Legends of Holi By Praveen Pal

Legends of Holi

By Praveen Pal

Holi is one of the vibrant and most beautiful festivals of India. This is known as the festival of colors. There are different aspects to this great festival like social, religious and spiritual. The Legendary importance of Holi goes very far back in history.

The legend goes like this. There was a great mystical sage named Kashyap who had two wives 'Aditi' and 'Diti'. From Aditi 'celestial gods' were born such as Indra(god of Rain), Agni (god of fire), Kuber (god of wealth), Vayu (god of wind) etc. While after conceiving children with his second wife "Diti" in the inauspicious time of the evening, two demons were born.

When Diti came to know what had happened she endeavored her best that they shouldn't take birth and she kept them both in her womb for 100 years.

But finally, the passage of the time had to take palace and these two demons were born "Hiranyaskh" and "Hiranyakashyap". Hiranyaskh was the younger one and he was the personification of greed. And just as greed is insatiable and keeps growing, such as the nature of Hiranyaskh as well. People were extremely tyrannized by the evil deeds of Hiranyaskh.

And as a consequence of their supplication at feet of the Lord, the descension of supreme Lord took place in the avatar of "Varah". Varah killed Hiranyaskh in a tremendous war that is described in Bhagwat Gita more in the form of InterGalactic War.

As Hirankayashp finally perished, Hiranyakashyap was furious with God. Infuriating with hatred for Lord Vishnu he had created a huge havoc on earth. The heat from these austerities started burning the whole universe until Bramha had to intervene.

So, Bramha asked Hiranyakashyap about his ultimate desires. And the demon said that he wishes to become immortal. Bhrama stated that it's not within his rich to make him immortal. So, the demon asks for the next best thing. He demands that he will not die in either day or night, inside the house or outside the house and in land or the sky. He told Bramha that he wants that no one could kill him man or beast using any kind of weapons. Thus, Hiranyakashyap used complete power of his intellect however he forgot that God himself could empower his intellect. As he returned his home, he found out that his wife Kayadhu is pregnant with their first child called Pralhada. Now you know the rest of the story what happened after he was born from Shubho and Surbhi's blog.

So, yeah I think that's more than enough for the legend of Holi. Hopefully, you enjoyed the old legends.

So, now it's time for me to "sign out from Digital Decatron. Till then guys stay happy, take care of each other and wish you a very happy Holi.Make sure to follow us on Facebook and my personal blog. 

Praveen Pal