Hello All! :)
I hope all my readers are doing great!
As I said, an article about Holi was waiting in the queue of being published over here. And today is Holi. So here's the article! :P
Holi (Hindi: होली), is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, and Fiji.
The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli in Sanskrit, also Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing scented powder and perfume at each other. Bonfires are lit on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). After doing holika dahan prayers are said and praise is offered. The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion. Holika Dahan is referred to as Kama Dahanam in South India.
Today is the main day called Dhulandi, and yesterday was the Chhoti Holi. Chhoti Holi is rather the religious one and Dhulandi the playful one. The kids are the most amused about the festival. In India, the kids get over the roof loaded with water-balloons a week before Holi to prank the pedestrians! LOL! Though it's fun but it is not too safe, I know.
Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March. In 2009, Holi (Dhulandi) was on March 11 and Holika Dahan was on March 10. In 2010, Holi was on March 1 and Holika Dahan was on February 28. In 2011, Holi was on March 20 and Holika Dahan was on March 19. This time Chhoti Holi or Holika Dahan was on March 7th and Dhulandi on March 8th(Today).
The religious significance for holi makes it one of a major festival for Hindus. The stories about the festival :
In Vaishnavism, Hiranyakashipu is the great king of demons, and he had been granted a boon by Brahma, which made it almost impossible for him to be killed. The boon was due to his long penance, after which he had demanded that he not be killed "during day or night; inside the home or outside, not on earth or in the sky; neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by shastra". Consequently, he grew arrogant and attacked the Heavens and the Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping Gods and start praising him.
According to this belief, Hiranyakashipu's own son, Prahlada, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. In spite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlada continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu. He was poisoned by Hiranyakashipu, but the poison turned to nectar in his mouth. He was ordered to be trampled by elephants yet remained unharmed. He was put in a room with hungry, poisonous snakes and survived. All of Hiranyakashipu's attempts to kill his son failed. Finally, he ordered young Prahlada to sit on a pyre on the lap of his demoness sister, Holika, who could not die because she also had a boon. And a boon which would prevent fire from burning her. Prahlada readily accepted his father's orders, and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as Holika burnt to death, while Prahlada survived unharmed, the burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi.
In Vrindavan and Mathura, where Lord Krishna grew up, the festival is celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi) in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna. The festivities officially usher in spring, the celebrated season of love.
There is alternative story detailing the origin of Holi. This story is about Kamadeva, a god of love. Kama's body was destroyed when he shot his weapon at Shiva in order to disrupt his meditation and help Parvati to marry Shiva. Shiva then opened his third eye, the gaze of which was so powerful that Kama's body was reduced to ashes. For the sake of Kama's wife Rati (passion), Shiva restored him, but only as a mental image, representing the true emotional and spiritual state of love rather than physical lust. The Holi bonfire is believed to be celebrated in commemoration of this event.
I was so tired after playing holi today that I could barely write. I took help from Wikipedia for this article. So be kind enough not to blame of any copying! :P
Anyways, hope you all had an awesome Holi, a colorful, cheerful and awesomely-amazing day! :) May God Bless you all.
Good Day! ^_^
Hello my dear readers! I hope everyone is doing good :)
So my thought process has landed me back on my desiccator and before my thoughts go into air, let me write them down! LOL!
Back to being talking about drugs, would I be called a peddler just because I am talking about them again? Ah! Grow up! :P
I had posted an article on drugs sometime ago(Am I posting one post per month? Strange, but I didn't want to do that, it's just a coincidence, oh back to conversation!). Knowing the increasing impacts of drugs on the current generation(guess what? I am also the current generation, though too far away from drugs and similar $#it, oops! pardon that one), I was thinking to talk more about it.
I am a college student and being in touch with people from all types of backgrounds. I know people who are good, people who are almost 'hermits'(not indulging in any of the crappy-materialistic act), and those who are bad, worse and WORST!
Anyways, we know why steroids are harmful(I mean, I guess you all know that, right? O_O) The doctors don't prescribe steroids easily to the patients either. The problem being their addicting nature. What's addiction? When we do something for quite sometime and our mind and body start getting conditioned to it, we are unable to give that thing up. In simple words, such a state is called addiction.
Seeing the current scenario of the world and especially the students(one of the most vulnerable section of the people, vulnerable to addiction of various things). I titled this post as "Steroids and similar, eh, "DRUGS"!" because I couldn't broadly use the words in my post header. I would like to say that what I am gonna write further, might not be liked by many, but well, it's my desiccator, and that's what it is for, to not to let my thoughts die out without being conveyed!
I would say, not only the Steroids are such addicting drugs, but most of the habits today;s individuals being indulging into are similar to this addiction, and can thus be classified under "drugs" only. I actually wanted to talk about them, that's why I titled the post that.
