Holi and Pushpadolotsav (Fuldol) festivals are celebrated throughout India. Bhagwan Swaminarayan also celebrated Fuldol, the festival of colors with great spiritual joy and festivity.
Every year Pramukh Swami Maharaj celebrates fuldol festival in Sarangpur This year devotees from distant places in India like Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai and from abroad flocked enthusiastically to the rural environment of Sarangpur. The privileged opportunity to be colored by Swamishri becomes the focus of all devotees. Besides the enlightening spiritual discourses and bhajans, the crowning moment was defined by the shower of colored water issuing from jets sanctified and maneuvered by Swamishri.
This year, on Saturday, 26 March 2005, the Fuldol festival commenced with the routine dhun and bhajan by sadhus. The colorful tree-decorations on stage gave a festive flair to the occasion. The senior sadhus elaborated in their speeches upon the sentiments and significance of Fuldol. Pujya Viveksagar Swami gave the historical details of this festival and expanded upon how Swamishri colors and transforms the lives of people.
Pujya Ishwarcharan Swami explained the need to shed I 'ness' and My 'ness' towards one's self and one's relatives and adopt the virtue of humility to please God. Pujya Doctor Swami described the need to integrate and practice satsang in one's lives by adhering to niyams and fostering faith in Bhagwan Swaminarayan as God, Gunatitanand Swami as Aksharbrahma and Pramukh Swami Maharaj as the gateway to moksha. Pujya Mahant Swami explained the need to purge oneself of one's 'swabhavs' and cultivate divinity towards God and His Sadhu. He described that Swamishri has lived for all of us, done everything at our bidding and now it was our duty to obey and adjust to his wishes and ways. Pujya Kothari Swami spoke about the divinity of Swamishri's deeds.
At about 11.00 am Swamishri arrived. Despite a fever the previous day, Swamishri came to bless the assembly of sadhus and devotees. Firstly Swamishri gave the guru mantra to 13 youths who were given the parshad diksha. Thereafter Swamishri sprayed colored water on Shri Harikrishna Maharaj. Then Swamishri sprayed colored water on the senior sadhus. In conclusion, Swamishri sprayed the sadhus and devotees.
The festival was attended by over 50,000 devotees, who departed after having mahaprasad.
Every year the preparations for the festival begin two to three months in advance. More than 50 departments, namely, construction, kitchen, accommodation, parking, electric, decoration, etc. are managed by a huge team of sadhus and youth volunteers. The sheer devotion and dedication of the volunteers result in the smooth execution of the festival.