The festival of Holi is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March every year. Originally a festival to celebrate good harvests and fertility of the land, Holi is now a symbolic commemoration of a legend from Hindu Mythology. Today Holi is an excuse for Indians to shed inhibitions and caste differences for a day of spring fever and Big Fun. Teenagers spend the day flirting and misbehaving in the streets, adults extend the hand of peace, and everyone chases everyone else around, throwing brightly colored powder (gulal) and water over each other.

Elan Vital, however, is a cult based around one Supreme Leader and so rather than interact with each other, his followers stand, shoulder to shoulder in anonymous crowds and await their Master spraying them from atop a huge throne-like stage. Their practice of Holi is a quintessential example of their practice of "Knowledge". And you know what they say about men who love to have really really big guns

Prem Rawat is also an inventor of sorts. Here he uses a powerful gigantic water pistol to delight his followers in his modern version of Holi. .wmv file 3.0M

The colourful Holi wet dhoti scene from the Contact video, India 1988.

Prem Rawat, the would-be internationally-known teacher of Inner Peace trying to teach Inner Peace and Contentment.

He and his followers also celebrate annual festivals.
Hans Jayanti in honour of his father.
Guru Puja in honour of himself.
Holi ...

In India, Holi is celebrated as a very democratic carnival in which Hindus shed inhibitions and caste differences for a day and throw buckets of water and coloured powder over each other.

Prem Rawat and his students have a relationship in which he is the all-powerful divine guru and they are the powerless supplicants.

This relationship is mimicked in their celebration of Holi where he stands atop an extremely elevated stage and fires enormous streams of water over them from an extremely powerful pump.

It is a microcosm of their everyday relationship with him. They acknowledge him as the source of their life, love and devotion which he gives as a gift and for which they must feel gratitude.

They respond with their usual adoration, devotion and gratitude.