Indian Festival :Bonfire

                       Introduction 👀

As we all know that the people of india are celebrating the famous but important festival  is bonfire. however there are several kind of story of Prahlad.we can say that it's all about myth .People are following the different rules and regulations. They have mindset of religion thoughts.They think that The holi is mainly festivals of india.we must have to follow the myth story .

we are people of Tradition . if we know that it will reality of the story so now we don't have any answer just we are following the traditional things like we can take the example of god .if any one is hindu and Muslim so they both have different god .one is following the pray and one is following the Namaj .so it's our belief that if I am hind so some kind of mataji like Krishna is god of that caste and allah is god of muslim .so  we are living with the Victorian erra .Now we are modern century but past is more important for us as we know we have tradition of the festival.Example: in diwali they are so many people are celebrating the carnival festival they just take the firework and celebrate the day of diwali .firework can blast but also the problem of noise pollution. pollution is the part of people can't understand the problem of pollution.

Also,we know that the story of prahlad and his father Hiranya Kashyap .so There was one kind of myth story,we are looking that the lord vishnu.so prahlad was believed in the god Vishnu but his father is not believe in that things .He was seeing that I am a God there is nothing more important than me .you have to believe to me than the God Vishnu so after her sister holika seat on the q bonfire but unfortunately she was died and his brother's son prahlad lived alive from the bonfire.It's myth story that's why people are celebrating the festival of Holi.

Origin of Holikadahan👇

  For many traditions in Hinduism, Holi celebrates the death of Holika in order to save Prahlad and we see where Holi gets its name. The night before Holi, pyres are burnt in North India in keeping with this tradition. In some parts of India the day is actually called Holika There are other activities associated with the story of Prahlad, but the burning of Holika is the one that we can most directly associate with Holi. The story as a whole is testament to the power of devotion over the evil represented by King Hiranyakashyapu, as Prahlad never lost his faith.

The burning of Holika is the most common explanation according to Hindu Puranas for the celebration of Holi. In different parts of India varying reasons are given for Holika's death:

• Vishnu intervened and hence Holika was burnt.
• Brahma had given Holika the power on the understanding that it can never be used to harm anyone.
• Holika was good and it was her clothes that gave her the power. Knowing the evil about to be done to Prahlad, she gave these to the boy to save him, sacrificing herself.
• When Holika sat on the pyre, she donned her flame-shielding shawl and sat Prahlad down on her lap. When the fire was lit, Prahlad began praying to Vishnu, who summoned a gust of wind that blew the shawl off Holika and onto Prahlad, saving him and letting her burn to death.

There is also another story behind Holi that involves a burning sacrifice for the sake of love. The story of Shiva and Kamadev.

Before Shiva was married to Goddess Parvati, Kamadeva (God of Love) and his wife Rati (Goddess of love) tried to help Goddess Parvati win Shiva as her husband. Kamadev and Rati shot their arrow at Shiva in order to disturb his meditation and to make him marry Parvati. But the disturbance caused Shiva to open his third eye and its powerful gaze burned Kamadev into ashes and his wife Rati was broken-hearted. Although, the arrow did not work (itself got destroyed in process), Shiva and Parvati did marry later. At their wedding, Rati begged Shiva to bring Kamadev back to her. Shiva agreed, and restored Kamadeva as a Virtual image with true emotions.

Why people are celebrating the holi as a festival?💥

One of Hiranyakashipu's attempts to kill his son Prahlada was to have him sit on a burning pyre with his aunt Holika. Holika had a special boon that prevented her from being harmed by fire. Prahlada chanted Vishnu's name and in the battle of good against evil, Holika was burnt down but nothing happened to Prahlad. The burning of Holika is celebrated in Hinduism as the festival of Holi.

Hiranyakashipu's elder brother, Hiranyaksha was slain by Varaha avatar of Lord Vishnu. Angered by this, Hiranyakashipu decided to gain magical powers by performing a penance for Lord Brahma. He is subsequently killed by the Narasimha avatara of Lord Vishnu.His tale depicts the futility of desiring power over others and the strength of God's protection over his fully surrendered devotees (in the case of his son Prahlada).

Hiranyakashipu, according to legend, earned a boon from Lord Brahma that made him virtually indestructible.

The story of Hiranyakashipu is in three parts. The first has to do with the curse of the Four Kumaras on the gatekeepers of Vaikuntha, Jaya and Vijaya, which causes them to be born as the daityas Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. The second part deals with Hiranyakashipu's penance to propitiate Brahma and gain a boon from him. The final part deals with his efforts to kill his son Prahlada (a devotee of Vishnu) and his subsequent death at the hands of Narasimha.

