ID SONI
Sometimes, we allow ourselves to be trapped by our routine, outer life. We allow ourselves to fall into a rut of our own making, and think that we cannot get out. We are trapped in the vicious cycle of acquisition, buying bigger homes, getting bigger cars, taking more bank loans and credit card loans, calculating our lives and earnings in down payments and installments. If the neighbour takes a holiday abroad, we feel small until we have equalled his ‘record’. “This is our life”, we think; or, “This is our job…… we have to think of our promotions, we have to climb to the top, there is no escape, from this for us….. we are stuck with it…… we have no options. We become tired, depressed and cease to pay attention to our own feelings and inner aspirations. We are not listening to our hearts.
Occasionally at least, we must stop to ask ourselves: Is this what we want out of our life? Are we equating our life with our possessions and acquisitions? Are these acquisitions adding to our sense of self-worth? Are they making us really happy? The demands and distractions of modern life only take us away from ourselves. This is why Indian philosophy and culture insist on to learn from our festivals whereby we can discover the divine within ourselves.
The great Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen said, “Money can buy the husk of things, but not the kernel. It brings us food, but not appetites medicine but not health, acquaintances but not friends, servants but not faithfulness, days of pleasure but not peace or happiness.
“Man does not live by bread alone!” Ruskin wrote. Making money, accumulating possessions can never lead to a fulfilling life. Of course, it is good to have some of the luxuries that money can buy-but we would be the loser if we miss out all the wonderful things that money cannot buy!
“The more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself, the happier he will be”, writes the philosophers Schopenhauer. “The highest, the most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind……”
Truely, if we cannot find our sense of self-worth, our true happiness and contentment within, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. It, therefore, becomes, on our part imperative to do what we love- find joy in activities that appeal to our heart, and not merely to our head. The festivals in India help us to exercise our soul! Turn to nature to nurture us.
Such one is the “Holi” festival. It is celebrated in different parts of india in honour of spring. Withthe return of spring of this festival is observed every year. Again and again that an influence flows on us, a fragrance emanates from trees and stones, from streams and stars- on the “Holidays”. That day a new life moves on this ancient earth: The southern breeze blows beautifully, and the birds sing their new songs of hope and love. Verily, the “Holi” marks a new turn in the cycle of seasons: and there is a joy that day in Hindu homes.
On that day was born a prophet of love- Sri Chaitanya. He was born in Nadia- still a seat of Sanskrit learning. Like Guru Nanak and Saint Kabir, Sri Chaitanya bore witness to Divine Love and out of him moved out influences which shaped the deeper life of Bengal and Orissa, of Bihar, Assam and the Deccan.
Sri Chaitanya in Bengal and Sankara Dev in Assam taught the cult of bhakti or devotion to Krishna and Radha. Sankara Dev’s Vaishnava movement, like Sri Chaitanya’s, was a protest against intellectualism and ceremonialism. Both Sri Chaitanya and Sankara Dev had a simple ceremonial consisting of devotion, hymns and prayers.
The message of Sri Chaitanya and Sri Sankara Dev is, also, the message of Holi: it is the message of Divine Love- Love for God and love for man. Both, Chaitanya and Sankara Dev rediscovered Krishna and Brindaban. Krishna was love incarnate and Brindaban was the shrine of love. The message of the Holi calls us to new life of love. Without it the world would belong to armed brutes. Under the influence of Chaitanya, processions of men moved through the streets, singing the Name of God, with flags flying and drums beating. Chaitanya called the processions, Nagar-kirtan, praising the Name in processions moving through the town. What a joy filled their hearts as they sang the Name! They would sit together for hours, singing the Name of God with musical instruments.
The Kirtan, the hymns, the teaching of Chaitanya movements, “die to self and win new life, influenced the poetry of India’s beloved poet Shri Rabindra Nath Tagore, and the thought and life of India’s beloved bhakta and preacher Sri Keshab Chandra Sen.
