Two Indian artists and Lord Krishna as flautist 

At the home of Rohit Gandhi (Palette Art Gallery)  just off the gorgeous dining table hangs a Manjit Bawa painting of Lord Krishna and his beloved cows. Bawa used to call Krishna as Kanha and portrayed the flautist in the centre and the cows around in the painting.Poise and gesture both become the most important hallmarks of this masterpiece that is a poignant study of Muralidhara the eternal flautist. The 21 cows in varied positions of stances look calm and content to be in the vicinity of their beloved Lord.

Another Lord Krishna painting belongs to the Harish Khullar family, whose Bawa work  has Lord Krishna the flautist amidst a set of adoring cows looking up at their master.

The image reflects fluid simplicity, as the artist Bawa conjures a window into a spiritual world, as he reveals a realm of imagination, the beauty of myth and mysticism and magic. The cows  stand in suspended animation eternally trapped in this ethereal space of Gopala. Here, the motif of the saffron clothed musical virtuoso suggests a moment of deep meditative trance.

A keen follower of miniature traditions, Bawa’s penchant for perfection creates its own balance,  in Krishna’s  drapery that matches the background, his eyes glancing far away into the distance.

Jai Khanna’s Gopashtami symbolism

Jai Krishna’s Lord Krishna with his beloved cows is a traditional format of classic conventions.At the Sangeet Shyamala, Surendra Paul Art  Gallery in Vasant Vihar brought by Art Magnum, two works created against a pitch midnight black backdrop are yet worthy of close scrutiny.The first work is called Gopashtami of Madness and the second is called Shiny Blue Light.Finely detailed intricate nuances and delicate strands of strokes define Jai’s handling and treatment of both Krishna images known as Shrinathji in design terms.

In both  cases the flutist’s fingers on his fine flute and the small size of the fervent figure  suggest a dynamism that is counterpoised  paradoxically in balance with a motionless sense of serenity. Jai’s  paintings  created as Puranmasi synergies have about them  a spiritual  reality where gods, men, and living creatures  live in perennial peace in an enchanted empire of the darkness of the night . In both works  Krishna is pictured hovering above his bovine companions, the second work Shiny Blue light shows cows in coloured tones of an attractive unity. Jai creates a harmonic signature  through the shimmering shades as if reflecting the light of  Lord Krishna the  divine master.In all these four works we see the humble bamboo as an instrument of divine music.

The bamboo and man

Lord Krishna treasured his bamboo. The Gopis asked the bamboo one day: “ What secret do you have, that the Lord treasures you so much?” And the bamboo said “The secret is that I’m empty inside. And the Lord does whatever he wants with me, whenever he wants with me and however he wants with me.”

Krishna’s belongings are not ordinary, hence his flute is supernatural. After ascetics perform great austerities for many births they may become a stick, ankle bell, or dress of Lord Krishna.

Similarly the bamboo stick used to make the Lord’s flute must also have performed great austerities.

When Krishna played His flute, the sound mesmerized Lord Brahma, Lord Siva and all the movable and immovable entities in the three worlds. The scriptures state Lord Krishna’s flute is his main instrument .

In one of his discourses he has said that we have to be like the bamboo ready to abide by the Master’s will.

Happy Janmashtami dear friends.