Vyakhyaan by Vinod ji Agarwal_'C'

A true lover readily puts his everything at stake for the sake of love as beloved is considered to be equivalent to God. Now let us pause to think how this would sound if beloved is God Himself. For that case we can recall the life of Shri Meerabai. The physical afflictions had little effect upon her because Krishna's love was excruciating her heart and there is nothing more painful than the feeling of being away from Him. This so called ‘separation’ is actually a mechanism to instinctively join us with Him while bodily, we may be apart.

Love cannot be exactly defined but it is said to have 9 attributes- body begins to pale, sighs become cold, and eyes remain wet; there is loss of appetite and sleep; staying aloof, all time waiting for the beloved, feeling anxious about the reason of delay while faith restoring the patience. The genuine spirit of love, thus, lets us naturally dissolve our identity into His endless existence.

Once we embark upon spiritual journey, we are sure to reach, sooner or later depending upon our fervor. However, we need to be careful of not mistakenly start believing that the soul has achieved its purpose while it is still on its way. A rational analysis by self or by Guru is must before drawing any such judgment.

Many Saints interpret Vrindavan as any body which strives for Lord. Our body organs are the real means of worship, most importantly our mind. By visualising Him in our conscience, mindfully listening and speaking about Him we are able to attain Him within.

Our sincere commitment surely help us in reaching up to His gate but we cannot take entry unless He mercifully calls us in. So we have to wholly depend upon His grace after faithfully completing our part of endeavor. The more clearly He reveals Himself to us, the more we are drawn inwards.

Making efforts or observing austerities to achieve something is called saadhna while bhajan means to relish what has already been received. In other words, saadhna is done to make the things happen while bhajan is to let the things happen. So at the level of bhajan i.e. not wanting anything more from life, the individual tends to becomes sehaj (easy-going) as the need for customary vrat, tap, saiyam, niyam recedes. Therefore all our efforts should be meant for taking us to the level of Bhajan i.e. becoming a viewer instead of carrying the sense of being the doer. This is called 'drashta bhaav' whereby a devotee feels that His Lord actually performs all the actions by using him merely as an instrument.

The festival of Holi in Vrindavan is based on ‘parkiya bhaav’ whereby sakhi wholeheartedly submits herself to Lord Krishna who is an embodiment of purity and bliss. Lord accepts her offering of love and in return, casts His color upon her which never fades away.

Holi means 'ho' + 'li' that is whatever had to happen, has happened. Now i have become Yours - an unconditional surrender. So the real celebration of Holi means forsaking the malice of every sort for the sake of His love and spreading the colors of good wishes all around.

The interaction between a devotee and God is characterized by emotions (bhaavukta), sentiments (bhaavna) as well as the spirit (bhaav). Emotions are of momentary nature as they are more or less connected with our gross body. Sentiments stay a bit longer being a part of our subtle body but bhaav is the permanent mood of our soul saying "I belong only to my Lord."