Pearls of Insipiration

Lines Written in Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes, 

While in a grove I sate reclined, 

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 

Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 

To her fair works did Nature link 

The human soul that through me ran; 

And much it grieved my heart to think 

What man has made of man. 

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower, 

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths; 

And ’tis my faith that every flower 

Enjoys the air it breathes. 

The birds around me hopped and played, 

Their thoughts I cannot measure:— 

But the least motion which they made 

It seemed a thrill of pleasure. 

The budding twigs spread out their fan, 

To catch the breezy air; 

And I must think, do all I can, 

That there was pleasure there. 

If this belief from heaven be sent, 

If such be Nature’s holy plan, 

Have I not reason to lament 

What man has made of man?

                                                                                  ~ William Wordsworth

Tribute to Raja Ravi Varma's Inspiring women of Indian Mythology

As a poet writes poems to pay ode to people they admire, artists pay their homage/tribute by painting. The celebrated Malayali artist Raja Ravi Verma discovered this form of paying tributes and I am grateful for Ganesh's informative talk at NGMA which helped me realize this.

Thanks to him and the National Gallery of Modern Art( NGMA ) I came to know that, today marks 125 years of completion of the Ravi Varma Fine Art Lithographic Press. Click here for context

Lawyer and art collector Ganesh V Shivaswamy

Attending his well-researched informative presentation today got me curious to learn a bit more about India's great artist Raja Ravi Varma. 

Hence, I turned to the growing omniscient knowledge source of our era, that I am aware of which is accessible a mouse clicks away ~  Google Arts and Culture and these following lines caught my attention.

Raja Ravi Varma was a celebrated Malayali Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art for a number of aesthetic and broader social reasons. Firstly, his works are held to be among the best examples of the fusion of European techniques with a purely Indian sensibility. 

Attending this lecture made me realize that I needed to read more about the great people of India. As opposed to limiting myself to Europian intellectuals like Leonardo da Vinci whose autobiography I have been reading. 

Birth of Shakuntala - Vishvamitra rejects the child and mother because they represented to him a lapse in spiritual pursuits and his earlier renunciation of domestic/king's life.^[8] Painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906)

Ganesh (in today's talk) points us to observe the positions of both the characters in this composition by the great artist Raja Ravi Varma. He explained the concept of Hierarchy of spaces used in our Indian dance form Kathakali, and how Raja Ravi Varma employs it in all his compositions. As per this hierarchy, the person playing the dominant role appears on the left side of the stage, and the one playing the submissive role on the right side. He further explained how Raja Ravi Varma uses this hierarchy of space concept in all his compositions.

As per folklore (Click here for more), the beautiful apsara Menaka (the mother in the painting) leaves the innocent new-born infant on the bank of river Malini and goes away. Rishi Kanva happens to find this infant and below are some references from Wikipedia.

Rishi Kanva says: 

And beholding the new-born infant lying in that forest destitute of human beings but abounding with lions and tigers, a number of vultures sat around to protect it from harm. I went there to perform my ablution and beheld the infant lying in the solitude of the wilderness surrounded by vultures. Bringing her hither I have made her my daughter. And because she was surrounded in the solitude of the wilderness, by Sakuntas (birds), therefore, hath she been named by me Shakuntala (bird-protected).

The great poet Kalidasa portrays the infant's character and life in the sacred text:

Abhijnana Shakuntala 

Kalidasa's Shakuntala is crafted as an epitome of virtue, modesty, subservience, and sacrifice. These characteristics are meant to conform to the perception of "the feminine ideal of Indian women: in a patriarchal culture. The Shakuntala of Mahabharata is a remarkable woman who does not conform to the dictate of a patriarchal society. She belongs to the fifth century, and yet she represents the contemporary "feminine ideal of Indian women." Perhaps she is timeless. Click here for source

Shakuntala looking back to glimpse Dushyanta by Raja Ravi Varma (1898)

Coincidentally, Shakuntala is the mother of Emperor Bharatha, after whom our country is named :).

Ending the post with these closing thoughts ...

As a poet writes poems to pay ode to people they admire, I feel artists pay their homage/tribute via paintings. I am unsure if there is a word in the English language for this form of expressing tribute to someone. If so, I would be grateful to you for enlightening me. 

अहम् प्रेम​: aka Self-Love

Love is all about setting them free.

Aham Prema is a mantra that is typically translated as “I am divine love.” It comes from the Sanskrit, aham, meaning “I,” and prema, meaning “love” or “affection.” Click here for more

Through my life experiences so far, I have come to realize that true-love for others or self-love are no two different ideas. When we truly love someone/something, we learn to set them free. Practicing this thought might be really hard initially, but when we are able to practice this, we realize the secret to setting ourselves free and living up to our life potential.

When we truly love someone and learn to let them go, set them free to do whatever they want, you realize ultimate bliss. Love is not about to live with someone forever or until you die.

We often tend to get confused with the concepts of Attachment and Love. Attachment I believe rises out of a need/imagined void or incompleteness in us. The kind of love that makes you think that you have to live with someone forever. This is definitely not Love. It is an attachment. This is the thing which hurts you when you let someone go or when ur beloved one left you alone. Attachment is the cause of all the sufferings. In our modern times, I am tempted to associate it with unrequited love. 

Quoting these below lines from a fellow Quora user: Click here for his profile

According to Bhagwad Geeta, We all have souls that are eternal but our bodies are materialistic things. We have a relationship at the bodily level and as we are in the body relationships are important.

But Love is completely a different thing different from Relationships and Attachment. Love is something that doesn’t need a body to be in love with. It is a sacred feeling between two souls which is eternal. True Love is a never-ending feeling as it does not depend on the material bodies. Love is hope, gives us a reason, a purpose to live. Love is that shares happiness among people. Love is God, something that is beyond our understanding. It is unconditional

So don’t confuse between Love, Attachment and Relationship.

Love unconditionally and spread love.

And always remember one thing-

When you love someone, you make yourself love the world.

Reading these above sentences, brought goosebumps in me as I realized the unconditional love of our parents and the fact that it does not end with their demise. 

On a similar note, 

We would all agree that marriage is one relationship that we consciously choose for ourselves. It is not something we are born with like in the case of parents, siblings, etc. And I feel that's what makes it very special

 These words from this article make me realize and appreciate to an even greater extent, the kind of love we experience post marriage.

In an Indian marriage, there is a sentence that states: “I give you my heart.” Both say this at the same time. Then the next sentence states: “Let your mind be in keeping with my mind.” Here it means granting freedom to the other person to think the way that person thinks. That is the proper translation.
 
May you approve of my way of thinking as long as it is proper (dharmic), of course. It is not merely thinking; doing is also involved. So may you approve of my way of thinking and acting. That is a prayer for both parties. May each of them approve of the other’s thinking and doing and help and validate each other. Thereby, both of them will grow. That is how there is freedom in a relationship.

Let the other person think the way he thinks. Even if he is wrong, it is better than he discovers what is right. That validation is important, and it is mutual. Anything one-sided is not going to work in a relationship. If you commit a mistake that is good, because learning from you I won’t commit the same one. Therefore, in relating to another, granting freedom to the other person seems to be the most crucial thing. Courtesy: www.dayananda.org.

I feel the reason the divorce rates were extremely low in our previous generation of Indian marriages, was because they truly understood this concept. 

Ending this blog post with my favorite quote by Kahlil Gibran 

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

Do share your thoughts in the comments below.