www.riverhillgardens.co.uk/

History

 

The John Rogers who bought Riverhill in 1840 was an only child, with a modest fortune, and a fine intellect. He became a classics scholar, a scientist and a friend of Charles Darwin. He was one of the first members of the Royal Horticultural Society and a patron of the plant collectors of the day.

 

He chose Riverhill because its sheltered situation offered an ideal lime free hillside where he could hope to establish newly introduced trees and shrubs. From his garden notebook, it can be seen that planting started in 1842. Subsequent generations, continued the planting and in 1910 Colonel John Middleton Rogers created what is now known as ‘The Wood Garden’ a fine collection of Japanese Maples, Rhododendrons and Azaleas. His wife, the infamous Muriel, created many additions including the now hidden Rock Gardens.

 

Until the beginning of the 2nd World War, eight full time gardeners kept Riverhill looking immaculate. Since the war years, however, a shortage of manpower and a lack of money has meant that the garden was allowed to deteriorate, with many parts of the original planting lost to everyday use and visitors.

 

Today, four generations of the Rogers family live at Riverhill,

 

The estate is managed by Edward Rogers (Great-great-great-grandson of the John Rogers who bought Riverhill in 1840) and his wife, Sarah.

  

My cute little 3 month old daughter.

Yoitch Intellect Air Purifier Refresh

man playing chess, and shows the hand of chess pieces

There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors with no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare reason and generalize, using labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, and predict. Their best illuminations come from above through the skylight.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Copyright © 2010 Deb Layden.

 

All Rights Reserved. DO NOT REPRODUCE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

Inspiration ~ a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention. I love everyone who inspired me on Flickr - and you don't know how much I love looking at everyone's work. I am a terrible commenter and I feel that my words never do you all justice. I have only been back on flickr a short time, after swearing it off last year, and I came back because even with all that happened - I missed the inspiration that I find her.

 

The first person I would like to recognize that I get a daily dose of inspiration from is Victoria ~ or Paisley Patches. She is an amazing photographer who have a real gift for capturing the simple and joyful moments with her boys. She also has a LOVE of converse and I wish that Li Li would have been wearing her chucks in this :D Thank you Victoria for sharing your beautiful work :D

 

Take a look at her photostream here : www.flickr.com/photos/bishybarneybee/

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify.Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles (Vighnesha, Vighneshvara), patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom. He is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions

The intellect shows the faults of others and by doing so the ego is satisfied. One must see one's own faults or mistakes. Right intellect will see one's own faults and will settle down. Seeing others at fault is the reason to bind bad karmas.

 

To know more please click on:

 

English: www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/a...

 

Gujarati: www.dadabhagwan.in/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/ab...

 

Hindi: hindi.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science...

For nearly 50 years, biophysicist and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to

harnessing the sun’s power. She designed and built the first successfully solar-powered house

in 1949 but was perplexed by the knotty scientific challenge of developing a reliable and

economical way to store captured solar energy. She was also beset by rampant sexism and

fought pitched battles with her boss and colleagues — all men — at MIT’s Solar Energy Fund.

 

Despite these obstacles, Telkes persevered, helping to build another experimental solar-

powered house in 1971. Upon her death in 1995, she held more than 20 patents.

 

All photos in this set should be credited to Rahoul Ghose/PBS

Our intellect looks for justice all the time. It does not see its own mistakes. People always feel that i have always been just to others, but they are not just with me and consequently they suffer a lot.

 

To know more please click on:

 

English: www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/self-help/is-god-ju...

 

Gujarati: www.dadabhagwan.in/path-to-happiness/self-help/is-god-jus...

 

Hindi: hindi.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/self-help/is-god-...

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl.

www.lonelydarkworld.com

Even during those periods you need to cry, you are just traversing the magnificent things your lost one left behind, the tears are the confirmation of your love

Men are governed by lines of intellect - women: by curves of emotion.

James Joyce

  

Intellect eFreight™ is a highly secure cloud based operations solution, that allows Freight Forwarders and Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (NVOCCs) to fully automate their business. It provides the functionality needed to effectively and efficiently manage international air and ocean freight shipment processes. It’s flexible architecture and personalized customer support allow customization to the user’s specific requirements and to deliver a solution to the customer’s unique business requirements.

Visit us:- www.intellecttech.com/efreight/

“An evolved intellect”

 

The High Evolutionary, Herbert Edgar Wyndham, meets a like minded friend in Ex Nihilo

 

Big fan of the F4 retro card gimmick, even more so of the retro Spider-Man cards, and as soon as I saw this guy I knew there was an unfamiliar character I needed to take a deep dive into.

 

Looking for a digital trade paperback of the Evolutionary Wars (88) if anyone has a suggestion? Not seeing it on Amazon or Marvel’s app.

 

Very cool sculpt and colors on this guy. Happy to add him to the Cosmic shelf!

  

#TheHighEvolutionary #Hasbro #LegendsHighEvolutionary #ExNihilo

#HasbroPulse #ACBA #RetroF4 #LegendsExNihilo #CosmicLegends #MarvelMutant #marvel #marvelComics #MarvelLegends #MarvelLegends2022 #MarvelCosmic #actionFigures #CounterEarth #marvelhasbro #HasbroLegends #figurecollection #MakeMineMarvel #PosingActionFigures #toyPhotography #PlasticPhotography #TrueBeliever #FridayFigurePosing

"One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

((people say this image looks like a frog.. LooOooL.... !! ))

molti conflitti e atrocità del mondo sono tenuti in piedi sull'illusione di una purezza univoca e senza possibilità di scelta... l'arte del potere sta nel costruire un odio che assume la forma dell'invocazione del fascino magico di una determinata IDENTITA'

Celastraceae (staff vine or bittersweet family) » Celastrus paniculatus

 

see-LAS-trus -- from the ancient Greek kelastros, the name of another tree

pan-ick-yoo-LAY-tus or pan-ick-yoo-LAH-tus -- referring to the flower clusters (panicles)

 

commonly known as: black-oil plant, celastrus, oriental bittersweet, intellect tree, staff tree • Bengali: kijri, malkangani • Gujarati: માલકંગના malkangana • Hindi: मालकंगनी malkangani • Kannada: ಭವಮ್ಗ bhavamga, ಜೊತಿಷ್ಮತಿ jotishmati, ಕರಿಗನ್ನೇ kariganne, ಕೊಉಗಿಲು kougilu • Konkani: माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Marathi: कांगुणी kanguni, माळकांगोणी malkangoni • Oriya: korsana, pengu • Sanskrit: अलवण alavan, ज्योतिषमति jyotishmati, कन्गु kangu • Tamil: குவரிகுண்டல் kuvarikuntal, மண்ணைக்கட்டி mannai-k-katti, வாலுளுவை valuluvai • Telugu: కాసరతీగె kasara-tige, మానెరు maneru • Urdu: کنگني مال malkanguni

 

Native to: India, China, Sri Lanka, south-east Asia

  

References: Flowers of India • Sahyadri Database • ENVIS - FRLHT • eFlora

 

"Ambience Enhancer with Intellect Decoder Headset and MP3 Player" by Molly "Porkshanks" Friedrich, $350.00

Sansa M250, Brass, Steel, Sony Headset, Brass, Faux Leather, Copper

"Anachrotechnofetishism"

This is my first ever stop motion film!

I used iMovie to put it all together, but it cuts of by like 2 seconds at the end.

It was for this school project on censorship and Farenheit 451 and all that jazz

 

Starring: Andrea Rodriguez

www.lonelydarkworld.com

As an idle-passerby'r in this universe and reader of things beyond my intellect, I have a passing fascination with Quantum Physics. My daughter asked me one day about a Quantum Physics book I was reading, I explained it to her ( for now ) that Quantum Physics is the construct of made-up/probably never applicable physics.

 

She's 7. Usually, she just blinks, calls me silly and goes about her day of DS/Wii/Homework/Cartoons/Kid-Dom.

 

Quantum Physics is really impossible for someone of my practical mindset to grasp. Particles with hard-to-imagine behaviors. For instance, a particle, that if you were to imagine it as a playing card (a standard plane of n width and infinite planal surface), that you could flip the playing card over and see not only the suit, the number but also any infinite number of other supposed "states'.

 

I mean.. What the hell? Playing cards with two sides but infinite states? Who thinks this crap up?

 

Some of my favorite ideas borrowed from Quantum Physics are the ideas that for every possible outcome of a situation there are matching infinite universes based on those outcomes. Maybe that means there is a universe where I attended enough college and neglected enough video games in order to understand this stuff.

 

I guess, somewhere, there are other pBranes housing universes where the sun doesn't set in the colorful display we see but maybe the sun sets onto silvery lakes of molten Mercury. I visited this alternate universe recently, and captured this shot.

 

Or.. I used an IR filter in post. Which-ever.

 

Intradimensional travel vs photoshop filters. They are virtually the same thing, anyway. Until someone flips over the cosmic playing card...

