The Festival of Holi.

 The festival of 'Holi' is celebrated all over India since very early times. It marks the victory of good over evil The puranic story goes that Holika, sister of asura king Hiranyakashipu was burnt while protecting the devoted child Prahlada chanting the name of Lord. Actually, the two Princely bothers Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu were the doormen (dwarapalika) of Vaikuntha called Jaya and Vijaya. They incurred the displeasure of Sage Bhrugu when stopped entering the precincts of Vishnu and got cursed to take birth on earth and get killed by the Lord to be liberated. Thus, these two brothers were very hard hearted and cruel and, the latter, Hiranyakashipu hated Vishnu who killed his brother Hiranyaksha. Hiranyakashipu's son Prahlada was so influenced by Sage Narada that he was always chanting the name of Narayana. This angered his father who tormented the child to stop uttering this name. One day  things became so heated that the child cried for help. Sri Hari appeared in the form of the Lion-faced (Nrusimha) and killed Hiranyakashipu.

 The Holi festival is also the 'festival of colors' and the 'spring festival'. People worship the Lord Nrusimha and lit fire to mark the burning of evil. People have corrupted the system over the centuries and use spurious colors that harm the kids! 

"Lighting Lamp"

  When matchstick was created for the first time people were afraid of touching it, let alone keep it in their pockets! Today, people are afraid of lighting a lamp at home? What a change over times. It was inauspicious to see darkness at home. it is essential even today to keep the light in the front yard of the house, near the Tulsi plant. These keep the insects away. Advanced technology such as fire warning systems prohibit lighting a lamp that may emit smoke. Of course, it is dangerous when fire breaks out. Leaving fire unattended is also dangerous, particularly when leaving the house locked. But, apart from all these, it is necessary to keep the puja room lights on with ghee lamps (burn out soon) or oil lamps that last long. These are good for us. At least, this helps us to find a match box when suddenly electric lights go off? In fact, smoking is injurious to health and as such it is prohibited; do people care?

 It is customary to 'light a lamp' at the inauguration of any function. It augurs well and auspicious. The reason behind this dates back to the Vedic period that is almost ten thousand years, if not a million years! The Rk Veda begins with the prayer to 'Agni deva', God of Fire. agnimeelay purohitam yajnyasya devam ritvijam hotaram ratnadathamam | Actually, everything in the universe is 'Fire'. It is called 'tribandhu'- soma, surya, anala. Here, the stars that emit rays of light, energy, possess the power of creation. It is the 'Light'! The Bible says, "The Lord said,  Let there be Light, there was Light!" The stars including the Sun emit electromagnetic rays in waves or particles, wavicles. These are the potential source of all creation. The light consist of color bands that are indicative of the qualities, guna. Each color creates a particular quality reflected in our behavior in raja, tama and sattva and their multiple combinations. Our mind is the reflector. 

 The Yajurveda has agni as the deity and worship of fire god is the main theme here. There are almost sixty suktas in praise of Agni in Rk Veda. Thus, we worship fire as God. Lighting the lamp is symbolic and it is our tradition to light a lamp as part of our sanatana dharma. There are a number of ways of creating a lamp and lighting it. Cotton wicks, groundnut, sesame and other oils and ghee are used in the lamps made of silver, brass or clay. There is much symbolism in all these. The rays emitted by the lighted lamps are of many hues and colors. These create different moods in us and influence our behavior. The ghee used in lamps give a healthy, happy mood. A lamp glowing with blue color keep our mind cool. There is lot to learn in all these age-old traditions in all these. 

  It is tragic that our people are giving up all the Hindu traditions and ape the West. The jiva suffers its prarabhda and nobody can help it. The present day youth need an orientation since they have lost their way! Part of the blame lies with the invading barbarian tribes that ruled the land of Hindu Gods and purposefully destroyed our culture to loot, cheat, and enrich themselves. The Western system of education imposed by the British virtually destroyed our culture and traditions. Now, the paradox of the situation is such that neither one can go backward or forward! Hence, it is left to the sweet will and pleasure of the jiva to live as it likes?   

"Why We Are What We Are?"

