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Holi Satsang 2016

A spiritual discourse explaining the mythological origins and significance of the Holī festival.

"Always, victory is there where the truth is. It is the victory of dharma over adharma."

"This holy festival is not for that which they are consuming, perhaps alcohol or something different... It is a festival of the victory of the good ones and the destruction of the bad ones."

A spiritual teacher narrates the story of Holī, beginning with cosmic principles of Shiva balancing divine and negative energies. He details the allegory of a sage's wives representing inner qualities, leading to the birth of asuras and devas. The core narrative focuses on the demon king Hiraṇyakaśipu, his devout son Prahlāda, and the demoness Holikā, who is burned by divine protection while trying to kill Prahlāda. The teacher explains this symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and good over evil, connecting the ancient myth to contemporary spiritual practice and inner struggle.

Filming location: Vienna, Austria

Oṁ Śivāya Namaḥ. Śivāya Namaḥ. Oṁ Śivāya Namaḥ... Har Har Bodhi. Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Hara Hara Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Hara Hara... Bha Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya, Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya... Mahārā hara bode, nāma sevaya, oṁ hara hara bode. Deveśvara Mahādevakī, Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān, Satguru Svāmī Madhavānandajī Bhagavān, Satyasanātana Dharma. Oṁ Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. Blessings to all of you from the Śrī Alagapurījī Siddhapīṭha paramparā. Welcome. Today is a very auspicious day. It is called Holī. This is a festival. It has become a day for remembering, and that kind of remembering is called... Always, victory is there where the truth is. It is the victory of dharma over adharma. This Holī is the name of one woman. Her name was Holī. How did this festival come to be under the name of that woman called Holī? The story begins from long ago, many yugas. We know the first and the last is Swayambhū Śiva. Shiva is known as Sṛjan Hara. Sṛjan means creator. Ekohaṁ Bhavasyāmi. With this mantra, Śiva manifests himself from the universe. He is the only one who has no mother and no father. It means Śiva is energy. Shiva is the consciousness, Shiva is liberation, and Shiva is the highest one. From the endless universe, the most powerful and spiritual or divine cells of the universe collect together, and from that, Śiva manifests. And it means from his Vākyas, from his words, the creation should begin. Many, many ages, every yuga—four yugas, then again changing: Satyuga, Dvāparayuga, Tretāyuga, and Kaliyuga. And in every yuga, Viṣṇu incarnates. In every yuga, there are different duties of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva. When Viṣṇu cannot maintain, then Śiva has to come as a Mahākāleśvara. Kāla ke bhī mahā kāla. Kāla means death. And that Mahākāla means the death of death. It is eko’haṁ bahusyāmi: "I am one now and will multiply." And so, in the entire endless universe, from ages and ages, yugas, manvantaras... Billions, trillions of the yugas, not only the years. This process is continuing, coming and going, coming and going. From the very beginning, two kinds of tendencies awake. One is called Devī Śakti, the divine energy, and the second is called Āsurī Śakti, the negative energies. Negative energies, darkness, suffering, destruction, etc. And devī śakti is pure, sāttvic, peaceful, and liberating. But Śiva has to manage, maintain, and balance both. And for that, Śiva is eternally in the space and dwelling in different parts of the universe. It is Shiva that balances both negative and positive, and it’s not easy for Shiva to make both happy. It’s like one father has two sons, and one is a deva and the other is an asura. And that was a story. There was a ṛṣi, and he had thirteen wives—enough work. One was working in the field, the second was harvesting fruits, someone was bringing water, someone was milking cows, someone was making chapatis, one was cleaning the house, another was welcoming the guests. So this is thirteen. But what does the thirteen mean? These are the thirteen qualities, the vṛttis in our body. We have to read in the Patañjali Yoga Sūtra, and we have to read in the Bhagavad Gītā or in the Rāmāyaṇa or in the Mahābhārata, we will see that these āsurī śaktis are both in us. Because it is a śakti, and