ie there is always an aspect of negativity in humans, the level of negativity decides whether you are good or bad. When negativity is more, one is termed as bad, when it is less, he/she is called good.
Swami Vivekananda once at a lecture expressed a similar view while speaking about a black dot on a white background that was presented to him. He explained how all our lives we focus on the tiny black dot, missing out on the limitless white expanse.
This is, in fact, the primary reason why whether someone drives a luxury car or travels by a bus, each one is unhappy and disturbed with the way things are. I get countless mails daily from all over the world and 99 per cent of them are negative. If only we could change from negative to positive, our health would improve as would the quality of life, and time (both good and bad) which seems to drag at a snail’s pace would seem to be pass away in no time. That is a sign of evolution.
Holi is a perfect time to move from negativity towards positivity. This Purnima of the month of Phalgun holds within itself the phenomenal power to burn away negativity. The night of Holi is a powerful night, a night of silence and of internalisation, a night when the potency of various mantras and jaaps is at its peak as is the transformational effect of fire.
It is important here that the mantras be given by a guru who is siddha in the mantra. Mantra is shakti in the form of dhwani; any errors in the uchharan changes the frequency of the sound, and the result can be disastrous.
Holi is a night of chanting mantras which have been channelised by one’s guru and of invocation of positivity through yagya in his/her presence. The experiences one gets and their effects on one’s being equals the sadhna of many years together in just one night.
Yagyas are of various kinds there are those for channelising creative forces in the environment and also those for siddhi of the God or Goddess that is being invoked. There are specific yagyas for fulfillment of specific tasks as desired by the sadhak. Depending upon the capacity and desire of the sadhak, the guru prescribes a yagya to be performed on the night.
A yagya uses fire as a medium to interact with the shaktis that run creation. Fire or agni deserves a special mention among the five elements as it is the only element that cannot be polluted. It is also the only element that rises up despite the pull of gravity. The implication of this is that agni purifies anything that comes in contact with it and holds the capacity to make you rise. No wonder it became the first word of the first Veda, the Rig Veda.
On certain days, energy patterns are especially conducive to the process of purification in the body, the day of Holi being one of them. On this day, Holika entered the fire with her nephew Prahlad. She was a sadhika and it was her time to get purified, hence the fire accepted her. Prahlad, on the other hand, was already pure and so did not burn. So a body that is pure remains unaffected by fire; fire here symbolises the physical fire as well as the negativities or disturbances of our life.
A pure body would be eligible to go to higher lokas and have conversation with gods and be in ananda all the time. An impure body would be revelling in the pleasures of the physical world which are of course temporary. It would think that it is having fun and passing time, while in reality, it is time that is passing it and taking it towards rog because rog is the opposite of bhog the creation being bipolar and a sum of opposites.
Sanatan Kriya details certain fire purification techniques for Holi, where you make a circle of fire around you and the guru gives you certain mantras to instantly trigger the process of purification, leaving you lighter while the regular practice of Ashtang Yog makes you Prahlad. When the body is pure, its receptivity to the positive forces in creation heightens, manifestation of thoughts and darshan of Gods and Goddesses follows.
The writer is the guiding light of Dhyan Foundation