Who was prahlad?

king, the son of Hiranyakashipu and Kayadhu, and the father of Virochana. He belonged to the Kashyapa gotra. He is described as a saintly boy from the Puranas known for his piety and bhakti to Vishnu. Despite the abusive nature of his father, Hiranyakashipu, he continued his devotion towards God Vishnu.[2] He is considered to be a mahājana, or great devotee, by followers of Vaishnava traditions and is of special importance to devotees of Narasimha avatar. A treatise is accredited to him in the Bhagavata Purana in which Prahlāda describes the process of loving worship to Vishnu. The majority of stories in the Puranas are based on the activities of Prahlāda as a young boy, and he is usually depicted as such in paintings and illustration.

Who was Holika?💃

Holika was a demoness, sister of King Hiranyakashipu and aunt of Prahlad. On the night before holi, the pyre is lit, signifying Holika Dahan. People sing and dance around the fire. The next day people play Holi, the popular festival of colours.

Are you wondering why a demoness is worshiped during the festival? It is believed that Holika was created to ward off all fears. She was a symbol of power, wealth and prosperity and could bestow those to her worshippers. Hence, Holika is worshipped along with Prahlada before Holika Dahan.

Holika Dahan story👺

According to Bhagavat Purana, there was a king named Hiranyakashipu, to fulfil his desire he performed the required Tapas (penance) until he was granted a boon by Brahma. The boon gave Hiranyakashyapu five special powers: he could be killed by neither a human being nor an animal, neither indoors nor outdoors, neither at day nor at night, neither by astra (weapons that are launched) nor by any shastra (weapons that are handheld), and neither on land nor in water or air.

As this wish was granted to him, he felt that he was invincible, which made him arrogant. He was so egoistic that he commanded everybody in his kingdom to worship only him. He punished and killed anyone who did not accept his orders. However, his son Prahlad disagreed with his father and refused to worship his father as a god. He continued believing and worshipping Lord Vishnu. This made Hiranyakashipu very angry and he made various attempts to kill his son Prahlad but Lord Vishnu saved him every time. Finally, he asked his sister, Holika for help.

Holika had been granted a boon that had made her immune to fire but she got burnt to death as the boon was applicable only when she entered the fire alone. Prahlad, who kept chanting the name of Lord Narayana, came out unharmed, as the Lord blessed him for his extreme devotion. Hiranyakashipu, the demon king was later killed by Lord Vishnu's 4th Incarnation which was Narasimha.

Therefore, Holi derives its name from Holika and still people enact the scene of 'Holika's burning to ashes' every year to mark the victory of good over evil. As the legend depicts that anybody, howsoever strong, cannot harm a true devotee. And, those who dare torture a true devotee of god shall be reduced to ashes.

Conclusion👊

The story of holika Dahan is one of the myth kind  story of prahlad.who was the son of Hiranyakasyap

But the prahlad believed in the idea of  god (Vishnu) that was the one of the reason of prahlad and holika seat on the bonfire but unfortunately holika was died and prahlad was survive.so that story through people are celebrating the holi as a festival.

1543 words 

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when god is a traveller by Arundhathi subramaniam

                                     Introduction😊

The poem is about some myth kind of story of shiv and Parvati. so Nature is a metaphor of which things are happening with us .The poem when God is traveller is a very different kind of Title but poem and its meanings are very different. Basically, There are so many people who give his own idea about this poem. The poem has a very unique title  as we know that the God is traveller but the poet has a very different perseptive of the poem that's how she got the Sahitya academy 2021 award.

when we are see the book's page at that time we can feel what's the thing is in her poem. Let us to know that the some biography of  the poet.

 Arundhathi subramaniam

This poem is based on the incident between Lord Ganesha and Lord Kartikeya.Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati had two sons named Kartikeya (Kartika) and Ganesha (Vinayaka). The elder was Kartikeya and the younger Ganesha. In South India Kartikeya is popularly known as Lord Subramanya.

Arundhati Subramaniam's poetry takes us on a journey through different situations, emotions, beliefs, stigmas and compelled you to open the aperture of deep-seated lyrical self underneath our heart.

In 'When God is a Traveller', Subramaniam weaves metaphors, metaphors that are distinctly hers, into language that is simultaneously fluid and simple. Everydayness is woven as a metaphor rife with allusions to the deeper meanings of life. At first glance, the poems from this collection come across as beautiful but not .

