So,
since it has become such an integral part of so many people around the
globe, I think we should talk about it.
On February
14th, we paint everything with pretty red hearts and we say, �I love you.
I love you. You are mine. I am yours. Be my Valentine.� That is February
14th. But how are we on February 15? Does that undying expression of love
last even through the night? When our loved ones ask a favor on the 15th
or the 16th of February, do we remember that we told them, �I am yours.
You are mine,� or do we revert back to our old patterns of selfishness
and selfcenteredness? We say these things with our tongues, but do we mean
it with our hearts? It is our heart which must change, our heart which
we must give to our beloved, not merely a box of chocolates. Valentines
Day is a holiday of the heart, but too frequently we make it only a holiday
of the wallet.
The real
way to celebrate Valentine�s Day is to make every day Valentine�s Day.
Make every day a day in which you give thanks for the loved ones in your
life. Make every day a day in which you repeat �I love you. I am yours.
You are mine.� And, most importantly, make the heart and the actions match
the words.
I have heard
of a couple, married for 50 years in which they never had a fight, never
a disagreement, and in which their love at the 50th anniversary was as
alive and magical as on the day they were married. To what did they attribute
this success? Each morning before getting out of bed, they said to each
other, �I love you and I am so lucky to begin this day by your side.� Each
night before sleeping they again said, �I love you and I am so lucky to
end this day with you.� Simple, easy, fast and free... yet how many of
us could do this? Rather, we forget the simple, beautiful expressions of
love and appreciation, and instead revert to material gifts and fancy dinners
in the hope that this can make up for a dearth of true feeling. It can
not.
Lastly,
we pour out our words of love to the people in our lives. We spend hours
agonizing over what to buy them for this holiday, how best to express
our feelings... But, who is our real Valentine? Who is the one who is always
there for us, any time of any day, any day of the week? Who is the one
who is always forgiving, always compassionate, and always willing to listen?
Who is the one who never yells, never scolds, never calls us names? Who
is the one whose arms are always open, who is always waiting for us? The
answer is: our Divine Valentine...God. He is our real Valentine. Yet, how
much time to we spend telling God, �I love you?� How much time do we spend
with Him? He is the only one who will never leave us, who will never betray
us, who is always there for us.
I hear people
who are unmarried, or who are widowed, or whose spouses are travelling
say, �I don�t have a Valentine.� Our true Valentine is always there � we
came into the world in His arms, and it is to Him we will go when we die...
So, let us open our arms and open our hearts to our true Valentine. Then,
we will never be lonely again.
HOLI
Now, the
great festival of Holi is coming. Holi is a time when we will paint each
other with bright colors. It is a time when we rejoice in the victory of
pure, divine Prahlaad over his sister Holika. The story � in a simple,
condensed way � says that Prahlaad was a young, beautiful, pure, divine
devotee of God. However, Prahlaad�s father was a powerful king who believed
that everyone should worship him. At Prahlaad�s refusal to do so, due to
his singleminded love of God, his father decided to have him killed. Prahlaad�s
aunt (his father�s sister), Holika, had been given a special shawl as a
boon from God (for various austerities she had performed). When she wore
this shawl, she could not be burned by fire. So, Prahlaad�s father and
his sister devised a plan in which she would wear her shawl and hold Prahlaad
tightly in her arms as they sat in fire. In this way, Prahlaad would be
killed, but she would emerge unscathed.
However,
as divine plan works, a strong gust of wind came and blew the shawl off
of her, as well as carried pure Prahlaad to safety. Holika was burned in
the fire of her own evil.
I said,
at the beginning, that the theme of this month�s message was the difference
between what we do or say on the outside and how we really are on the inside.
Holika had performed certain austerities by which she was entitled to this
boon from God. On the outside, she was �pious.� But, on the inside she
was not pure. Prahlaad, on the other hand, was a simple, pure, loving devotee
of God. It is this which saved him. This inner purity and inner piety is
what truly save us, what truly make our lives divine.
So many
of us go to temple, do the rituals, offer money to the priests, and chant
a certain number of malas. Then, we go out and act in selfish, unpious,
dishonest ways. These may not necessarily take the form of big transgressions.
It may simply be the way we speak to our children, or to our loved ones.
It may simply be the way we try to cheat those with whom we do business.
It may be the way we sit and gossip about others.
All the
rituals and puja in the world can not make up for a lack of piety, honesty
and compassion. The goal of going to temple is not just to perform rituals;
the goal is to become spiritual. God is happier with pure, innocent, devoted
Prahlaad than with all the austerities and rituals performed by his father
and aunt.
So,
LET THIS
HOLI BE A TIME WHEN WE CHANGE
NOT ONLY
THE COLOR OF OUR FACES,
BUT THE
COLOR OF OUR HEARTS.
LET US NOT
ONLY "PLAY" HOLI,
BUT LET
US BECOME HOLY.
LET THE
ONLY COLOR THAT TRULY PENETRATES OUR BEINGS,
BE THE
COLOR OF GOD.
FOR, ON
THE MORNING OF THE 21st
THE OTHER
COLORS WILL WASH AWAY.
BUT WE MUST
LET THE COLOR OF GOD BE INDELIBLE
IN OUR
EYES, IN OUR EARS AND IN OUR HEARTS
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