On Holi day the coloured water is poured. It is a symbol of the love which should flow out of our hearts to this broken, shattered world. It is the need of the time that we should colour our spirit. How much longer will we stay unaware, unconscious in slumber? Holi’s message is to awake! Wake up others! See! We are wandering and going astray. How much longer will we roam and wander thus? How much longer will we remain inebriated and unaware? The Holi’s message is Awake! Awake! Perceive! Open our eyes and look. See our real home, our true realm. Look! Observes! The lights of the temple are twinkling. Look at those lights, Awake! Awake! Look! Colour our spirit! We are all foreigners here. We are travelers. We are pilgrims. Why have we come here? Holi day reminds us that we are to colour our spirit. How is it that instead of nourishing our spirit, we are unnecessarily frittering away our lives? Year after year does roll by. We are wasting away our life. Our jobs and chores, Our business and work are mercy activities of oblivion. We keep running. As we chase after our desires, we are panting away. Huffing and puffing, one day we will give up our last breath. Aah! What did we come here for? We come here to colour our spirit. This is the true message of “Holi.” This world is a clay oven. The Beloved’s oven. In this oven let us dye colour our spirit.
(a) The first colour is longing or thirst. Call out to the Lord with longing. Our business and offices, our work and jobs, are all a falsehood. Within them thirst does not exist for the Lord. Therefore, Holi’s message is that we can go ahead with our work. We must attend to our duties. But instill within them, His rememberance.
(b) Another colour which Holi Festival asks us to be poured is love. With a love-filled heart, enter the arena of this world. Share our love with one another. God is love. Give love to one another. Treat each other with love. Speak lovingly. Serve suffering ones with love. Eat with love. Drink with love. Come and go in love. Walk in love. All else is false beside love. The first sign of love is not to see the faults and failings of others. We should see the strengths and qualities of others. Let us bow down before each one, get their blessings.
(c) Holi’s message is Chaitanya’s message. He says that try to be a Tree. The Tree giveth shade even to him who cutteth off the branches of the Tree. When shall we listen to this message? When shall we be banded together in a loving Brotherhood? When shall we be like a Tree?
(d) The colours of Patience, Kindness, Humility, Forgiveness, Desirelessness, Sacrifice and Universality that this auspicious day of Holi showers on us enrich our spirit and make us a new.
(i) Patience- is necessary to avoid dissipating out energies. Perseverance helps us achieve the goals we desire.
(ii) Kindness- looks for opportunities to serve those in need. There are people whose hearts are burdened with worry and anxiety. This Holi day tells us that we must go and lighten their loads. The day on which we have not helped someone in need, a brother here, a sister there, a bird here, an animal there, is a lost day in deed.
(iii) Humility- when humility wakes up, the mask of pride falls. Let us say rather prove through action that we are a zero. We are not the English zero which occupies some space, we are a nukta a point.
(iv) Forgiveness- it is prerogative of love to give and forgive. We must try to be Tree. When we pelt stones on it, the tree gives us fruit.
(v) Desirelessness- Desire of love is the will of God. Let us bear witness to our words. Let us take the road less travelled. We should not be tempted with the word’s pleasures and chose a path of desirelessness for ourselves. Why is it that we lose our balance? Because our wishes, our desires are thwarted. Because, we have attachment will material world.
(vi) Sacrifice- The colour of sacrifice brings in a strength in us to love all creatures without desiring or expecting anything in return. Only life lived with a sense of service and sacrifice in worth living. This colour gives a deserving strength to our spirit. Every opportunity that this broken instrument (human body) is presented with to help, serve and heal should be taken advantage of. Later, sufficient time will be there to provide needed rest. Being in touch with the healing forces of nature helps us to restore calm, peace and a sense of harmony to our life.
(vii) Universality- This colour helps us to bring radiance in our spirit by imbibing the great value of the One-in-All and the All-in-One, and Reverence for all things, animate and inanimate. Try to treat everything, everyone, with respect, love and reverence. This promising day of ‘Holi’ colours our spirit to become an epitome of all colours of the spectrum of the light of love. The world needs a new civilisation, simplicity, sympathy, service, sense of universal Brotherhood/Sisterhood the civilisation for which the great ones of humanity have worked age after age.
(The author is Home of Aged & Infirm, Ambphalla, Jammu).