The Power Of Celebration

“People of our time are losing the power of celebration.
Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.
Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation.
To be entertained is a passive state–it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle….
Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one’s actions.”
(From “The Wisdom of Heschel” by Abraham Joshua Heschel)

This was shot from the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) during the celebrations of Dev Diwali on the occasion of Kartik Poornima.
The festival of Lights is a mark of welcome to the Gods as it is believed that they descend on earth on that special day.
In the evening under the full moon reflecting in the holy waters each ghat is performing Ganga Aarti with vedic hymns chanted by priests in order to please and welcome the Gods.

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Sacred Moments

“A ritual becomes the match that lights the kindred celebration candle of sacred moments long ago… tantalizing these entombed spirits to surface again.”
(Wes Adamson)

This was shot from a boat on the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) during the celebrations of Dev Diwali on the occasion of Kartik Poornima.
The festival of Lights is a mark of welcome to the Gods as it is believed that they descend on earth on that special day.
In the evening under the full moon reflecting in the holy waters each ghat is performing Ganga Aarti with vedic hymns chanted by priests in order to please and welcome the Gods.

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

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A Second’s Encounter With Eternity

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.
And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
(From “Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho)

This was shot from a boat on the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras) during the celebrations of Dev Diwali on the occasion of Kartik Poornima.
The festival of Lights is a mark of welcome to the Gods as it is believed that they descend on earth on that special day.
In the evening under the full moon reflecting in the holy waters each ghat is performing Ganga Aarti with vedic hymns chanted by priests in order to please and welcome the Gods.

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

A New Lease of Life

“He was my own son.
Now you give him a new lease of life”,
said Mother Parvati to Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva then ordered his Ganas to go out and bring the head of any creature they saw first.
It was an elephant that the Ganas found first.
So they cut its head and brought it to Lord Shiva.
Putting the elephant head at the boy’s torso, Lord Shiva infused a new lease of life in him.

Of all the multitudes of deities and gods that constitute the Hindu religion, Lord Ganesha is probably one of the most loved and revered of all, regardless of individual beliefs and customs.
Considered the God of good beginnings and wisdom, it is in his name that new ventures are undertaken and important life decisions made.

This illustration of Lord Ganesha was printed on a tile and fixed on the wall of a house in the oldest part of Varanasi (Benaras).
Since a while several walls of the holy city are covered with paintings or tiles showing any image or symbol of the main religions and most often they are displayed all together.
This is a simple trick in order to keep the walls clean as no-one there would dare making a “lack of respect” to any represention of God…

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Happy Ganesh Chatrurthi

 

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“On the Ganesh Chaturthi day, meditate on the stories connected with Lord Ganesha early in the morning, during the Brahmamuhurta period.
Then, after taking a bath, go to the temple and do the prayers of Lord Ganesha.
Offer Him some coconut and sweet pudding.
Pray with faith and devotion that He may remove all the obstacles that you experience on the spiritual path.
Worship Him at home, too.
You can get the assistance of a pundit.
Have an image of Lord Ganesha in your
house.
Feel His Presence in it.

Don’t forget not to look at the moon on that day; remember that it behaved unbecomingly towards the Lord.
This really means avoid the company of all those who have no faith in God, and who deride God, your Guru and religion, from this very day.

Take fresh spiritual resolves and pray to Lord Ganesha for inner spiritual strength to attain success in all your undertakings.

May the blessings of Sri Ganesha be upon you all!
May He remove all the obstacles that stand in your spiritual path!
May He bestow on you all material prosperity as well as liberation!”
(Swami Sivananda – Hindu spiritual teacher, 1887 – 1963)

Ganesha Chaturthi is the Hindu festival celebrated on the occasion of birthday of Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati, who is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees in the duration of this festival.
It is the day Shiva declared his son Ganesha as superior to all the gods, barring Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva and Parvati.
Ganesha is widely worshipped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune and traditionally invoked at the beginning of any new venture or at the start of travel.

This picture of Lord Ganesha was shot in a temple of Khajuraho located in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

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Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

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“Vakratunda Mahaakaaya Suryakotee Sama Prabhaa.
Nirvighnam kuru mey deva
Sarva kaaryeshu Sarvadaa..”
(O Lord with twisted trunk and massive appearance whose splendor is aqual to a million suns…
Please bless me such that I do not face any obstacles in any of my endeavors, anytime. )

Lord Ganesha is addressed through this mantra, popularly known as the vakratunda mantra.
Ganesha can be viewed as a symbol of that energy which can help us overcome the obstacles in our path to spiritual growth and enlightenment.
The chanting of mantras is believed to invoke a connection to the particular energy associated with the deity that is being addressed by the mantra.
Ganesha is the ruler of the mooladhara chakra, located at the base of the spine, and is also known as the root chakra.
Hence, “Ganesha is invoked as the starting point of the ascent to awareness, as the one who causes that energy to rise up, which leads the seeker to a union with the divine”.

Ganesha Chaturthi, the great Ganesha festival starts today, it is celebrated by Hindus around the world as the birthday of Lord Ganesha.
This is a picture of a clay Ganesha murti worshipped during this festival and which normaly goes to the holy waters of the Ganges, however this one never leaves me since a few years…

May Lord Ganesha bestow success, happiness and prosperity upon you all.
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi 2011…!!!

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.)

The Passion Mysteries

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“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that those who believe in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” John 3:14
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.” John 12:32

This is a close-up of Ligier Richier’s “Lamentation of Christ” which is in Church of St. Étienne located in Saint-Mihiel, in northeastern France.
Ligier Richier (c. 1500 – 1567) was a sixteenth-century French sculptor who might have been inspired by the Mystery plays which are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe.
Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song.
They developed from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered obsolete by the rise of professional theatre.

The Symbol of the Cross

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History shows that the cross was used centuries before Christ.
“From its simplicity of form, the cross has been used both as a religious symbol and as an ornament, from the dawn of man’s civilization.
Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world.
India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples, while numerous instances, dating from the later Stone Age to Christian times, have been found in nearly every part of Europe.
The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times, and among non-Christian peoples, may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship”.
(The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., 1910, Vol. 7, pg. 506. Emphasis ours.)

The surprising thing is that the Christian use of the cross did not begin until the time of Constantine, three centuries after Christ.
Archaeologists have not found any Christian use of the symbol before that time.
According to one writer (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, article “Cross”), the cross as a “Christian” symbol was taken directly from the pagans.

The New Testament does not specifically describe the instrument upon which Christ died, though Acts 5:30; 10:39; and 13:28-29 refer to it as a “tree.”
The Greek word xulon, translated “tree” in these verses, can mean a stick, club, tree, stake, or other wooden articles.
There is absolutely no evidence that God’s true church ever used the cross symbol for any purpose.
Nowhere does the Bible command its use however, throughout the world, people universally regard the cross as THE symbol of Christianity.
Among Christians it recalls the crucifixion of Jesus and humanity’s redemption thereby.
The Christian form of blessing by tracing a cross over oneself or another person or thing.

This cross is the reflection of a light on a wall in the Église de Saint-Eustache which is a church in the Ier arrondissement of Paris, built between 1532 and 1632.
It was shot during the midnight Mass celebrated on Christmas Eve.

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.