śakti is feminine, but at the same time, not a different duality of gender, because asurī śakti is also in the woman, and daivī śakti is also in the woman, in the man also, and in the woman also. Therefore, when we speak about Śakti, never misunderstand and never make the mistake that Śakti means a woman. This is wrong. But if we talk about this woman as Śakti, yes, they have a strong willpower, and they can endure immense situations, different kinds of situations. So the space, which I always say is like a mother, the body, consciousness is the Shiva—Satyam Shivam Sundaram—and that energy, that’s the Shakti, that’s Yoga: balancing, harmonizing, and uniting. These are the three principles in this Brahma, Viṣṇu, and Maheśa yoga. So these three are eternal and from the very beginning. We don’t know when the space began, how it is that though we are within, we don’t know anything. And so this is space, energy, and consciousness. This is dwelling in the entire universe. So the ṛṣi, one day he was sitting in his hut in the forest. Rishis means the hermits living in the huts. At that time, there was a very small human population. It was the time of sunset, evening. Now the sun went down, and the sky became orange. All the birds came back to their nest, and everything. So one of his wives was there with this ṛṣi, bringing the flowers and putting agarbattis and lighting them for the prayer and pūjā. And another, the eldest woman, his wife, the first one. And always the eldest one has more position. You have to follow all. She came, took her hand, and threw her out of the hut. "You are always here. Go out!" Fighting, you know? When a woman begins to fight, then it’s a very interesting subject, yes. Oh, God. When two elephants in the ocean, in a beautiful, big, clean lake, and they begin to fight—two elephants—oh, even the tigers and lions, they are running away. That is a Śakti. Well, the other one, of course. She stepped out one side, and this elderly one, she wants to sleep with her husband now. And he said, "Devi"—they all call them Devi, goddess—"this time, this is the time for meditation, for pūjā, for prayers, and for mantras. This is not a time to sleep, to make a sex." And she said, "No, I want you. You are my husband, and you have to fulfill my desire." He said, "But wait, not now. It is time for prayer." She said, "I don’t carry your prayers in this." Anyhow, she was strong. And we saw in the video that she was so thin, and she was massive. She just fell on him, and he couldn’t breathe. Yes, so it’s, well, it happened. So from this time, she gave birth to her son, and that was rākṣasa, asuras. Others, they were devas. But they are brothers and sisters. They are both brothers because of one father. But due to not having the proper constellation and proper time, that you did not respect the constellations, and that was the result that rākṣasas, asuras, or what you call satans, they were born, and from that time began the quarreling. And these are the qualities within us. They are not separated. When you have pure energy, pure thinking, pure love, devotion, and pure consciousness; then in you are devic śaktis. But when from the unconscious state or the subconscious, when the negative energy awakes, then again you begin to blame, and be angry, and jealous, and hate, and have ego, and what not, all. This is the aiśvarya śakti, and one doesn’t see. One doesn’t see that I make a mistake. I’m angry, I’m shouting. You think you are right, but you are not. That time, your situation is like this, that we call always under the oil lamp is dark. The flame does not know that under the lamp is dark. "Think I’m light everywhere, I’m light," but look down, there is a dark. We say, "dīyā ke nīche andherā." Yes, there is a light here, is a light, but here is dark. So if it goes upside down, then is dark. So we have both. We have shadow side, and we have also the light that, unfortunately, from that time onwards, remained in us. Now, devas are in the heaven, and asuras are in the hell, or different. Asuras want to be in the heaven. And devas are in the heaven. They are ruling the heaven. But asuras want to have that because they are beautiful and great and everything, and so on and so on and so on. So there was always a beginning war. That’s called sky war, fighting from the sky. Now that Kali Yuga has come again, they are fighting from the sky. Sending the bombs, and that, and that again, this different form but the same. So again, only Śiva can balance. So Śiva came, and Asuras came to Śiva, and