Every colour is a powerful and important communication tool, and it is tied to religious, cultural, political and social influences. This Holi Organiser deciphers the interpretation of colours from different perspectives
Adwaita Gadanayak
Myriad hues of red, green, indigo and crimson bring an aura of zest and fervour during the joyous festival of colours, Holi. Blooming flowers, bright sunshine and pleasant weather
conditions make this season the perfect time to colour the atmosphere with fun-filled Holi colours.
The ‘Holi’ festival is a fun-filled and popular occasion for celebration. People play Holi with “chandan” or sandalwood powder and coloured water. The festival is celebrated around early March each year, coinciding with the full bloom of spring.
People believe that bright colours represent energy, life and joy. Huge bonfires are also lit in the prior evening as part of celebrations.
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Life should be full of colours! And each colour is meant to be seen and enjoyed separately, for if they are all mixed together, all the different colours merge and will appear all black. All colours like red, yellow, green and orange should exist side by side and simultaneously be enjoyed together.
All colours emanate from white, and when they are mixed together again, they become black. When your mind is white and aware of consciousness — pure, peaceful, happy and meditative — different colours and roles emerge. We get the strength to play various roles with full sincerity against the background.
Colour is a powerful and important communication tool, and it is tied to religious, cultural, political and social influences. Colour is a complex subject as well with many strands and it has the power to subliminally convey values and stories.
Everything in nature is colour. Colours are the language of the light. They fill the world because everything is colour in and around us. Although they are the result of a physical phenomenon and electromagnetic waves of different lengths, the true nature of colours is above all spiritual. Each one of them is a manifestation of spirit and has the ability to influence our daily lives. The colours of our clothes, the decoration of our homes are not neutral, they act for our well-being and happiness.
To put colours in your life is not only to favour the positive colours in your clothing, at your home and at work, but is also to relearn to think, to love, and to live in colours. For each thought, each feeling and each desire there is a colour, a vibration and a corresponding influence. This is why certain words will hurt you; their colours do not mix well with your own base colour. Furthermore, some thoughts can make you sad or light up the sun of enthusiasm. All this is linked to colours and their mixes. Beautiful thoughts, noble feelings, generous actions produce auras of very pure colours, while dark thoughts, negative feelings and unhealthy desires convey dull, dirty and off colours.
Colour is a form of non-verbal communication. It is not a static energy and its meaning can change from one day to the next with any individual—it all depends on what energy they are expressing at that point of time. The meaning
of colours can vary depending on culture and circumstances.
Colour opens the perception of inner life, refines feelings, reinforces sensations, awakens the free and inner happiness. The colour yellow, the spirit of wisdom, allows you to strengthen right thinking, achieve knowledge and develop clarity of spirit. The colour green, the spirit of destiny, helps you to understand the deep meaning of life, to know the
reason why you came on earth and brings richness on all levels. The colour blue, the spirit of the true soul, brings peace, plenitude, love, and higher consciousness, perception of what is great, true, beautiful, just and good. It opens the door to a higher consciousness. The indigo colour, the spirit of strength, brings commitment, inner strength, courage, humility, order, discipline and celestial harmony. The colour violet, the spirit of purity, allows you to reach mystical states, raptures and ecstasy. It opens the doors to divine consciousness in the self. It drives away all that is somber and negative.
The colour white, represents the perfection of human consciousness and the state of being of the
true human. This is the triumph of spirit over matter, of life over death, of intelligence over stupidity, of truth over lies, etc . It brings fulfillment and freedom in all.
Wassily Kandinsky was one of the first pioneers of colour theory. A renowned Russian painter and art theorist, he is often considered the founder of abstract art. Kandinsky believed the following colours communicate the following state of mind:
- Yellow – warm, exciting, happy
- Blue – deep, peaceful, supernatural
- Green – peace, stillness, nature
- White – harmony, silence,
cleanliness - Black – grief, dark, unknown
- Red – glowing, confidence, alive
- Orange – radiant, healthy, serious
(The writer is Director General, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi )
