Songs that make you sing

I rarely get to take a stroll in the big cities that I now live in and sit with my sketchbook and draw.
Last week, we went back to auroville to wind down for the weekend and a friend and I sat down to sketch our surroundings together - it is a distracted sketch, I have to admit . We were busy catching up and I was simply and happily dragging my brush across the paper. Such good times :)

It is sweltering here, but I have found this great mix of music http://8tracks.com/penkemeg/good-music-warm-weather-summer-fun . Its making my weekend so much sweeter ! Much love.

Leave you with this lovely quote, I dont think they are talking about the song really but more about life in general. deeper stuff :)

Castles in the Air

My restlessness was finally soothed the other day, when I heard the first strums of a guitar. The weather was beautiful and this was just what I needed. Im a big sucker for live music, and I ended up sitting at the cafe for hours listening to this guy with a beautiful voice sing some lovely tunes. Alongwith some nice coffee and a borrowed pen + little napkin to sketch on, I was the happiest Ive been in a long while! UB city is beautiful, as twilight set, lanterns came on, everything glowed, the music continued to flow- it was magical and Ive been floating on the calm that set in since then!

I got around to having a quick chat with the magician, found out he has a facebook page - facebook.com/Chandran Acoustic. So you can look him up and find out when and where hes playing next!
Have a good week and weekend :) Much love.

Folk Valley

Today I did something thats been on my list for a while! I finally got to sit with some folk artists and work with their lovely vegetable dyes. A friend and I went to the valley school in Bangalore - a gorgeous space, very much like auroville, and in their artists village, amidst music and much energy, we painted and watched and listened to the artists as they related stories and sang songs about their art :) lovely!

 Banyan trees have special powers. They heal souls and exude peace. 

 the initial form that Rabia's art took

painting a pattachitra bird

my folk art dreams finally coming true :)

The colours arent spot on, I clicked this picture half in the dark! But heres my first foray into folk art! 

The tale of how the magical urn of life that poured endless amounts of nectar filled the soul, so everything - the trees, birds, sea, fish and lotus, the entire universe exists within you.

Close your Eyes

 music, all day and all night long -  freedom from your own thoughts.

 If you desire me

give up all desire

Become like me

and all joy is yours

-kabir

Its hard to talk about a trip like this. I think that I was hoping for inspiration, but found something else.
Maybe I realise now that you dont need to search too far to find answers, and they lie within you. When your two mind-hearts meet, its magic that takes over. who needs reason?

Parvathy Baul, during a beautiful satsang one afternoon quoted from a song :

mind, go home.
a world where you roam travelling
why waste your time being a traveller?

The Tree of Wisdom & Life

 I was in Bangalore for the weekend, and found myself at a theatre one evening for a sort of musical. One of the most soul stirring performances I've seen in a while . Maybe because they were asking the same questions I am these days. But I had to pull out my sketchbook and start doodling while the music intoxicated my soul. I was deeply moved and this is the result.

A friend of mine who is some sort of genius with paper came over last week and showed me how to make 3d collages with paper.Thank you Ishita! I love this, and love the way it brings my ' Tree of Wisdom ' to life.
With the root above and branches below the tree stands for all that is pure, that is Brahman, that is immortal. In it the world rests and no one goes beyond it. The upside down Tree of Life has roots in Brahman. Brahman is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe, and a person who has realised the self is said to have realised Brahman. 


To find out more, take a peek at www.sunaad.org

Death- Teardrops from the tree of life.

This work by amrita is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.