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

   

.

 

You are by nature, a wise person. You take judgements and decisions wisely and with intellect. You, by nature are a polite and a hard working person. You also follow and pay attention to rules and regulations. As such you can make a good lawyer wherein you will experience success. You have an inherent charm and as such women are easily attracted towards you. You are a clear hearted person and a good human being. Never let this trait of yours be damaged as it is unique to you.. You get sound sleep. Rather sleeping any time is your weakness.You like to stay where you are presently unless its necessary to move. Get more details of Anil Ambani past life by using Free Horoscope.

Crow

intellect

'What of the accountability when the intellect is lost in God's love?' - Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi, The Religion of God (Divine Love)

 

www.religionofgod.com

#Singapore - #StrengthsFinder #Intellection in its infancy (basement) might look like someone who is way too deep and complex. Ever questioning the question being asked. They might "complexify" the simple and dig deep down a rabbit hole to a source of philosophical foundation that sits well with them They might live by the mindset - Always answer a question, with a more COMPLEX question Sometimes it's not because they do that on purpose, but they are really wondering the rational of the line of questioning They are thinkers that enjoy the occasion mental sparring. But need to know that not everyone enjoys the complex as much as they do #StrengthsFinderFun #GallupStrengthsFinder #CliftonStrengths #StrengthsQuest #StrengthsSchool #Gallup #StrengthsFinderSG #HumanResource #SelfImprovement #SelfDevelopment #TeamBuilding #Workshop #StrengthsCoach #ProfessionalDevelopment #StrengthsFinderCoach #CoachJasonHo Jason Ho • SouthEast Asia & Singapore's 1st StrengthsFinder Certified Coach • Strengths School™ Singapore ift.tt/2cbRfj6

Stumbling along, a rising sense of panic and concern. Night should be coming soon. That howling… All senses are now keen, intellect intertwined with instinct. Our chance to survive the coming night.

 

The Path of Wildness is easy to find

The course of a stream

Leaves blown in the wind

A beast’s track through the brush

And the direction of our first inclination

 

The Path of Wildness is an answer and response to a prescribed way of life which may leave some individuals with a sense that their living is little more than a series of pre-determined, step-like episodes between birth and death. The stages of living between these events: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood and senior are themselves natural and in accord with the needs of the species and most individuals. Many find their satisfaction in living this course and to these individuals I have little or nothing to say. Others though long for something more; something innate, genetic and seemingly calling. Adventure and change can give a degree of satisfaction and relief yet even these may seem too tame. To those who feel drawn to something beyond the entertainment and stimulation of senses I offer a walk along The Path of Wildness. Don’t bother penciling the event in your schedule, preparing a pack with goodies and supplies or even inviting a friend along, for this experience is along the course of your first inclination and you must surely always go alone.

 

The Path of Wildness

softypapa.net

The sharpest fox in the box, even the towering intellects of this world like misters Tom and Fox suffer the occasional mishap! Mrs PB from the somewhat blunter end of the spectrum is just as accident prone, it's just that her accidents tend to involve Mr Fox's head and not her own.

 

Ambling along, deep in conversation discussing the merits of beans, Mrs PB decided it was against her principles to forewarn Mr Fox that he was about to stand on the rake she'd left in the middle of the floor.

 

He never stood a chance. Poor Mr Fox. When she heard the loud crack of the wooden staff colliding with his head, she felt a strange pang. But it wasn't guilt, all that talk of beans had left her feeling even hungrier than usual!

 

Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.

 

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

 

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.

 

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).

 

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).

 

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".

 

In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.

 

In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

 

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.

 

The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.

 

Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.

 

VAHANAS

The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

 

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.

 

The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."

 

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".

 

AUM

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

 

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).

 

Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.

 

FIRST CHAKRA

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.

 

The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.

 

Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.

 

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.

 

Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).

 

Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.

 

Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."

 

GANESH CHATURTI

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.

 

TEMPLES

In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.

 

There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

 

T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

 

What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

 

In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.

 

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."

 

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.

 

A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.

 

First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .

 

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".

 

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.

 

PURANIC PERIOD

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.

 

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

 

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.

 

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

 

SCRIPTURES

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.

 

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.

 

R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.

 

Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.

 

Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.

 

Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.

 

Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.

 

The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

WIKIPEDIA

A man of true authority sharpens his intellect as keenly as his blade. Power is not merely in command, nor in physical dominance—it is in mastery of knowledge, in the strategic precision of thought.

 

Sir Cedric stands, book in hand, the very image of calculated supremacy. The library is not merely a room of books; it is an arsenal, a war chest of ideas. He does not read to entertain. He reads to dominate.

 

“A mind honed is a weapon drawn. Knowledge is power only in the hands of those who wield it.”

PHILIPPE DE LYON

9 janvier 2010

 

Salutations à vous, frères et sœurs de la Terre. Je suis le Melchisedech de la Terre, autrefois appelé Maître Philippe de Lyon. Je viens à vous pour m'exprimer en des mots simples. Le vénéré Sri Aurobindo vous a expliqué, en termes de Conscience, ce qui vous permettait de maintenir et d'allumer le Feu du Cœur. Quant à moi, je parlerai en termes simples, en votre Vie et en vos mots de tous les jours, sur les conditions préalables à l'allumage initial de votre Feu du Cœur pour ceux qui ne l'ont pas encore vécu. Il existe, dans la personne humaine et dans sa personnalité, des obstacles, à l'approche de ce processus de la Conscience, fort importants. Ces obstacles ne sont pas toujours visibles pour celui qui les a en vue car ceux-ci participent, pour celui qui en est victime, de ces obstacles, de son mode de fonctionnement usuel et habituel, issu de l'éducation, issu de blessures (comprises ou incomprises, dévoilées ou voilées) mais qui sont réellement des freins à l'établissement, en vous, de cet état de Conscience Unifiée. De mon vivant, déjà, j'ai insisté, avec vigueur et force, sur l'obstacle le plus fort et parfois le plus dur à dépasser qui bloque l'accès à ce Feu et à votre Cœur. Il s'appelle, avant tout, jugement et médisance. Jugement porté sur autrui. Jugement porté sur les circonstances. Jugement porté sur les événements. En fait, tout ce qui est issu de l'activité discriminante et normale de votre mental, de votre intellect, habituel au sein de la vie humaine, dans cette dimension. Vous devez, comme l'a dit le Christ, redevenir comme un enfant. Qu'est-ce à dire ? Un enfant ne médit pas. Un enfant ne juge pas. Un enfant définit son comportement dans l'instant et non pas par rapport à des circonstances passées. Même si ce comportement est violent, il est issu de l'instantanéité. Il n'est pas calculé en fonction de son intérêt ou en fonction d'un avantage ou d'un désavantage. L'apprentissage, au sein de cette dimension, vous a toujours conduit à évoluer de cette façon, entre ce qui est bon pour vous et ce qui n'est pas bon pour vous. Au sein d'un groupe social, quel qu'il soit, vous avez toujours défini vos actions les uns par rapport aux autres, souvent à travers des jugements à l'emporte-pièce issus de vos propres cadres et de vos propres sentiments ou perceptions. Ainsi, de mon vivant, quand je disais de ne pas juger ainsi que l'a dit le Christ. Le jugement porté à l'extérieur de soi vous condamne et vous éloigne du Cœur et, ce, éternellement. Quelle que soit l'intensité de votre démarche spirituelle, quelle que soit votre volonté spirituelle et quels que soient vos exercices spirituels, tant que vous ne serez pas capables de transcender cette notion de jugement, vous ne pourrez pénétrer le royaume des Cieux. Il n'y a pas d'exception à cette règle.

 

Alors, parler du Feu du Cœur est quelque chose qui est promis à beaucoup d'êtres humains. Mais vous devez aussi vous pencher sur vous-même, sans fausse honte, sans œillères non plus. Posez devant vous, observez, de manière minutieuse et précise, ce qui dicte vos comportements. Et vous observerez que, pour la majorité des êtres humains en incarnation, le comportement, quel qu'il soit, est dicté par des blessures et des expériences malheureuses. Sans exception. Redevenir comme un enfant nécessite donc de transcender les blessures et l'expérience : vivre dans l'instant, dépouillé des instants passés et sans se projeter dans l'instant futur. Ceci est certainement l'obstacle le plus majeur et le plus communément réparti à la surface de ce monde : cette dualité, cette opposition bien / mal qui vous éloigne de la Vérité. Le second principe est de comprendre, avec le Cœur et avec l'œil de la Conscience, que rien de ce qui se passe à l'extérieur de vous ne peut être absent à l'intérieur de vous. Ce que vos yeux voient, au sein de votre famille ou dans vos boîtes à images, n'est que le reflet de ce qui se passe en Votre Être Intérieur. La pollution des mers, est la pollution de votre sang. L'air pollué, est la pollution de votre air. Il n'y a pas de distance, aucune. C'est le filtre de l'Illusion de cette dualité qui vous fait croire qu'il y a une distance entre vous et l'autre, entre vous et les éléments. Vous êtes partie prenante des éléments. Vous êtes partis prenante de cette vie et pas uniquement de ce que vous voyez et de ce que vous croyez. Ainsi donc, il vous faut admettre, comprendre et puis intégrer, que rien de ce qui est extérieur ne puisse exister sans contrepartie intérieure. Le pouvoir d'analyse et de discrimination de l'intellect est de sérier, en permanence, absolument tout, sans exception, en jugement de valeur, en bien ou en mal. Ceci est une habitude prise dès le premier jour d'école, je dirais même dès le premier jour au sein de cette incarnation. Le conflit bien / mal est bien au-delà de votre personne. Il est inhérent même à votre existence de ce monde, de cette dimension. Résoudre la dualité, le bien et le mal, ne peut se faire en luttant contre. Cela nécessite de changer votre regard et votre point de vue. Cela nécessite de vous élever, de devenir, en quelque sorte, un propre observateur de vous-même et de ce monde. Le principe d'action / réaction, le karma, comme disent les orientaux, fait partie de la falsification de ce monde et de l'Illusion de ce monde.

