Simran Lal
I really am an eternal student. And one of my interests is painting. Recently, I was part of a very special course online called ‘Painting the Divine: Goddess Sarasvati’. It was in the Paubha tradition of Nepalese traditional art.
Our instructor, a sensitive, intelligent, philosophical lady from Nepal took a long while to explain to us the sanctity of embarking upon a painting like this.
Unlike our Western, secular-style art where we jump into painting or expressing ourselves, this tradition is rooted in propitiating the divine energy to come down onto our canvas and enliven it.
We start painting with a short meditation. And then we create a sacred space, as the teacher described it, for the deity to enter.
We then hold that vibrating space with the borders on the painting, lest these powerful energies dissipate.
The sacred space is created by first purifying our mind through meditation, invoking the goddess through either her mantra or visualizing her. We request the goddess to come down onto our canvas and then we make a beautiful image of her. That is how we please her – with beauty, shringar!
We start by drawing and invoking the brahma sutra (the cosmic thread) a vertical line in the centre of the canvas and then the soma sutra (the life thread) a horizontal line in the middle.
And it is at their intersection point that the magic happens – this is called the bindu – a very powerful energy centre, the point of manifestation where the goddess enters. Sarasvati’s seed energy is that of sound – vaak devi.
In Kali yuga, one of the upaayas given by our rsis to calm the constant fluctuations of the mind is to paint the divine.
You paint in silence and on your own because this is a deeply meditative process that takes you to an inner journey.
And if you follow the philosophy and discipline, then you transform from an artist into a saadhaka!
In the tradition of painting the divine, there are specific iconography and colours prescribed to adorn each goddess. And there is also creative space for us to use our imagination.
So the Sarasvati I am painting has colours that are different from others in the class but her seat will always be white – signifying purity and calm. Her body, too, is always white.
I used blues because she symbolises the beautiful river by her name. She, of course, also symbolises inspiration and to be in a state of flow….
When I asked our teacher if I can use gold, she said, “Yes, you can ‘offer’ Sarasvati gold but since it is an offering, it has to be the purest one – that is 24 carat gold.”
I loved that – everything we do is as an offering and once that lens is there, our entire mindset changes as does our way of working on it….
Why are we painting Sarasvati devi? It is to connect with her and to request her to shower her grace upon us and anyone else who looks at the painting with admiration and compassion.
Simran Lal