Flowering

No. 4 : Radha-Krishna

''Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun. Prior to this momentous event that heralds an evolutionary transformation in the life of plants, the planet had already been covered in vegetation for millions of years. The first flower probably did not survive for long, and flowers must have remained rare and isolated phenomena, since conditions were most likely not yet favorable for a widespread flowering to occur. One day, however, a critical threshold was reached, and suddenly there would have been an explosion of color and scent all over the planet – if a perceiving consciousness had been there to witness it.

Much later, those delicate and fragrant beings we call flowers would come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another species. Humans would increasingly be drawn to and fascinated by them. As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were more likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival. They provided inspiration to countless artists, poets, and mystics. Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. The Buddha is said to have given a „silent sermon“ once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it. After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa, began to smile. He is said to have been the only one who had understood the sermon. […]

Seeing beauy in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless.''

from A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Material: Cotton Canvas, framed in traditional Tibetan brocade

Colours: Watercolours, and 24-carat Gold

Size: 42 x 59 cm

Creation Period: 

roughly 480 hrs between July and September 2011 in Bhaktapur/Nepal

Availability: sold

For prints, posters etc. please see under the About Thangkas and How to Order Prints section (sidebar) and visit my online shop http://www.zazzle.com/ariyanandi*

 Below, some information on meaning and symbolism of Radha and Krishna - from wikipedia -:

Krishna

literally "dark, black, dark-blue" is a central figure of Hinduism and is easily recognized by his representations. Though his skin colour may be depicted as black or dark in some representations, in other images he is usually shown with blue skin. He is often shown wearing a yellow silk dhoti and peacock feather crown, as a little boy, or as a young man in a characteristic relaxed pose, playing the bansuri (bamboo) flute. In this form, he usually stands with one leg bent in front of the other and raises the flute to his lips, known as Tribhangi Mudra, and is either accompanied by cows, emphasizing his position as the divine herdsman, Govinda, or by the gopis ( milkmaids).

Krishna appears in many forms. When he is together with Radha, he is regarded as supreme lord under the name of Radha-Krishna.

Thus, Radha-Krishna are the male and female aspects of God. Known as the Divine Couple, together they are the full manifestation of God.

Radha-Krishna and the Rasa Lila

The stories of his play with the gopis of Vrindavan, especially Radha (daughter of Vrishbhanu, one of the original residents of Vrindavan) became known as the rasa lila – the Dance of Divine Love.

The topic of the spiritual love affair between the divine Krishna and his devotee Radha, became a theme celebrated throughout India since the twelfth century. The rasa lila took place one night when the gopis of Vrindavan, upon hearing the sound of Krishna's flute, sneaked away from their households and families to the forest to dance with Krishna throughout the night, which Krishna supernaturally stretched to the length of one Night of Brahma, a Hindu unit of time lasting approximately 4.32 billion years.

In the Krishna Bhakti traditions, the rasa-lila is considered to be one of the highest and most esoteric of Krishna's pastimes. In these traditions, romantic love between human beings in the material world is seen as merely a diminished, illusionary reflection of the soul’s original, ecstatic spiritual love for Krishna, God, in the spiritual world.

It is also believed that Radha is not just one cowherd maiden, but is the origin of all the gopis, or divine personalities that participated in the rasa dance. Radha, who is Krishna's supreme beloved, is acknowledged as the Supreme Goddess, for it is said that she controls Krishna with Her love. It is believed that Krishna enchants the world, but Radha "enchants even Him. Therefore She is the supreme goddess of all. Radha Krishna".

Still, this is a complex relationship, for the devotee is the ‘same as and yet different from’ the Lord, and so even in the joy of union there is the pain of separation. Indeed, the highest form of devotion, according to Yamunacarya, comes not in union but after the union, in the ‘fear of new separation’...

Radha-Krishna - detail hands/flute

Radha-Krishna - detail flowers

Radha-Krishna - framed in traditional brocade

Mantra

radhaamkrsnasvaroopaam vai, krishnam raadhaasvarupinam; kalaatmaanam nikunjastham gururoopam sadaa bhaje

I ceaselessly praise Radha who is none other than Krishna, and Sri Krishna who is none other than Radha

nothing left to do but give it away...

 **********

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MANJARI

(Sanskrit meaning of Manjari = flowers)

This bouquet of Krishna flowers is dedicated to you, dear friend !
 

in the midst of frosty november, 

flowers are blooming everywhere

Dancing the Indian Monsoon Away

No. 2 - Dancing Ganesh

Material: Cotton Canvas, framed in traditional brocade

Colours: Watercolours, and 24-carat Gold

Size: 45 x 60 cm

Creation Period:
roughly 300 hrs between August 2010 and January 2011 in Gokarn/India and Germany

Availability: sold

For prints, posters etc. please see under the About Thangkas and How to Order Prints section (sidebar) and visit my online shop http://www.zazzle.com/ariyanandi*

Thangka No. 2 - "Left to my own devices"

Upon leaving Nepal and my Thangka teacher in July 2010, I was keen to try out my fresh painting skills alone and chose - since we were now in India - a Hindu motif, the Dancing Ganesh.

It is not that uncommon by the way for Hindu deities to be depicted on Thangkas -  or to be more precise, on "Paubhas", the correct name for the even more ancient art form of the Newari tribe of Nepal - from which the nowadays famous Tibetan Thangkas were originally derived. The reason being that the Newaris' religion generously includes not only the pantheon of Tibetan Buddhism, but also the even greater realm of Hindu deities!

To practice what I had learned a few months before, I also chose a similar composition and landscape elements as in my first Thangka, the White Tara. And it all went surprisingly and encouragingly well, until .... The Forces of Nature crossed my path! And I learned that painting on a cotton canvas during fiercest rainy season and practically "on the beach" in Southern India wasn't that brilliant an idea after all. The extreme moisture (rain and sea) worked  the canvas invisibly until suddenly one morning, I discovered a unique pattern of mould stains had appeared!  I was quite depressed at first, but thanks to friends and relatives who encouraged me to just see them as a nice batik background pattern to Ganesh's dress (luckily it was to this part that the stains limited themselves), in the end Ganesh taught me the practical lesson of not just asking for obstacles to be removed in our lives, but learning to master them with our own capabilities.

I finally applied the last strokes to this Thangka in ice-cold Germany a few months later, and my mother stitched a beautiful brocade border for it (see picture below), the colours of the  material  blending perfectly with the colours of the painting. All is well that ends well ...

Now, some information on the religious meaning and symbolism of Ganesh - gathered from various internet sources:

Ganesh

also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu pantheon. Although he is known by many other attributes, Ganesh's elephant head makes him particularly easy to identify. He is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom.

In this painting Ganesh is shown dancing in tandavi or bow-and-arrow posture, with his right leg drawn up and his left foot resting upon the saddlecloth of his vehicle, a long-nosed Asian shrew or chuchundra. Ganesh’s stout and pot-bellied white body is adorned with a floral-patterned loincloth, a long billowing silk scarf, and a headdress. He wears golden ornaments, a five-jeweled crown, and around each of his shins he wears little spherical ‘dancing bells’, which are used in classical Indian dance and in the Newar charya-nritya dance traditions.

Ganesh has three piercing eyes, his forehead is marked with the three horizontal lines of a Shaivite tripundra, and the tip of his right tusk is broken off. With his hands he holds a white radish (mulaka) – his favourite vegetable, and a bowlful of yellow laddus – his favourite Indian sweets.

Last not least, here are two more pictures for you - OM GANAPATAYE NAMAHA!

Dancing Ganesh - detail face

Dancing Ganesh framed in brocade