A picture is worth a thousand words. Without warning it will incite your inner child. Often, if you leave your mental post, it will talk to your heart. One such painting left me spell bound. In the November 2009 issue of Yoga Journal (p.67), a quiet Shiva stands out in earth sky tones and reminds me of the mud of India. Like the sweet simplicity of crayons, or the joy of tracing Devnagari letters in chalk, it transported a sense of beauty I could not resist. I wondered why. Why did these colors produce such a profound sense of oneness in me? It might be that the artist had used a palette straight out of my childhood, the water colors unfolding with the same flow of when we were children, when we loved all those shades inside a single box of paint and dipped freely in them without worry. A child paints for the fun of trying out how small round pigments will look pressed out against an impression of sky, an impression of water, an impression of a shape form or figure. In this artist’s rendition of Shiva, a similar style invokes a childlike joy. Shiva, balancing in Hastasana, gazes out at his world from his wondrous Prakruti. Without discrimination the mountains, hills, water, and the supreme Yogi express themselves playfully, with no consciousness of right or wrong, only the feeling of joy for the vision of paint, and a fresh new shade. Thus love rolls out of the innocent imagination of the maker, without an intermediary of thought or judgment, only the intense feeling, ‘rasa’ for manifestation. Like childhood paint running over the plastic rims, the magentas, yellows, blues, and reds in this painting stream out of the body of Shiva into surrounding nature, infused with the artist’s own craving for beauty- for those steep undulating brush strokes of his/her inner child. Then as slender hands rise up to touch the sky, Shiva pulls out an oversized red gold flower like it were the whole point of creation- that God manifests himself and then offers his awesome gift to mankind, so that mankind may gaze, even as God gazes back, in praise and gratitude.

Dancing Shiva

That is why this painting moved me so much, its colors still wet to my touch and the more I smudged it, the better it got. From the brilliant petals to the delicate saffron folds of fabric, the picture initiated a desire to want some of that bright blue sparkle for myself, to rub off on me from touching it and drinking its beauty again and again- to become, you know, as colorful and sublime as the fluid invitation of Shiva.

You may find Vidula teaching in Katy ISD, cooking delicious food, teaching the cooking class on Nov 7, or chating beautiful kritana at the center.