Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Holi is a festival of colours. Just like nature there are different colours associated with our feelings and emotions. Each person is a fountain of colours which keep changing. Your emotions, like fire, burn you. But when they are a fountain of colours, they add charm to your life.
All thoughts and emotions emerge from the self which is like the space inside and outside the body. This space rules your life, of which you are, simply, a puppet. The difficulty with human beings is that we seldom take time to look at our own emotions, look at our own thought patterns, at what’s happened inside. We act before thinking; we act before even resolving our feelings. There may be rules, but when your emotions rise high, you become a victim of your own emotions. Inner rules are just like the watchman, the doorkeeper, but the emotions are the owner of the home. So when the owner barges in, the doorkeeper just gives way.
So, thoughts come and go, emotions come and go, but when you go inside there is only empty space. And our true nature is that. When we identify ourselves too much with thoughts, with feelings and emotions, that is when we feel we are stuck, we are small. But, the ‘Real, Magnanimous You’ are that space inside where you feel totally at peace. Those moments when you are totally in peace or fully in love, you feel an expansion, you feel boundless, limitless, and that is our true nature. That is what the beauty is. So, in ignorance, emotions are a bother; in knowledge, the same emotions add colour.
Like Holi, life should be full of colours where each colour is seen clearly. Each role and emotion needs to be clearly defined. Emotional confusion creates problems. Tell yourself that you will do justice to all the roles. You can play all the roles: ‘I’ll be a good spouse, good child, good parent, good citizen.” Assume that you have all these equalities in you. It is already in you. Just let it blossom. Harmony in diversity makes life joyful and colourful.
In a state of celebration, the mind often forgets the Divine. We should experience the Divine’s presence, no separation of any sort. Do you feel you are part of this globe? Do you feel you are part of the air, do you feel you are part of this ocean? Do you feel you are merged into this existence? That is divine love! Don’t try to see Divinity. Take it for granted. It is there, like the air. You inhale air and exhale air. You can’t see air but you know it is there. Similarly Divinity is all there. Only the heart can feel. When you are totally relaxed you feel that the whole universe is filled with Divinity. When your mind is relaxed, your body is relaxed, you find that the chirping of the birds is Divinity, the moving of leaves is Divinity, the flowing of water is Divinity, even people fighting and the mountains – all exuberate Divinity. You will find that beyond this phenomenon, there is a field or phenomena that exists – that is Divinity. Then celebration dawns spontaneously and life becomes full of colours.
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