Including inspirational stories of people who practice awakened relating in their own lives, this book will show you how to identify, transform, and resolve the deep psychological issues that prevent you from having the harmonious, loving relationships you seek. Now is the time to realize the deep and ever-present love that exists within and all around you.
It said the conference deliberated on various issues like cow slaughter, religious conversion, love jihad, Hindu undivided family, environment, harmony among others and adopted two resolutions unanimously.
Holi (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-smallfont-size:85%.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-smallfont-size:100%Hindi pronunciation: ['hoːli:]) is a popular and significant Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love, and Spring.[1][9][10][11]It celebrates the eternal and divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna.[12][13]Additionally, the day signifies the triumph of good over evil,[14][15] as it commemorates the victory of Vishnu as Narasimha over Hiranyakashipu.[16][17] Holi originated and is predominantly celebrated in the Indian subcontinent, but has also spread to other regions of Asia and parts of the Western world through the Indian diaspora.[10][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
Holi also celebrates the arrival of Spring in India, the end of winter, and the blossoming of love.[18][25] It is also an invocation for a good spring harvest season.[18][25] It lasts for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the Purnima (full moon day) falling on the Hindu calendar month of Phalguna, which falls around the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar.
In the Braj region of India, where the Hindu deities Radha and Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated until Rang Panchmi in commemoration of their divine love for each other. The festivities officially usher in spring, with Holi celebrated as a festival of love.[12][43] Garga Samhita, a puranic work by Sage Garga was the first work of literature to mention the romantic description of Radha and Krishna playing Holi.[44] There is also a popular symbolic legend behind the festival. In his youth, Krishna despaired whether the fair-skinned Radha would like him because of his dark skin colour. His mother Yashoda, tired of his desperation, asks him to approach Radha and ask her to colour his face in any colour she wanted. This Radha did, and Radha and Krishna became a couple. Ever since, the playful colouring of Radha and Krishna's faces has been commemorated as Holi.[13][45] Beyond India, these legends help to explain the significance of Holi (Phagwah), which is common in some Caribbean communities of Indian origin such as Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.[46][47] It is also celebrated with great fervour in Mauritius, Fiji, and South Africa.[48]
Among other Hindu traditions such as Shaivism and Shaktism, the legendary significance of Holi is linked to Shiva in yoga and deep meditation. Goddess Parvati wanting to bring Shiva back into the world, seeks help from the Hindu god of love called Kamadeva on Vasant Panchami. The love god shoots arrows at Shiva, the yogi opens his third eye and burns Kama to ashes. This upsets both Kama's wife Rati (Kamadevi) and his own wife Parvati. Rati performs her own meditative asceticism for forty days, upon which Shiva understands, forgives out of compassion and restores the god of love. This return of the god of love, is celebrated on the 40th day after the Vasant Panchami festival as Holi.[51][52] The Kama legend and its significance to Holi has many variant forms, particularly in South India.[53]
In some places, there is a custom in undivided Hindu families that the woman beats her brother-in-law with a sari rolled up into a rope in a mock rage and tries to drench him with colours, and in turn, the brother-in-law brings sweets (Indian desserts) to her in the evening.[73]
Indo-Fijians celebrate Holi or Pagua as its called in Fiji Hindi, as the festival of colours, folksongs, and dances. The folksongs sung in Fiji during Holi season are called phaag gaaian. Phagan, also written as Phalgan, is the last month of the Hindu calendar. Holi is celebrated on the full moon of Phagan. Holi marks the advent of spring and ripening of crops in Northern India. Not only it is a season of romance and excitement, folk songs and dances, it is also an occasion of playing with powder, perfumes, and colours. Many of the Holi songs in Fiji are around the theme of love-relationship between Radha and Krishna.[124]
And this is why I have received such a lot of love from you all. From the time that I have come here I have simply been surrounded with love, and with real, real understanding love. It could feel as if everyone in India, everyone in Africa is somebody very special to you. And I felt quite at home I was telling Sister today. I feel in the Convent with the Sisters as if I am in Calcutta with my own Sisters. So completely at home here, right here.
