8 mar 2012, amrtapuri
early in the day it was very much in the air that amma may play holi. when? no one knew. i saw some devotees walking around with some colour powder. so it was obvious that something might happen. but when? no one knew.
remember? back in 2007, in mysore, one devotee took powder hiding under her sari while going for darshan and she she took out the powder and smeared it on amma’s cheek. she gave amma the rest of the bowl. then amma started smearing golden yellow colour on everyone who was coming for darshan. and lo!! it was the IVUSA japanese students who were in the line. they were meeting amma for the first time. they didn’t know anything about holi. amma was applying the yellow powder on their faces. one of my brother jokingly said that they thought that it was part of the darshan !!!
but today, the news was spreading around. amma will play holi at the end of darshan. so many little ones of the asrham were running towards the stage at the end of darshan for playing holi with amma.
there was a padapuja. after the puja one devotee brought powder and water. amma started spraying water and throwing colour powder all around.
i was standing near her chair. amma took a handful of pink powder and smeared it on my face. she took time to make sure that its all over my face. every one was laughing. then she threw all around, on the sides, in the front, upwards, and even towards the back taking everyone by surprise. the fan above made sure that everyone will have their quota of colours.
amma was joyously singing ‘aaye he holi, bhar pichkari’ (holi has come! water pistols are filled with colours).
i was helping amma to fill up the pichkari and handing it over to her. i never expected that she will aim straight back at my face as soon as I offered it to her! yes she did. she pointed the pichkari to my face and emptied all that water. she didnt forget to pour some into my shirt – i mean inside of it.
then amma started the next song ‘vraj me isa.. much gaya shor‘… this particilar line – ‘kanha ek, gopi anek’ (krishna is one, gopis are many). some girls standing in front of amma started dancing while singing, pointing to amma meaning that krishna/amma is one.
next line was ‘see the leela of shyam (krishna)’…
i started acting out, pointing to amma – ‘shyam ke ye” .. then to my face “leela ko dekh” (see the leela)
amma started laughing.
amma kept on singing those line for some more time.
it was superb.
after amma left the stage we collected the remaining coloured powder and went around, painting all those we crossed, amongst laughter and joyful screams till we ran out of powder.
i went back to the room. took off my shirt. my chest was full of colours. looked at my shirt several times and decide to archive it – as a memory of holi that my krishna played with me.
~ dhyanamrita