SHUBH HOLI 2010 - LET US BURN THE BAD QUALITIES WITHIN US

February 28th is fast approaching. It's a special day in the Hindu Calendar year. It's an important day in every Hindu's life. It's called Holika Dahan or the Burning of Holika. The burning of Holika heralds the celebrations of Holi or Phagwah which is on Monday, March 1st.

There's a reason why the Hindu Calendar is filled with parbs and festivities. All these beautiful celebrations have deep spiritual meanings and social significances meant to help us climb the spiritual ladder to greater heights. They are meant to make us better individuals worthy of God's grace. But, how many of us take the time to delve into the real meanings of our festivals?

Take Holi Dahan, for instance. The deeper spiritual meaning of this day is the burning of the negative qualities within each of us. Evil qualities like anger, lust, greed, ego, selfishness, dishonesty, ignorance, hunger for power, pride, jeaousy, fear, attachment and all other bad qualities should be burnt out from our systems.

With each passing year and each festival that we observed, we ought to get closer to God and ultimately become more spiritual. Our beings ought to be saturated with divine qualities like humility, simplicity, devotion, selfless service to others, kindness, austerity, sacrifice, pure thoughts, courage, peace, unity, harmony and brotherhood. The spiritual goal is to become more Godly. The purpose of life is to become a God.

Holi Dahan and the Festival of Phagwah gives us the opportunity to become more God-like and to serve God and His creation. Holi Dahan means we need to take stock of ourselves and our roles in society. It means that the people who manages our mandirs and the pandits within our community need to take stock of their behaviours and their roles in society.

The senseless power-struggles and individual egotistic battles for power and fame that go on in many of these mandirs in the community need to be stopped. Truly speaking, some of these people who holds leadership position in some mandirs are so utterly unqualified and unfit to lead, that it is an insult to one's intelligence to see some of their behaviour in public. I'll site one example and there are many other mandirs in community that have these "round holes in sqaure pegs"situations.

I was at the Shri Prakash Gossai Bhuwaneshwar Mandir one Sunday morning's satsangh. I thought, here was a spiritual leader who spent his life to uplift his fellow mankind and make them better human beings. He sacrificed his family's happiness to spread the Holy Name of Shri Ram from the Ramacharitamanas to Hindus all over the world.

He gave his all to make everyone he met into a more spiritual being. He elevated the status of the Bhuwaneshwar Mandir and it's management team. He put them some place reputable and good. He tried his level best to subdue the negative qualities within all and yet, the poor manner in which some of them behaved that morning was so distasteful and the rude way in which some of the men spoke with family members was a shame and disgrace to Dharma. Mind you, these people just concluded satsangh and some of them stood on the stage with the murtis and spoke in such rude manner. Some of the men and women should be asked to leave the mandir.

It was a sad day, indeed. I looked at the spectable and I thought, Guruji would be very disappointed with the distasteful conduct of some of these people. He would be very
ashamed and appalled to know that these are the people who hold leadership roles within the mandir and these same people are treating his family with such disrespect. He would want his family to be treated with respect and dignity. They deserved that much. That is the Dharmic way to behave, particularly with the womenfolks, not shouting at them. What nonsense! And certainly, not pretending to uphold Guruji's name on one hand, while treating his family in such a shameful manner. Where did they get that from? Did he ever preach that?

There are so many other mandirs in this community that have this power-struggle, egotistic battles, another being the Prem Bhakti Mandir. The people there need to recognize the honet, hard-work that Pandit Baya is putting into making that mandir runs successfully. And, the many programs he organized to help the youths grow and develop into more all-rounded, well-cultured and better practising Hindus. Good efforts and conduct play a major role in times of judgement.

As Hindus, we need to channell our time, energy and effort into becoming more Godly. If you need a role model to help you become a better Hindu, choose Shri Ram or Mother Sita or Arjuna from the Bhagavad Gita or there is the Mahatma Gandhi. He walked the face of this earth, just like you.

The people in this community need to realize and recognize the importance of people's power. They need to stop allowing themselves to be held as scapegoats. They need to hold these so-called leaders and some of these pandits accountable for their actions. Gone are the days when we have to silently listen to all the crap some of them say and do. Some of these pandits don't even know where their heads are or feet are. And amazily, some of them can't construct proper English sentences, much less, Hindi or Sanskrit sentences.

It's an insult to our intelligence to listen to some of them speak and the stories they make up at some of these religious ceremonies are pure hogwash. It's time we raise the bar and standards for those who want to become a pandit. Not all and sundry should practice "panditai" duties , only the people deserving of such an honor. It's not a money-making business. It's all about helping the people within our community becoming better human beings, better Hindus.

Mandirs belong to the people, because they are the ones who donate the money to build these places of worship. Mandirs do not belong to one person, and certainly not to the pandits.

Remember, we are all here to protect and preserve this mighty Dharma of ours. It's not only just one person's or the pandits' responsibility. It's all our responsibility. When the time calls for it, we're all leaders, and when the time calls for it, we are also followers.

In conclusion, therefore, parbs and festivals, like Holi Dahan, help us become more Dharmic and more outspoken and intolerant against Adharmic qualities, within ourselves and others, particularly our leaders; our pandits.

So, as we're celebrating another Holi season or Phagwah 2010, let us strive to become more Dharmic and not get too attach to Maya, because we're just passing through this world. Nothing and I mean, absolutely nothing, belongs to us. Everything belongs to God.

Shubh Holi to one and all. May goodness, goodwill and brotherhood rein supreme!

(Photos from online)