Holi is the festival of fun and frolic; it is the spring festival of India when everybody comes together on to the platform of love and harmony. Forgetting all the past animosity, differences, or friction, people celebrate this festival embracing one another exchanging greetings - 'Holi Mubarak'.

The origins of this festival of Holi go very far back in history. Of the many wives celestial sage Kashyap had, two were most prominent - Aditi and Diti. Aditi is also revered as the 'Mother of the Gods' as her sons became the celestial gods such as Indra (god of rain), Vayu (god of wind), Agni (god of fire), etc. Diti, on the other hand, bore two demons - Hiranya ksh and Hiranyakashipu.

Hiranyaksh was the younger one and was considered the personification of greed. Just as greed is insatiable and keeps growing, such was the nature of Hiranyaksh as well. It is said that he would grow by a hand's height every day until he became so tall that when he walked the earth would totter. People were extremely terrorized by this evil Hiranyaksh, and as a consequence of their supplication at the lotus feet of the Lord, the descension of the Supreme Lord took place in the avatar of Varaha (boar). Varaha killed Hiranyaksh in a tremendous war that is described in the Bhagavatam more in the form of an inter-galactic war. When the news of his brother's death reached Hiranyakashipu, he became extremely angry with God. Overcome with hatred for Lord Vishnu, Hiranyakashipu went to perform austerities so that he could obtain special powers and take revenge upon Vishnu for having killed his brother Hiranyaksh.

Hiranyakashipu performed tremendous austerities and the heat created by his austerities started burning the universe until Brahma had to intervene. So Brahma asked Hiranyakashipu, "What do you want?" After paying his respects and offering obesciences, Hiranyakashipu said, "Please grant me this boon that I should not die either in the day or in the night. I should not die either outside the house or inside the house. Neither should I die on the earth nor in the sky. I should not be killed by a human nor a beast nor by any weapons." Hiranyakashipu used the complete power of his intellect. However, he forgot that it is God himself who empowers the intellect and with our intellect we cannot outwit God. Brahma bestowed this boon upon him.

In the meantime, Hiranyakashipu's wife, Kayadhu, was carrying a baby in her womb, Hiranyakashipu's son. With Hiranyakash dead and Hiranyakashipu away, the celestial gods waged a war and created havoc in their kingdom. Thinking him to be another demon, Indra decided to kill the baby in Kayadhu's womb. The great sage, Narad, came to know and he intervened. He convinced Indra to let him take Kayadhu and the yet unborn baby to his ashram until Hiranyakashipu returned. There, through Kayadhu's ear, he instructed the little child. Now Kayadhu being inert in her intelligence, overcome by ignorance, did not benefit from those divine instructions. But the child, Prahlad, in the womb, heard them, contemplated upon them, and implemented them while yet in the womb.

Hiranyakashipu was delighted to return home with the boon from Brahma and to his youngest child. However, he found that Prahlad has this tremendous devotional inclination towards the Lord. "How dare my son worship my enemy!" thought Hiranyakashipu. He entrusted Pralad's education to the children of the demon guru, Shukracharya, in the hopes that Prahlad would learn the ways of the material world and carry on his legacy as the demon king. Unfortunately for Hiranyakashipu, not only did Prahlad not learn the ways of the material world and the demons, but he also succeeded in imparting this spiritual knowledge to his classmates!

Now Hiranyakashipu was livid. He ordered his soldiers to kill Prahlad. They tried various things such as attacking him with their tridents and other weapons, pushing him down a mountain, throwing him in a cell with poisonous snakes, bringing in huge elephants hoping they trample over him, etc. However, each time, Prahlad would remain unscathed because he saw his loving Lord Vishnu in those men, beasts, and weapons as well.

Then Hiranyakashipu's sister, Holika, was called. She had this boon that fire could not burn her. Thus, a fire was lit. Holika took Prahlad in her lap and sat inside the fire. Sitting there Prahlad very casually remarked, "My Supreme Lord Vishnu is in every atom of his creation. He is all pervading in this fire. I am feeling as if a sheet of lotus flowers has been spread over me." The consequence is well known. Holika got burned and Prahlad came out from there alive.
 
The demons then got hold of some pandits and with the help of the pandits they did a yajña or fire sacrifice and through the fire sacrifice they created a being with the hope that this being would kill Prahlad. But the being that was created, instead of killing Prahlad, killed the pandits who had performed the yajña. Seeing the dead pandits, Prahlad was moved to pity, and said, "If my faith in the all-pervading presence of God is complete, to vindicate my faith, may God bring these dead pandits back to life." God responded and the pandits became live again.

Flabbergasted, the demons took Prahlad to Hiranyakashipu and they said, "O Emperor! We don't know what kind of a son you have. He seems to be invincible and we are not able to kill him by any means." Hiranyakashipu then asked Prahlad, "Where is your Vishnu?" Prahlad responded, "Father, my Supreme Lord is everywhere in this world." But Prahlad pointed in four directions: "He is in you (a demon). He is in me as well (a child). He is in this blade of grass (a living entity) and He is in this stone pillar (a non-living entity)."

When Prahlad pointed to the stone pillar, Hiranyakashipu questioned, "If God resides in this pillar, why can I not see him?" Saying so, he hit the pillar with his fist. To prove Prahlad's faith, God manifested from the pillar. This was the Nrsingh avatar in the form of a half-man, half-lion.  After a fight, he placed Hiranyakashipu on his thighs and said, "Look, you evil person! You had asked for a boon from Brahma. I am not violating that boon. This is neither day nor night; it is dusk. I am neither man nor beast; I am a combination of both. You are neither on the earth nor in the sky; you are on my thighs. We are neither outside the house nor inside; we are in the doorway. I am not killing you by weapons, I am going to kill you with my own nails." And he ripped apart Hiranyakashipu.

After killing Hiranyakashipu, God lifted up Prahlad in his lap and said, "My child! I am extremely pleased with your devotion. Ask what you want." Prahlad asked for a very inspiring boon - something for all of us to contemplate upon. Prahlad said, "My Lord, I am your servant. The job of a servant is to serve and not to ask. If I ask, I will become a businessman. I will not remain a servant. Nevertheless, if it is your instruction that I should ask, I must obey, for it's the duty of a servant to obey the master's instructions and my master, the Lord, is saying, ask. Alright, my Lord, this is what I ask. I ask you this that I may never ask you for anything ever again in future. In other words, I ask you that you make me free of selfish desire so that I may be able to perfect my selfless love for you."

As a result, the festival of Holi is celebrated in the commemoration of God coming to protect His devotee. It is a celebration of faith and a reaffirmation in the protection that God offers to those who take His lotus feet as their only shelter.