Holi – Let the fire burn the impurities within

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
On the occasion of Holi, let us meditate on this special festival. Holi goes back to a time of Prahlad Maharaj when Hiranyakashipu had a sister named Holika and she had got a benediction that she could enter into fire and fire would not burn her. So, Hiranyakashipu was a demon who had terrorized and subordinated even the gods in the universe but he found that he could not bend his son.
He sent a fire over his son to his will. Prahlad was an unflinching devotee of the Lord and Hiranyakashipu tried to teach him, to threaten him and to insult him, to torture him and even to assassinate him and nothing worked. So, eventually he asked his sister Holika to take Prahlad and to enter into fire and he thought that if he is held in fire long enough, he will be burned to death.
Now, Holika entered into the fire with Prahlad but wonder of wonders, Holika after sometime started screaming and even before she could come out of the fire, she was burned to ashes. It was a huge fire and she had gone in sure that nothing would happen to her and she was burned to ashes whereas Prahlad came out safely unscathed, unscarred. Now, what had happened? Actually, Prahlad had been absorbed in remembrance of Krishna, remembrance of his worshipable deity Vishnu and that spiritual remembrance had protected him and whereas Holika, she was around Prahlad and Holika, she was burnt because her blessing was primarily for self-defense, not for harming others.
So, if some enemy had attacked her with fire, she would have been protected but if she herself entered into fire with the intention of destroying someone, then the benediction did not protect her. So now, this narrative is historical and it demonstrates how the Lord can protect his devotees but also has a eternally relevant message for all of us. Now, we all are at our core souls.
We are pure, spiritual, selfless like the saintly Prahlad but we are right now covered over by impurities like which in which tend to make us selfish, exploitative, ungodly and so these impurities are like Holika. So just as Holika had enveloped Prahlad, our impurities have enveloped our core. So, when we light a fire on the occasion of Holi, it signifies the burning of Holika and it signifies the emergence of Prahlad.
Now, Prahlad emerged not only unscathed but he emerged glorified because his glory was seen that what a great devotee he is that the Lord arranged to protect him. So, just as if gold is put in fire then whatever impurities are there around it then those impurities get burnt away and the gold becomes purer and shines forth brighter. So, similarly when in life we face various kinds of tribulations and these tribulations are like a fire.
Now, if we enter into them unprepared then we may be burnt by them. We will get frustrated, we will get disheartened but if we absorb our consciousness in remembrance of Krishna just like Holika, she was ungodly when she entered into the fire she was burnt but Prahlad had absorbed himself in remembrance of Krishna and that remembrance protected him. Similarly, if we chant the holy names of Krishna if we remember him if we develop devotion for him then no matter what fire-like situation life may send our way because we will be absorbed in God through those situations we will have inner strength we will have inner direction and we will be able to not only go through it but we will be able to grow through it.
So, we will become better. Life’s problems won’t make us better they will make us better. this is the magical power of devotion that is available to us on each of us always and that is the power that Prahlad tapped and that is the power that we can tap.
So, when we burn the bonfire at the time of Holi let us meditate on this principle of devotion and let the devotion and the purification that comes from life’s tribulations burn away our impurities by our concentrated devotion. This is the meditation that will make the Holi transformationally meaningful for us. Thank you.
Great.