Happy Holi!
A short and cheerful reflection on one of the key festivals of the Hindu religion, which I’ve always loved
I hadn’t realized that today was Holi! A blessed and meaningful and happy and joyous Holi to any Hindu friends of mine who happen to be reading this! Many of you know that I am a convert from liberal Judaism to the Bahá’í Faith, and I’ve also had close connections to the Inayati Sufi and Unitarian Universalist communities for many years, on top of which I tend to talk about Christianity quite a lot at this newsletter and in my private life, because I have a number of close friends who are believers in various Christian denominations, including some who are “public-facing Christians” and/or serious and genuine scholars of Christian thought and tradition (such as the conservative evangelical Protestants Bethel McGrew, Megan Basham, and Susannah Black Roberts), but as it turns out, the non-Bahá’í religions with which I feel the closest affinity are actually Hinduism and Sikhism, and I’m constantly looking to learn more about those religions and their Scriptures and theologies. I think the contributions made in the world by the five Dharmic faiths (Hinduism and Sikhism plus Buddhism, Jainism, and Ayyavazhi) and their votaries are wonderful, and it’s important to me to recognize and commemorate their extraordinary beauty and magnificence. Happy Holi!