Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
On the day of Holi our life too should blossom with the colors of enthusiasm and love. Our face should glow with happiness and our voice should resonate with sweetness. Such should be the color of life - the color that springs from deep faith in the Divine. We should play Holi with vivid, fragrant and beautiful colors of life, not with muddy water. We should not celebrate this festival with ‘inauspicious colors’ of anger, craving, greed, attachment, aversions, and lust. Every time you are negative, you transmit those negative vibrations of anger, jealousy, greed, frustration, and hatred. Challenges come, people with different mindsets come, but when you expand your vision and see your life from a broader perspective, you will let go of all these small little issues that seem to be so significant to you right now. Lights of different colours are glowing within each person. In some the lamp of anger is glowing, in some it is the lamp of jealousy etc. If you find some people are negative, keep them at a distance. The second thing is, know that they will not be like that forever. With time, they will change. Wait for some time, make some more effort. If they change, that is good, but if they don’t change then just move on. And the third option is to think, ‘Okay, let them be. They are going to bring out better skills from within me.' They bring out greater skills of communication, skills of being positive in your foothold. The last thing is to leave it to the Almighty. Just look within you, how many negative points you have, and how many positive points you have? What you need to think and do is improve yourself. How others should improve – for now, leave it to them. If you can, educate them, but do so with compassion. Pray that their life becomes better.
Those who trouble others are actually suffering themselves, and are hurt or wounded in some way. Such people give misery and suffering to others around them. A person who is happy and content will never trouble anyone else in any way. So pray for what is sung in Mahatma Gandhiji’s favourite song, “Ishwar Allah Tero Naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwaan’ - Let everyone’s mind and intellect be pure and be channeled in the right direction.” When you do something, Nature brings you back more of it. If you give misery to others, you get that back, if you give happiness, you get that back, and if you share a little bit of what you have with others, it comes to you multi-fold. All specimens are needed on this planet. They make the world more colourful. They push certain buttons in you and evoke certain emotions in you, and see how you act or react to it. What should be our goal? Tell them, ‘Hey! Wake up! Laugh and Smile.’ We should become such that wherever we go, the fragrance of love and happiness spreads from within us. Regardless of the events or circumstances, remain steady and established in the Self; remain happy and blissful. If we have inner contentment, not only will we be able to fulfill our own desires, but we will also be able to fulfill the wishes of others. Holi is a festival of fun and frolic, of happiness. And this color of life should drive us to do some good work for the society and nation. So don’t play the Holi where you only apply colors on each other. Make it a festival where you are colored in the colors of your soul.
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