 

Comment voulez-vous sortir de l'Illusion en participant à l'Illusion, d'une manière ou d'une autre ? Votre point de vue est limité, de même que votre Conscience est limitée. Vous ne pouvez sortir de la limitation en utilisant les outils de la limitation. Jamais. Vous pourrez cultiver, en vous, la sagesse, la méditation, les expériences spirituelles, mais cela ne vous permettra jamais de quitter l'Illusion. Transcender le bien et le mal n'est ni faire le bien, ni faire le mal, c'est agir au-delà du bien et du mal, par le principe de la Lumière et de l'Unité. Mais, vous me répondrez, comment accéder à cette inconnue, pour ceux d'entre vous qui ne le vivent pas ? Eh bien, la première chose, je vous l'ai déjà dit : ne plus juger et ne plus médire. Une vie de méditation entière peut être brisée par le mal que vous dites de quelqu'un. Cela est visible, de nos plans subtils, par rapport à la Lumière que vous émettez. Et cela est une Vérité. Il faut littéralement vous entraîner au non jugement, à la non dualité, à la non médisance, concernant aussi bien vos Frères et vos Sœurs, présents ou absents, mais aussi les circonstances mêmes de votre Vie. Ce n'est que de cette façon que vous pourrez approcher la résonance de l'Unité et espérer vivre le Feu du Cœur. Aucun enseignement spirituel, quel qu'il soit, et encore moins aucune religion, ne pourra vous être d'aucune aide pour cela. Ce chemin, est un chemin que vous faites vous-même, avec vous-même, et personne d'autre. Cela nécessite de redevenir un enfant et, à la fois, d'être un adulte autonome, conscient. Un adulte qui ose regarder l'instant en face, la relation en face, sans faux-semblant. Cela nécessite des efforts de transparence, cela nécessite aussi de ne pas chercher son intérêt, quel qu'il soit. Cela nécessite, littéralement, de vous déconstruire, de vous déprogrammer et de vous défragmenter, car effectivement l'être humain, au sein de cette dualité, est fragmenté. Il existe un ensemble de bouts épars qui ne permettent plus à la Lumière de se refléter. La Lumière est donc distordue, vous entraînant dans une perception altérée, inévitablement, de ce qui vous compose et de ce qui compose votre Vie avec l'autre, avec les autres et avec l'ensemble de ce que fut votre Vie. Il y a, là, la nécessité de se déshabituer des réflexes conditionnés de défense, de protection. Il y a, là, la nécessité de conduire et de diriger votre mental, non pas par des croyances, non pas par des adhésions à des mots - fut-ils les plus lumineux - mais, bien plus, de maîtriser votre mental en l'utilisant, dans un premier temps. De passer en revue vos actions, ainsi que l'a dit un jour Maître Ram, de la journée écoulée, afin d'y repérer les moments, les instants, les faits ou les interactions entre les personnes qui n'ont pas été empreintes d'Unité, les moments où vous avez été opaques et pas suffisamment transparents. Cela arrive à tout être humain, bien sûr, au sein de cette condition, fût-il le plus grand d'entre eux en incarnation. Mais cet exercice est primordial. Apprendre à repérer avec constance, avec vos réminiscences, les faits, les gestes, les mots de vos journées. En œuvrant ainsi, vous permettrez à la Vibration du Cœur de commencer à s'éveiller et de lui permettre de recevoir le Feu de l'Amour, que vous êtes, en Vérité.

 

N'oubliez pas que tout est fait au sein de cette densité pour vous éloigner de ce but qui est votre but. Tout a été conçu et construit sur le principe de la dualité et de la peur, sans exception. Que cela soit au sein de la relation de couple, que cela soit au sein de la relation entre un individu et la société, que cela soit au sein de votre travail, de vos occupations. Puisque ce monde a été bâti par l'action / réaction, dont le but est vous tenir éloigner de l'action de Grâce, vous devez donc vous extraire de cette loi d'action / réaction, à votre rythme, avec lucidité, afin d'espérer rejoindre les sphères de l'Unité. Vous n'avez pas non plus à juger ou à condamner les moments d'opacité que vous avez vécus, vous ou d'autres, car ils participent de l'expérience, et, en tant que tel, elle n'est pas non plus condamnable, quelle qu'elle soit. Mais, en définitive, elle aboutira un jour, là aussi, à la transparence. Mais vous devez néanmoins apprendre à discriminer en vous, pour vous-même, selon vos actions et vos actes, ce qui a participé de l'Unité et ce qui n'a pas participé. Non pas pour juger mais pour éclairer afin que, quand vous serez de nouveau soumis à ce même genre de situation, l'éclairage antérieur vienne modifier vos actions, réactions et comportements, sinon la leçon risque de se répéter et de ne pas être apprise. Aujourd'hui plus que jamais, vos progrès seront couronnés de succès, immédiatement. Il y a donc réellement, à ce niveau, un encouragement à aller vers elle. Cet encouragement est réel et signifiant. Il sera signifié par des Vibrations et un apaisement, une légèreté qui concourra à vous élever, à élever votre Conscience et vos Vibrations vers le Cœur et le Feu de l'Amour. Ce que vous avez à conduire et à mener, c'est votre Vie, dans sa totalité, vers cette translation dimensionnelle, cette ascension tant espérée.

 

Les forces de résistance et de tension vous entraîneront toujours dans la dualité. Les forces d'abandon et d'attraction rendront votre vie simple. Tout se réalisera dans l'État de Grâce, comme par Miracle. Vous ne manquerez de rien, jamais. Alors que la vie conduite sous les principes de la résistance est une Vie de manque et de souffrance. Aujourd'hui, plus que jamais. L'action / réaction sera toujours souffrance. L'action de Grâce sera toujours libération. Il existait un phénomène d'amortissement, dans les siècles précédents, qui pouvait faire, parfois, que certaines actions pouvaient voir leurs réactions inapparentes et inopérantes au sein de la même Vie. Aujourd'hui, ce n'est plus le cas. Les franges d'interférences, ainsi nommées par le vénérable Sri Aurobindo, n'existent plus. Vous êtes donc, a fortiori, totalement libres de choisir l'action / réaction ou l'action de Grâce. Mais choisir l'action de Grâce vous oblige à être dans la Grâce vous-même, à savoir pardonner à vous-même et à l'univers entier afin de ne plus lui faire subir, à vous-même comme à l'univers entier, la loi d'action / réaction. Votre Cœur deviendra léger et, à ce moment-là, votre Cœur deviendra perméable au Feu de l'Amour. Certes, nous vous aidons. Certes, nous vous abreuvons à la Source. Certes, vous êtes aimés. Mais nul ne pourra faire ce travail de déblayage, excepté vous-même. Vous devez faire cet effort, tant qu'il en est encore temps, afin d'accueillir cet état de Grâce. Beaucoup d'êtres humains voient souvent ses conduites dictées par la peur, par le manque, par la non compréhension. Être dans le Feu de l'Amour, c'est ne plus avoir peur de sa mort, du manque, de toute perte. Parce que, dans le Feu de l'Amour, il ne peut y avoir de manque, ni de perte. La peur, le manque, la perte font partie de la dualité et de votre condition mais absolument pas de votre retour à l'Unité. Le défi est à ce niveau. Ce défi, nous vous y aidons, à condition que vous l'ayez repéré et à condition que vous l'acceptiez. Nous ne pouvons aller à l'encontre de ce qui a été établi au sein de cette Dimension sous peine d'être nous-mêmes piégés, à nouveau, dans cette matrice. Nous ne pouvons aller à l'encontre de votre libre arbitre qui participe de l'action / réaction mais qui n'existe absolument pas au sein de l'Unité car, à ce moment-là, vous découvrirez la vraie liberté et non pas le libre arbitre. Le libre arbitre est lié au choix et donc à la dualité. La liberté est liée à l'Unité et au non choix c'est-à-dire à la Vérité et à votre Unité. Ainsi, vous vous approcherez de ce que vous cherchez et vous le trouverez. Mais, pour cela, vous devez vous dépouiller, faire le ménage, examiner sous tous les angles, élucider vos peurs, vos manques, vos pertes.

