TV Channel

What effect does a complete eclipse of the moon have on humans? It affects not only humans but the entire planet, especially the part of the earth where it is visible. It is harmful; there is no spiritual development during this time. It has a negative effect, not a positive one. For humans, it is customary to fast on that day until the moon completely purifies itself again. Astrologically and according to Vedic belief, the moon undergoes a kind of karmic death. We humans are affected by this too. When the moon regains its full light, people wash all their curtains, cloths, and everything. This is because when there is no moonlight, it becomes completely dark, and many living creatures in the air die. Negative energy arrives. The moon is our life. God Kṛṣṇa said that through the moon, He enters into the vegetation as nectar. Through the moon again, the individual soul enters into the physical planet. It is the moon through which the rain comes. And it is the moon which has a very significant emotional influence on our planet. Therefore, on this day—for example, today is the full moon, or as you say, the eclipse—today is Holī in India. We have two major festivals: one is Dīvālī and one is Holī. It originates from the distant Satya Yuga. It's a long, long story. This holy festival is where people throw colors on each other. People wear masks and different things. Now in Europe, the same thing occurs as carnival, and the carnival is an imitation of this holy festival. The holy festival has a very significant spiritual story. There was a king. He went to the forest to attain siddhi. He prayed, standing on one leg for years and years, until a divine voice, an oracle, appeared and asked what he wanted. He said, "I want to be forever young and immortal physically." God said, "That is not possible." The king insisted, "But I want this." God said, "Even I, as God, cannot grant you this, because it is against the law. But I can give you something. Tell me, what death? I can grant that no death will kill you. No weapon will be the cause of your death. No illness will be the cause of your death. You will not die in the daytime. You will not die at night. You will not die inside the house. And you will not die outside the house." The king said, "Thank you, Lord." Now he thought he was immortal. "When I am inside the house, I will never die. Or if I am outside the house, I will never die. I will not die in the daytime, and I will not die at night time. So I will go out of the house either night or daytime. No weapon can kill me; no animals can kill me. No death can kill me; no human can kill me. So I am immortal." He began to tell the people, "There is no God; only I am God, and whoever does not believe in me will be punished with the death sentence." All people were very afraid. No one was to have satsaṅg. No one was to pray. His name was Hiraṇyakaśipu. In his time, religion was suffering. When I first came to Hungary and people told me, "Don't talk about God, no religion, and no prayer," I said, "What? Is Hiraṇyakaśipu still living?" I couldn't believe that communism was like this, because in India we had a lot of advertising about communism—Soviet women, Soviet agriculture, Soviet machines, and so on. We all thought communism was very good. "You cannot speak about God; it's really Hiraṇyakaśipu still alive." But it was different; I could talk about God, I could make prayers; it was not like that. Well, the story is very long; I will try to make it short. At night, he used to go himself from village to village, riding on the back of a horse, to find out if some people were giving satsaṅg or talking about God. Suddenly he saw one elderly lady sitting and praying to God. In front of her, a fire was burning, so he stopped. He went and threatened her, "Now I will put you in this fire. You have to burn yourself in this fire. Why did you remember God? What do you want? I give you everything you want. There is no God who can give you anything." When she saw him, she was praying to him. He said, "No, no, no, I heard you calling another God. Where was the necessity?" She said, "I am a potter by profession. I make pots out of clay. Now I want to burn them, and I had one cat. She had three kittens the day before yesterday in one of the pots, and mistakenly I put that pot inside the kiln. I realized it late. The cat's kittens were inside, so I am praying to God to forgive my sin." He said, "There is no God, but if your kittens are alive, then you will not get punishment. Otherwise, you will be burned in this fire. I will sit here." She prayed more deeply. It took 36 hours for the fire to calm down. Then he let his soldiers take the pots out, one after the other. In the middle of the heap of pots, there were two pots completely untouched by fire. The kitten babies were jumping from one pot to the other. The king said, "Stupid, but