Holi

Holi (Festival of Colours) on Tuesday 14/03/2006 The festival of Holi heralds the start of Spring. All the other festivals follow after Holi. Legend behind Holi There was a demon king named Hiranyakshipu. He considered God his enemy. He had a son named Prahallad. Though born in the demon clan, he was a true Bhakta and was totally devoted towards God. His father asked and threatened him to give up the worship of God, but Prahallad would not listen. He continued on the path of devotion without worrying about the consequences.

Hiranyakshipu tried to kill Prahallad by many means but God always protected him. Hiranyakshipu also had a sister named Holika. She had a boon that fire could not burn her. She advised her brother to prepare the funeral pyre. She would sit on this fire holding Prahallad in her lap. The flames will burn Prahallad while she would not be harmed. This plan was put in the action. The pyre was lit up. But who can kill one that is protected by God Himself. In this fire, Holika was turned into ashes while Prahallad emerged unharmed. From this day we celebrate Holi by lighting the symbolic pyre to burn the evil influences. People offer coconut to AgniDev (demigod of fire) as a token gift for protecting Prahallad from the flames. Like the external symbolic fire, we should light an internal fire to burn the evil influences on our senses and purify them. Vrindavan and Lord Krishna's legend of courting Radha and playing pranks on the Gopis are also the essence of Holi. In Hindu mythology, Lord Krishna in his youth has been idealised as a lover, and it is the spirit of his lighthearted, mischievous passion of courtship that enters the Spring festival of Holi. Krishna and Radha are depicted celebrating Holi in the hamlets of Gokul, Barsana and Vrindavan, bringing them alive with mischief and youthful pranks. Holi was Krishna and Radha's celebration of love - a teasing, affectionate panorama of feeling and colour. These scenes have been captured and immoratalised in the songs of Holi: the festival that is also the harbinger of the light, warm, beautiful days of Spring.