On the day of Holi, our life too should blossom with the colours of enthusiasm and love. Our face should glow with happiness and our voice should resonate with sweetness. Such should be the colour of life — the colour that springs from deep faith in the Divine.
We should play Holi with vivid, fragrant and beautiful colours of life, not with muddy water and chemicals. We should not celebrate this festival with inauspicious colours of anger, craving, greed, attachment, aversions and lust. Every time you are negative, you transmit those negative vibrations. 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 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. Save your mind at all costs.
The second thing is, know that they may not be like that forever. With time, they might change. Wait for some time, make some more effort. If they change, it is good, but if they don’t, just move on. And the third option is to accept them, ‘Okay, let them be. They are going to bring out better skills from within me.' They bring out greater communication skills, test how positive you are and how grounded you are. The last thing is to leave it to the Almighty. Just look within you, how many negative qualities do you have, and how many positive? What is it that you need to improve yourself?
The question about how others should improve, 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.
Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite song was, “Ishwar Allah Tero Naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwaan’ — Let everyone’s mind and intellect be pure and be channeled in the right direction.” Whatever you do, 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 - see how you act or react to it. 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; happy and blissful. If we have inner contentment, not only will we be able to fulfil our own desires, but we will also be able to fulfil the wishes of others. Holi is a festival of fun and frolic, of happiness. And this colour of life should drive us to do some good work for the society and nation. So don’t play Holi where you only apply colours on each other. Make it a festival where you are coloured in the magic of your soul.
(First published in Sri Sri Ravi Shankar | Let our lives blossom with the colours of enthusiasm and love (firstpost.com))
