Enlightenment of Our Souls

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“Om Sarva Mangal Manglaye Shivay Sarvaarth Sadhike
Sharanye Trayambake Gauri Narayaani Namostu Te”
“Oh the divine couple Shiva Parvati !
O ! Thee, the protectors of this universe,
Along with Lords Brahma and Vishnu
We pray to You for our well-being, prosperity and the enlightenment of our souls.”
(Lord Shiva Prarthana Prayer)

The power or energy of Shiva is Shakti, his spouse, of which Parvati is probably the most popular form.
Lord Shiva And Mata Parvati Ji are often shown sitting in happy, intimate embrace.
After their marriage, they left for mount Kailash and immersed themselves completely in a sexual intercourse so strong that the deity of desire Kama was reborn when their sweat mingles with his ashes.
Their love was so intense that it shook the cosmos and frightened even the gods…

This is a recent sculpture which stands in the “Kingdom of Dreams” complex in Gurgaon, it is inspired by a piece from the 11th-12th c.)

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The Light that Brings Cold Cheer

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“Afar away the light that brings cold cheer
Unto this wall, one instant and no more
Admitted at my distant palace-door.
Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear
Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.
Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey
That chills me: and afar, how far away,
The nights that shall be from the days that were.
Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing
Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign;
And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,
(Whose sounds mine inner sense is faith to bring,
Continually together murmuring,)
“Woe’s me for thee, unhappy Proserpine!”
(Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Ballads and Sonnets,1881)

One day, Proserpine, a young maid of spring, was out picking wildflowers with her mother, Ceres, goddess of grain when she saw the white petals of the narcissus flower. She began straying far from her mother.
Out of the dark depths sprang Pluto, god of the underworld. He grabbed Proserpine and drove his chariot back into the caves of the earth…
Ceres, devastated by the kidnapping allowed the earth to become barren.
Mercury, the messenger god, wandered the underworld until he came to the misty throne room of Pluto and Proserpine.
There he told Pluto he must return Proserpine.
She remembered the joyful times of her mother’s love, the wildflowers, and open sunlit meadows.
Before returning Proserpine, Pluto offered her the seeds of a pomegranate fruit.
When Ceres heard this, she told Proserpine that the fruit was a symbol of marriage.
As a result, when Fall and Winter come, the earth grows cold and barren because Proserpine must return to the underworld with Pluto.
But when she comes back, Ceres turns the world to spring and summer.
…This is how seasons began.
(Chrysantha Gakopoulos – The story of Ceres and Proserpina)

There is no editing on this picture which was shot at night at the ”Bosquet de la Colonnade” which stands in the gardens of the Château de Versailles.
The green lights were settled for a special evening.
This is a close-up of the famous group “Proserpine Ravished by Pluto” which is in the centre, it was sculpted by François Girardon in 1699.

 

Tumse Mohabbat

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“Tumse Mohabbat Kar Lu Gee Bhar Ke
Poori Inn Hasarat Kar Lu Gee Bhar Ke
Najromein Teri Kashis Ka Aalam
Dil Me Hai Armano Ki Sargam
Jobhi Ki Hai Wo Mere Jeeya Ko Jane-E -Janaa Tere Ishq Ne….”
(Lut Jaaon by Himesh Reshammiya)

For a change I wanted to add the lyrics of a Indian pop song to one of my picture, this song has a very addictive tune it is coming from the movie “Karz”.
I always liked Himesh Reshammiya’s songs despite the criticism and controversies going around his voice and work.
This picture was shot before sunset at the entrance of the Small Sas Bahu temple in Gwalior located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
This temple, initially dedicated to Vishnu, was built in red sandstone during the 10th century.

