SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF
GLORIOUS HIMALAYAS
(Published in the Rising Nepal Friday Supplement, June 6th, 2014)
(Sandhya Regmi)
Sir Edmund Hillary had extreme emotional attachment to Nepal, Nepalese,
and the Himalayas. Hillary considered Sagarmatha as the holy shrine of Lord
Shiva, so he believed that stepping on Mount Everest with their feet would
amount to an act of disrespect to the holy land, so both Edmund and Tenzing
Norgay bowed down their heads very low, soon after reaching the summit and planting
Nepal’s ‘sun and moon’ embodied flag. I was moved and blown away emotionally
while reading these lines, thinking how high and pious our Himalayas were
considered by these climbers. The glorious Himalayas appeared to me an
embodiment of spiritualism. I got inspired
to celebrate the glory of the great Himalayas and thus plunged into the world
of mountains with my colours and canvas. I literally felt as if I were
travelling far away from the sufferings of materialistic word and reaching a
spiritual world of utmost happiness and serenity.
After the success of my seventh solo painting exhibition entitled “Faces
of Buddha”- a collection of 32 diverse faces of Buddha as seen all around the
world - in August 2013, my eighth solo painting exhibition entitled “My
Motherland Nepal Gloriously Stretched Amidst The Endless Sky” was recently
accomplished at Nepal Art Council Babarmahal, Kathmandu. A series of 15
Himalaya paintings of Nepal fascinated myriads of visitors including art
connoisseurs with an unprecedented enthusiasm to travel from the painful materialistic
world into a heavenly spiritual one since the day of its inauguration jointly graced
by prominent poet Prof. Tulasi Diwasa and senior writer, poet, artist, art
critic and dramatist Prof. Dr. Abhi Subedi, chaired by Mrs. Greta Rana and
specially attended by the Seven Summit Women Team led by the coordinator Mrs.
Shailee Basnet.
The Great Himalayas series of paintings are the measures of deep expressions
of my extreme emotional attachment to my nation and its soil. Through them, I
have literally poured out my sentiments of sincere love, affection, respect,
and gratitude to my motherland. These paintings are 'Gitanjali' to my prideful
country and the people. I have indeed got literally too nostalgic to paint my
country's most precious natural gift, the crowns of Nepal- that provide link
between the earth and the heaven.
Through the series of my Himalaya paintings, I have sung the songs out of
my patriotic heart, as in my patriotic poem 'A Letter To My Motherland Nepal’. It
is never in the house of God that our country lives, and sure never in the
spreading scaffold, but in work illumined with songs of praise and hymns, in
the open space and in the temples of our heart that our country lives. Our
motherland is not an idol but honour, is faith and not festivity. Our country
is not lost in labyrinth of aphorisms, of religion and philosophy; it is not
lost in the bitter war of doctrines and dogmas. It dwells in the enlightenment of
clean thoughts and lofty ideals, not in the magic wand of witchcraft of
politics and diplomacy, but is alive in cordiality of wisdom and intelligence.
That blending of my patriotic feelings of dedication and devotion towards
my country with my skills have produced some landscape masterpieces of Nepal.
Sunset and full-moon night scenes are part of this series where I paint 'Glorious Sunset Over Mt. Everest', 'Sunset Celebration In
The Mountains' and 'Nuptse At Moonlit Night'. The attraction of the beautiful
Pokhara has been painted entitled 'The Fusion of Fishtail, Fewa & Flower'.
With my inner eyes I see the mountains as charming Angels and love to name them
as the 3 sisters: 'Ganga', 'Jamuna', and 'Yamuna'. I see the accomplished
Kanchanjangha as a source of enthusiasm and challenge in life. My poetic heart
melts as the snow of the Himalayas and flows in the charismatic 'Phoksomodo'
and 'Tilicho' - which I name 'The Lake Of Ambrosia' ('Ammritkunda').
I admit that at the tender age of 16, when I had to leave my country and
go overseas for higher education and professional life, continuously living
over two and a half decade-long stay abroad in “Paradesh” in isolation, my love
for my land, culture, society, nation welled-up. Nepal
rolled down the edges of my eyes, not tears for sure. It was not heart that
pulsated, but Nepal deep inside my chest. While missing my home country,
I continued to live in my own imaginative world of Himalayas, Yeti, and the
Sherpas, the rivers and the lakes, and got literally lost in the virtual mists-
growing even more nostalgic. Understandably, my deep rooted love for my nation
coupled with the blissful moments I got deprived of while living abroad created
such emotional waves in my life. I turned to the paintings for solace. I
concede that it is only after painting the great Himalayas, my heart got filled
with the heavenly nectar of the natural beauty helping me attain the sublime
state of infinite happiness and peace.
Nature has ever since been our
great teacher, a school of wisdom, an institute of knowledge, an university of
understating and an academy of illumination. From untiring rivers and rivulets
that flow ceaselessly onwards, we never cease to learn the mighty lesson of
life that moves ahead constantly despite overwhelming setbacks. From upright
hills above that never exhaust, we learn the lessons of watching with
unyielding patience and unflagging determination. From snow-capped ridges which
never cease to melt, we learn the lesson inexhaustible abundance that hides
behind unspeakable benevolence of consciousness deep within. From abysmal
recesses of cooing pine trees, imbue the sweetness that lies embedded in mass
of persistence and strife. Smitten with buffets of snow-flakes and biting frost
in winter, and shorn of their beauty, we learn from the cheerless trees
enlivened and rejuvenated with lively fresh shoots in spring.
My paintings represent Nepal far across the globe as a piece of Shangrila directly fallen from Heaven to Earth. The pristine landscape, riverines, cascades of precious rocks, and pious snow capped mountains and the glorious environment take us to a spiritual world of supreme sense of happiness and natural relief far away from the ever-expanding anxiety and suffering of the materialistic world. And their inherent beauty attract people from all over the world, not only for mountain climbing and trekking but also for spreading the message of peace and plead for nature conservation.
As an Environmental Engineer, I endeavoured to create awareness on
Environmental Preservation and Sustainability through my paintings. These
paintings bring along with them the message that we have to safeguard these
natural blessings. This demands protecting them from the threats of Global
Warming and shielding them from detrimental effects of Climate Change. Unless
we are to choose the path of self-destruction, we have irrevocable obligation
to conserve the Mother Nature so
that we could breathe and walk on clean, green mother earth and hand over the
heavenly earth with uncompromised natural resources to our future generations.
(paintings by the author:)
(paintings by the author:)
No comments:
Post a Comment