  The real state of existence is 'Sat', the 'brahmn'. This 'brahmn' is a state of both sada (Existence) and 'asada' (Non-existence), a state of 'Is' and 'Is Not'. In fact the latter is literally incorrect. There cannot be is and is not. But, this is brahmn, the 'Absolute Abstract' It is significant that everything manifests from a state of 'nothing' or 'non-existence'. This is true of everything that exists here on earth and that include the humans!. Hence, from gross to subtler and most subtle, everything becomes almost non-existent!

 It is common knowledge that 'there is a decline in our levels of consciousness' over the centuries. That means the people were of higher level of consciousness during the last eons of kruta yuga, treta yuga and dva para yuga as compared to kali yuga, now. But, it should be clearly understood that people of all different levels of consciousness exist all the time. Any person can rise to the highest level of consciousness with the help of yogabhyasa to 'sahasrar They rarely understand the values of art and culture. At higher and higher levels of consciousness, persons ability to understand and appreciate these will increase and, may be, they lose interest in the mundane daily routines of life. There are great artists, musicians and the like amongst us.At much higher and higher levels, many turn their interest to spiritual attainment. They seek the help of an attained person, take to yogabhyasa, and reach the transcendental state leading to samadhi. Ultimately, some reach the highest level, the 'param pada'. These are the refined persons who are devoid of all the acquired qualities (guna) and become pure and divine. Such persons are known as 'mahatma', the divine souls (mahan atma), This stage of mahatma comes after a long long cycle of rebirths and refinement! These persons realize the 'self' and rest in peace with themselves.

  In fact, the very purpose of life of a jiva in human form is to reach this highest state. Even the animals and birds attain to this highest divine state and become worthy of reverence and worship. Thus, there is no other goal than this in life!     

"Powers Vested in God"

 God is the Creator and, as such, He wields enormous powers. Let there be no doubt as to either the 'Existence of God' or His 'Powers of Creation'. We all exist because of Him and live as long as 'He Wills'! We have no separate existence from Him, for we are His manifest forms. The Vedic doctrine is  "He is perfect and complete in all respects and whatever He has created is also perfect and complete, albeit, in a limited way! purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamuducyate | purnasya purnam adaya purnameve avashishyate || 

Now, the powers of the God in brief are: creation, sustenance, development, dissolution, and merger. These are evident from what we see as Stars, Light, Energy, and all that!. The way the Sun is born and all the planets and their satellites formed, as also, the life forms on earth, we can infer that there is immense power in God. By the way, the concept, meaning and purport of the term 'God' are all different from what we find in our scriptures and the way the Western world sees it!. The concept is very vague in the West. It is not clear as to what they mean since they attribute the term to creation forgetting the power behind it? The concept is very clear since our scriptures are very clear as to 'Who the God' is and 'What 'His Powers Are'! Bhagavan, the God, only speaks here as in the Bhagavad=Gita. There is no doubt whatsoever!  

All the scriptures we have are the instructions given by the great visionaries, Rishis who heard the voice of God and imparted these to their trusted disciples. There is no human intelligence involved in all these. We have the Veda, the Upanishads, the epics and all that. These are directly perceived versions of God's voice! Bhagavan uvacha! So whoever learns the Vedic ways of life, yoga marga, will personally perceive and realize these.   

  The powers emanate from one single source as stated in the Rk Veda mantra such as purusha sukta, Shree sukta, nadi sukta, etc. Narayana is the Creator and His powers of creation, sustenance etc, are vested in a number of His own other manifest forms such as Vishnu, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, etc. All the creations of different levels such as- pure (Shuddha), impure (ashuddha), and mixed (mishra) creations  are attributed to these Gods who wield His Powers. We have millions of Gods and Goddesses by different names exercising these powers and, these are seated in our nadi granthis, and nowhere else! It is these powers that run our life! 

Who Worship God?

 There are non-believers (nastik) who do not believe in God and  the believers in God. These believers are of so many different sects that it is difficult to classify them. The believers start from worship of the dead and their place of cremation or burial and lit the lamp regularly. Some worship the their teachers and their paduka. There are many who worship the fig tree (ashvatha), the serpents and the stone image of serpents, birds and what not! The belief system, the 'faith' of the believers is more important.  

