Holi Beyond Colors

The story behind the festival, Holi, starts with Holika, the sister of Hiranakashyap, the father of Prahalad. Hiranakashyap had declared himself as GOD and wanted his son Prahlaad to worship him and not Vishnu. 

When Prahlaad refused to do the same, he was made to sit with Holika in an open fire. Holika had been granted a boon that she would not be burned even if she was on live fire. When she was made to sit with Prahalad on the live fire, the opposite happened. She lost her life and got burned but Prahalad came out alive from the fire. 

The above story has a deep spiritual meaning. Hiranakashyap represents the "ego" which when takes control makes one forget about their own consciousness and makes one think of themselves as the supreme power. 

The same symbolic representation is seen with Ravana in Ramayana and Kansa in Mahabharata.

Prahlaad symbolises a person with self-realisation or the son of God or one’s consciousness or one’s true self. The consciousness cannot be burned, cut, dried or made wet by anything. It is imperishable and everlasting. All those people who have acquired self-realisation utilising any of the pathway (Bhakti, Karma and Gnana) are in a state of GOD acquaintance and nothing can destroy them. The obstacles to the pathway of self-realisation are mentioned as "attachment, anger, desire, greed and ego". 

When all these negative factors overpower any individual, it leads one away from self realisation or away from God. Holika represents the sum total of the negative forces in the body that can kill you if not controlled in time. Getting attached to any of the 5 senses can end in a vicious cycle and one can get burnt in this ‘chakravyuh’ of attachments. 

If you are truthful, and have attained a state of one–point contemplation on a known truth, all the negative forces will stay away. All such negative forces if repressed within the body can burn you out over a period of time and that is one of the reasons why all negative emotions should never be suppressed or repressed. 

The practice of burning Holi a day before the festival symbolises burning of all your negative thoughts or emotions embedded in the mind and neutralise all the poison arising due to the negative feelings. As soon as negativity is removed from the mind, spiritual vision or the knowledge of the consciousness is attained. 

Once this is done, only positive thoughts remain, which is celebrated as sharing and loving each other, the next day. Sharing love is the biggest thing one can do in removing all the above mentioned 5 obstacles to self–realisation. Spreading love reduces anger as well as desires, detaches one from various attachments, reduces greed and brings humility in a person. By burning one’s ego and other negative qualities, we can also burn the ill feeling amongst each other and make everybody a friend. During Holi, the practice therefore, is to visit and meet not only your friends but also those people with whom you are not friendly. 

The festival therefore, is an opportunity to spread brotherhood and happiness in the society. WHO defines health as not mere absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, spiritual, social and environmental well-being. Holi, therefore, is a classic example of a custom to create and enhance "social health" amongst the general society. The habit of throwing water on each other also has a deep spiritual meaning. It basically means removing dirt from each other. Dirt here does not means bodily dirt but mental dirt, which once removed leads to spiritual cleanliness. 

The whole meaning is not to play Holi superficially or meet each other at a superficial level but to get rid of the negativity at the level of the mind as well. There is no point in celebrating Holi and meeting people unless you remove your negative thoughts about them from the mind. 

When you lovingly smear ‘gulal’ (coloured powder) on others, they reciprocate with doubled love and affection. Similarly, always think of good things about people. Express your positive thoughts about these friends loudly – not only in front of them but also in their absence. 

Don’t you think your heart will throb with pleasure when they reciprocate?

My Visit to the Nursing Home

This is an article on the internet that  has caused many to reflect over their own lives. The author is a retired writer, and she expressed emotion when she was about to go to a nursing home.

I'm going to a nursing home. I have to. 

When life gets to where you are no longer able to take care of yourself completely, your children are busy at work and have to take care of their children and have no time to take care of you, this seems to be the only way out.

The nursing home is in good condition, with clean single rooms equipped with simple and practical electrical appliances. All kinds of entertainment facilities are complete, the food is fairly delicious, the service is also very good. The environment is also very beautiful, but the price is not cheap.

My pension is poorly able to  support this. But I have my own house. If I sell it, then money is not a problem. I can spend it on retirement, and the rest will be left as an inheritance for my son. The son understands very well: "your money and your property should be enjoyed by you, don't worry about us." 

Now I have to consider preparing to go to a nursing home.

As the saying goes: Breaking a family is worth tens of thousands, which refers to many things. Boxes, bags, cabinets, and drawers are filled with all kinds of daily necessities: clothings for all weathers and beddings for all seasons.

I like to collect. 

I have collected a lot of stamps. I have also hundreds of purple clay teapots. There are many small collections, and such small items as pendants of emerald and walnut amber, and two small yellow croakers. I am especially fond of books. The bookshelves on the wall are full.

