COLOURS IN SILENCE

COLOURS IN SILENCE

Remember the talismanic super star of Bollywood carousing and gyrating during the festival of colours and singing the popular number, rang barase bheege chunar wali rang barase in the iconic film Silsila.   

The lyrics, the rhythmic music and its rendition by an extremely successful actor is etched in our memory banks. This song was picturised against the backdrop of the festival of colours, Holi. Today people dance to the number with reverie and gay abandon.

Holi is an ancient Hindu religious festival. This is known as the festival of colours or the festival of love. The festival is symbolic the triumph of righteousness over depravity and the diabolical. It is also believed that the festival also marks the onset of the season of spring.

It is celebrated all over India and various parts of the world too. The celebration is all about merriment, thanksgiving and enjoyment. This ancient Hindu festival, celebrated on the day after the last full moon of the Hindu calendar, invariably falls sometime between the months of February and March.

As per Hindu mythology there once lived a demon king called Hiranyakashyapa, whose brother was annihilated by Lord Maha Vishnu. To avenge the killing of his sibling, Hiranyakashyapa fervently prayed to the Lord and was granted several boons.

Once feeling empowered, the demon became arrogant and hubristic, believing himself to be God, began terrorising people. As he assumed himself to be a celestial person, it was his diktat that subjects of the kingdom worship  him instead of the creator. So much so, the fiend and cacodemon desired that his son Prahlad (an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu) to pay obeisance to him only, rather than Lord Vishnu.

However, Prahlad was not cowed down by the threats and continued to meditate on Lord Vishnu’s name. Enraged, Hiranyakashyapa crafted a wicked plan where in Prahalad was to sit on Hollika’s lap on a pyre. Hollika, who was the evil king’s sister, was purported to be immune to the perils of fire. It so transpired that the authentic and true devotee Prahlad emerged unscathed while Hollika was charred to death. Subsequently, Lord Vishnu in his Narasimha Avatar devoured Hiranyakashyapa.

Holi is also associated with gaiety and variegated colours. Physically it is a testimony of colours, but if we delve deeper the colours are various shades of the mind where efficacious thoughts subsume nugatory and Sisyphean thinking process.

Lord Krishna, the complete incarnation of Lord Vishnu, played the festival of Holi with the Gopis and Gopikas of Vrindavan and Nandgaon with wide usage of colours. Thus, over a period colours (VIBGYOR) were associated with the festival. The spraying of colours not only purged antipathetic thoughts among the inhabitants of the times but also suffused the environment with jollity and radiance.

Holi is also the spring festival to bid adieu to the winters and in some parts of the country the celebrations became associated with harvest spring. Farmers, upon witnessing their stores refilled with new crops celebrated Holi. In doing so they expressed their gratitude to the divine forces and were filled unlimited happiness. Therefore, Holi is also known as ‘Vasant Mahotsava’ and ‘Kama Mahotsava’.

Holi is not to merely playing with colours, but to connect with nature, the mythical stories and to become a witness to silence within ourselves. It is a roadmap to become intertwined with deep tranquillity and hush and shush   when enveloped by rambunctiousness and cacophony which envelopes us.

The Art of Living Advanced Meditation Program conducted during Holi provides the seeker optimal conditions for going deep within, quieting the mental chatter, and experiencing profound rest and inner silence. This program builds upon the Sudarshan Kriya breathing technique offered in the Art of Living Happiness program.

The practice of silence – of consciously withdrawing the energy and attention from physical distractions- has been used in different traditions throughout time as a gateway to physical, mental, and spiritual renewal.

Participating in various course techniques and processes which have been specifically designed transports the animated and perky minds of the seeker beyond the mundane to experience a sense of peace and renewed vitality.

It has been succinctly put that, “From the lanes of Mathura and Vridavana, the colours of Holi have spread all over the country. These colours also carry the message of love, brotherhood, and truth. So, whenever you splash Holi colours on somebody, you give him a promise of being truthful towards him always, maintain brotherhood with him lifelong and shower him with all the possible love throughout your life.”