Ma's Blessings

Ma's Blessings

This painting of Ma Kali was inspired by this photograph : http://doc.noticias24.com/1011/diwali0511x6x630.jpg

Healing Tears

                                               "Healing Tears" -  Shweta Mitra April 2012

Healing Tears: He said,"give me your tears so you don't have to cry anymore".

Happy Easter All!!!

Look Up

Look Up

I had asked a friend of mine to tell me something that inspires her.

She told me about the story from the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna asked Arjuna and Duryodhana to choose between the army and him. Duryodhana chose his army and Arjuna chose Krishna. (Read the full story here: http://www.writespirit.net/stories_tales/stories_by_sri_chinmoy/tales_of_the_mahabharata/arjunas_choice/index.html).

She wrote:

"For the longest time, I had always wondered what I would've done.. I was listening to the kirtan when I had a vision that I was standing by Krishna's feet; I could only see the feet clearly, with the rest of Him kind of out of focus - I knew without a doubt I would have picked him... "

Her story ended there, but my thoughts continued: what would Krishna say to her?

He would say "Look up".

Always look up at your Ishta with surrender... why keep your focus narrow at his feet, he is all-loving and always happy when we look up at him in surrender; then we let ourselves know the joy that opening in surrender brings.
 
The day I started sketching this painting, that night these words came to me...
 

Come create with me...

 

Why do things not flow?

I try so hard to center again…

So much energy…

So much being pulled to the surface….

I want to go back into my cocoon…
Can I?

Then there is a question…

"Does the energy speak to you? Have you inquired about what it is doing there?

Why did I not think of this?

I ask....

Why are you here?

Why are you tearing me apart on the inside?

Why can I not move back to stillness?

“I am here to create” it says…

“why do you doubt me?”

“why don’t you just flow with me where I take you?”

"you tear apart within because you try to move in the opposite direction from where I take you..."

“why do you question?”

“have I ever let you down?”

“trust me… and come create with me”

~ Shweta (Feb 23rd 2012)

Another experience I had with this painting:
As I sketched this painting for the first time, it took me a while to get the face, and I let it go... and a face emerged, nothing like I had imagined it to be. Then I started painting it, I did not like how it turned out so I decided to change it... whited it out and redid the face and at the end of it, it looked exactly the same as the first time I painted it... so made another attempt... guess what?  It looked the exact same as the first one. So either I am terrible at painting, or Krishna wishes to look like he does in that painting and is showing me to move out of my mind and accept it... he wants that face, I have to let him have it.

After this, the entire painting really flowed, there was very little doing and more allowing Krishna to create.


Please visit my website:

http://www.creationsfromstillness.com/paintings/look-up

Melting Heart

Melting Heart ~ Shweta Mitra (02/20/12)

This painting came to me as a vision.

A friend commented on the painting:

As I see the painting, my heart sings the song ...
"Light my soul with thy holy flame.
let my darkness my sadness melt into light ... "
[Aguner poroshmoni chhoao pran-e]

The song fits the painting so beautifully.
It is a Bengali song by Rabindranath Tagore...

English translations to the lyrics go like this:
(http://sacred-songs.blogspot.com/2007/06/in-world-of-bliss.html)

Touch my heart with your fire
So that this life
burns as a glorious offering.


Let this body
Be like a lamp among the heavens
And every song
Light up in glowing gesture.


In the heart of darkness
I shall feel your touch
Through the nights
As you light the stars
One after another.


No darkness shall
Veil this vision -
I shall find wondrous lights
Wherever I gaze.
And my tears
Will find a blazing fervor
As they reach up for the skies.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Literary Journal - Scythe

Please check my art and poetry published in this issue of the literary journal, Scythe: http://scytheliteraryjournal.com/issue-vii.php

Click on the featured artist and scroll down and click on the paintings to view some of my art and poetry.

Reverence - A Step Back

Reverence - A Step Back

This painting was inspired by an experience/a vision I had a few months back.
It is also based on these words that came to me several months back.

Will write more about it in a future post. :-)

http://the-journey-inward.blogspot.com/2011/01/step-back.html

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

Please visit my website:
http://www.creationsfromstillness.com/paintings/reverence-a-step-back

creating...sustaining...dissolving

creating...sustaining...dissolving

My series of 3 paintings is based on this....
"Creating"... "Sustaining"... "Dissolving".
The first one is "creating"... In India during Navaratri, in Bengal, they celebrate "Durga Puja".
The first part is "creating" an idol...
The second part is "sustaining" the goddess.... by worship and celebrations...
The third part is "dissolving"... immersion of the idol.




The creating... sustaining... dissolving is a pattern that shows up every min of our life... and when I decided I wanted to paint this pattern, this idea came to mind. Thanks to Ma's blessings it did manifest nicely.