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OM SAI RAM!!!BY THE GRACE OF SAI BABA MAY THIS HOLI BE SHOWERING WHOLE HAPPY BLESSINGS TO ALL DWARKAMAI FAMILY!Baba's Holi Meal in Hemadpant's House:On Holi festival in 1917, Baba appeared in the dream of Hemadpant at his house in Bandra and told him that he would be coming to his house to participate in the Holi meal. Hemadpant told his wife about the dream and asked her to prepare food for one more person. The festivities of Holi were over. Arrangements were made for serving the meal. They reserved a seat for Baba. All the members of the family sat down for the meal. After offerings were made to God, ghee was served; they were about to start eating, when someone knocked the door. Hemadpant opened the door and foundtwo persons standing there. They handed over to him a photo of Shirdi Sai Baba with a request to keep it safely. They asked him to finish his meals first and then they could discuss the details about the photo later on they left the place. Hemadpant was surprised at the arrival of Baba in the form of photo, exactly at meal time. He shed tears of joy. He felt happy that what Baba had told him in the dream had come true in this manner. He immediately put the photo in the place set apart for Baba. All the food items were kept before the photo and only after offering them to Baba, did the others eat. The same day at the same time Baba told Shama at Shirdi that he had a sumptuous meal at Bandra in Hemadpant's house. Shama could understand Baba's words only after sometime when Hemadpant wentto Shirdi. Now let us see how the photo was delivered at Hemadpant's house.Photograph recived by Hemadpant ji on Shimga Day... A long time back, a saint by name Abdul Rehman gave a lifesize framed photo of Baba to Ali Mohammed. After sometime, Ali's brother-in-law fell sick. Someone said that if the photos of saints were put in the sea, the illness would subside. So he sent for this manager and asked him to collect all such photos in his house and also in the houses of relatives and put them in the sea. After some days Ali Mohammed came home and was surprised to find that Baba's photo was still there in the wall. He began to think to whom it should be given. As per Baba's order given to him through his thoughts, the photo was handed over to Hemadpant.HOLI:Holi is an annual Hindu spring festival. It takes place over two days around late March or early April on a Purnima Full Moon as per the Hindu calendar. It is also called the festival of color. On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night to signify the burning of Holika. On the second day, known as Dhulandi, people go around until afternoon throwing colors at each other and meet and have fun. Rangapanchami occurs a few days later on a Panchami (fifth day of the full moon), marking the end of festivities involving colors.Significance:In Hindu mythology, Hiranyakashipu was the 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 on sky, neither by a man nor an animal'. Consequently, he grew arrogant, and attacked the Heavens and Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping gods and start praying to him. But his own son, Prahlad, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. In spite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlad continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu. He was poisoned but the poisonturned 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 still survived. All of Hiranyakashipu's attempts at killing him failed. Ultimately he ordered young Prahlad to sit on a pyre on the lap of his sister Holika, who could not die by fire by virtue of a shawl which would prevent fire affecting the person wearing it. Prahlad readily accepted his father's orders, and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as the shawl flew from Holika, who, then was burnt to death, while Prahlad survived without a scar to show for it, after the shawl moved on to cover him. The burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi.In Vrindavan and Mathura the festival is still celebrated for 16 days (until Rangpanchmi in commemoration of the divine love of Radha for Krishna). Lord Krishna is believed to have popularized the festival by playing pranks on the gopis here. Krishna is believed to be complained about his dark color and Radha's fair color to his mother and so decided to apply color to her face. The celebrations officially usher in spring, the celebrated season of love.There is another story about the origin of holi. The Kamadeva is God of love. Kama's body was destroyed when he shot his weapon at Shiva in order to disrupt his penance 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 mental state of love rather than physical lust. The Holi bonfire is believed to be celebrated in commeration of this event.OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM!!!