On The Path To Moksha

 

“The longing for Paradise is man’s longing not to be man.”
(From “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera)

This picture was shot at Manikarnika Ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) where Hindus are cremated hoping to receive moksha, freedom from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.
Moksha allows one to see the truth and reality behind the fog of ignorance and reach a state of knowledge, peace and bliss…

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In The Dense Atmosphere Of The Living

“I tell you once and for all— in front of the angel pictures
on the wall, that I am not a host to load-bearing ghosts or headyentities, and if I was ever holy, I have fallen far
into the dense atmosphere of the living.”
(From ” Drum Machine” by Kristen Henderson)

This is a street near Bari Bazar Road where I often go to my weavers worshop, this place always bring me back to the dense atmosphere of the living…

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The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer.
You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things.
But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.”
(David Bailey – English fashion and portrait photographer, b.1938)

This picture was shot in a little village near Varanasi (Benaras) where a few workers of the Red Haloteam live.
When I come and visit the families I enjoy taking pictures of the ordinary countryside life which I find extraordinary as it reminds me a few images from old Indian movies I used to watch when I was a teenager.
Time has passed living fragments of nostalgia and the illusion that hours, months or years could stop over there…

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From The Soul

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
(Jalal ud-Din Rumi known as Rumi – Persian poet and theologian, 1207-1273)

Early in the morning, I met these two young men who were washing their garments in the holy waters of the Ganges at Lal ghat in Varanasi.

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Planet of the Apes

“That perfected machines may one day succeed us is, I remember, an extremely commonplace notion on Earth.
It prevails not only among poets and romantics but in all classes of society.
Perhaps it is because it is so widespread, born spontaneously in popular imagination, that it irritates scientific minds. 
Perhaps it is also for this very reason that it contains a germ of truth.
Only a germ: Machines will always be machines; the most perfected robot, always a robot.
But what of living creatures possessing a certain degree of intelligence, like apes?
And apes, precisely, are endowed with a keen sense of imitation.…”
(From “Planet of the Apes” by Pierre Boulle)

Someone dropped by chance a rice packet in a gali leading to the Ganges and in a jiffy many monkeys came down from almost every rooftops to collect the precious cereal grains.
They were absolutly naughty and very noisy so most of the people had to turn back trying to find other ways to reach the ghats…

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Coming Further In

“I have come home at last!
This is my real country!
I belong here. 
This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…
Come further up, come further in!”
(From “The Last Battle” by C.S. Lewis)

In Varanasi (Benaras) there is a temple between Scindia ghat and Manikarnika ghat which is dedicated to Lord Shiva.
This temple doesn’t look like any other in the city because of its amazing sculptures with angels which are all around the shrine.
Those angels are musicians and they all play a different instrument.
Each time I come, there is no one, then I am alone in this dreamy atmosphere.
I know it is a kind of gate to after death as just nearby funeral pyres burn day and night at the cremation ghat which is underneath.
However this is not the reason why there are angels here.
I became close to the priest and his family who are keeping this sanctuary, sometimes he is making a puja for me and each time we meet he applies a refreshing ointment on my forehead made of eucalyptus and turmeric…

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The World In The Puddle

“This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it?
In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’
This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise.
I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.”
(From “The Salmon of Doubt” by Douglas Adams)

This is the reflection of the palace standing at Scindia ghat along the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
The puddle was drying, getting smaller and smaller, ready to swallow the building, the ghats and the whole city…

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Dreams Without Measure

“When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there, a wandering desire.
Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born.
And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.”
(Kahlil Gibran – Lebanese-American artist, poet, and writer, 1883-1931)

The City Palace is a palace complex in Udaipur, the City of Lakes, in the Indian state Rajasthan.
It was built by the Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 in a flamboyant fusion of Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles and stands on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and the Lake Pichola.
This picture was shot in the Audience Room of the maharaja’s apartments and symbolizes what I always dreamt of India when I was younger.
Each time I have an opportunity to escape for a few days to Udaipur, I come back there and the dream is untouched, flawless and without measure…

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Closed In A room

“Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.”
(Criss Jami – American poet, existentialist philosopher and lead singer of the rock band Venus in Arms, b. 1987)

The City Palace is a palace complex in Udaipur, the City of Lakes, in the Indian state Rajasthan.
It was built by the Maharana Udai Singh in 1559 in a flamboyant fusion of Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles and stands on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and the Lake Pichola.
This picture was shot in the maharaja’s apartments.
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The Desilusions Of Childhood

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!”
(From “The Pickwick Papers” by Charles Dickens)

The windows of Fortnum & Mason in London were celebrating Christmas…
Once upon a time I used to stay at the corner of Duke Street and while going to work I missed the bus several times because of these windows… 

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© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
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