Make your life colourful.....Celebrate Holi...

RAIN BOW Once upon a time the Colors of the world started to quarrel that they were: all claimed the best, the most important, the most useful, the favorite. GREEN said: "Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen for grass, trees, leaves - without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority." BLUE interrupted: "You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing." YELLOW chuckled: "You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun."    ORANGE started next to blow her trumpet: "I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes, and pawpaws. I don't hang around all the time,but when I fill sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you." RED could stand it no longer. He shouted out: "I am the ruler of all of you- I am blood - life's blood! I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy." PURPLE rose up to his full height. He was very tall andspoke with great pomp: "I am the color of royalty and power. Kings, cheifs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me - they listen and obey." Finally, INDIGO spoke, much more quietly than all the others, but with just as much determination: "Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for prayer and inner peace." And so the colors went on boasting, each convinced of his or her own superiority. Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening - thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down relentlessly The colors crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort. In the midst of the clamor, rain began to speak: "You foolish colors, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest. Don't you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me." Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands. The rain continued: "From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow." And so, whenever a good rain washes the world, and a rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another.  Very few people have a vivid sense of colors and their many shades. Even a painter, when painting a bunch of trees, may only create fifty shades of green on the canvas, while there are a thousand shades of green in the forest. Still, if you watch a painter at work, how they grasp various shades of color and try to get them as close to reality as possible is quite amazing. A thinking mind does not care for color. If you look at it logically, black, white, and shades of grey would have been enough for contrast. From that perspective, one could conclude that the Creator must be crazy to create so many colors. In order to have a real sense of color, your anahata needs to be active. If for example you have a powerful spiritual experience, or let us say you fall in love with someone, it can activate your anahata, and consequently, you could see colors more vividly. There is also a difference between genders – scientific research shows that women see colors better than men. On the surface, color is a visual sense. But there is a significant connection between the perception of the many colors that occur in nature and your senses. The same fundamental force has created everything on the planet – from a worm to a flower to you. Modern science has arrived at the conclusion too now that the fundamental design of everything, from the atomic to the cosmic, is essentially the same – what differs is only the level of sophistication and complexity. Since the design is fundamentally the same, the way your senses are made, the way colors are made, and the way your senses perceive is all related. Specific colors are related to specific aspects of the senses. Consequently, different colors can activate different dimensions within you. Every form has a corresponding color scheme. If one pays the necessary attention, one can experience that every form, irrespective of how subtle it is, has a color aspect to it. Even sounds, as sounds have form, have a distinct color imprint. This is in the experience of many who practice Mantras – there are very vivid color schemes. In the classical music forms of India, specific structures of melody are referred to as ragas. Raga essentially means color. Through meticulous use of sounds, color and form are created. “In the beginning, there was a word.” The word may acquire meaning in the psychological space, but essentially, it is just sound–color–form. Hence all the talk about primordial sound. As all physical substance, if pushed to a certain speed, will become light, color is inherent in all that there is. If you pay constant attention, all these aspects will reveal themselves. Someone said, “Knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Human consciousness can open every door in the universe, if only you raise the quality and the intensity of your attention – attention for every aspect of life. ==================================== Raas Leela – The Dance of Passion There is something very feminine about celebration. Whether a man celebrates or a woman celebrates, celebration is essentially feminine. There is a very beautiful story in the Mahabharata to describe the significance of being feminine. When at eight years of age, Krishna moved from Gokula to Vrindhavan, he became immensely popular among the village folk. It was at the time of the Holi festival, just after spring when everything is in full bloom. On a certain evening, a full moon day, the boys and girls of the village gathered on the banks of river Yamuna. They started playing and having fun throwing water and sand at each other. After some time, the play broke into a dance. And they danced and danced because they were in such an exuberant and joyful state. But slowly, one by one, the clumsier ones dropped off. When Krishna saw this, he took out his flute and started to play. His play was so enchanting that everyone gathered around him and once again swayed, for almost half the night. This is the first incident of Raas Leela, where a simple joyful mingling of people rose to a transcendental state. The word “raas” literally means “juice,” but it can also indicate passion. So this was the dance of passion. The fragrance of this dance spread. People came to know that on full moon nights at midnight, this dance happened, and the numbers of those who participated increased. It also fell on Shiva’s ears that on full moon nights, a fantastic dance happens on the banks of the river Yamuna. He became aware that people just danced their way to what he had achieved through meditation. Shiva is Nataraja, the Lord of Dance. This is something which is unique to India – only Indian gods dance. If they fall in love, they dance. If they get ecstatic, they dance. If they get angry, they dance. So being the Lord of Dance, Shiva was very amused that this little boy, his devotee, was taking people to transcendental states simply by dancing and blowing upon his flute. He wanted to witness this.    He walked from the Himalayas to the banks of the river Yamuna and said to a boatman who was there, “Please take me across to Vrindhavan. I want to see Krishna’s Raas.” The boat man replied, “You cannot go like this. When you go to the Raas, Krishna is the only man, everyone else is a woman. If you want to go, you have to go as a woman.” Shiva is considered the ultimate of the masculine – the purusha among purushas. So it was a strange request, that Shiva had to become a woman. But the Raas was in full swing and Shiva wanted to go there. So the boatman said, “If you must go, you must wear woman’s clothing.” Shiva looked around. Noone was looking, so he said, “Okay, give me the gopi’s clothes.” He wore the clothes of a gopi and went across. He is such a sport. This story signifies that essentially, the nature of celebration is feminine. Feminine means exuberance. And that is how you should be every moment of your life – exuberantly alive. What is the point in being half alive? We did not come here to avoid life, we came to know and experience life. And you cannot experience life unless you keep yourself as intense and exuberant as possible. Your whole life, your very existence should become a celebration. If your life has to become a celebration, you have to become absolutely joyful within yourself.