Holi is not merely a festival of burning a heap of dung-cakes and wood. Rather it is a pious day for removing one’s psychological weaknesses and burning the evil desires.
From this day, we should throw out our evil desires and cultivate in our life the divine virtues of love for God, goodwill, sympathy, faith in the chosen Divinity, fearlessness, steadfast adherence to Dharma, etc. We should invoke in our lives the virtues of the great devotee Prahlada, viz. a firm belief in God, tolerance, forgiveness, love for the Lord, compassion, benevolence, non-violence, etc.
The colors of Holi color only the body. You should color your heart with divine love. Holi is the festival of Nature; it is the celebration of Spring; it is a pious observance of the tradition of offering newly harvested grains to the Lord before using the same. One should stop taking dates from this day.
Holi is a festival of burning down our vices, addictions and evil tendencies, and of imbibing virtues. Holi is a life-giving drug that rejuvenates our sadhana. It spreads the message of love in society. Take constant care not to insult, slander or harm anybody by your impertinence or arrogance. Guard against circumstances that tend to color you with the poisonous hue of addictions. You should rather color yourself only with the color of devotion to God…of Self Bliss, in which the Lord and His beloved saints abide…and color yourself so fast that the color should never fade away…
Play Holi with Natural Colors prepared from Palash Flowers
Pujya Sant Shri Asaram Ji Bapu advises all of us that it is very harmful to play Holi with poisonous and chemical colors.
The Black color contains the chemical “Lead Oxide”, which weakens the kidney and leads to kidney diseases.
Similarly, Green color contains “Copper Sulphate”, which leads to swelling and burning sensation in the eyes and also causes temporary blindness.
Silver color contains “Aluminum Bromide”, which gives rise to the cancer disease. The Blue color contains the chemical “Prussian Blue”, which leads to skin diseases.
The Red color contains the chemical “Mercuric Sulphide”, which increases the risk of skin cancer.
Thus, it is very harmful to play Holi with these chemical colors. It is, however, very beneficial to play Holi with colors prepared from Palash flowers. This keeps the seven colors and dhatus of the body in equilibrium, protects the skin and increases the body’s resistance power against heat.
Advaita Holi
You haven’t played Holi if your ignorance has not been burnt, The demon of expectations and the ogress of passion are still alive, The face of attachment has not been scorched, Nor has malice been to ashes reduced.
Neither has delusion nor desire been consigned to the flames, Hypocrisy has not been discarded, nor has Conceit been trampled over. Didn’t shatter ego nor did knock out anger. Ignorance has not been given a donkey ride with its face blackened.
If you haven’t rid yourself of desire, you haven’t played Holi. You are joining hands with the enemy and turning your back to your Friend. You are renouncing the benevolent Lord to forge relations with the world.
Better play the spiritual Holi, the external one is never good. Deaf, though they hear, they don’t remember their Motherland (Soul), They eat sweetmeats of hemp and play with showers of colors, Will play pranks in the market or pickup a quarrel with somebody. They hear songs and see dances, and listen to the Mauchanga.
What a color indeed, it makes you lose your sense. Holi if you want to play, do so with the saints, O pious descendant of the sages, disobey not the holy ones. Renounce falsehood, imbibe the truth, Do nothing without discriminating between the two.