 Bhagavan Shree Krishna says, there are four types of people who worship him (BG Ch. VII  verse 13). Those who do good deeds pray for material welfare and resources and wealth. Some in difficulties pray to ward of their problems such as poverty, sickness, ignorance, etc. Some intelligent persons pray for knowledge of discretion and clarity in good and bad and prevent bad things happening with or without their knowledge that harm others. But, the most sincere devotees of mine always pray to give them a steady, unswerving devotion in Me and these are the best whom i like most. They easily attain to Me. There are many devotees who love me, devotedly worship me and do not ask anything from Me. They know what they want. By their sheer devotion, they get everything, but they do not need anything in their ecstatic state of devotion. "I take full care of them", says the Lord.

 However, there is one important thing. God does not like people who want to show off that they are highly devoted to Me. They spend lots of money to decorate, perform functions and feed their friends and relatives to show off (dambhachar) their wealth with pride and ego. This will do no good! Beware, a true devotee is one who does not even know 'Whom' and 'what for' he /she prays to the Lord, like the innocent child Dhruva who constantly utters the name of Narayana!

Do We Need God?

  It is pertinent to ask whether we really need God. It is difficult to answer this question unless we know 'Who This God Is'! The question about the nature and presence of God, Where and how He, the Supreme Lord, works, etc. have been explained in the previous blogs here. It is reiterated here that the Supreme Lord is the Creator of this Universe and He only manifests as everything in the Universe. He is the Star, the Sun, the moon, the earth, all that exists on this planet earth. There is no doubt that He is the Self of all, the core of the substance. He, the Lord, is within us and it is easy to to invoke Him with a deep breath! It is so easy as that! Some say, it is just once own self-confidence; others say, it is His grace! No matter what this 'Grace of the Lord' or 'Will of the Lord' is, everything is decided by Him. Hence, it is good to invoke the sarvajnya, sarvashakta, sarvantaryami, the Most Benevolent Lord and do everything in His name. His name is so powerful, that it is enough to utter It and go ahead!. We need God, the Almighty, since He knows all and He is all-powerful. We, the mortals, are limited by time, space and causality and cannot think and act beyond a certain limit. When there is no other help and we cry for help, the Lord sends somebody to help us. It is said that God helps to those who do not have any other support. anatho deva rakshaka| Hence, it is better to have faith, trust in the Lord and do everything in His name and be happy. The name of the Lord is the seed letters of mantra that protect us! Definitely success follows when we do everything in His name. The last verse of the Gita says, yatra yogeshwara Krishna yatra Partha dhanurdharah tatra vijayarbhuti... |  So, do your duty and the Lord will take care of everything!

Who Created God?

'God created Man', they say. But, who created 'God'. Who else, but Man? So, God created Man and man created God. the equation is right? This is not the answer. God is already there, whether man is there or not. First came the subtler-most aspects of Time, Space and the cause and effect. In fact, Time started with the ticking of the 'atom'. Atomic clocks show exact time. The atomic energy is the chief source of energy. The sun is by far the chief source of energy for us. This Energy has all the ingredients or resources for creation. It is God who created the Sun as the learned Sages put it. Thus, God created Sun, the stars, the galaxy, and all that. The moment the sun emitted the rays of Light, heat, energy (electromagnetic waves) everything started in a sequence, like the Time, Space (created by the movement of rays), and its effect. 

In principle, the first creation is that of 'Space' since space is required for objects to occupy. It is the air that first occupied the space, thus created. The Vedic doctrine is 'kham brahma |\'kahm' is space, akash. Since everything is in space, it is said that 'sarvam khaluvidam brahma |Meaning, everything here is brahmn. Brahmn is prior to space since 'Brahmn' only manifests as space, time, and everything. Air is mainly composed of Oxygen and Hydrogen (H78 + O21+N1 %)  which supports Life.  It is this Oxygen and water (H2() that support life, called vatatmaja and Anjanitanaya Hanuman (Anjaneya), the Deity of Life, Prana deva or vayu jeevottama. This is how Gods are created by man.

Now, food is required for the jiva to survive. This is also God. annam brahma | Water is the essential element that support life. Water supports Consciousness, Human body is almost 70 % water. Hence, water is also God. Fire is God. In fact, everything is fire (Energy) in one form or the other, soma, surya, anala. The entire universe is made of Fire (Energy). All the vegetation serve as food and medicine. So vanaspataye namah, they said. The Vedic mantra are full of these praise for the Creation. Everything is God. God manifests as everything. God pervades everything as Consciousness, Prajnya and prana, 'Vishnu'. Hence, it is very clear that God is everywhere in what all that exist as the very core of the substance. "I am the Self of all', says the Lord.