By Madhava Smullen
After going part time with his communications service, ISKCON Communications Director for Australasia Bhakta Das is using his free time in “the latter part” of his life to realize an artistic dream years in the making.
He’s creating a series of twenty contemporary, expressionistic paintings, which will give an overview of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is chapter by chapter. At an impressively large 2 x 1.5 meters each, the astonishing pieces will go on a touring exhibition when they’re completed an estimated three years from now.
“Prior to taking to a devotional spiritual life in the 1970s, I had studied a Fine Art Diploma at a university in Melbourne,” Bhakta says.
“Then for many years as a practitioner and teacher of Bhakti Yoga, I continuously had the burning desire to utilize my God-given artistic abilities by painting a series of large paintings for a touring exhibition depicting the famous Bhagavad-gita which is one of the most influential treatises in Eastern philosophy.”
Bhakta was inspired to do so, he says, because, “Bhagavad-gita As It Is, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, the Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has personally enlightened and bettered my life in so many ways.” He wanted to bring such insights to the broader community, reaching people who may not otherwise have been familiar with Krishna consciousness.
“My aim is not to draw out every single philosophical point, but rather to highlight key concepts in each chapter,” he says. “Hopefully these individual paintings of each of the eighteen chapters of Bhagavad-gita will give the viewer an overview which will give them an understanding of the flow, context and practical application of these timeless spiritual teachings.”
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/australasia-communications-director-paints-bhagavad-gita-art-exhibition,7611/
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