Śiva promised them that they will have their place, they will have this and that and this. Then Devas came. "Asuras are strong; they will kill us." Shiva said, "No, they will not do. This will be good. Divide it." But again, Asuras are coming. So this is a fight. This is a war from the beginning of this universe. What about us? So we have collected all this from ages and ages, yugas and manvantaras, and from all we collected these jīva individual souls, which are like fog clouds in the astral world, like we say the cloud of the pollution. Similarly, there are so many souls as a pollution in the space. Because multiplying, one seed comes in the earth, it grows. Then this is one seed of a fig tree, and that fig tree will grow, and we’ll get so many figs. And the fig fruit means only the seeds. And now one seed multiplies to how many? Eko’haṁ bahu syām. That is the Śiva principle. I am one, and now I will multiply. So, on a particular situation, constellation you are born, and everything happened on a good constellation. You have spiritual śakti, you have divine śakti, you have devic śakti, you have adhyātmik thoughts, you have mercy in your heart, you have clear consciousness, you have wisdom, etc. But if it is happening on the wrong constellation, then come negative thoughts, jealousy, hate, this, that, many, many things. So it is Shiva who is balancing and maintaining everyone’s peace. Long ago, long ago, in one of the yugas, you know, in Satyuga, there was churning of the ocean, and the nine jewels came. Now, first, what came was the poison. And now, with this poison, if they put it somewhere on the earth, the whole Earth will be destroyed, so what to do? The rākṣasas and devas, they did not know what to do. Neither the rākṣasas want to die, nor the devas. So what to do with this poison now? You have this snake on your hand, in your hand, or in your neck. How to get rid of it? So they went to Śiva and said, "Please Śivājī, what to do?" Śiva opened his eyes and said, "I told you." That was your greed. Remember, before three years, I think, or four years already? In the Mexico Sea, they were drilling for petrol, and somewhere it was leaking, and so much all came out. And there was a big carpet on the ocean. How many creatures died, and nations, and this, and that, and that, and they couldn’t stop. The same thing could happen in our field, within ourselves. The lake is within us. And our greed, our ambitions, our desires, that goes in deep and brings that poison. It has poisoned us completely. Thanks to the great saints, and what we call gurus or masters, they give you a spiritual injection so through... This spiritual injection again calms down these negative energies, and again, you begin to breathe in the good air and with the goodness, and say, "I’m sorry, God, forgive me for what I did." All this, so both are within us, Paṇḍeya and Rākṣasa. They are always changing. They are now also here in this world, also here now, and it is very hard to say who is not a Rākṣasa, yes. In this hall, I do hope, I pray to Mahāprabhujī, that you are all devas and devīs. I always tell them, "You are a devī, you are divine, you are this," yes. So one day... The one Rākṣasa king went to get blessings from God, from Brahmā, to become physically immortal, and he was standing on one leg and doing tapasyā. Tapasya is something to achieve. You have to follow certain principles, certain rules. When the Master said, "Don’t do this, and do this, and don’t do this, and don’t go there," you will sit for a while, you will follow. Then, negative energy, if there is, will come up like a hurricane and again destroy. Well, he was praying, and it is a principle, it is a law, that Brahmā have to come and solve the problems. If Brahmā cannot, then Viṣṇu, and when Viṣṇu cannot, then finally Śivajī have to come, but... It is Brahmā’s work. He has to do it. When Brahmā came and appeared, that sākṣī said, "Holy Father"—Brahmā means the holy father. What you call the holy father, holy spirit, and holy son. So, holy father, what do you want?" "I want nothing, but..." One thing, if you are a Brahma, you know what I am. I want my God, the right sound. I should move a little, sorry, all bhakti who is listening, because it’s my beer making noise. If I save it, you will say, "Oh, good." So, obviously, please, again, let it grow your beard, but I should move a little. Okay, "What do you want?" he said. "I want to become immortal. I should never die." Brahmā said, "This is not in our constitution. We cannot. We can give you