Formless Forming

Formless Forming

Formless Forming (Closeup)

This is a painting of Ardhanarishvara.  It is half Shiva, the formless divine, and half Parvati, the goddess, the manifest, the form (ing). It also represents the stillness and movement aspect present in all of us at every moment. 

The painting also symbolizes the changes we experience in out spiritual journey. The mountains are solid ice, as we being our spiritual journey, we are like this solid piece of ice, we slowly melt into water which is not as rigid, more fluid, more flowing, and later we become akasha, the sky, completely unbound.

Radiance

Radiance ~by Shweta Mitra

Step Back

You are in a room ... filled with pleasure, pain, conditioning, evaluation, understanding, solutions, techniques, love, knowledge, noise, silence, highs, lows, giving, taking.
You know all there is to know, you see all there is to see, there is expansion happening ... you are increasing your capacity and moving to the edge of the room... you hit the wall, you are feeling suffocated... the answers are all there... out there, one of those will work, one of those will open the lock... give the click... break this cycle... you are being pushed against the wall... nothing helping... no more room... you need a solution quick before you are squeezed out... help.. can't breathe... can't...
then ...
plop...
you did not know this wall was not solid...
you stepped one step back instead of pushing forward any more...
one step back...
plop
you fall into this huge empty space...
total silence...
total stillness...
the wall...
the wall is not a wall... it's a two way mirror...
now you see all of it...
the pleasure, pain, conditioning, evaluation, understanding, solutions, techniques, love, knowledge, noise, silence, highs, lows, giving, taking...
It is all happening in the silence... you can see it... all of it... the solution... it does not matter...
you have hands that can go through the mirror... pick what you want... bring it back to the stillness and it dissolves... it is gone... now pick the next...

Just one step back is this room...
one step back can take you into total stillness...
move till you can move no more...
search till you can search no more...
look till you can look no more...
fight till you can fight no more...
then take one more step... back...
you are there...
everyone has this room...
however all of us stay in the crowded room looking for a solution...
trying to push forward...
struggling to reach a goal...
stop...
now step back...

The solution is just one step back in the stillness...

~Shweta

Loving...

I send love to you and you and you...

Wonder if I can send love to one who is not ready...

Wonder if I can heal with this loving...

Wonder...
...
..
.

I don't own this loving...

This love is not mine to give away...

I am but a mere conduit though which it flows.

This loving does not discriminate...

This loving is divine...

This loving just loves.

This loving just is.

♥

~Shweta Mitra

A Bride ~ Longing




"Longing" ~ Painting by Shweta Mitra

 Ah Jaa Tenu Akhiyan Udeek Diyan ~  Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Original Translations:

00:16 - Without you my heart will collapse,
00:28 - What is the point of my living(without you)?
00:37 - in my (every) pore, in my (every) vein, the beat of your remembrance is playing.
00:45 - come! My eyes are yearning, My heart is shouting out to you.
00:54 - Come O' foreign one, I plead for the sake of Love.
00:58 - (chorus) At last come! My eyes long for you, O' Beloved, My eyes long for you.
01:24 - My dear, Since you have been upset with me, even the crows have forgotten their speech
01:37 - (chorus) At last come! My eyes long for you, O' Beloved, My eyes long for you.
02:01 - I have grown tired of looking at the many trails, I have grown weary staying alone,
02:17 - I count every single heartbeat I spend,
02:25 - Come O' foreign one, I plead for the sake of Love.
02:29 - (chorus) At last come! My eyes long for you, O' Beloved, My eyes long for you.
03:14 - O wilful one, don not be neglecting, every piece of mine is coming to you with love.
03:25 - swiftly come dear! My eyes long for you
03:53 - countless times I have climbed the terrace and I have come down Countless times.
04:07 - neither peace at my heart or patients in my eyes, Nor do I forget the lovely appearance.
04:17 - This love anguishes me and I call to you crying out "finally come Beloved, Don't go Beloved, You win and I lose!"
04:30 - swiftly come dear! My eyes long for you
Raag and duo
06:40 - swiftly come dear! My eyes long for you#
06:51 - when the outside wind flows, My heart starts beating. I come looking  whenever the crow speaks*2.
07:07 - Shall I inform you of how this separation is killing me? Come O' distant one, For the sake of Love!
07:20 - At last come! My eyes long for you, O' Beloved, My eyes long for you.





Source: http://asooke.com/videos-ah-jaa-tenu-akhiyan-udeek-diyan--[UyjsoO4islY].cfm

Stillness Dancing

Stillness Dancing ~ by Shweta Mitra  Dec 2010

The idea for this painting came to me in meditation. It is a way to show how everything arises from stillness. The following piece was written by Doug Sandlin (thanks Doug ☺) at my request. I was having a tough time putting my thoughts/feelings into words, so I told him what the painting represented, and he came up with the overview below. It explains everything I wanted to express and more. The main symbolism of Shiva being the stillness, and the dancer being the manifest, the movement, the dancing of the stillness, are what I was expressing through the painting. However, Doug managed to find so many more symbols in the painting than I realized were even there, originally. As with most of my paintings, there was  unintentional symbolism that manifested directly from the stillness. I am so very grateful, and feel so blessed, that the stillness, the divine, expresses itself through me, in form of these paintings.

On the left-hand side we see a Shiva Linga, a symbol for Lord Shiva, our own limitless stillness.

The Goddess-as-dancer is the creative aspect of every moment, now. Every aspect of her being and adornment, from her peaceful presence, to the beauty of her clothing, to the sacred mudras formed by her hands, are symbolic of the Goddess, Shakti; the pure power and potential of our stillness, dancing.

As stillness begins dancing out in manifestation, it first moves as pure, indistinct potential. Then, forming and displaying fully, and finally subsiding back into its original stillness; making way for the next moment, the next movement, the next ever-new display of the eternal dancing of stillness, now. This is reflected in the painting by the scene becoming more distinct as our gaze moves to the right, from the stillness of the Shiva Linga, to the dancing of his power; the Goddess, Shakti.

Every moment, every perception, every life, every universe, is comprised of these two who are actually, ever One; Shiva and Shakti, emptiness and form; consciousness and bliss; liberation and enjoyment.

The three levels of the temple, like the three horizontal stripes on the Shiva linga, represent the triadic-yet-unified nature of reality, symbolized in all the world’s religions and spiritual traditions: wholeness, diversity and the mixture of the two; emptiness, form and the mixture of the two, and so on. The temple’s levels symbolize manifested, active reality: dancing. The linga’s stripes symbolize unmanifest reality at rest: stillness.

Shiva and Shakti eternally dancing in the infinite temple of the heart; Hridayam in Sanskrit; literally the Center of This.

What is this center?

We are; humanity.

Each moment of human experience, is where Shiva, the stillness of our original unbound awareness, and Shakti, the movements, display and celebrations of living unbound now, perform the dancing of stillness; the beautiful reality of our lives.

~ Doug Sandlin

Sonata

"Sonata" ~ by Shweta Mitra Sept 2010

This painting is of my other daughter. It's a painting of things she loves, right from the colors, to the music she's playing, to her piano. She even gave the painting its name: Sonata. The day I took the pictures of her at the piano that were used in creating this painting, she was playing Moonlight Sonata; her favorite.

At first I was not sure about the name "Sonata", but I realized that it actually fits so beautifully with the post I did earlier, and so, it's actually perfect. A Sonata is a piece of music with three (or four) independent movements varying in key, mood, and tempo. Like the three phases I talked about in my previous post.