There are also dozens of bottles of good foreign wine. There are full sets of household appliances; various cooking utensils, pots and pans,  rice, oil, salt, noodles, flour, spices, various seasonings, in fact the kitchen is also full. There are also dozens and  dozens of photo albums..., looking at the house full of things, I'm worried!

The nursing home has only one room with a cabinet, a table, a bed, a sofa, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a TV, an induction cooker and a microwave oven -- all the things I will really need. There is no place to store the wealth that I have accumulated throughout my life.

At this moment, I suddenly feel that my so-called wealth is superfluous, and it doesn't belong to me. I just take a look at it, play with it, use it. It actually belongs to this world. The wealth that come in turns are just passing by. Whose palace is the Forbidden City? The Emperor thought it belonged to him, but today it belongs to the people and society.

You look at these, you play with these, you use these but you can't take them with you in death.

I really want to donate the things in my house, but I can’t get it done. To deal with it has now become a problem. Very few children and grandchildren can appreciate what I have collected. I can imagine what it will be like when my children and grandchildren face with these painstakingly accumulated treasures of mine: all the clothes and bedding will be thrown away; dozens of precious photos will be destroyed; books will be sold as scrap. Collections? If you are not interested, you will dispose of them. The mahogany furniture is not practical and will be sold at a low price.

Just like the end of the Red Mansion: only a piece of white left, so clean.

Facing with the mountain of clothes, I only picked a few favourites; I only kept a set of pots and pans for kitchen supplies, a few books that are worth reading; a handful of teapots for tea. Bring along my ID card, senior citizen certificate, health insurance card, household register, and of course a bank card. Enough!

It's all my belongings!  I'm gone. I bid farewell to my neighbours, I knelt down at the door and bowed three times and gave this home back to the world.

Yes! In life, you can only sleep in one bed, live in one room. Any more of it is merely for watching and playing!

Having lived a lifetime, people finally understand: we don’t really need much. Don’t be shackled by superfluous things to be happy!

It's ridiculous to compete for fame and fortune. Life is no more than a bed.

Shouldn't we think carefully about how to take the last journey in life?  

Let go of fantasies and baggage, and of those things that can't be eaten, worn, used. 

Be healthy and be happy.

The Law of Wasted Effort

Do you know that lions only succeed in a quarter of their hunting attempts, which means they fail in 75% of their attempts and succeed in only 25% of them.

Despite this small percentage shared by most predators, they don't despair in their pursuit and hunting attempts.

The main reason for this is not because of hunger, as some might think, but it is the understanding of the *“Law of Wasted Efforts”* that has been instinctively built into animals, a law in which nature is governed.

Half of the eggs of fish are eaten... half of the baby bears die before puberty... most of the world's rains fall in oceans... and most of the seeds of trees are eaten by birds.

Scientists have found that animals, trees, and other forces of nature are more receptive to the law of *"wasted efforts".*

Only humans think that the lack of success in a few attempts is failure... but the truth is that: *we only fail when we "stop trying".*

Success is not to have a life free of pitfalls and falls. Success is to walk over your mistakes and go beyond every stage where your efforts were wasted, looking forward to the next stage.

We are not in the same boat

I heard that we are all in the same boat, but it's not like that. We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat. Your ship could be shipwrecked and mine might not be. Or vice versa.

For some, quarantine is optimal. A moment of reflection, of reconnection, easy in thongs, with a cocktail or coffee. For others, this is a desperate financial & family crisis.

For some that live alone they're facing endless loneliness. While for others it is peace, rest & time with their mother, father, sons & daughters.

With the $600 weekly increase in unemployment some are bringing in more money to their households than they were working. Others are working more hours for less money due to pay cuts or loss in sales.

Some families of 4 just received $3400 from the stimulus while other families of 4 saw $0. In some countries around the world, the stimulus got them nothing.

Some were concerned about getting a certain candy for Easter while others were concerned if there would be enough bread, milk and eggs for the weekend.

Some want to go back to work because they don't qualify for unemployment and are running out of money. Others want to kill those who break the quarantine.

Some are home spending 2-3 hours/day helping their child with online schooling while others are spending 2-3 hours/day to educate their children on top of a 10-12 hour workday.

Some have experienced the near death of the virus, some have already lost someone from it and some are not sure if their loved ones are going to make it. Others don't believe this is a big deal.

Some have faith in God and expect miracles during this 2020. Others say the worst is yet to come.

So, friends, we are not in the same boat. We are going through a time when our perceptions and needs are completely different.

Each of us will emerge, in our own way, from this storm. It is very important to see beyond what is seen at first glance. Not just looking, actually seeing.

We are all on different ships during this storm experiencing a very different journey.

Realize that and be kind.