“Your beauty is in my eyes
there are many hopes in my heart
your love has given me everything
your aura has scared me
with the pain in my eyes
your love has given me everything
I’ll die for ur love…”

Avatāra (अवतार)

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“Do you know who ‘god’ is?
God is not Vishnu or Shiva or Brahma; not the wind, the sun nor the moon; nor the brahmana or the king; not I or you; not Lakshmi or the mind.
God is without form and undivided (not in the objects); that splendor which is not made and which has neither beginning nor end is known as god, or Lord Shiva, which is pure consciousness.
That alone is fit to be worshipped; that alone is all.”
(Sage Vasishtha – Mānasaputra (“mind son”) of Brahma)

This sculture stands on the building’s wall of the little museum which is at the entrance of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi (Benaras).
It was sculpted during the the golden age period most probably in the second century A.D.
Apparently this avatar of God should be Lord Shiva even though he is not wearing any rudraksh.
The animal represented as the vehicule seems to be Nandi, the bull which Shiva rides and the gate keeper of Shiva and Parvati in Hindu mythology.

In His Splendor

“A horse is a thing of beauty…none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor.”
(Xenophon – Greek historian, author of the Anabasis, BC 431-350)

This is a close-up of the horse which belongs to the statue composition of King George IV at Trafalgar Square in London (England).
This equestrian statue was made by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1782 –1841) who was an English sculptor of the Georgian era.
There is no PP work on this picture, it was shot with a simple back lighting.

Some Secrets of Life

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“Of all our games, love’s play is the only one which threatens to unsettle our soul, and is also the only one in which the player has to abandon himself to the body’s ecstasy.
…Nailed to the beloved body like a slave to a cross, I have learned some secrets of life which are now dimmed in my memory by the operation of that same law which ordained that the convalescent, once cured, ceases to understand the mysterious truths laid bare by illness, and that the prisoner, set free, forgets his torture, or the conqueror, his triumph passed, forgets his glory.”
(Quotes from “Memoirs of Hadrian” by French writer Marguerite Yourcenar)

Antinoüs (111–130) was a member of the entourage of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, to whom he was beloved.
Antinous was deified after his death.
This marble statue stands at Le Louvre museum it allowed me to try a Canon EOs 500D.

 

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Evaluating Human Existence

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“Like everyone else I have at my disposal only three means of evaluating human existence: the study of self, which is the most difficult and most dangerous method, but also the most fruitful; the observation of our fellowmen, who usually arrange to hide secrets where none exist; and books, with the particular errors of perspective to which they inevitably give rise.”
(Quotes from “Memoirs of Hadrian” by French writer Marguerite Yourcenar)

This marble statue of Antinoüs stands at Le Louvre museum, it allowed me to try a Canon EOs 500D and to take a few pictures where there is no edition.
Memoirs of Hadrian (French: Mémoires d’Hadrien) is a novel by the French writer Marguerite Yourcenar about the life and death of Roman Emperor Hadrian.
The book was first published in France in French in 1951 as Mémoires d’Hadrien, and was an immediate success, meeting with enormous critical acclaim.
Antinous was born to a Greek family in Bithynion-Claudiopolis, in the Roman province of Bithynia in what is now north-west Turkey.
He joined the entourage of the Emperor when Hadrian passed through Bithynia in about 124, and soon became his beloved companion who accompanied him on his many journeys through the empire.
Although some have suggested the two might have had a romantic relationship, it is uncertain if this was true.
In October 130, according to Hadrian, “Antinous was drowned in the Nilus.”
It is not known whether his death was the result of accident, suicide, murder, or religious sacrifice.
After his death, the grief of the emperor knew no bounds, causing the most extravagant respect to be paid to his memory abd he decreed his deification.

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Shining Among Women

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“Helen of the light robes, shining among women”
(Book 4 of the Odyssey by Homer – ancient Greek epic poet, ca. 8th century BC)

This is a detail of a marble by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) showing Helen of Troy at the Victoria and Albert Museum located in South Kensington in London.
In Greek mythology Helen, the daughter of the god Jupiter, was famed for her great beauty.
She married Menelaus, King of Sparta, but was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris.
So began the long war between the greeks and Trojans…

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Lady of Athens

“A day can press down all human things, and a day can raise them up.
But the gods embrace men of sense and abhor the evil.”
(Athena to Odysseus. Sophocles, Ajax 130)

This huge statue of Athena, known as the Pallas of Velletri, was found in Velletri in the eighteenth century.
It is a copy of a bronze effigy, now lost, known from Roman copies and fragments of antique casts, found in Baia, near Naples and attributed to Cresilas, a Cretan sculptor.
It has been on display in the Louvre since December 1803 where I took this picture.