Nagesh Alai
Nature is a perpetual opportunity for joy and how we harness it will determine the quality of enjoyment in our traverse of life. After all nature is but an alter ego and manifestation of the Divine in myriad forms.
Holi, the spring festival or the festival of colours in India is a vivid symbolism to celebrate nature moulting its cold climes and garbing the warm spring. The riotous colours that one gets to see in India during the Holi festival, particularly in the northern and western parts of India, is a feast for the eyes as it is for the soul. Happyho also provide best Meditation classes and yoga classes in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
To many it is the victory of good over evil in the form of extinguishment of the wicked Holika, the sister of Hiranyakasipu who tried to kill his devout son, Pralhada, in a pyre and got charred herself in the bargain. To some it is a celebration of the divine love of Radha and Krishna. To some others it is an occasion to mark Lord Shiva successfully conquering all desires.
The vivacity and joy of smearing colours and splashing waters on each other amongst family and friends is a wonderful game at one level and a heartfelt expression of love and regard at another level. It is about extinguishing any past ill will and rancour and reigniting and restating good will and love. The gaiety and unreserved playfulness of the children that one gets to see is nothing short of the Divine descending to Mother Earth in mirth and gay. Holi is an inescapable nostalgia of all our growing up days and beyond. The vim and vigour never dissipates in our hearts, though ageing may give way to sobriety over time.
The much revered and civilizational longevity of India ( or Bharat or Hindustan or by whatever name it has been called over eons ) has essentially been due to its temperance and tolerance and respect for all its men and women, different thoughts and cultures, welcoming spirit of ‘atithi devo bavaha’, acceptance of universality in ‘vasudeva kutumbhakam’ and an unstinting recognition and reverance of the Divine. Over the millennia, India and Indians have been living life according to its scriptures, not just lead by the exegesis of the sagely, but also by ones own principles of the right and wrong.
In this context, the disturbing news of some misguided men throwing ballooons, filled with bodily excrements and fluids, distemper and other unmentionables, at women is not just an expose of the abominable vermin in them and the falling values, but also an unpardonable despoiling and disrespect and disregard of women. A swift and apt punishment and banishment of such people is necessary and exemplary in the interest of protecting women and preserving Shakti.
While the community celebration of Holi is fun and joy, it is the community’s responsibility to extern the misguided and stop the abhorrent behaviour towards women during such occasions. Closetting off women is not the solution.
Our ancestors left a great country for us in India. It is our responsibility to leave behind a greater India for our future generations. This can happen only if we do not hide behind colours , but recognise the starkeness of the black colour and the purity of the white colour.
Ardhanarishwar is not a mere notional divinity in our culture, but a powerful amalgam of man and woman in all of us. Each man owes wellbeing and respect to the woman in us. Would men be if not for women?
Celebrate Holi indeed, but live the spirit.
