Shiv and Krishna’s Holi Leela

Once Lord Shiva, who is the greatest devotee of Shri Krishna, was eager to play Holi with His beloved Shri Krishna and arrived in Vrindaban dressed as an ascetic. At the same time, the gopis were getting ready to play Holi with their beloved Shyam Sundar. Seeing an ascetic, the gopis bowed down to Him and asked Him the purpose of him being in Vrindaban. Lord Shiva replied that He had come to play Holi.

The gopis laughed and said, “Baba Ji, you don’t have any gulal (colored powder). We will play with gulal and what will you play with?” Lord Shankar in the guise of a Baba Ji, took out gulal from his bag and started throwing it in the air. The Baba Ji, then started playing Holi with Shri Krishna. 

The gopis who were eagerly looking forward to playing Holi with their beloved Shyam Sundar, were feeling left out. So, they interrupted the play and said, “Baba Ji, we are about to play Holi with wet color now, for which you will need a water gun. We see that you only have your bag and kamandal, so unfortunately, you will not be able to play with wet color. You may wish to leave now”. 

The Baba Ji replied, “of course, I have a water gun.” The gopis started laughing and asking Him to show the water gun, despite Shri Krishna gesturing to them to not insist on seeing the gun. The Baba Ji asked the gopis, if they really wanted to see the water gun and they unanimously said, “yes”, to which Lord Shiva obliged and opened one of the locks of his matted hair and the river Ganga started flowing out of His hair. The gopis started to drown in that water and cried out to Shri Krishna to save them. Shri Krishna asked the gopis to seek forgiveness from Lord Shiva, which they promptly did. They also begged Lord Shiva to leave Vrindaban and go back to His divine abode Kailash. 

​Lord Shiva left Vrindavan happy that He played Holi with Lord Krishna and the Holi play started between Lord Krishna and the gopis.