anything, but I can’t bless you that you will ever and ever." Leave, he said, but I want otherwise. You go, I will do further my sādhanā, and you have to come, or Śiva has to come. Brahmā said, "But why do you do like this? You can ask some different things, so you will live forever. That’s it." So he... Said, "Okay." Brahmā did something. He changed his thought a little bit, you know. Yes, my son, it will be okay. You ask me something, and I will give you that. You will never die, but not in the name of mortality. This way, so, but in Austria they said, "We have an organ to Martin." Yeah, so, so what is that? Say something where I should not die, who cannot kill you? And this, he said, "Okay, then I want to ask you one thing, say." Yes, I should not die daytime. I should not die nighttime. I should not die when the sun is rising. I should not die when the sun is setting. I should not die in the house and not outside of the house. And no weapons can kill me, no any. Humans can kill me, no other creatures can kill me, and neither in the night nor in the day. And her death cannot take me away. Brahma said, "That is great." He said, "Are you okay, or do you want something more?" He said, "No, that’s enough." Then he said, "Bless you." Now this Rākṣasa, his name was Hiraṇyakaśipu. He said, "I am the king of the entire universe. No one can kill me. I will never die, night or day, in or out. Animals, or the humans, or the weapons, or any elements, I am immortal. They are neither Brahma, nor Viṣṇu, nor Śiva. Go out. I am now." That’s Rākṣasa vṛtti. That is Rākṣasa vṛtti, challenging your parents, "What, you, my father and mother, you are always like this, and you are." And parents said, "Yes, my child, it’s okay." You know, you have children now, and when the children are 18 years, 19, 20 years, my God, parents have only one word: "Yes, okay, yes." You know the situation. So he said, "Everyone, no one will pray and meditate only my name. I am the God." But people cannot, and who don’t do this will be killed, but that’s all. Put them in the fire by living. So when they saw him, they were saying, "But look, a miracle of God. God gave him one son, and he was so happy. I have a now the son multiplying. I am." Multiplying, but the son, he was very spiritual, very spiritual. And when he was born, he said from his mouth, "Oṁ Hari Oṁ." My child, Hiraṇyakaśipu, he should say not "Hari Oṁ," so that you know, many people, they don’t want to say "Hari Oṁ." It’s all Hindu Dharma. We don’t say this, and we don’t say this, so this is a negative energy, not to know. If you know what it is, then you can say everything, all God’s names, you can say with great respect and devotion. Well, anyhow, he begins to repeat the mantra, "Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat." Japakar, japakar, yahi mahā mantra hai: Hari Oṁ Tat Sat. So from that time they call the mahā mantra "Hari Oṁ Tat Sat." Hari is Oṁ, and that is the truth. Well, he told the school teacher, "Take this child in the school and teach him my name, and that he should never remember and chant the Hari Oṁ Tat Sat." But what happened? He was teaching the masters and children, and after, when the class was out, the children were running home while chanting, "Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat," and they went to the palace where Hiraṇyakaśipu was sitting, and they said, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat. Oh God, the rākṣasa wasn’t. He tried to throw him in the big lake where there are hundreds of crocodiles, so they threw him out. He walked over. There were a lot of lotus flowers. And he walked over and came out, a small child. They let him throw where the very big group of elephants, a bunch of elephants, were there. They dropped him between the elephants. They will kill him. He came home. Then they put him and threw him from the mountain. There was a beautiful, nice tree. The tree held him like in the hands, and he was surviving and coming home. So this was all the times, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat. Many things happened. There is one story, one more that I will tell you after, perhaps next time. Now the father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, decided to kill himself. So he had two options more. Hiraṇyakaśipu had one sister. Rakṣasas have siddhis quickly. The negative magic, black magic, that functions quickly. So, Hiraṇyakaśipu’s sister was also like a Rākṣasa. And she had a siddhi, a kind of siddhi, that she could sit in the fire and the fire