Today was choti Holi. Today Hindu’s
have a bonfire symbolic of Holika’s pyre. The story of today’s celebration is, one of our favourite, another victory of good over evil one.
Prahalada was a devout Vishnu
follower. His father, Hiranyakashipu considered himself to be all powerful and
demanded that everybody should pray to him. But Prahalada refused to pray to
him and continued his prayer offerings to Vishnu. He ordered his sister, Holika
to burn Prahalada. Holika had performed severe penance and gotten a boon from
Lord Brahma that she would never get burnt by fire. Holika takes Prahlada on
her lap and sits on a bonfire. Prahalada begins o pray to Lord Vishnu and it so
happens that Prahalada remains untouched while Holika burns to her death.
Thereby turning the bonfire into her funeral pyre.
Hindu’s have been burning to
Holika’s pyre on the eve of Holi festival to celebrate this victory of good
over evil. No scripture calls for this burning. Just like there is no written rule behind the burning of Ravan during Dussehra.
What I am trying to get to is
that it is not mandatory to practice certain rituals and traditions if they don’t
make sense anymore. Maybe we can have a small bonfire just to celebrate the
festival and continue our long tradition. In this day and age where environment
conservation is the need of the hour, we must take every possible step to curb
unnecessary pollution. Starting from firecrackers to this bonfire.
In Delhi, different areas have unwritten competition amongst themselves on the size of their bonfire or the
size of their ravan and for how long it burns. In the area where I live, each
apartment complex has its own Holika bonfire and ravan during Dussehra and there are approximately 65 apartments.
This is the carnage in my apartment complex alone –
All of it chopped and burnt in
the name of tradition and rituals. I am quite sure that no God will be offended
if we don’t burn such a big bonfire. A similar one was burnt for Lohri as well.
I did not attend the Holika
celebrations today because I can’t bear to stand there and watch the carcass of a glorious
tree burn in the name of religion and tradition.
Who has seen Holika? It was
really the funeral pyre of the tree and our beautiful mother nature.
I agree with your views completely. It is really sad to see our environment go down in such a manner. In our complex, we celebrate it mainly by using old wooden furniture and dried leaves that is collected right through the year.
ReplyDeleteThere are always ways to celebrate the festival in a pure way without harming our mother -- Nature -- and then the joy would be so much more and absolute!