Many readings of this award-winning text exist but they highlight the religious aspect of the text. While it undoubtedly adheres to a certain religious context, it differs widely in terms of the figures of the Hindu pantheon represented, that is, the ones within the text are not really the most popular of the Hindu gods. Moreover, what Subramaniam does is that she uses these figures but challenges the canonical religious stories through her representations, as can be observed in the poem ‘Benaras’, an underappreciated piece. She tries to highlight the personal side of one’s religious beliefs, for instance in the poem ‘How Some Hindus Find Their Personal Gods’.

    Finally, what especially stands out in Subramaniam’s poetry collection is the imagery. Even when the meaning of the poems eludes the reader, the meaning-making processes remain accessible through the vivid images constructed, which interact with each other to produce meaning. In this text, the meaning is created through the words as well as through the imagery. This gives it a subliminal quality of sorts.

The Life of Arundhathi subramaniam👇

  

   As a source of Wikipedia...

Arundhathi Subramaniam's volume of poetry, When God is a Traveller (2014) was the Season Choice of the Poetry Book Society, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. She is the recipient of various awards and fellowships, including the inaugural Khushwant Singh Prize, the Raza Award for Poetry, the Zee Women's Award for Literature, the International Piero Bigongiari Prize in Italy, the Mystic Kalinga award, the Charles Wallace, Visiting Arts and Homi Bhabha Fellowships, among others. Arundhathi has won the Sahitya Akademi Award for When God is a Traveller .

As prose writer, her books include The Book of Buddha, a bestselling biography of a contemporary mystic, Sadhguru: More Than a Life and most recently, Adiyogi: The Source of Yoga (co-authored with Sadhguru). As editor, her most recent book is the Penguin anthology of sacred poetry, Eating God.

Her poetry has been published in various international journals and anthologies, including Reasons for Belonging: Fourteen Contemporary Poets (Penguin India); Sixty Indian Poets (Penguin India), Both Sides of the Sky (National Book Trust, India),We Speak in Changing Languages (Sahitya Akademi), Fulcrum No 4: An Annual of Poetry and Aesthetics (Fulcrum Poetry Press, US), The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe, UK), Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry^[7( United States ), The Dance of the Peacock An Anthology of English Poetry from India,featuring 151 Indian English poets, edited by Vivekanand Jha and published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada. and Atlas: New Writing (Crossword/ Aark Arts)

When God is a Traveller

Trust the god back from his travels, his voice wholegrain (and chamomile), 

his wisdom neem, his peacock, sweaty-plumed, drowsing in the shadows.

Trust him who sits wordless on park benches listening to the cries of children fading into the dusk, 

his gaze emptied of vagrancy, his heart of ownership.

Trust him who has seen enough— revolutions, promises, the desperate light of shopping malls, hospital rooms, manifestos, theologies, the iron taste of blood, the great craters in the middle of love. 

Trust him who no longer begrudges his brother his prize, his parents their partisanship.  

Trust him whose race is run, whose journey remains, who stands fluid-stemmed knowing he is the tree that bears fruit, festive with sun.

 

Trust him who recognizes you— auspicious, abundant, battle-scarred, alive— and knows from where you come. 

Trust the god ready to circle the world all over again this time for no reason at all other than to see it through your eyes.

Summary of the Poem👇

These are poems of wonder and precarious elation, about learning to embrace the seemingly disparate landscapes of hermitage and court, the seemingly diverse addresses of mystery and clarity, disruption and stillness - all the roadblocks and rewards on the long dangerous route to recovering what it is to be alive and human. Wandering, digging, falling, coming to terms with unsettlement and uncertainty, finiteness and fallibility, exploring intersections between the sacred and the sensual, searching for ways to step in and out of stories, cycles and frames - these are some of the recurrent themes. These poems explore various ambivalences - around human intimacy with its bottlenecks and surprises, life in a Third World megapolis, myth, the politics of culture and gender, and the persistent trope of the existential journey.

Central Theme of this poem:💭

These poems explore various ambivalences - around human intimacy with its bottlenecks and surprises, life in a Third World megapolis, myth, the politics of culture and gender, and the persistent trope of the existential journey

If we look at the theme of the poem, Wandering, digging, falling, coming to terms with unsettlement and uncertainty, finiteness and fallibility, exploring intersections between the sacred and the sensual, searching for ways to step in and out of stories, cycles and frames

1250words Thanks😊