could not burn her. So Hiraṇyakaśipu went to his sister and said, "My dear sister, I have a request. You know, your nephew, he is destroying all my tapasyā and all my work and everything. Sister, can you do something for me?" She said, "Yes, brother, what can I do?" "Take Prahlāda on your lap and sit in the fire, and tell him that we will have a bath today, a fire bath. And he said, "Innocent child, he will sit, he will burn, and you are not burning, so sister." Please, do one thing for me, she said. Okay. She took the sister then in her lap and held him tightly, and by the fire, he was saying, "Tell everybody, sing everybody: Hari Oṁ Tatsat, Hari Oṁ Tatsat, ... Hari Oṁ." Japakar, japakar, yahi mantra. Japakar, japakar, yahi Hari Oṁ Tatsat, Hari Oṁ. And what happens? The Siddhi of his sister disappeared with this mantra because God protects his bhakta, and she died. She burned into the ashes, and her name was Holikā. Her name was Holikā. So he remained, and she burned. So the victory of the positive energy, the devic śakti and āsurī śakti, disappeared. So today is that day when Holikā was burned to ashes and Prahlāda remained. So when this happened, it was evening time after the sunset. Next day, people were congratulating everyone that the Rakṣasa’s gone and the Devas have come, the night has gone and the dawn has come. Wake, my children, wake. Sit in meditation. So tomorrow, will people be happy? That’s called a colorful life. What does a colorful life mean? Happy, joyful, that was after some centuries they, people, began to put the colors, this and that. At the time of Kṛṣṇa, when they began to play with the water and throw the colors, the colorful life, happy life, dancing. But slowly, slowly, Kali Yuga approached and came and Go, these people begin to drink alcohol or some kind of drugs, but that is not belonging to this festival. It is because today, tomorrow is given as a free day for you. You can do any good things, anything, and they think, "I can." Do anything I like, and there are negative things that happen. Accidents happen every time, everywhere. But this is the main point of the Holī. Now, the Pahālagrī meant, Hiraṇyakaśipu was so angry, but the earth under his feet was like this. Not earth, his feet. This balance, the Hiraṇyakaśipu, now must be something, the game of Viṣṇu. But Viṣṇu, I will not let you go. It is a Hiraṇya Kaśyapa. You can’t kill me. Brahma has given me a blessing. Neither Shiva nor you can do so. No one can go against the law. But wait. Time will come. Time will come. The clock of God will not stop. It will come again there. So he decides now. Always it’s called Kubuddhi. You know what is a Kubuddhi? Negative thought. Opposite thinking. Now, whom is God going to give punishment? Then God will take away his good thoughts, positive thoughts, and everything will become negative, and negative, and negative. That is, be aware. Never, never talk in such a temperament to anyone, and control your energy. Negative energies, drink water. Close your eyes and think, "Calm down, calm down," towards your guru, towards your master, towards your teacher, towards your friend, towards your colleagues, etc., etc. It doesn’t matter what kind of position you have; even if you have a high position. That’s ego. So two things are difficult to remove. Two things are difficult to remove: ego, and if you have a big stomach, the big stomach. So once you have a big stomach, my god, it’s not easy to remove. And so his ego is not easy to remove, and that’s why ego is destructive, it will kill you. And that’s why also your stomach will create many, many... this balance in the body: diabetes and blood pressures and diarrhea, and the except extra, etc., etc. Okay. So the Hiraṇyakaśipu had kubuddhi, now negative thoughts. So he made a big iron pillar, a pipe, an iron pipe, and put the coal inside and lit the fire. When the fire began and the coal became very hot, the whole pillar was red hot, melting. So, 30 to 40 meters far, you have to wait. How hot it is. Call the Hiraṇyakaśipu, his son. "Prahlāda, come, my son. Come sit here on my lap. My son, I want to tell you that I am your father, your son. Please, think a little bit of me also. You will do what I say?" He said, "No." Then he said, "Okay. I ask you for two things. Do one thing. Either go and embrace, hug the pillar, or be ready, I will chip your head." So, Hiraṇyakaśipu was saying, and Prahlāda got up in front of him and looked at his father and said, "Father, Rākṣasa, I will not be killed by your hands. You can’t kill