Why do devotees not celebrate Holi?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Why don’t devotees celebrate Holi when it is also known to be associated with Prahlad Maharaj Answer, festivals and celebrations are always a part of devotional culture but which festivals are celebrated and which are somewhat downplayed changes according to the historical circumstances for example the Rasleela is a very elevated and important festival and celebration within the devotional culture and say there was Swami’s Geet Govinda it became immensely popular soon after it was composed and it would be widely recited in courts and celebrations and other places but over a period of time when Geet Govinda basically talks about the loving separation between Radha and Krishna and how they meet and unite this is an exalted topic but when people were in a culture where there was a proper reverential understanding of this, at that time they wouldn’t misunderstand it and that’s why the Rasleela could be enacted without any moral contamination happening and also people could celebrate it and relish it at a spiritual level, however as the culture became more and more materialistic and as because of some sahajiya elements, some people who would prematurely and incorrectly imitate Radha Krishna’s pastimes that’s why our Acharyas recommended that Geet Govinda should not be recited in public and it is meant to be relished only by very advanced devotees so although it is a valid part of devotional culture but it has been downplayed because there is a tendency among people to to desacralize the sacred that is sacred by bringing the enjoy mentality into it to make it mundane and even immoral so similarly although that is a bona fide part of the culture that has not been recommended by our Acharyas, now similarly with respect to Holi if you look at the history of Hindu culture Holi has been celebrated primarily it is a celebration of the loving reciprocation between the Gopas and Gopis in Vrindavan and in Vrindavan for example they have these play festivals, they have these Natakas, just like in Ayodhya there is Ram Leela Ram Leela doesn’t mean Krishna’s pastime or Ram’s pastime, it means the enactment of those pastimes through dramas so like that in Vrindavan there is Krishna Leela so the dramatic enactment of Krishna’s pastimes and there in general small children who are below puberty below, before they have attained the sexual aspect has become activated, they perform the last rites so generally it’s all, even the Gopis roles and Radharani’s roles are played by boys but even if girls play sometimes, they are all pre-puberty and it is done when they are in their childhood innocence the whole enactment has a very sweet and transcendental flavour to it but it has become contaminated and many people use this Raas Leela now there is this whole concept of Garbha where people dance in Raas Leela and then soon after that they have to have abortions, so because of this Vishnu Prabhupada did not in the early days in 1967-68 some devotees went to Vrindavan saw these pastimes, saw this drama we enacted and then they came back and they performed a drama like that in Los Angeles temple they had about two devotees one Mataji and one Prakriti dressed as Radha Krishna and then they performed their Aarti and everything and they took them around on a palanquin and they did whatever was done Prabhupada did not speak anything at that time but next morning he told them that we don’t want to introduce this in Krishna conscious culture, although it is in Vrindavan but it will contaminate us and that is why that is not there so the same principle applies to Holi Holi is played by the Gopis in Gopas, Krishna, Radharani and everyone else and that is a pure reciprocation of spiritual love but today because of the enjoy mentality having come in it has just become a religiously licensed form of gratification where men and women touch each other inappropriately and call that as a spiritual celebration and in fact the whole understanding of Radha Krishna’s relationships is also very become very mundane and even perverse in some ways so to avoid this sort of immorality to creep into society in the name of religion and religious festivals our Acharyas have recommended not to celebrate these festivals so in some Sikon temples Holi is celebrated by having colours smeared on Radha Krishna so we may have the Pujaris sprinkling and smearing and throwing the various colours on the deities of Radha Krishna and then maybe those colours will be thrown on devotees as the Mahabharata of that and actually those who are devotional inclined get a deeper sense of devotional enrichment by that enactment of the festival but in general because the festivals have become this particular festival has become tainted with immorality that’s why we avoid it now the Prahlad and Hiranyak Prahlad Maharaj pastime which is also connected with Holi is that Hiranyakashipu had a sister named Holika and she had a benediction that fire would not burn her and so that’s why she when nothing else worked in terms of trying to kill Prahlad so Hiranyakashipu told Holika to catch hold of Prahlad and enter into the fire and when she entered into the fire actually her immunity was that if if she caught fire the fire would not burn her but it was not like a permanent immunity from fire and when she deliberately for a long period entered into the fire she eventually got burnt and she was so deep into the fire that she wouldn’t come out and she just burnt to death over there and Prahlad being protected by Lord Vishnu came out unscathed so this indicates how sometimes a devotee is by circumstances put into the fire of danger if the devotee Prahlad is in that fire also remembering Krishna and by that what happens is the peripheral conditioning, the peripheral circumstances that are constraining limiting that devotee they become burnt away and the devotee becomes purer as he emerges from that fire, safer and stronger in devotional service so this is something, this is a thing that is valid but most people don’t remember or relate with this theme when they are practicing when they are playing Holi the story of Prahlad Maharaj is not at all remembered by most people so the bonfire that is there in the time of Holi, people just do it even if the bonfire is there for most people the bonfire is not the main part the main part is smearing each other’s body with colours and just playing around so the main purpose of festivals is to help us go closer to Krishna and with that purpose is not being served, rather festival is being used to do activities that take us away from Krishna then it’s best that the festival not be celebrated and certainly as devotees we can remember the story of Holi and we can pray to Krishna for purification and pray to Prahlad for the strength to persevere even amongst troubles and that pastime is good enough, surely we can remember that, but overall the celebration of Holi although it is a part of devotional culture it has been recommended by Raja Yadav that we downplay it and if at all we have to celebrate it we celebrate it for the deities and not for ourselves because that will risk courting improper contact and material desires which may lead us to the path of immorality