An Interior World

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“If the photographer succeeds in reflecting the exterior as well as interior world, his subject appear as “in real life.
In order to achieve this, the photographer must respect the mood, become integrated into the environment, avoid all the tricks that destroy human truth, and also make the subject of the photo forget the camera and the person using it.
Complicated equipment and lights get in the way of naïve, unposed subjects.
What is more fleeting than the expression on a face?”
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004 /on subject, “American Photo”, September/October 1997)

This is one room of the Lakshmi Narayana temple on the top of a hill in Orchha, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
This place is dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi and was built by King Veer Singh of the Bundela dynasty in 1622.

In the temple’s inner sanctum, Vir Singh built a peeth, or seat, for offering sacrifices to the Hindu Goddess of Wealth which are made in a manner similar to those of the Tantrik cult.
Tantra can best be described as a yoga of action, not abstract contemplation.
Instead of denying themselves worldly pleasures, tantriks strive to gain the maximum pleasure from them.
The realisation of their enjoyment reaches such a crescendo that the energy released can carry consciousness to the peak of enlightenment.
Elaborate rituals and body magic, especially sexual intercourse, mark the cult.

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Vanishing Moments

 

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“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again.
We cannot develop and print a memory. “
(Henri Cartier-Bresson – French photographe, 1908–2004)

In the end of summer afternoons people enjoy taking deeps in the Ganges in order to forget the heat.
Those young men were swimming in front of Manikarnika Ghat, the burning ghat before Alamgir Mosque which stands in the distance.

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Holy Cow

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“I knew the profanity used up and down my street would not go over the air…
So I trained myself to say ‘Holy Cow’ instead.”
(Harry Caray – American baseball broadcaster, 1914-1998)

This picture was shot along the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
Nandi, the gate keeper of Shiva, is facing the main shrine of a temple where a cow was also standing…

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A Work of Women

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“Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a ”work” of man.”
(Mary McCarthy – American novelist,1912-1989)

This picture was shot in the temple complex of Khajuraho which is a village in in the center of India in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
The Khajuraho group of monuments has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculpture.
Those ladies were bringing back into existence some of the splendor of those temples which was once the original capital of the Chandela Rajputs, a Hindu dynasty that ruled this part of India from the 10th to the 12th centuries.
The Khajuraho temples were built over a span of a hundred years, from 950 to 1050.
There were originally over 80 Hindu temples, of which only 22 now stand in a reasonable state of preservation.
After their abandonment, a number of them survived and were rediscovered during the late 19th century while the jungles had taken a toll on some of the monuments.
Those women asked me to take a few pictures, they were proud and happy that I gave them some time.

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Devotional Water

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“Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart – a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water – I accept with joy.”
(Bhagavad Gita)

There is a little temple under the akhara at Jatara ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where a priest offers water to the statue of the deity every evening.
It is a long ritual where he has to fill several times a bucket with the holy water of the river.

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Discovering Yourself

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“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.
What you’ll discover will be wonderful.
What you’ll discover is yourself.”
(Alan Alda – American actor, director and author, b. 1936)

At Nepali Ghat along the Ganges there is a stair-case behind a little door which leads to a Nepalese Temple known as Kathwala Temple.
It was built by the King of Nepal with a Nepalese architecture and surrounded by tamarind and pipal trees.
The workers who carved this temple came from Nepal with a special wood that termites do not eat.
This place dedicated to Lord Shiva allows to have an amazing view on Varanasi (benaras) and the sacred river.
The quietness there opens the rooms of consciousness and it becomes easy to discover yourself…

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The Final Mystery

 

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“The final mystery is oneself.”
(Oscar Wilde – Irish poet and novelist, 1854-1900)

This is the door of the Nepalese Temple known as Kathwala Temple which is on the top of Nepali ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
This place dedicated to Lord Shiva is covered by an amazing wooden sculptures.
The door leads directly to the Lingam, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva.

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The Sanctuary’s Hidden Mysteries

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“Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.”
(The Holy Bible – Daniel 9:17)

This is the sanctuary inside the Nepalese Temple known as Kathwala Temple which is on the top of Nepali ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).

The Lingam, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva, stands in the center of the shrine next to the Lord’s trishul (Trident, “three spear” in Sanskrit).
The Lingam symbolizes the male creative energy, of the power of fertility and strength and represents the phallus.
“Shiva as the undivided causal principle is worshiped in the linga.
His more manifest aspects are represented in anthropomorphic images.
All other deities are part of a multiplicity and are thus worshiped as images.”
(Karapatri, “Shri Shiva Tattva”, Siddhanta)

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Sanctifying Ourselves

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“People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are.
If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant.
If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous.
We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works.”
(Meister Eckhart – German Writer and Theologian, 1260-1328)

This picture was shot along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras), at the junction of Manikarnika Ghat and Scindia Ghat, during the celebrations of Dev Diwali.
Everywhere candles are lit as a mark of welcome to God who is believed to descend on earth on that special day.
The meaning of this festival is to eradicate our inner demons while meeting the Lord.
After leaving king Bali, the Lord rejoined the devas on this day, the devas celebrated His arrival in jubilation and thus Dev Diwali came into being.
Though the devas celebrated the Lord’s return, we mortals celebrate Dev Diwali by eradicating our inner demons – the base instincts of ego, anger, greed, lust, … and the resulting manifestation of divinity within.

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A Dialogue Between Civilizations

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“Monuments and archaeological pieces serve as testimonies of man’s greatness and establish a dialogue between civilizations showing the extent to which human beings are linked.”
(Vincente Fox – Mexican politician, former President of Mexico, b.1942)

This is Raj Ghat, the northern most ghat of Varanasi (Benaras), next to the road-cum-rail bridge known as Malviya bridge where the Varuna River flows into the Ganges.
Lord Vishnu is said to have first put his feet here when he came to Varanasi.

Archaelogical excavations carried out at this place revealed a variety of terracotta human and animal figurines which hed light on the cultural and political history of Varanasi from the Sunga to the Gahadaval times and tokens impressed with the well-known obverse designs of the Imperial Gupta coins.
Several heads from Rajghat show unmistakable similarity with the heads on the Greek and Roman coins.
These findings hint of a steady commercial and cultural exchange between India and the western world and reveal the importance of Varanasi as an international centre of trade and commerce on the one hand and culture and art on the other.
The collection can be seen in the Bharat Kala Bhavan in BHU, Varanasi.

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