 

Le monde de l'Unité est un monde d'abondance, de prospérité et un monde où l'Ombre n'existe pas. Prétendre y accéder passe déjà par supprimer ses propres ombres. Voici les mots simples qui, je pense, seront une aide à aller de plus en plus souvent et à vous établir dans cette Unité. Le poison le plus violent qui existe n'est pas l'autre mais votre façon de procéder au sein de ce monde parce que cela vous a été inculqué et fait partie de votre éducation qui a tout fait pour vous éloigner de l'Unité. L'ensemble des systèmes de croyances ont été bâtis pour cela et pour rien d'autre : vous enfermer et vous aliéner de plus en plus à ce monde et à cette action / réaction. L'action / réaction est sans fin. La seule fin est dans la liberté et dans l'action de Grâce. Vous devez vous rapprocher le plus possible de la légèreté. Vos actes, vos conduites, vos gestes, vos relations, doivent devenir légères. C'est à cette condition que vous pourrez allumer le feu du Cœur et le vivre. Tant que vous manifesterez, d'une manière ou d'une autre, la peur, le manque, la perte, l'insuffisance, vous ne pourrez, quels que soient vos connaissances et vos Vibrations, pénétrer l'espace sacré du Cœur. Pénétrer le Cœur, si j'ose dire, c'est être sans peur. C'est être un guerrier pacifique. C'est surtout être humble. Être humble c'est être simple c'est-à-dire sans complication et sans compliquer. Chose où excelle votre cerveau. Chose où excelle la société. Mais comprenez bien que tout ce qui a été créé à l'extérieur de vous (et qui parfois vous contraint à cette dualité) a été créé par une impulsion de peur. Peur d'être privé de la Lumière, peur d'être privé de ce que vous êtes, en Vérité et en Unité. Et toutes ces peurs se sont matérialisées à l'extérieur de vous, au sein même de votre corps, par ce que vous appelez maladie, qui ne sont que les traductions de vos peurs, en définitive. Être en Amour, est être sans peur. Au sein de l'Amour, il n'y a pas de place ni d'espace pour la peur. Être en Amour, c'est vibrer à l'unisson de la Source. En unisson de la Source, il n'y a pas de contradiction. Il n'y a ni Ombre, ni Lumière. Il y a seulement état d'Être et état de Vibration. Comment voulez-vous aller vers cela ? Comment voulez-vous établir cela si, en vous, persiste la moindre médisance, le moindre jugement et la moindre fausseté ? Cela est impossible. Aujourd'hui, en ces temps réduits que vous vivez, l'apprentissage est beaucoup plus facile, à condition que vous acceptiez en votre âme et Conscience, en votre Cœur, de reconnaître vos torts. Car il n'y a jamais de tort, il y a simplement éclairage qui transforme et qui transmute. Tout est simple, dans le Cœur. Tout est compliqué, dans la tête. Si quelque chose semble compliquée, c'est que vous-même n'êtes pas suffisamment simple car, par le principe d'attraction et de résonance, vous ne serez confrontés qu'à ce que vous êtes vous-même. Si vous avez peur du diable, c'est que le Diable est en vous. Si vous avez peur de l'autre, c'est que l'autre est en vous et que vous avez peur de cela. À partir du moment où la peur du diable ou la peur de l'autre disparaît, vous faites un avec l'autre. Et l'autre n'existe plus. Et vous-même n'existez plus. Vous êtes enfin sortis de la dualité inexorable.

 

Aujourd'hui est une époque particulière car cet apprentissage peut se faire très vite. C'est un apprentissage qui vous permettra de vivre, je l'espère, d'établir en vous le Feu de l'Amour, de manière définitive. Croyez bien que nous faisons tout ce qui est en notre pouvoir pour faciliter la tâche de cette planète, de ses habitants et de l'ensemble de ce Système Solaire. Vous apprendrez, de par même les vicissitudes et les complications de la Vie que vous allez vivre bientôt, à vous tourner définitivement à l'intérieur de vous-même. Sans peur et sans appréhension. Retenez aussi que, quand votre mental parle, il vous rend lourd. Quand votre Cœur parle, il vous rend léger. À vous de savoir si vous voulez aller vers le lourd ou vers le léger. Mais ne réclamez pas le léger, en allant vers le lourd. S'alléger, c'est aussi éclairer en vous ce qui est opaque et l'accepter. Encore une fois, il n'y a pas de culpabilité, ni de tort, mais simplement un éclairage à développer. Vous devez rentrer, ainsi que l'Archange Mikaël l'a dit durant les Noces Célestes, de la distance et de la séparation à la coïncidence. Faire fusionner, dorénavant, personnalité et Êtreté afin que l'Êtreté prenne les commandes de votre véhicule et de votre Vie, de vos résonances et de vos attractions. La personnalité est peur, vengeance, souffrance, victimisation. Au niveau de la personnalité, on est sûr que l'autre est responsable de tout, que les situations sont responsables de tout. Et tant que vous projetez à l'extérieur les responsabilités, vous ne deviendrez jamais responsables de vous-même. Devenir responsable, c'est s'alléger. C'est faire mettre en jeu le principe d'attraction et de résonance vers la légèreté et non pas vers la densité. Vous ne pourrez accéder au Royaume des Cieux si vous ne redevenez comme un enfant. Il vous faut réapprendre à écrire l'instant et à ne pas réécrire le passé. Ceci est une attention de chaque minute qui vous conduira sûrement et certainement à vivre le Feu du Cœur et le Feu de l'Amour. Vous ne pourrez prétendre vivre cela si vous-même fermez les portes à la légèreté. Voilà en mots, certes, plus simples, ce que j'avais à vous dire sur, en quelque sorte, l'étape qui vous conduira à vivre le Feu de l'Amour pour la première fois. Si vous avez des questions par rapport à cela, nous pouvons ensemble essayer d'apporter de nouveaux éclairages.

 

Question : pourriez-vous développer sur ce que vous appelez action de Grâce ?

L'action de Grâce est une action pour la Joie et pour l'Amour, qui est dénuée de toute application et implication personnelles, où vous faites spontanément (quoi que vous fassiez, d'ailleurs - parler, cuisiner, marcher, écrire -), sans arrière-pensée, sans avant-pensées, en étant totalement dans ce que vous faites. Sans vous poser la question du résultat, sans vous poser la question de la récompense, ou de la non récompense. C'est le faire dans la fluidité, sans se poser de questions. C'est échapper à l'action / réaction. L'action de Grâce est l'action libérée, justement, de toute réaction passée ou de réaction future. C'est une action dénuée de chantage affectif ou d'autres formes de chantage. L'action de Grâce, c'est l'action pour l'action, dénuée de toute réflexion. Ce n'est pas pour autant n'importe quoi mais c'est dicté par la bienveillance, c'est dicté par l'Amour du prochain, c'est dicté par l'Amour de la Vie, sans référence à la matrice et aux Illusions construites par la société. C'est se placer sous le fil directeur de la Lumière et de la Vie, de la facilité, de l'évidence. Des choses fort simples, voyez-vous.

 

Nous n'avons pas de questionnement. Nous vous remercions.

Alors, cher Frères et Soeurs au sein de cette densité, j'espère vous avoir apporté un éclairage avec mes mots simples, sur ce qui est peut-être la façon la plus directe de vous conduire à votre Temple Intérieur et d'en vivre le Feu du Cœur. Voilà ce que j'avais envie de vous dire. Mais retenez surtout que le plus grand obstacle à vivre le Feu du Cœur n'est autre que vous-même, dans ses aspects fragmentés et divisés et que cet aspect fragmenté et divisé n'est que le reflet des peurs, des manques et des pertes et absolument de rien d'autre. Mais vous n'êtes pas vos peurs. Vous n'êtes pas vos manques. Vous n'êtes pas vos pertes. Vous vous êtes simplement identifiés à cela car il est plus confortable, au sein de cette dualité, de se comporter ainsi, dans un premier temps. Aujourd'hui, vous êtes appelés à manifester, à créer autre chose. Cet autre chose est ce que vous êtes, en réalité, dans l'Unité. Mais vous ne pouvez maintenir la dualité et établir l'Unité, en même temps. Il vous faut choisir. Il vous faut vraiment choisir. Voilà près de deux ans de votre temps terrestre, il avait été parlé de confrontation. Aujourd'hui, beaucoup d'êtres humains ont fait le choix conscient de la Lumière. Mais établir un choix ne suffit pas. Il faut aussi établir votre Conscience dans la Lumière et en le Feu de l'Amour. Voilà, chers Frères et Sœurs, ce que j'avais à vous donner. Je vous souhaite le meilleur et le plus léger et je vous dis à très bientôt. Tout l'Amour des Melchisedech vous accompagne dans votre œuvre. Je vous bénis.

