Holi: the festival of colours.

 

The purnami (full moon day) which falls after the mahashivratri (amavashya/new moon day) is celebrated as Dola purnami in every year. Dola purnami is often called as Holi. Holi which is famously described as the festival of colours and is celebrated among the masses irrespective of their beliefs, caste, religions. This article is described about the festival of Holi and it's allegory from different points of view in every possible way.

Every religion,sect, cult has respective festivals of their own and they celebrated in their own ways. In fact festivals are designed and celebrated in such a way that people get benefits from it. It  actually works like a school environment. In a  school,where students come and learn different things not in a single period but in different periods like that people celebrate different festival in a year on different occasions and they act accordingly and learn new things which become a part of their daily life knowingly or unknowingly. So there are many possible hidden meanings behind a centuries old festival like Holi , which are still under earth and its our duty to unearth these meanings and motives behind the festival.

Holi, the festival of colours,holds a significant meaning. Before drive towards the meaning one must understand about colour.

There are mainly three colours in nature i.e red, blue, green which can be termed as secondary colour. Again in a rainbow ,there are seven colours viz violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow,orange,red.which are derived from the  main three secondary colour and can be termed as tertiary colour. All other colours which are invented till now are just  derivatives of these seven colours. The secondary colour are red, blue , and green which often symbolises like red -earth,blue-water, and green- environment (trees) has a only possible coexistence on the planet earth.

The primary colour is black and white. When all the colour of tertiary block mixup with a higher intensity it becomes black and when in lower intensity it gives white colour. Further more ,the black colour represents the negetive energy and white colour represents the positive energy. In general, negetive attributes of humans are anger, greed, jealousness, selfishness etc whereas the positive attributes are like kindness, quietness,calmness etc. it is quite natural and normal that all the attributes are equally exist in every individuals. When the intensity of colour black increases,the Tamsik attitude of a human rises. Like that when the intensity of colour white increases,the Sattvik attitude of a human rises.when these are co exists in a balanced state,the Rajsik attitude rises. it is a practical observation that , perhaps most individuals attracted towards the black colour more and easily than white. Great Men always advise to live in a simple and calm way which seems very easy in our thought but when it comes to act it is bit difficult but not impossible.

The reason may be the black which represents negetive attitudes has no real value and hence weightless and lighter than the white and can feel easily. But when one understands this comparison and tries to upgrade oneself one can easily breakdown the glass wall of black and  touch the white . So the process of analysing and understanding the system is very crucial.

But in the kingdom of the lord there are no place for these things.  These attributes are just there to test a person by the lord itself. God is above all these things . God is Mayathit.  God created all illusions and no illusion can affect the God.  But in our surroundings we can see that the colour of shivaling, krishna, jagannath, maa kali etc dark . It may symbolises that the almighty takes all these negativity from  devotees and becomes dark. 

As it is a simple relation that one who can't feel the hungry,is not able to feel the joy of eating, one who can't feel the sorrow of failure is not able to feel the joy of success like that one who couldn't face these negative attributes is not able to feel the touch of positive temperament. So colour black has the power to engulf all other colour in general and the white in particular.

But what about the other colours?

The meaning of tertiary colour block  are given below.

1.Red- longest wavelength.represent wisdom, energy 

            Represents the Muladhara chakra which connects the human body with the plane

2. Orange- creativity(derived from red and yellow),ability to enjoy oneself 

                Represents the Swadhistana chakra which symbolises sexuality and fertility

3. Yellow - Brilliance, intelligence

                Represents the Manipura chakra ,that is the seat of man's ego and personal power like how the sun feeds the earth.

4. Green- healing, health,love

               Represents the Anahata chakra which symbolises receive and give love

5. Blue- spirituality( blue denotes the spirits world and connection with water)

              Represents the Visuddha chakra - ability to communicate with purity

6. Indigo- bridge between subconscious to conscious

              Represents the Ajna chakra, the capacity to see the unseen on the spiritual level

7. Violet- mercy, divine inspiration and imagination

             Represents the Sahasrara chakra, point where human consciousness connects with the spiritual consciousness and the divine.

These above explanation is a brief description about the science of colour. After knowing these facts ,it is obvious to know the background history of Holi and how its begun. 

According to the Hindu shastras  , in Satya Yuga , the demon king Hiranyakashyap had a sister named Holika and a son named prahlad. Due to some unfavorable situations when the demon king furiously tried to killed prahlad, Holika walked forward to help the demon king  as she obtained the power that no fire couldn't burn her . When the arrangement of prahlad assassination done , Holika hold prahlad on her lap and helpers of the demon king put the fire on . But as said before God is the creater of all illusions, miraculously prahlad escaped safely and Holika burnt down. It was the day when truth won over false . It was the day when truth triumph again . So to remember that day people celebrate Holi and burn a replica of Holika which certainly made from straw like material.

Later in the Dwapar yuga , during the time period of maa Radharani and  lord Krishna the same aforesaid process was repeated with the introduction of dry colour power(phagu). It is the month of Phalguna when the king of season i.e, Spring enters , the festival of colours celebrated enthusiastically. On this day in Dwapara Yuga , dry colour powder (which was also called chacheri and festival is called chacheri parva) poured by Gopis on krishna and that day was known as the day of Vashanta Rasa. So for their beloved lord people started the festival of Holi .  It is believed that krishna also destroyed a demon named Medhasura and burnt his living place . So for a loving memory people also burn a effigy called mendha kudia in the morning. At night people start a procession and take a palanquin on their shoulders in which  the representative statue of Radha and Krishna is placed  and roam around the village to resemblance the vasanta Rasa.

But this process of celebration has a social message and a scientific meaning. As earlier these dry colours were obtained from nature like from leaves, turmeric, rice power etc and these had medicinal properties. During these time , measles and chicken pox diseases spread,so to avoid these diseases and to increases the immunity power of body people pour natural colour on each other . It is believed that red colour which is obtained from nature has the property to prevent these diseases from further spreading.

During this season the sexual desires among people arises more than other time because of the arrival of Spring. So to suppress these unwanted sexual drive , in Ayurveda, it is prescribed to take sprout channa as a diet. This channa is given to lord as Prasad and distributed among the masses. It is like the lord itself says to the devotees to take channa and supress the unwanted sexual desires directly from palanquin while moving from door to door. Such a merciful is our beloved lord!!!

These are some logical reasons behind Holi. But along with the time we forget all these values and celebrate this pious festival in a very unhealthy and hooligan way . Artificial colours are used in place of natural colours which has the potential to degrade the skin instead increases the immunity and so on. Hence it is better to celebrate Holi in a peaceful and healthy way . So that we can actually get benefits by celebrating this festival of colours .

Among all festival Holi is a unique one which reminds us that all colours of life derive their source from the almighty God and God is all powerful. One must take refuge near the Lotus feet of the lord to be colourless from this materialistic color of world and become one with the lord. 

Har har Mahadev

Jay sitaram.