Holi: festival of colours

There are many types of festivals celebrated in India and there is a classical secret behind celebrating each festival. Holi is one such festival. This festival of India is famous all over the world. You will be surprised to know that now the festivals of India are not only of India, people from all over the world celebrate it with pomp. Today I will tell you the story behind celebrating Holi and its benefits.

Story Behind Holi Celebration

This festival is celebrated on the full moon day of Phalgun month according to the Hindu calendar. In ancient times, there was an Asura named Hiranyakashyap, it was his rule on the earth, his city Hiranyapur was made entirely of gold. There was no one on earth as powerful as him at that time, due to which there was no one to challenge him. Hiranyakashipu had an ego  that he is the most powerful, he is the most wealthy. And then he had started denying God and started saying to people that  he is the God to worship.

Whoever worshiped God in his kingdom, he would punish him severely and get him killed. After some time his queen Kayadhu gave birth to a son who was named Prahlad. Prahlad was very cultured and God-loving. Do you know how Pralad became such a devotee of God because when he was inside the womb of his mother Kayadhu, he had heard the satsang of Bhagwan Vishnu from Maharishi Narad ji.

After this, when Prahlad was 5 years old, his father said, son, stop worshiping Lord Vishnu and start worshipping me. But Prahlad did not agree and taught his father also to worship Lord Vishnu. Enraged by this, Hiranyakashyap started punishing Prahlad daily so that he would stop worshiping Lord Vishnu. But Prahlad was a strong-willed child, he endured all the hardships and continued to worship the Lord Vishnu.

One day Hiranyakashyap called his sister to kill Prahlad. His sister had a boon from Lord Brahma that she could not burn in fire, taking advantage of this he wanted to kill his son. But Prahlad was saved by the grace of God and his sister Holika died of fire. In the memory of this day, even today we celebrate Holika Dahan, which happens a day before Holi. After this, Lord Vishnu appears from the pillar and kills Hiranyakashyap as well.

The beginning of Holi started from this day and people celebrate the festival of Holi with great pomp and show with colours made from natural ingredients. Holi is very beneficial in both scientific and spiritual ways. Scientific way to do things like in the  month of  March and April, your body starts to heat up because the summer season is about to start, and Holi is a beautiful way to manage those ups and downs of your body.

From spiritual points of view, this day is very auspicious, for the devotees, this day is immortal, on this day there are crores of benefit from chanting and meditating of god. Vigil on the night, meditation and satsang create heaps of virtue.

Scientific reasons to Celebrate

Indian culture makes a scientific arrangement of continuous series of festivals and festivals throughout the year. The festival, which comes in spring is a festival of jumping and playing holi with natural colours. It has good effect on health.

These days, playing Holi with the colors of Palash flowers increases the body’s ability to tolerate heat and maintains mental balance, as well as protects against diseases caused by climate change. But at present, the indiscriminate use of chemical colors is causing various diseases, which has been confirmed by the doctors as well.

Special Holi Safety

In ancient times, Holi was played with sattvic colors or gulal, kumkum, turmeric prepared from Palash flowers. But in today’s change-oriented era, solid colors made of many types of chemical elements and at many places even varnish, oil, paint and bright paints are used to play Holli.

You can avoid the side effects of harmful chemical colors by taking the following precautions while playing Holi:

👉 Be careful that the color does not enter the eyes or mouth, otherwise it can harm the eyesight or lungs and intestines. Therefore, when applying any colour, keep your mouth and eyes closed.

👉 Before playing Holi, massage your body well with coconut, mustard or edible oil so that the permanent colors do not affect the skin and those colors can be removed by just applying soap. Massage the oil well in your hair also so that the chemical dyes do not have any effect on the scalp.

👉 In the absence of this type of massage, the chemical colors leave a deep impact on the skin and irritation and dryness remain in the skin for a few days.

👉 Beware of people who use varnish, oil paint or any other shiny paint to play Holi. Do not even by mistake join that group in which Holi is played with such deadly substances. These colors have proved to be extremely harmful for the skin of the face. Sometimes even the whole face becomes black or stained due to these. Even if someone forcibly applies such color on you, immediately after reaching home, dip a cotton swab in kerosene oil and gently remove the color from it. Then wash the face with soap.

👉 The stubborn color on the skin can be cleaned by repeatedly applying and removing the ubtan made from a mixture of gram flour, flour, milk, turmeric and oil. If that place is cleaned by rubbing it with lemon before boiling, then there will be more benefit. The color accumulated in the skin around the nails can be cleaned by rubbing it with lemon.

👉 Play Holi in the verandah or on the road instead of at home so that it does not affect the things kept inside the house and do not wear torn or worn thin clothes while playing Holi so that you do not have to face any kind of embarrassing situation.

👉 On the occasion of Holi, there is a lot of practice of drinking cannabis in the villages and drinking alcohol in the cities. But being intoxicated, a person starts acting like a mindless animal. Because intoxication removes the control of discretion from the brain, reduces the ability to take proper decisions in the intellect and man does many types of antisocial activities through mind, words and deeds. Therefore, do not consume any kind of intoxicant on this festival.

👉 Follow courtesy and restraint. Brothers play Holi only in the group of brothers and sisters only in the group of sisters. It is even better if the sisters play Holi in the premises of the house so that the evil eye of the people of evil nature does not fall on them.

👉 Those who play Holi with contaminating substances like mud-dirt and animal excreta, not only themselves become unholy, they also incur the sin of making others unholy. So don’t use them while playing Holi.

👉 While playing Holi, do not wear precious ornaments etc. on the body, otherwise there is a possibility of them being stolen or lost in the crowd.

Source – Sant Shri Asharamji Bapu Ashram