   

Embassy of Brazil in London on January 20th, 2012

This event was hosted by UKTI and Intellect and focused on the trading opportunities existing between the UK and Brazil in the hi-tech sector. The slides I used during my own presentation can be found here:

www.slideshare.net/itdecisions/brazil-and-ict

www.itdecs.com

High blood pressure is known as the silent killer, or hypertension, occurs when your blood pressure increases to unhealthy levels. Chechout the health releted more videos. bit.ly/2mji8tA

"National Identity ?” responding to the Theme:

Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind.

Art in the Present Tense

 

work by Biennalist (Art Format)http://www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html

Around the national pavilions, the Biennalist measures the nationality of their participants the Biennalists approach several visitors asking them for the self-assessment of their national identity and for some of their hair. The hair samples and self-measurements are collected in small plastic bags and subsequently exhibited floating in the air across a Venetian street .

 

See film

youtu.be/hWDC9CK0WbY?si=_mK39xee6E2KikRF

  

52. Venice Biennial

10 June - 21 November 2007

 

Theme:

Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind.

Art in the Present Tense

 

Director:

Robert Storr

 

From Plato onwards philosophers have divided and compartmentalized human consciousness more or less explicitly pitting one faculty against another; mind versus body, reason versus unreason, thought versus feeling, criticality versus intuition, the intellect versus the senses, the conceptual versus the perceptual. At best such dichotomies have served to sharpen our understanding of the different capac ities at our disposal for comprehending the world and making our place in it. At worst they have deprived us of some of those abilities by setting up false hierarchies that cause us to mistrust or disparage one for the sake of another, many for the sake a few.

Yet no matter how successfully philosophers and ideologues have persuaded people that such categories are not just analytically useful but inherently or historically true, the manifold challenges to understanding that reality poses and the actual f lux of existence exceed the power of systems, theories and definitions to contain them. The imagination is the catch basin into which this overflow spills and art cuts the channels that reconnect formerly isolated or segregated parts of consciousness to each other while flooding and replenishing the whole of it like a fertile river delta.

Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind is predicated on the conviction that art is now, as it has always been, the means by which humans are made aware of the whole of their being. However, it does not assume that an enduring wholeness is the result, or that art is a magical solution for the conflicts in our nature or in and among differing cultures and societies . That is the domain of philosophy, the social sciences and politics. Nevertheless, to “make sense” of things in a given moment or circumstance is to grasp their full complexity intellectually, emotionally and perceptually. That effort does not promise that our grasp will hold for long, or even much more than the instant in which we awaken to the fact that such fleeting powers of concentration and transformation are ours. Incidentally, “making nonsense” of the world, as grotesque, Dada or absurdist art does, deploys those same powers through exaggerated disparity. By inverting order and logic the artifact created paradoxically holds fragmented consciousness in suspension so that its contradictions can be clearly apprehended.

Epiphanies happen but do not last. As James Joyce showed, one of the functions of art is to preserve the experience so that we may savor and study its many aspects. The history of art is a fabric of epiphanies woven by many hands at different speeds; the present tense of art is the outer edge of that work in progress. At any point the edge may be ragged and uneven and the pattern in formation disturbing or hard to discern, reflecting the difficulty of making art in troubled times. We are living in just such times. Rather that trim the edge or reweave the pattern to neaten it, this exhibition focuses on selected aspects of current production that hint at what the emerging patterns might be without presuming to map them entirely. No attempt has been made therefore to be programmatically “representative,” either in terms of styles, mediums, generations, nations or cultures. Instead certain qualities and concerns widely found in contemporary art have been used as magnetic poles for gathering work from all seven continents, in all media, in various styles and of all generations now active.

Between the poles to which some works have readily gravitated is a force field where many other works hover. The poles themselves have been used like tuning forks, such that the criterion for selection has been resonance or mood as much as subject matter or aesthetic methodology. Among these vibrating points of reference are the immediacy of sensation in relation to questioning the nature and meaning of that sensation, intimate affect in relation to engagement in public life, belonging and dislocation, th e fragility of society and culture in the face of conflict, the sustaining qualities of art in the face of death.

Since the early 20century the development of modern art has been world wide. However its general dissemination and reception have lagged f ar behind this far flung, simultaneous, and cross -pollinating growth. In recognition of that discrepancy this Biennale has, as in the past, counted to the national pavilions to close the gaps, but it has also incorporated one national pavilion, Turkey, plus a regional pavilion, Africa, within its core, pointing the way, it is hoped, to greater, more permanent inclusiveness in areas of the world and of art -making too long overlooked in the international exhibition circuit.

While this show looks forward it does not look back. No attempt is made to trace genealogies or construct a new canon - and none at all to compete with art fairs or handicap the market. With a handful of exceptions all the artists included are alive and active. Diverse in origin and in temporal vantage points, it is they who conjugate the present tense of art for each other – and for us. The only artists in the show who are not living, would be but for their premature or unexpected deaths; their work is included here because its abiding freshness and impact keeps them on the minds of their peers and the public.

www.labiennale.org

2007 Awards:

Golden Lion to an artist exhibited at the international exhibition to León Ferrari

Golden Lion to a young artist (under 40) to Emily Jacir

Golden Lion for best national participation to Hungary represented by Andreas Fogarasi

Honourable Mention to an artist to Nedko Solakov

Honourable Mention to a pavilion to the Lithuanian Pavilion represented by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas

Golden Lion to a critic or an art historian for his contribution to contemporary art to Benjamin Buchloh

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Malick Sidibé

 

Artists:

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Ignasi Aballí

Adel Abdessemed

Adel Abidin

Marina Abramovic

Vito Acconci

Nasser Naassan Agha

Tora Aghabeyova

Vincenzo Agnetti

Faig Ahmed

Vyacheslav Akhunov

Mounira Al-Solh

Rashad Alakbarov

Nikos Alexiou

Luciano de Almeida

Hüseyin Alptekin

David Altmejd

Narda Alvarado

Francis Alÿs

Ghada Amer

El Anatsui

Giovanni Anselmo

Dario Arcidiacono

Tatiana Arzamasova

Orkhan Aslanov

Said / Abilsaid Atabekov

Chingiz Babayev

Mrdjan Bajic'

