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Chandan Kumar Nandy  | Happy Holi
Holi gets us close to our religion and our mythology as it is essentially the celebration of various legends associated with the festival.
Foremost is the legend of Prahlad and Hiranyakshyap. The legend says there once lived a devil and powerful king, Hiranyakshyap who considered himself a god and wanted everybody to worship him. To his great ire, his son, Prahlad began to worship, Lord Vishnu. To get rid of his son, Hiranyakshyap asked his sister, Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap, as she had a boon to enter fire unscathed. Legend has it that Prahlad was saved for his extreme devotion for the lord while Holika paid a price for her sinister desire. The tradition of burning Holika or the 'Holika dahan' comes mainly from this legend.
Holi also celebrates the legend of Radha and Krishna which describes the extreme delight, Krishna took in applying colour on Radha and other gopis. This prank of Krishna later, became a trend and a part of the Holi festivities.
Mythology also states that Holi is the celebration of death ofOgress Pootana who tried to kill infant, Krishna by feeding poisonous milk to it.
Another legend of Holi which is extremely popular in Southern India is that
of Lord Shiva and Kaamadeva.
According to the legend, people in
south celebrate the sacrifice of Lord of Passion Kaamadeva who risked his
life to revoke Lord Shiva from meditation and save the world.
Also, popular is the legend of Ogress Dhundhi who used to trouble children
in the kingdom of Raghu and was ultimately chased away by the pranks of the
children on the day of Holi. Showing their belief in the legend, children
till date play pranks and hurl abuses at the time of Holika Dahan.
Holi is not only about colors and sweets.
It reminds of the divine and eternal love of Krishna and Radha.
It also reminds one of Narashima,
Prahlada and Hiranyakashyapa and thus the fact that
'Truth and Humanity are invincible forces in the Universe
haPPy HoLi |
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