me. Better to burn in the fire, your sister Holikā. She couldn’t burn me; this also will not, but I will do." Now, heat. He’s going like this. Little was thinking, "It’s a fire, I will burn." At that time, what he sees is the ants running on this hot pillar. And again, he got energy, power, motivation, and he jumped, hugged the pillar, and the pillar fell in two parts. Out came some creature; from the navel up was a lion, and down was a human. And caught him in the hands and said, "My son, you had to suffer a lot, but now nothing will happen to you." Hiraṇyakaśipu was sitting on his chair, and he saw there must be something wrong today. Half man and half animal. So he learned to go into his house and close the door. But that is called Narasiṁha avatāra. Nar means human, Singh means the lion, avatāra means incarnation. For the sake of the bhaktas, God had to come as an animal. And that also only half, and half as a human. God is ready to do anything for us, but you should have faith and confidence. Gurudev will do everything, but you should have that devotion, this confidence. Hiraṇyakaśipu was running, and Nṛsiṁha, the Avatāra, he jumped and caught him in the middle of the door, put him down, and sat on him. Said Hiraṇyakaśipu, "Look, is it now day or night?" He said, "Neither day nor night," because the sun is just going down. "Are you inside or outside?" Said, "I’m neither in, neither out. Am I human or animal?" He said, "I can’t tell you. Look, my these gloves are a weapon." Said, "No, now my promise is fulfilled. I’m not that death. I’m not that weapon. I’m not in the night or day, neither in nor out. All your words which I promised you, I respect it." But now, in that situation, there is nothing which can protect you and kill him. And Prahlāda remained, Prahlāda, the great saint, but still in his blood was the Rākṣasa’s blood, so he had to do the tapasyā, and long, long tapasyā, and pray to God. So then, Viṣṇu Bhagavān, he came in the blood of the... Prahlāda, and he took, he became a son of Prahlāda, and he then called, he came, and he’s going further to kill the other Rākṣasas, and like this, so that was what you call Vāmanāvatāra. Vāmanāvatāra means who can’t grow, is only small, and this story is long, after we will tell in the next time, so this is the holy Holi. It is a festival of the victory of the good ones and the destruction of the bad ones. The devas, the bhaktas, will be protected, and the asuras will be destroyed. And again and again, they will come to difficulties and torturing. Bhaktas will be liberated. This will be the last birth for us. Then we are forever in the Brahmaloka. And therefore, this holy festival is not for that which they are consuming, perhaps alcohol or something different, but not all, maybe 5%. But you know, people only think of this 3%, oh God, they are all drinking, but all are not. In the world, there are many, many good people in every culture, in every religion, everywhere, great. Always have peace and harmony, and we have, therefore, I wish you a happy, holy, and blessed holy for your good health, for your peace in the house, and all. Asurī śaktis may disappear from this world, disappear from your mind, body, and feelings. Japa kar, japa kar. Yahī mantra Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat,... Hari Oṁ japākar japākar yahī mahā mantra Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat,... Hari Oṁ japā kar japā kar yahī mahā mantra japā kar japā kar yahī mahā Hari Oṁ Tat Sat, Hari Oṁ Tat Sat... Hari om, hari hi om, and om is truth, that is the truth. So this is the mahā mantra. Then the second mahā mantra is before that in the Vedas, that’s called the Mahāmṛtyu Jaya Mantra. Oṁ Tryambakaṁ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṁ Puṣṭi Vardhanam, Urvārukamiva Bandhanān Mṛtyor Mukṣīya Mā’mṛtāt. Oṁ Tryambakaṁ Yajāmahe, Oṁ Tryambakaṁ Yajāmahe Sugandhiṁ Puṣṭi Vardhanam, Urvārukamiva Bandhanān Mṛtyor Mukṣīya Mā’mṛtāt. Oṁ śānti, oṁ śānti. And all from this, and all comes and exists in everything: one in all, and all in one. Sṛjan hara and visarjan hara. Beginning and end is always in the hands of the supreme, in the hands of Bhagavān Sadāśiva Swayambhū. Namaḥ Śivāya Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya Oṁ... Namaḥ Oṁ Har Har Mālī Namaz Oṁ Har Har Bali Oṁ Har Har Bali Oṁ Namaz Śivāy Oṁ Namaz Oṁ Namaz Śivāy Oṁ Namaz Namaz... Śivāya Oṁ Har Har Bhol Namaḥ Śivāya Oṁ Namaḥ Har Har Bhol Namaḥ.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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