Sonia Balassanian

Rubén Ramos Balsa

Oladélé Bamgboyé

Miquel Barceló

Yto Barrada

Andrei Bartenev

Georg Baselitz

Gabriele Basilico

Jean Michel Basquiat

Mónica Bengoa

Mario Benjamin

Joseph Beuys

Bili Bidjocka

Manon de Boer

Stefano Bombardieri

Boris Mikhailov

Zoulikha Bouabdellah

Louise Bourgeois

Herbert Brandl

Sergei Bratkov

Jan Christiaan Braun

Antonio Briceño

Patricia Bueno

Daniel Buren

Luca Buvoli

Christoph Büchel

Gerard Byrne

Sophie Calle

Paolo Canevari

Christian Capurro

Pablo Cardoso

Giovanni Carmine

Maríadolores Castellanos

Samba Chéri

Loulou Cherinet

Ali Cherri

Eteri Chkadua

Amrit Chusuwan

Vladimir Cybil

Bassem Dahdouh

Jacob Dahlgren

José Damasceno

Sahar Dergham

Angela Detanico

Felipe de Souza Dias

Paulo Vitor da Silva Dias

Ranieri Dias

Renato Figueiredo Dias

Gino De Dominicis

James Drake

Marlene Dumas

Eric Duyckaerts

Nataliya Dyu

Dzine

Rena Effendi

Jorge Eielson

Haiam Abd El-Baky

Tarek El-Komy

Aiman El-Semary

Fouad Elkoury

Tracey Emin

Haris Epaminonda

Lev Evzovich

Valie EXPORT

Steingrimur Eyfjörd

Nganguè Eyoum

Mounir Fatmi

Cao Fei

Eloy Feria

León Ferrari

ngela Ferreira

Marcus Viniciu Clemente Ferriera

George Fikry

Angelo Filomeno

Urs Fischer

Andreas Fogarasi

Francisco Bernd da Franca

Rene Francisco

Georgy Frangulyan

Ivana Franke

Vladimir Fridkes

Yukio Fujimoto

Gints Gabra-ns

Charles Gaines

Rainer Ganahl

Tomer Ganihar

Fabio Ferreira Gaviao

Isa Genzken

Alla Girik

Helidon Gjergji

Gent Gjokola

Shaun Gladwell

Felix Gmelin

Toril Goksøyr

José Luis Guerín

Dmitry Gutov

Alban Hajdinaj

Neil Hamon

Jonathan Harker

Lyle Ashton Harris

Ali Hasanov

Kiluanji Kia Henda

Christine Hill

Alexandre Hnilitsky

Jenny Holzer

Rebecca Horn

Marine Hugonnier

Mustafa Hulusi

Orkhan Huseynov

Pierre Huyghe

Lee Hyungkoo

Elshan Ibrahimov

Tamilla Ibrahimova

Ihosvanny

Pravdoliub Ivanov

Alfredo Jaar

Emily Jacir

Kim Jones

Lamia Joreige

Irena Ju*zová

Waltercio Caldas Junior

Andre Juste

Emilia Kabakov

Ilya Kabakov

Y.Z. Kami

Paulo Kapela

Izumi Kato

Ellsworth Kelly

Amal Kenawy

Kendell Geers

Raoul de Keyser

Rauf Khalilov

Jamshed Kholikov

Martin Kippenberger

Gaukhar Kiyekbayeva

Riyas Komu

Guillermo Kuitca

Tamara Kvesitadze

Rafael Lain

Rosemary Laing

Rafael Lamata

Maria Verónica León

Leonilson

Vincent Leow

Sol LeWitt

Jason Lim

Rosario López

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Armando Lulaj

Zulkifle Mahmod

Nalini Malani

Renato Mambor

Victor Man

Blagoja Manevski

Camilla Martens

Roman Maskalev

Steve McQueen

Xenía Mejia

Jill Mercedes

Arseny Mescheryakov

Aernout Mik

Paul D. Miller

Julia Milner

Santu Mofokeng

Andrei Monastyrski

Ronald Morán

Hiroharu Mori

Callum Morton

Joshua Mosley

Nástio Mosquito

Ivan Moudov

Rabih Mroué

Gulner Mukazhanova

Oscar Muñoz

Elizabeth Murray

Ndilo Mutima

Ingrid Mwangi

Marko Mäetamm

Sirous Namazi

Zoran Naskovski

Bruce Nauman

Hadil Nazmy

Yves Netzhammer

Alexander Nikolaev

Stefan Nikolaev

Susan Norrie

Thomas Nozkowski

Odili Donald Odita

Chris Ofili

Olu Oguibe

Melik Ohanian

Masao Okabe

Marco Antonio Oliveira

Maycon Souza de Oliveira

Nelcirlan Souza de Oliveira

Mario Opazo

Nipan Oranniwesna

Svetlana Ostapovici

William Paats

Paola Parcerisa

Philippe Parreno

Philippe Pastor

Heldi Pema

Giuseppe Penone

Jose Carlos da Silva Pereira

Dan Perjovschi

Rodrigo de Maceda Perpetuo

Raymond Pettibon

Donato Piccolo

Jorge Pineda

Cristi Pogacean

Sigmar Polke

Alexander Ponomarev

Concetto Pozzati

Wilfredo Prieto

Emily Prince

Morrinho Project

Tobias Putrih

Arnulf Rainer

Lars Ramberg

Alfredo Rapetti

José Alejandro Restrepo

Jason Rhoades

Manuela Ribadeneira

Gerhard Richter

David Riff

Ketty La Rocca

Ugo Rondinone

Tracey Rose

Susan Rothenberg

Aleksei Rumyantsev

Robert Ryman

Ruth Sacks

Walid Sadek

Ghassan Salhab

Ernesto Salmerón

Margaret Salmon

Fred Sandback

Iran do Espirito Santo

Yehudit Sasportas

Oksana Shatalova

Yinka Shonibare MBE

Malick Sidibe

Nedko Solakov

Monika Sosnowska

Cinthya Soto

Nancy Spero

Rania Stephan

Christine Streuli

Daniel von Sturmer

Evgeny Svyatsky

Tabaimo

Sophia Tabatadze

Da Wu Tang

Sam Taylor-Wood

Elaine Tedesco

Philippe Thomas

Mark Titchner

Faustin Titi

Felix Gonzalez Torres

Mario Garcia Torres

Jalal Toufic

Paula Trope

Tatiana Trouvé

Florin Tudor

Alexander Ugay

Gediminas Urbonas

Nomeda Urboniene

Vyacheslav (Yura) Useinov

Jamshed Usmanov

Aitegin Muratbek uulu

Jaime Vallare

Minnette Vàri

Mona Vatamanu

Emilio Vedova

Francesco Vezzoli

Alterazioni Video

Ernesto Vila

Manuel Vilariño

Françoise Vincent

Viteix

Kara Walker

Andy Warhol

Lawrence Weiner

Franz West

Sophie Whettnall

Maaria Wirkkala

Pavel Wolberg

Troels Wörsel

Yin Xiuzhen

Kan Xuan

Moico Yaker

Fudong Yang

Zhenzhong Yang

Yonamine

Tomoko Yoneda

Shen Yuan

Akram Zaatari

Maksim Zadarnovsky

Valeriy Zadarnovsky

Lesia Zaiats

Chen Zhen

   

Tags: Ignasi Aballí, Adel Abdessemed, Adel Abidin, Marina Abramović, Vito Acconci, Vincenzo Agnetti, Vyacheslav Akhunov, Rashad Alakbarov, Hüseyin Alptekin, David Altmejd, Francis Alÿs, Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Giovanni Anselmo, Armando, Rubén Ramos Balsa, Miquel Barceló, Yto Barrada, Georg Baselitz, Gabriele Basilico, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joseph Beuys, Bili Bidjocka, Manon de Boer, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Louise Bourgeois, Herbert Brandl, Christoph Büchel, Daniel Buren, Gerard Byrne, Waltercio Caldas, Sophie Calle, Paolo Canevari, Po-i Chen, Ali Cherri, Jacob Dahlgren, José Damasceno, Gino de Dominicis, Marlene Dumas, Eric Duyckaerts, Dzine, Rena Effendi, Fouad Elkoury, Tracey Emin, Haris Epaminonda, Valie Export, Mounir Fatmi, Cao Fei, León Ferrari, ngela Ferreira, Angelo Filomeno, Urs Fischer, Andreas Fogarasi, René Francisco, Ivana Franke, Yukio Fujimoto, Charles Gaines, Rainer Ganahl, Kendell Geers, Isa Genzken, Shaun Gladwell, Felix Gmelin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Dmitry Gutov, Neil Hamon, Jonathan Harker, Lyle Ashton Harris, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Christine Hill, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Marine Hugonnier, Mustafa Hulusi, Pierre Huyghe, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Kim Jones, Lamia Joreige, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Y.z. Kami, Ellsworth Kelly, Amal Kenawy, Raoul De Keyser, Martin Kippenberger, Guillermo Kuitca, Rosemary Laing, Leonilson, Sol LeWitt, H.H. Lim, Rosario López, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Armando Lulaj, Marko Mäetamm, Nalini Malani, Victor Man, Steve McQueen, Aernout Mik, Boris Mikhailov, Santu Mofokeng, Andrei Monastyrski, Callum Morton, Joshua Mosley, Nástio Mosquito, Ivan Moudov, Rabih Mrouè, Oscar Muñoz, Elizabeth Murray, Sirous Namazi, Bruce Nauman, Yves Netzhammer, Stefan Nikolaev, Susan Norrie, Thomas Nozkowski, Odili Donald Odita, Chris Ofili, Olu Oguibe, Melik Ohanian, Nipan Oranniwesna, Philippe Parreno, Giuseppe Penone, Dan Perjovschi, Raymond Pettibon, Cristi Pogacean, Sigmar Polke, Alexander Ponomarev, Concetto Pozzati, Wilfredo Prieto, Emily Prince, Tobias Putrih, Rainer Fetting, Arnulf Rainer, José Alejandro Restrepo, Jason Rhoades, Manuela Ribadeneira, Gerhard Richter, Ketty La Rocca, Ugo Rondinone, Tracey Rose, Susan Rothenberg, Robert Ryman, Margaret Salmon, Fred Sandback, Iran do Espírito Santo, Yehudit Sasportas, Yinka Shonibare, Malick Sidibé, Nedko Solakov, Mounira Al Solh, Monika Sosnowska, Nancy Spero, Christine Streuli, Daniel von Sturmer, Tabaimo, Al Taylor, Sam Taylor-Wood, Mark Titchner, Mario Garcia Torres, Tatiana Trouvé, Minnette Vari, Emilio Vedova, Francesco Vezzoli, Alterazioni Video, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Franz West, Sophie Whettnall, Pavel Wolberg, Troels Wörsel, Yin Xiuzhen, Kan Xuan, Yonamine, Tomoko Yoneda, Shen Yuan, Akram Zaatari, Chen Zhen, Yang Zhenzhong

