Acharya Prashant explains that Holi is a prominent Indian festival, now celebrated worldwide, known as the festival of colors. It involves a full day and the preceding night of celebrations where people smear each other with powdered or liquid colors, accompanied by music and dancing. The spirit of the day is captured in the phrase, "Don't feel bad, it's Holi," encouraging everyone to forget enmity and embrace each other. The celebration begins on the preceding evening with the lighting of a bonfire, a ritual known as Holika Dahan. The meaning of Holi is rooted in a fable from the Vishnu Purana. It tells the story of a demon king, Hiranyakashipu, who obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that made him nearly immortal. He could not be killed during the day or night, indoors or outdoors, by man or animal, with handheld weapons or projectiles. Believing himself to be supreme, he forbade the worship of God in his kingdom. However, his own son, Prahlad, remained a steadfast devotee of God, refusing to worship his arrogant father. The king, enraged by this defiance, made several attempts to kill Prahlad. Hiranyakashipu enlisted his sister, Holika, who had a special power that made her immune to fire. She sat in a large bonfire with Prahlad in her lap, intending for him to burn while she remained unharmed. However, a miracle occurred: Holika was burned to ashes, while the innocent Prahlad, protected by his faith, survived. Later, the furious king challenged Prahlad to embrace a burning hot iron pillar. When Prahlad did so, a special creature, Narsimha (half-man, half-lion), emerged from the pillar. Narsimha, being neither fully man nor animal, killed Hiranyakashipu at dusk (neither day nor night), on the threshold of the palace (neither inside nor outside), with his sharp claws (not a weapon), while the king was in his lap (neither on land, in water, nor in the air), thus bypassing all the conditions of the boon. The festival celebrates the innocent faith of Prahlad, which saved him from all sinister plots. It teaches that one's relationship with Truth is higher than any earthly or blood relationship. The story also serves as a lesson on the ego's misuse of power; even if the ego works hard to attain power, it uses it for unworthy purposes. It highlights how cunningness, like Holika's, can lead to one's own destruction, reminding us that God is cleverer than the cleverest. The central message is to not be ungrateful and use the powers received from the divine source against the source itself.
