HOLI BLESSINGS FROM PUJYA SWAMI CHIDANAND SARASWATIJI

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Dear Divine Souls Sai Devotees,

 

Holi is one of the most festive, joyous holidays of the Hindu year. It

is celebrated on the full moon day of Phalguna (February - March). The festival

is marked by great revelry during which everyone paints each other with brightly

colored powders. Song, dance and bright red, green, yellow and pink powder are

the hallmarks of the occasion.

 

Disciple and Divinity over Passion

The meanings of Holi are numerous. For some, it is the festival of Springtime,

the heralding of warm weather and bidding farewell to the winter. It is also

seen as a festival of love, the return of fertility and virility. However, side

by side with the celebration of love and fertility is the message to exercise

control over the emerging passion. In some parts of India the story is told on

Holi of Kamadeva (God of Love; Cupid), whom Lord Shiva burned to ashes as he

tried to seduce Him out of His meditation. The message is: celebrate love, but

don't get carried away. Thus, Holi is a celebration of divinity and discipline

over passion.

 

Virtue Over Vice:

The Puranas describe Holi as a celebration of virtue over vice. It is a time

when we rejoice in the victory of pure, divine Prahlaad over his aunt Holika.

The story - in a simple, condensed way - says that Prahlaad was a young,

beautiful, pure, divine devotee of God. However, Prahlaad's father was a

powerful king who believed that everyone should worship him. At Prahlaad's

refusal to do so, due to his singleminded love of God, his father decided to

have him killed. Prahlaad's aunt (his father's sister), Holika, had been given a

special shawl as a boon from God for various austerities she had performed. When

she wore this shawl, she could not be burned by fire. So, Prahlaad's father and

his sister devised a plan in which she would wear her shawl and hold Prahlaad

tightly in her arms as they sat in fire. In this way, Prahlaad would be killed,

but she would emerge unscathed.

 

However, as divine plan works, a strong gust of wind came and blew the shawl off

of her, as well as carried pure Prahlaad to safety. Holika was burned in the

fire of her own evil.

 

One of the great obstacles in life to our spiritual progress is the difference

between what we do or say on the outside and how we really are on the inside.

Holika had performed certain austerities by which she was entitled to this boon

from God. On the outside, she was "pious." But, on the inside she was not pure.

Prahlaad, on the other hand, was a simple, pure, loving devotee of God. This is

what saved him. This inner purity and inner piety are what truly save us, what

truly make our lives divine.

 

So many of us go to temple, do the rituals, offer money to the priests, and

chant a certain number of malas. Then, we go out and act in selfish, unpious,

dishonest ways. These may not necessarily take the form of malicious

transgressions. It may simply be the way we speak to our children or to our

loved ones. It may simply be the way we try to cheat those with whom we do

business. It may be the way we sit and gossip about others.

 

All the rituals and puja in the world cannot make up for a lack of piety,

honesty and compassion. The goal of going to temple is not just to perform

rituals; the goal is to become spiritual. God is happier with pure, innocent,

devoted Prahlaad than with all the austerities and rituals performed by his

father and aunt.

 

Thus, on this divine occasion, we should pray to be filled with the purity and

devotion of Prahlaad. We should commit ourselves to performing our puja,

meditation and japa with focus, dedication and deep love for God.

 

One meaning of the word Holi is sacrifice. On Holi we light so many bonfires to

revel in joy and to burn the effigies of Holika. The meanings of these bonfires

are to burn that which is devilish and impure, leaving only the purity and

divinity after Holi. However, we must remember not only to partake in the

merry-making of a bonfire. We must remember to sacrifice that within us which is

devilish and impure. There is some demon-nature in all of us. We must burn that

demon-nature on Holi and emerge as pure and pious as divine Prahlaad.

 

The fire of purity and divinity which we light on Holi must burn continuously in

our hearts throughout the year. We must have an ever-burning bonfire of

impurity, so that we are continuously renewed, continuously purified and

continuously rejuvenated.

 

So,

LET THIS HOLI BE A TIME WHEN WE CHANGE

NOT ONLY THE COLOR OF OUR FACES,

BUT THE COLOR OF OUR HEARTS.

 

LET US NOT ONLY "PLAY" HOLI,

BUT LET US BECOME HOLY.

 

LET THE ONLY COLOR THAT

TRULY PENETRATES OUR BEINGS

BE THE COLOR OF GOD.

 

FOR, ON THE MORNING AFTER HOLI

THE OTHER COLORS WILL WASH AWAY.

 

BUT WE MUST LET THE COLOR OF GOD

BE INDELIBLE

IN OUR EYES, IN OUR EARS AND IN OUR HEARTS.

 

May God bless you all and all your families.

 

With love and blessings,

In the service of God and humanity,

Swami Chidanand Saraswati

Rishikesh

 

 

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