------------about Venice Biennale history from wikipedia ---------

curators previous

* 1948 – Rodolfo Pallucchini

* 1966 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua

* 1968 – Maurizio Calvesi and Guido Ballo

* 1970 – Umbro Apollonio

* 1972 – Mario Penelope

* 1974 – Vittorio Gregotti

* 1978 – Luigi Scarpa

* 1980 – Luigi Carluccio

* 1982 – Sisto Dalla Palma

* 1984 – Maurizio Calvesi

* 1986 – Maurizio Calvesi

* 1988 – Giovanni Carandente

* 1990 – Giovanni Carandente

* 1993 – Achille Bonito Oliva

* 1995 – Jean Clair

* 1997 – Germano Celant

* 1999 – Harald Szeemann

* 2001 – Harald Szeemann

* 2003 – Francesco Bonami

* 2005 – María de Corral and Rosa Martinez

* 2007 – Robert Storr

* 2009 – Daniel Birnbaum

* 2011 – Bice Curiger

* 2013 – Massimiliano Gioni

* 2015 – Okwui Enwezor

* 2017 – Christine Macel[19]

* 2019 – Ralph Rugoff[20]

—-------------

#art #artist #artistic #artists #arte #artwork

#artcontemporain contemporary art Giardini Arsenal

 

venice Veneziako Venecija Venècia Venedig Venetië Veneetsia Venetsia Venise Venecia VenedigΒενετία( Venetía HungarianVelence Feneyjar Venice Venezia Venēcija Venezja Venezia Wenecja Veneza VenețiaVenetsiya BenátkyBenetke Venecia Fenisוועניס Վենետիկ ভেনি স威尼斯 (wēinísī) 威尼斯 ვენეციისવે નિસवेनिसヴェネツィアವೆನಿಸ್베니스வெனிஸ்వెనిస్เวนิซوینس Venetsiya

 

art umjetnost umění kunst taideτέχνη művészetList ealaínarte māksla menasartiKunst sztuka artăumenie umetnost konstcelfקונסטարվեստincəsənətশিল্প艺术(yìshù)藝術 (yìshù)ხელოვნებაकलाkos duabアートಕಲೆសិល្បៈ미술(misul)ສິນລະປະകലकलाအတတ်ပညာकलाකලාවகலைఆర్ట్ศิลปะ آرٹsan'atnghệ thuậtفن (fan)אומנותهنرsanat artist

 

other Biennale :(Biennials ) :

Venice Biennial , Documenta Havana Biennial,Istanbul Biennial ( Istanbuli),Biennale de Lyon ,Dak'Art Berlin Biennial,Mercosul Visual Arts Biennial ,Bienal do Mercosul Porto Alegre.,Berlin Biennial ,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial .Yokohama Triennial Aichi Triennale,manifesta ,Copenhagen Biennale,Aichi Triennale .Yokohama Triennial,Echigo-Tsumari Triennial.Sharjah Biennial ,Biennale of Sydney, Liverpool , São Paulo Biennial ; Athens Biennale , Bienal do Mercosul ,Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art ,DOCUMENTA KASSEL ATHEN ,Dakar; Biennalist

  

kritik[edit] kritikaria kritičar crític kritiker criticus kriitik kriitikko critique crítico Kritiker κριτικός(kritikós) kritikus Gagnrýnandi léirmheastóir critico kritiķis kritikas kritiku krytyk crítico critic crítico krytyk beirniad קריטיקער

 

Veneziako Venecija Venècia Venedig Venetië Veneetsia Venetsia Venise Venecia Venedig Βενετία(Venetía) Hungarian Velence Feneyjar Venice Venezia Latvian Venēcija Venezja Venezia Wenecja Portuguese Veneza Veneția Venetsiya Benátky Benetke Venecia Fenis וועניס Վենետիկ ভেনিস 威尼斯 (wēinísī) 威尼斯 Georgian ვენეციის વેનિસ वेनिस ヴェネツィア ವೆನಿಸ್ 베니스 வெனிஸ் వెనిస్ เวนิซ وینس Venetsiya

 

—-----

Institutional Critique

Identity Politics Post-War Consumerism, Engagement with Mass Media, Performance Art, The Body, Film/Video, Political, Collage, Cultural Commentary, Self as Subject, Color Photography, Related to Fashion, Digital Culture, Photography, Human Figure, Technology

Racial and Ethnic Identity, Neo-Conceptualism, Diaristic

Contemporary Re-creations, Popular Culture, Appropriation, Contemporary Sculpture,

Culture, Collective History, Group of Portraits, Photographic Source

Endurance Art, Film/Video,, Conceptual Art and Contemporary Conceptualism, Color Photography, Human Figure, Cultural Commentary

War and Military, Political Figures, Social Action, Racial and Ethnic Identity, Conflict

Personal Histories, Alter Egos and Avatars

Use of Common Materials, Found Objects, Related to Literature, Installation, Mixed-Media, Engagement with Mass Media, Collage,, Outdoor Art, Work on Paper, Text,Photographic Source ultracontemporary

 

Appropriation (art) Art intervention Classificatory disputes about art Conceptual art Environmental sculpture Found object Interactive art Modern art Neo-conceptual art Performance art Sound art Sound installation Street installations Video installation

Conceptual art Art movements Postmodern art Contemporary art Art media Aesthetics Conceptualism

 

Post-conceptualism Anti-anti-art Body art Conceptual architecture Contemporary art Experiments in Art and Technology Found object Happening Fluxus Information art Installation art Intermedia Land art Modern art Neo-conceptual art Net art Postmodern art Generative Art Street installation Systems art Video art Visual arts ART/MEDIA conceptual artist

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Geoffroy

 

www.emergencyrooms.org/biennalist.html

 

www.colonel.dk

 

www.emergencyrooms.org

 

www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html

   

Biennalist is an Art Format where the participants are passionate about the Theme

 

Theme:

Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind.

Art in the Present Tense

 

52. Venice Biennial

10 June - 21 November 2007

 

Director:

Robert Storr

 

From Plato onwards philosophers have divided and compartmentalized human consciousness more or less explicitly pitting one faculty against another; mind versus body, reason versus unreason, thought versus feeling, criticality versus intuition, the intellect versus the senses, the conceptual versus the perceptual. At best such dichotomies have served to sharpen our understanding of the different capac ities at our disposal for comprehending the world and making our place in it. At worst they have deprived us of some of those abilities by setting up false hierarchies that cause us to mistrust or disparage one for the sake of another, many for the sake a few.

Yet no matter how successfully philosophers and ideologues have persuaded people that such categories are not just analytically useful but inherently or historically true, the manifold challenges to understanding that reality poses and the actual f lux of existence exceed the power of systems, theories and definitions to contain them. The imagination is the catch basin into which this overflow spills and art cuts the channels that reconnect formerly isolated or segregated parts of consciousness to each other while flooding and replenishing the whole of it like a fertile river delta.

Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind is predicated on the conviction that art is now, as it has always been, the means by which humans are made aware of the whole of their being. However, it does not assume that an enduring wholeness is the result, or that art is a magical solution for the conflicts in our nature or in and among differing cultures and societies . That is the domain of philosophy, the social sciences and politics. Nevertheless, to “make sense” of things in a given moment or circumstance is to grasp their full complexity intellectually, emotionally and perceptually. That effort does not promise that our grasp will hold for long, or even much more than the instant in which we awaken to the fact that such fleeting powers of concentration and transformation are ours. Incidentally, “making nonsense” of the world, as grotesque, Dada or absurdist art does, deploys those same powers through exaggerated disparity. By inverting order and logic the artifact created paradoxically holds fragmented consciousness in suspension so that its contradictions can be clearly apprehended.

Epiphanies happen but do not last. As James Joyce showed, one of the functions of art is to preserve the experience so that we may savor and study its many aspects. The history of art is a fabric of epiphanies woven by many hands at different speeds; the present tense of art is the outer edge of that work in progress. At any point the edge may be ragged and uneven and the pattern in formation disturbing or hard to discern, reflecting the difficulty of making art in troubled times. We are living in just such times. Rather that trim the edge or reweave the pattern to neaten it, this exhibition focuses on selected aspects of current production that hint at what the emerging patterns might be without presuming to map them entirely. No attempt has been made therefore to be programmatically “representative,” either in terms of styles, mediums, generations, nations or cultures. Instead certain qualities and concerns widely found in contemporary art have been used as magnetic poles for gathering work from all seven continents, in all media, in various styles and of all generations now active.

Between the poles to which some works have readily gravitated is a force field where many other works hover. The poles themselves have been used like tuning forks, such that the criterion for selection has been resonance or mood as much as subject matter or aesthetic methodology. Among these vibrating points of reference are the immediacy of sensation in relation to questioning the nature and meaning of that sensation, intimate affect in relation to engagement in public life, belonging and dislocation, th e fragility of society and culture in the face of conflict, the sustaining qualities of art in the face of death.

Since the early 20century the development of modern art has been world wide. However its general dissemination and reception have lagged f ar behind this far flung, simultaneous, and cross -pollinating growth. In recognition of that discrepancy this Biennale has, as in the past, counted to the national pavilions to close the gaps, but it has also incorporated one national pavilion, Turkey, plus a regional pavilion, Africa, within its core, pointing the way, it is hoped, to greater, more permanent inclusiveness in areas of the world and of art -making too long overlooked in the international exhibition circuit.

