Winsor and Newton CP watercolor paper (27 into 37 cm)

Painting size: 27 into 37 cm

Winsor and Newton CP watercolor paper

Painting size : 11*15 inches

Transparency of the Emotional Vital (At once the condition and result of the abolition of the ego) – semi double compositae light mauve flowers with a yellow central disc

Vital transparency (indispensable for conversion) - semi double compositae deep mauve to violet flowers with a yellow central disc

Supramentalised vital transparency (one of the results of conversion) – fully double compositae violet flowers with a yellow central disc

Supramentalised psychic activity (luminous, manifold, balanced it meets all needs) – fully double, pink

Sincerity in the vital (the sure way to realisation) – Small single compositae flower with narrow Lavender blue ray florets and a centre of tiny yellow disc florets

Simple sincerity (the beginning of all progress) – single ,white

Emotional sincerity (does not try to falsify the emotions) – single , lavender pink

Sincerity in the vital (the sure way to realisation) – single, lavender blue

Transparency in the physical (the physical is preparing itself to  be transformed) –  semi double ,red

Integral Transparency (it is the result of goodwill and perfect sincerity) – double, white

Illumined transparency (an effect of the Divine Grace) – semi double, white

Winsor & Newton CP half sheet (22*15 inches)

Arches HP 300gsm 15*21 inches. Schimnke artists watercolors.

reference photos from http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com

   Arches 300gsm 22 * 15 inches

            I started painting my own works a year back. I also started sharing them to the world through this blog a year back with the enocouragement of our master, shri Bharat Thakur. They have been a means of inner discovery of myself. With some paintings this has been more marked, as though my eyes have opened to seeing myself. (Beginning of Parvathi’s auterities and austerities- summer) Those backgrounds! I would never have done them that way if it were not for him. JUST DO IT, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO THINK, he shouts. Wet in wet washes don’t work that way, I murmur to myself, they need some amount of foreplanning. What does he know about painting, anyways. Trust yourself, he says. Right. I’m definitely going to ruin it….  But those two paintings are my best till date.
           Innocence – Is it still innocence when you come to know that you are innocent? At what stage in your growth does this become true?
           Humility and self respect – Is there any humility in bowing down before the falsehoods in others? Or does it lie in following to the end what you know to be true even if it means going against the rest of the world?
           How difficult it is to want so much to show something to someone and yet keep the patience to wait for years for them to become ready to see it. I dedicate all my works to him in gratitude and humility.

        Arches HP 300gsm half sheet, Schminke Artists watercolors.

        Lord Shiva comes in the disguise of a hermit/sage to Parvathi devi and after finding out why she performs penance he says:

  ” Lady,” cried he, ” that mighty Lord I know ;
Ever his presence bringeth care and woe.
And wouldst thou still a second time prepare
The sorrows of his fearful life to share ?
Deluded maid, how shall thy tender hand,
Decked with the nuptial bracelet’s jewelled band,
Be clasped in his, when fearful serpents twine
In scaly horror round that arm divine ?
How shall thy robe, with gay flamingoes gleaming,
Suit with his coat of hide with blood-drops streaming ?
Of old thy pathway led where flowerets sweet
Made pleasant carpets for thy gentle feet.
And e’en thy foes would turn in grief away
To see these vermeil-tinted limbs essay,
Where scattered tresses strew the mournful place,
Their gloomy path amid the tombs to trace.

etc ..

  He must have been pleased with her answers for he sends the seven sages to Himaloy asking for her hand in marriage.

Arches HP 300gsm half sheet, Schminke Artists watercolors.

The following lines are written by Kalidasa and translated by Arthur W Ryder:

Scorched by the fury of the noon-tide rays,
And fires that round her burned with ceaseless blaze,
Summer passed o’er her : rains of Autumn came
And throughly drenched the lady’s tender frame.

…..

…..

There as she lay upon her rocky bed,
No sumptuous roof above her gentle head,
Dark Night, her only witness, turned her eyes,
lied lightnings flashing from the angry skies,
And gazed upon her voluntary pain,
In wind, in sleet, in thunder, and in rain.
Still lay the maiden on the cold damp ground,
Though blasts of winter hurled their snows around.
Still pitying in her heart the mournful fate
Of those poor birds, so fond, so desolate,
Doomed, hapless pair, to list each other’s moan
Through the long hours of night, sad and alone.

Chilled by the rain, the tender lotus sank :
She filled its place upon the streamlet’s bank.
Sweet was her breath as when that lovely flower
Sheds its best perfume in still evening’s hour.
Red as its leaves her lips of coral hue :
Red as those quivering leaves they quivered too.

Of all stern penance it is called the chief
To nourish life upon the fallen leaf.
But even this the ascetic maiden spurned,
And for all time a glorious title earned.
Aparna Lady of the unbroken fast
Have sages called her, saints who knew the past.
Fair as the lotus fibres, soft as they,
In these stern vows she passed her night and day.
No mighty anchoret had e’er essayed
The ceaseless penance of this gentle maid.

There came a hermit : reverend was he
As Brahmanhood’s embodied sanctity.
With coat of skin, with staff and matted hair,
His face was radiant, and he spake her fair.
Up rose the maid the holy man to greet,
And humbly bowed before the hermit’s feet.
Though meditation fill the pious breast,
It finds a welcome for a glorious guest :

Painted on Arches 300gsm HP half sheet. Schminke Artists watercolors

A few lines from Kalidasa’s poem translated by Arthur W. Ryder describing this scene:

But far too mild her penance, Uma thought,
To win from heaven the lordly meed she sought.

She would not spare her form, so fair and frail,
If sterner penance could perchance prevail.
Oft had sweet pastime wearied her, and yet
Fain would she match in toil the anchoret.
Sure the soft lotus at her birth had lent
Dear Uma’s form its gentle element :
But gold, commingled with her being, gave
That will so strong, so beautifully brave.

Full in the centre of four blazing piles
Sate the fair lady of the winning smiles,
While on her head the mighty God of Day
Shot all the fury of his summer ray ;
Yet her fixt gaze she turned upon the skies,
And quenched his splendour with her brighter eyes.
To that sweet face, though scorched by rays from heaven,
Still was the beauty of the lotus given,
Yet, worn by watching, round those orbs of light
A blackness gathered like the shades of night.
She cooled her dry lips in the bubbling stream,
And lived on Amrit from the pale moon-beam,
Sometimes in hunger culling from the tree
The rich ripe fruit that hung so temptingly.