Sita, recognising Hanuman, her life-saver, immediately orders for his release with due respect. Hanuman shows her the sacrificial horse which is also freed at once. Hanuman's report that Rama is conducting the Aswamedha yagam (horse sacrifice) with a golden statue of Sita placed on his left, consoles her as that is a clear indication of her Lord's undivided love for her.
We need God's special grace to be able to give understanding love to our brothers and sisters who are poor. For they have been created by the same loving hand of God. Though they are dying of hunger or cold or nakedness or disease or loneliness or isolation, still they are our brothers and sisters and that is why we pray, "make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow-men".
It has been said before, "He who serves the poor, serves God." And because of that, it doesn't matter how small the act is, but it matters how much love the act carries in the giving. True love hurts. We know that "God loved the world so much... so much! He loved it so much that He gave His son, Jesus Christ. It was a giving that hurt." For true love is a gift that hurts. And lest we forget that God gives all, we always see among Christians a cross, the sign of His everlasting love. He wants us to love like that.
Again and again and again Jesus brought this up, "Love as I have loved you." It is not possible for us to die on the cross, nor possible for us to do such an extraordinary thing as Jesus. But He said, "Love as I have loved you".
To be able to love like that we need a life of prayer. We must pray, for the practice of prayer leaves our hearts filled with faith. We believe. And we begin to love, and our love turns into service. We all want to love God. Whether we are Christian or not, whether we believe or don't believe, down deep in our hearts He lives. God is. And there is a hunger in our hearts to love God.
How do we love God? Where is God for us to love Him? I will love him in the hungry person. Not only hungry for a piece of bread, but hungry for understanding love. I will love him in the naked person who is not only naked for a piece of cloth, but naked for that human dignity and respect that has been taken away. I will love Him in the homeless person who longs not just for a home of bricks, but for a home of understanding love.
What a trust it is for God to place suffering people in our hands! It is a sacred vocation for us all, sacred because each of them is a life that God has created in His own image. Today, in this world, God has made us to be His love and compassion. We become His love as we pray and as we come to see His face in the lonely eyes of others.
We sisters take special vows to love God with undivided love, with chastity, through the freedom of poverty, and in total surrender to obedience. And we take a fourth vow, of giving whole-hearted and free service to the poorest of the poor. We are bound with a special word of honor to almighty God that we will be with the sick and the poor, the unwanted, the uncared-for, the forgotten, the lepers, the dying, the crippled, the outcast, and the kind of people who have forgotten what human love is. These are people who have forgotten how to smile, who have forgotten the gentle human touch. We take care of 53,000 lepers and many thousands of children saved from abortion. We send word to all the clinics and hospitals saying, "Don't kill that child, we will take it and care for it in love!" We have saved many thousands of lives of children born of God. Every single child finds a home in India or in other countries. Some time ago I gave a child to a wealthy Hindu family in Calcutta. I later heard that the child became very ill, so I sent word to the family, "Kindly give me back that child. I will heal it and care for it and give you a healthy one to care for." The father looked at me and said, "Mother, please take my own life first, then take the child." It showed me how much that child meant in their life. God's children are precious.
Show great love for the suffering. You do not know how much people suffer and with what great dignity they bear it. I remember one time while I was walking with my sisters late at night in Calcutta. We picked up four people, one of whom was in an open drain nearly eaten alive by disease. I took my new friend to our home for the dying in Calcutta near the Kali Temple (the Hindu God of Death). I put all my love into what I did for that sick and suffering woman. I finally put her in bed, and as I did a smile crept onto her face. She took hold of my hand and said, "Thank you." Then she died. I could not help but examine my conscience and wonder, "What if I had been she?" Would I have said that or would I have tried to draw the attention to myself by talking about how hungry I was or how cold I was or how I was suffering. But that woman gave me her understanding love and taught me again about the greatness of our poor. They are our brothers and sisters. They are our teachers.
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