One of the most common questions Ananda Marga monks and nuns receive is regarding the meaning of the color of their robe. Sometimes it happens after a very intellectual talk in which you have explained some subtle points of philosophy regarding mantra, yantra or tantra. In the end that question will pop up and bring the conversation on another aspect of Ananda Marga, the most colorful one.
When I was a young monk it has been explained that orange is the color of service and sacrifice. As monks dedicate their life for serving society they project with their example and the color of their simple cloths an ideal of complete dedication for the welfare of others. That ideal and that color is somehow spreading and becoming "the new green". Is a new ecology, an ecology of the mind that associate also with the body and the external world.
Colors have deep meanings and effects on the human psyche. Going on the internet we find few of them:
- Orange is a power color. It is one of the healing colors. It is said to increase the craving for food. It also stimulates enthusiasm and creativity. Orange means vitality with endurance. People who like orange are usually thoughtful and sincere. Lady luck's color is orange. I have been told that if a change of any kind is need in life, just burn an orange candle for 7 nights.
- While red is associated with fiery heat, orange is associated with the benign warmth of the sun. A dynamic color to be sure, orange offers a more thoughtful control than explosive red. Curiosity is a driving characteristic of orange, and with it comes exploration of new things.
- Orange, a close relative of red, sparks more controversy than any other hue. There is usually strong positive or negative association to orange and true orange generally elicits a stronger "love it" or "hate it" response than other colors. Fun and flamboyant orange radiates warmth and energy.
In the practical side of everyday life wearing a full orange dress has the consequence that you cannot get lost! Wherever you are somebody will tell about an orange person that passed this way or that way. Direct consequence is that you cannot hide anything; whatever you do it immediately become public. This is a spiritual reality, nothing can be hidden forever. Whatever good or bad you do has an impact in your mind and eventually it will cause an effect related to it. If it is something good it will ripe a good effect and if it is something bad it will ripe a negative effect. For monks and nuns due to the color they wear the process becomes ... accelerated.
One time I participated to a conference and I was sitting aside one of the panelists. At a certain moment he disappeared and he came back with a ear painted bright orange just on my side. I asked him why he did so? I was thinking to a kind of silly joke. He told me to wait and see. Five minutes after he was addressing the conference explaining the latest branding strategy that he utilizes in his car sharing business in Australia. All the cars of his company has the right window mirror painted in orange.
Of course you don't need to dress in orange for doing meditation as well as you don't need to dress in white to practice yoga. Colors are just external, what matter is the color of your mind. You can change it like you do with your dress and you can become a yogi independently from the dress you wear. Yet for monks and nuns of Ananda Marga this choice is not there and somehow somewhere this color is creating a cultural change.
"History moves in rhythmic waves – in a systaltic flow. It moves and moves, then there is a galloping jump. Again it moves and moves again, then there is another galloping jump, and so on. All of a sudden there are galloping jumps – epoch-making eras. We are now at the threshold of this jump. We are not only at the threshold, we have just crossed the threshold of a new era. We are now at the threshold of something new – of the new age – and we are now passing through such an age. Do you realize it? We are no more at the threshold. You should be ready for great changes, otherwise balance will be lost..."
(from "The coming Ice Age" of P.R. Sarkar on 24 March 1990 in Calcutta)
