There will come a point of time in life when you will move away from being a Karmayogi to being a mere Bhakti Yogi to being a Gynan Yogi. Your belief in the Supreme will waver as you contemplate life and you will contemplate Atheism, this is an important step towards God realization and its completely normal and you must understand it as God's plan if ever you need to explain it. The cause of this transformation can be explained simply by the Law of Marginal Utiity or one can also blame it on imperfect or imbalanced Ahar Vihar Achar Vichar. There comes a time when you stop in order to wonder why you do what you do. That is when most people google answers for the questions of life.
I am not against Atheists or Democracy or Google, I myself use a lot of Google but to use any tool effectively to its full potential, you have to know its benefits and limitations.
Google is an awesome tool for the seeker but works like a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of the believer. Its quite democratic most of the time so it works quite inefficiently here. The Meanings get lost behind legends and legends get lost behind the Myths and people accept certain stories as being absolute without really wondering about why when and in what context they were shared. It just boils down to the willingness of the user to use all his assets (Man, Buddhi, Ahamkara) before coming to a conclusion. I decided to check why Holi is celebrated the way it is and I found a plethora of incomplete stories spread across several articles.
Holi has many myths and legends attached to it. An interesting one is about Krishna once embarrased by his dark blue skin, told his mother he was worried his love Radha would not accept him. She told him to colour Radha's face whatever colour he wanted; when he did, they became a couple. Theres also the interesting story of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasyap.
Now, this story is quite a good reflection of some popular attitudes in human society (yet that is not all there is to it). The color of the Skin is often of primary importance to many. It is either that or one propagates absolute disregard for the color of one's skin. So, the general attitude is to look at or beyond color rather than within. While celebrating color people forget the importance of White. There is a custom of wearing white clothes on this day which has an interesting significance. Interestingly using of white ingredients in prepared feasts on this day also has a certain significance which not many talk about. White, the color of nourishment, the color of Milk, the color of essence, the color of Shukra, the color of Semen, and also the color of light and also of emptiness (because white light reflects all seven colors of the spectrum).
You may just go on deciphering it by saying it signifies light or is a way to welcome the brighter days, its up to you. Or ride on the popular bandwagon of victory of good over evil if you need a reason to drink yourself crazy and celebrate by changing the color of people's skins.
I would avoid trying to decipher it too deeply so I can focus my attention on reading the 13th Chapter of Canto 3 of the Srimad Bhagwatam. It is sometimes interesting to think about the astronomical significance of the moments in time that the world celebrates as festivals. The Srimad Bhagwatam here explains the interesting story of creation without the need for limiting the world into myths and legends that talk of morality versus reality, talk of good and evil. The only evil here is ignorance and incomplete knowledge. And that in the world today, is exactly what Atheism (and devotion too) breeds, because while the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the plan of the Supreme Lord, the devotees brain is busy defending a plan which he or she does not understand completely. Both their intelligence and efforts are thus misdirected. The problem is not so much about Atheism or Theism, the problem is in taking a firm stand and refusing to let go of it.
All we really need to really understand is that a Supreme does exist, that is the reason why we are all living in this world with all sorts of yogis and ayogis. And all of them see a different picture of the universe based on their varying position in Spacetime; the same way that within the same earthly sphere, people in different parts of it see the sun and moon in different lights. Some see it rising or waxing, some see it setting or waning.
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
I am not against Atheists or Democracy or Google, I myself use a lot of Google but to use any tool effectively to its full potential, you have to know its benefits and limitations.
Google is an awesome tool for the seeker but works like a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of the believer. Its quite democratic most of the time so it works quite inefficiently here. The Meanings get lost behind legends and legends get lost behind the Myths and people accept certain stories as being absolute without really wondering about why when and in what context they were shared. It just boils down to the willingness of the user to use all his assets (Man, Buddhi, Ahamkara) before coming to a conclusion. I decided to check why Holi is celebrated the way it is and I found a plethora of incomplete stories spread across several articles.
Holi has many myths and legends attached to it. An interesting one is about Krishna once embarrased by his dark blue skin, told his mother he was worried his love Radha would not accept him. She told him to colour Radha's face whatever colour he wanted; when he did, they became a couple. Theres also the interesting story of Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakasyap.
Now, this story is quite a good reflection of some popular attitudes in human society (yet that is not all there is to it). The color of the Skin is often of primary importance to many. It is either that or one propagates absolute disregard for the color of one's skin. So, the general attitude is to look at or beyond color rather than within. While celebrating color people forget the importance of White. There is a custom of wearing white clothes on this day which has an interesting significance. Interestingly using of white ingredients in prepared feasts on this day also has a certain significance which not many talk about. White, the color of nourishment, the color of Milk, the color of essence, the color of Shukra, the color of Semen, and also the color of light and also of emptiness (because white light reflects all seven colors of the spectrum).
You may just go on deciphering it by saying it signifies light or is a way to welcome the brighter days, its up to you. Or ride on the popular bandwagon of victory of good over evil if you need a reason to drink yourself crazy and celebrate by changing the color of people's skins.
I would avoid trying to decipher it too deeply so I can focus my attention on reading the 13th Chapter of Canto 3 of the Srimad Bhagwatam. It is sometimes interesting to think about the astronomical significance of the moments in time that the world celebrates as festivals. The Srimad Bhagwatam here explains the interesting story of creation without the need for limiting the world into myths and legends that talk of morality versus reality, talk of good and evil. The only evil here is ignorance and incomplete knowledge. And that in the world today, is exactly what Atheism (and devotion too) breeds, because while the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the plan of the Supreme Lord, the devotees brain is busy defending a plan which he or she does not understand completely. Both their intelligence and efforts are thus misdirected. The problem is not so much about Atheism or Theism, the problem is in taking a firm stand and refusing to let go of it.
All we really need to really understand is that a Supreme does exist, that is the reason why we are all living in this world with all sorts of yogis and ayogis. And all of them see a different picture of the universe based on their varying position in Spacetime; the same way that within the same earthly sphere, people in different parts of it see the sun and moon in different lights. Some see it rising or waxing, some see it setting or waning.
Truth is life is too short for anyone to understand the universe completely so for those that do manage to go beyond living their lives restricting their path to a particular ideology, achive a greater part of the Supreme than what a wannabe karmyogi or bhaktiyogi or gyanyogi would. In Canto II of chapter 1 SB says:
dehāpatya-kalatrādiṣv
ātma-sainyeṣv asatsv api
teṣāṁ pramatto nidhanaṁ
paśyann api na paśyati
tasmād bhārata sarvātmā
bhagavān īśvaro hariḥ
śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca
smartavyaś cecchatābhayam
I am going to leave out mentioning the sound to sound translation of this verse here. Instead I will mention a quote by Einstein which is along the same lines talking of exactly the same thing.
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