you have good luck," and he went away. He had one son, and his son was very devoted. His name was Bhakta Prahlāda. He was teaching all children kīrtan. All children were chanting the name of God, and his father did not like it. The father wanted indirectly to kill his son because he believed in God. He tried many things but was not successful. He had one sister, and this sister had a siddhi: she could sit in the fire, and the fire would not burn her. So he told his sister, "Holikā, take your nephew in your lap and sit in the fire. Please help me." She did it. What happened? She was burned, and Prahlāda remained untouched because she did not follow the principles. She acted against the law. Today is that day. This evening they will burn the Holī. They take a tree from the forest. This tree is erected in the middle of the town or village for about one month. Beside it stands the symbol of Prahlāda, signifying that Prahlāda will remain, and Holī will be carried outside the village to the entrance and burned. It is big fun for the people. So, Carnival in Europe is an imitation of the Holī time. Then you have the May tree. In every village, there is one long tree standing, and there is a boy who can climb it and get what is hanging around there—what you call a mālā. He can dance with the person whom he likes. This tree is the symbol of that Holī. All your festivals are directly linked to Vedic culture, and so we are all united. Human culture crosses borders. Culture never remains in one place; it moves. When one Hungarian goes to Australia, he brings Australian-Hungarian culture. Or when an Indian comes to Debrecen, he brings Indian culture. So it is like this. Finally, to make the story short, Hiraṇyakaśipu decided to kill his son. He prepared a very big iron pillar and put coal inside and lit a fire. When the coal was burned, the whole pillar was red and very hot; you could not sit 20-30 meters near it. Hiraṇyakaśipu asked his son, "Either give up talking about God, or, if you want to talk to God, then go and embrace this hot pillar." When he said this, Prahlāda said, "It is better to die in the fire than be killed by a sinner like you." Prahlāda went with open arms to embrace or hug the pillar. When he was about 10 meters from the pillar, it was so hard that he could not feel the heat. He thought to himself, "Oh God, now I will die." In that minute, he saw ants walking on the pillar. He said, "When such small creatures are walking on this hot pillar, how will I die?" So he ran to hug the pillar. The pillar broke into pieces, and from inside came a very peculiar form, a creature. From the navel upwards, it was a lion. From the navel downwards, it was human. Prahlāda hugged that person. The being took him in his lap and said, "My child, do not worry, I am with you." That was called Narasiṁha; "Nara" means the human, and "Siṁha" means the lion. So, Narasiṁha Avatāra—out of twenty-four incarnations according to Hindu mythology, one of them was that Narasiṁha Avatāra. When Hiraṇyakaśipu saw this, he could not believe it. He was frightened and could not get up from his chair because he knew, "Now my death is here." He tried to run into his house. Narasiṁha ran behind the king and caught him between the door. He pulled him down and asked him questions. He asked him, "Where are you? Look, are you inside or outside of your house?" It was neither. "Look if it is day or night." It was just sunset, half—neither day nor night. "Look at me. Am I human or animal?" He could not say if it was human or animal. "And my nails, are there any weapons?" So, "My promise is fulfilled. The end has come." He killed Hiraṇyakaśipu. This is how, by taking a mask, the carnivals began, hiding the real face. So this festival today is the victory of the Bhaktas and the loss of the devils; the darkness of the night is gone, and the light of the day comes again. Tomorrow people will be very happy, and they will throw colors and do many things, happy that Holikā died because she wanted to kill the Bhakta, and celebrating the victory of Prahlāda. But you know, humans are very crazy; now they will drink alcohol. Can you imagine? When humans get crazy, then God has to hide somewhere. God is even scared about humans' craziness. So this is the Holī festival. This evening they will burn Holī. Last year we celebrated Holī in Slovakia; in the middle of Slovakia in the mountains, there was snow one or two meters deep, and we made a castle out of the snow. We called it an igloo. The walls were about two meters high, and we were all standing inside. We had a very nice, big fire. From kilometers away, you could see beautifully this white snow and the moonlight and the fire flames. It was beautiful. But today, we are happy. It is nice and warm, if not so warm. So, blessings to all of you for the Holī. Recording location: Hungary, Debrecen, Weekend seminar