Traversing Sensuality

“The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.
Always an orchestra, and just as music traverses walls, so sensuality traverses the body and reaches up to ecstasy.”
(From “The Diary Of Anais Nin, Volume Two (1934-1939)” by Anaïs Nin)

This apsara (celestial nymph) was sculpted during the 8th century AD by the Ganga Pratihara School and is coming from Etah in Uttar Pradesh before resting in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, the Art and Archaeological Museum of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi (Benaras).

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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.

The Swan of my Mind

 

“Oh! Hamsa! Being the auspicious vehicle of Goddess Saraswathi, you carry learning and art upon your shoulders. 
Give us that discriminating wisdom for which you are famous, such as your proverbial ability to separate the substance of milk from water”.

Swans are revered in Hinduism, and are compared to saintly persons whose chief characteristic is to be in the world without getting attached to it, just as a swan glides on water without getting its feathers wet. 
The Sanskrit word for swan is hamsa or hansa, and it is the vehicle of many deities like the goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, learning and art. 
It is mentioned several times in the Vedic literature, and persons who have attained great spiritual capabilities are sometimes called Paramahamsa (“Great Swan”) on account of their spiritual grace and ability to travel between various spiritual worlds. 
In the Vedas, swans are said to reside in the summer at the Manasarovar Lake near the Kailash Mountain and migrate to Indian lakes for the winter. In mythology, the bird is mute and believed to possess some powers such as the ability to eat pearls. 
They are also believed to be able to drink up the milk and leave the water from a saucer of milk adulterated with water.

“A world of his own”

 

“All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own”. 
(Plutarch)

This is one more picture that I took while going down the stairs leading to the Ganges at Gai ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) but this one was shot four weeks later.
However the same man is sleeping at the same place, he is wearing the same T-shirt and the same necklace and maybe this is also the same fly which is sleeping with him as anything occurs in the oldest living city in the world…

“Sleep, Rest of Things”

 

“Sleep, rest of things, O pleasing Deity,
Peace of the soul, which cares dost crucify,
Weary bodies refresh and mollify”.
(Ovid)

Sometimes I come down the stairs leading to the Ganges at Gai ghat in Varanasi (Benaras) where a narrow lane with high buildings allows to enjoy the illusion of a light freshness during summers.
On both sides stand several temples, Shiva’s ligams and painted statues of deities.
I often see this man there, napping the afternoon away.
I envy his deep sleep and his state of unconsciousness while so many things are happening around with noisy people, holy cows and naughty monkeys or this fly which landed on his shoulder.