You know what? I was intending to post this one on 29th February, but I didn't do that. When I was at college listening to my classmates' conversations made me to do a little observation before posting it. How did I perform the observation? Well, you guys know of my other blog, Blog de Toxifier, right? If you guys noticed, I made a post on it about Grand Theft Auto series. Now stop giving me that high-brow look! Let me finish first! >_< So what did I do was, add some provocative images to my post. I never do that, I hate vulgarity! Even when I knew this could affect my blog's reputation, I did that. I observed a jump in my daily visitor count(For the first time I didn't like my visitor count going up :/) and apart from that, my classmates who never saw my blog, I saw them browsing it, and reading the article so keenly! And when I asked them how is that happening? They said, "Dude those chics you used on your blog are amazing!" I was so embarrassed. I never thought that this could be comments of my "friends". I didn't want to post such things on my blog, but I did it just to see the impact. I have removed the pics(hey! I had post nothing of the sort of "18+", it was just a bit provocative, not nudity! >_<)
Anyways, my observations landed me to say that, "Yes! These drugs are strangling the current generation". What these drugs are? Just those Marijuana, or Cocaine, or Steroids? No! The ones I am talking of, are more deadly! How? Oh well! I tried, but I couldn't use those words on my blog, I am just not gonna use them.
I guess I need to take a pause on this one here only. I couldn't write any further on this. But yes, my observation showed me, "these other drugs" have got in their clutches the fortunes of the youngsters, more badly than those chemicals.
Thanks for reading, and sorry for not completing! :/
A big hello to all my dear readers! :)
Today was a very important day from the point of view of a Hindu. A day, with utter importance on the Hindu Calendar. The day being - Mahashivaratri!
Time for some General Knowledge about the great festival : (Although I don't believe in copy-paste, but well! Wikipedia has so nicely compiled the knowledge, that it would save me time, so I am doing it this time!)
(Of course I don't have copyright to this pic!)
Shivaratri literally means the great night of Shiva or the night of Shiva. It is celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day of the Maagha or Phalguna month of the Hindu calendar. Since many different calendars are followed by various ethno-linguistic groups of India, the month and the Tithi name are not uniform all over India. Celebrated in the dark fortnight or Krishna Paksha(waning moon) of the month of Maagha according to the Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama or Phalguna according to the Vikrama era. The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael or Bilva/Vilvam leaves to Lord Shiva, all day fasting and an all night long vigil. In accordance with scriptural and discipleship traditions, penances are performed in order to gain boons in the practice of Yoga and meditation, in order to reach life's summum bonum steadily and swiftly.
From the very early morning, Shiva temples are flocked by devotees, mostly women, who come to perform the traditional Shivalinga worship (puja) and hence hope for favours from the god. Devotees bathe at sunrise, preferably in the Ganga, or any other holy water source (like the Shiva Sagartank at Khajurao). This is a purificatory rite, an important part of all Hindu festivals. Wearing a clean piece of clothing after the holy bath, worshippers carry pots of water to the temple to bathe the Shivalinga. They offer prayers to the sun, Vishnu and Shiva.Women pray for the well-being of their husbands and sons. An unmarried woman prays for a husband like Shiva, who is considered to be the ideal husband. The temple reverberates with the sound of bells and shouts of “Shankerji ki Jai” meaning 'Hail Shiva'. Devotees circumambulate the linga, three or seven times, and then pour water over it. Some also pour milk.
According to the Shiva Purana, the Mahashivaratri worship must incorporate six items:
- Bathing the Shiv Linga with water, milk and honey, and Wood apple or bel leaves added to it, representing purification of the soul;
- The vermilion paste applied on the Shiv Linga after bathing it, representing virtue;
- Offering of fruits, which is conducive to longevity and gratification of desires;
- Burning incense, yielding wealth;
- The lighting of the lamp which is conducive to the attainment of knowledge;
- And betel leaves marking satisfaction with worldly pleasures.
Tripundra refers to the three horizontal stripes of holy ash applied to the forehead by worshippers of Lord Shiva. These stripes symbolise spiritual knowledge, purity and penance (spiritual practice of Yoga), so also they represent the three eyes of Lord Shiva.
Wearing a rosary made from the rudraksha seed of the rudraksha tree (said to have sprung from the tears of Lord Shiva) when worshipping Lord Shiva is ideal. A rudraksha seed is a mahogany-like color, sometimes black, and sometimes may have traces of sacred sandalwood powder, turmeric, kumkum, or holy ash if the rosary was used in worship ceremonies or anointed.
Anyways, enough of the General Knowledge, for more you can refer to the articles at the end of this one. So the thing that urged me to post this. Well, I just saw on msn, an article on the great day. The best part was that article. The article was titled - "For Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims, Shivratri bridges a gap". Kashmir is an amazing place, but has been a point of tension between India and Pakistan. Let's not go into details, things could take a turn, and the article would become endless, engulfing in itself, many other articles. (The msn article is attached at the end!).
The article is very nicely written. I was quite happy to read that the great festival was bridging the gap between the two religions who had been in a state of tension since quite long(on the contrary! I am a hindu and I have some great Muslim friends! :D )
I was rather in a mood of talking about it too, but they have completed the article so well, there is nothing I could say about it, more than that, please please please!! Read the article! :)
A big thanks for giving your precious time to read this. Hope you all had a great day! :)
You may like to check out this article for more knowledge about the Lord Shiva, and Shivaratri, and the offerings used. CLICK HERE for the article.
For legends associated with the great festival, you may refer wikipedia. CLICK HERE for the article.
You may find this article also nice. It's also about Lord Shiva, and Shivaratri. CLICK HERE
And finally the msn article that I found really worth sharing with all of you my readers. You all must read it! :) CLICK HERE for the article.