While this show looks forward it does not look back. No attempt is made to trace genealogies or construct a new canon - and none at all to compete with art fairs or handicap the market. With a handful of exceptions all the artists included are alive and active. Diverse in origin and in temporal vantage points, it is they who conjugate the present tense of art for each other – and for us. The only artists in the show who are not living, would be but for their premature or unexpected deaths; their work is included here because its abiding freshness and impact keeps them on the minds of their peers and the public.

www.labiennale.org

2007 Awards:

Golden Lion to an artist exhibited at the international exhibition to León Ferrari

Golden Lion to a young artist (under 40) to Emily Jacir

Golden Lion for best national participation to Hungary represented by Andreas Fogarasi

Honourable Mention to an artist to Nedko Solakov

Honourable Mention to a pavilion to the Lithuanian Pavilion represented by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas

Golden Lion to a critic or an art historian for his contribution to contemporary art to Benjamin Buchloh

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Malick Sidibé

 

Artists:

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Ignasi Aballí

Adel Abdessemed

Adel Abidin

Marina Abramovic

Vito Acconci

Nasser Naassan Agha

Tora Aghabeyova

Vincenzo Agnetti

Faig Ahmed

Vyacheslav Akhunov

Mounira Al-Solh

Rashad Alakbarov

Nikos Alexiou

Luciano de Almeida

Hüseyin Alptekin

David Altmejd

Narda Alvarado

Francis Alÿs

Ghada Amer

El Anatsui

Giovanni Anselmo

Dario Arcidiacono

Tatiana Arzamasova

Orkhan Aslanov

Said / Abilsaid Atabekov

Chingiz Babayev

Mrdjan Bajic'

Sonia Balassanian

Rubén Ramos Balsa

Oladélé Bamgboyé

Miquel Barceló

Yto Barrada

Andrei Bartenev

Georg Baselitz

Gabriele Basilico

Jean Michel Basquiat

Mónica Bengoa

Mario Benjamin

Joseph Beuys

Bili Bidjocka

Manon de Boer

Stefano Bombardieri

Boris Mikhailov

Zoulikha Bouabdellah

Louise Bourgeois

Herbert Brandl

Sergei Bratkov

Jan Christiaan Braun

Antonio Briceño

Patricia Bueno

Daniel Buren

Luca Buvoli

Christoph Büchel

Gerard Byrne

Sophie Calle

Paolo Canevari

Christian Capurro

Pablo Cardoso

Giovanni Carmine

Maríadolores Castellanos

Samba Chéri

Loulou Cherinet

Ali Cherri

Eteri Chkadua

Amrit Chusuwan

Vladimir Cybil

Bassem Dahdouh

Jacob Dahlgren

José Damasceno

Sahar Dergham

Angela Detanico

Felipe de Souza Dias

Paulo Vitor da Silva Dias

Ranieri Dias

Renato Figueiredo Dias

Gino De Dominicis

James Drake

Marlene Dumas

Eric Duyckaerts

Nataliya Dyu

Dzine

Rena Effendi

Jorge Eielson

Haiam Abd El-Baky

Tarek El-Komy

Aiman El-Semary

Fouad Elkoury

Tracey Emin

Haris Epaminonda

Lev Evzovich

Valie EXPORT

Steingrimur Eyfjörd

Nganguè Eyoum

Mounir Fatmi

Cao Fei

Eloy Feria

León Ferrari

ngela Ferreira

Marcus Viniciu Clemente Ferriera

George Fikry

Angelo Filomeno

Urs Fischer

Andreas Fogarasi

Francisco Bernd da Franca

Rene Francisco

Georgy Frangulyan

Ivana Franke

Vladimir Fridkes

Yukio Fujimoto

Gints Gabra-ns

Charles Gaines

Rainer Ganahl

Tomer Ganihar

Fabio Ferreira Gaviao

Isa Genzken

Alla Girik

Helidon Gjergji

Gent Gjokola

Shaun Gladwell

Felix Gmelin

Toril Goksøyr

José Luis Guerín

Dmitry Gutov

Alban Hajdinaj

Neil Hamon

Jonathan Harker

Lyle Ashton Harris

Ali Hasanov

Kiluanji Kia Henda

Christine Hill

Alexandre Hnilitsky

Jenny Holzer

Rebecca Horn

Marine Hugonnier

Mustafa Hulusi

Orkhan Huseynov

Pierre Huyghe

Lee Hyungkoo

Elshan Ibrahimov

Tamilla Ibrahimova

Ihosvanny

Pravdoliub Ivanov

Alfredo Jaar

Emily Jacir

Kim Jones

Lamia Joreige

Irena Ju*zová

Waltercio Caldas Junior

Andre Juste

Emilia Kabakov

Ilya Kabakov

Y.Z. Kami

Paulo Kapela

Izumi Kato

Ellsworth Kelly

Amal Kenawy

Kendell Geers

Raoul de Keyser

Rauf Khalilov

Jamshed Kholikov

Martin Kippenberger

Gaukhar Kiyekbayeva

Riyas Komu

Guillermo Kuitca

Tamara Kvesitadze

Rafael Lain

Rosemary Laing

Rafael Lamata

Maria Verónica León

Leonilson

Vincent Leow

Sol LeWitt

Jason Lim

Rosario López

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Armando Lulaj

Zulkifle Mahmod

Nalini Malani

Renato Mambor

Victor Man

Blagoja Manevski

Camilla Martens

Roman Maskalev

Steve McQueen

Xenía Mejia

Jill Mercedes

Arseny Mescheryakov

Aernout Mik

Paul D. Miller

Julia Milner

Santu Mofokeng

Andrei Monastyrski

Ronald Morán

Hiroharu Mori

Callum Morton

Joshua Mosley

Nástio Mosquito

Ivan Moudov

Rabih Mroué

Gulner Mukazhanova

Oscar Muñoz

Elizabeth Murray

Ndilo Mutima

Ingrid Mwangi

Marko Mäetamm

Sirous Namazi

Zoran Naskovski

Bruce Nauman

Hadil Nazmy

Yves Netzhammer

Alexander Nikolaev

Stefan Nikolaev

Susan Norrie

Thomas Nozkowski

Odili Donald Odita

Chris Ofili

Olu Oguibe

Melik Ohanian

Masao Okabe

Marco Antonio Oliveira

Maycon Souza de Oliveira

Nelcirlan Souza de Oliveira

Mario Opazo

Nipan Oranniwesna

Svetlana Ostapovici

William Paats

Paola Parcerisa

Philippe Parreno

Philippe Pastor

Heldi Pema

Giuseppe Penone

Jose Carlos da Silva Pereira

Dan Perjovschi

Rodrigo de Maceda Perpetuo

Raymond Pettibon

Donato Piccolo

Jorge Pineda

Cristi Pogacean

Sigmar Polke

Alexander Ponomarev

Concetto Pozzati

Wilfredo Prieto

Emily Prince

Morrinho Project

Tobias Putrih

Arnulf Rainer

Lars Ramberg

Alfredo Rapetti

José Alejandro Restrepo

Jason Rhoades

Manuela Ribadeneira

Gerhard Richter

David Riff

Ketty La Rocca

Ugo Rondinone

Tracey Rose

Susan Rothenberg

Aleksei Rumyantsev

Robert Ryman

Ruth Sacks

Walid Sadek

Ghassan Salhab

Ernesto Salmerón

Margaret Salmon

Fred Sandback

Iran do Espirito Santo

Yehudit Sasportas

Oksana Shatalova

Yinka Shonibare MBE

Malick Sidibe

Nedko Solakov

Monika Sosnowska

Cinthya Soto

Nancy Spero

Rania Stephan

Christine Streuli

Daniel von Sturmer

Evgeny Svyatsky

Tabaimo

Sophia Tabatadze

Da Wu Tang

Sam Taylor-Wood

Elaine Tedesco

Philippe Thomas

Mark Titchner

Faustin Titi

Felix Gonzalez Torres

Mario Garcia Torres

Jalal Toufic

Paula Trope

Tatiana Trouvé

Florin Tudor

Alexander Ugay

Gediminas Urbonas

Nomeda Urboniene

Vyacheslav (Yura) Useinov

Jamshed Usmanov

Aitegin Muratbek uulu

Jaime Vallare

Minnette Vàri

Mona Vatamanu

Emilio Vedova

Francesco Vezzoli

Alterazioni Video

Ernesto Vila

Manuel Vilariño

Françoise Vincent

Viteix

Kara Walker

Andy Warhol

Lawrence Weiner

Franz West

Sophie Whettnall

Maaria Wirkkala

Pavel Wolberg

Troels Wörsel

Yin Xiuzhen

Kan Xuan

Moico Yaker

Fudong Yang

Zhenzhong Yang

Yonamine

Tomoko Yoneda

Shen Yuan

Akram Zaatari

Maksim Zadarnovsky

Valeriy Zadarnovsky

Lesia Zaiats

Chen Zhen

   

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------------about Venice Biennale history from wikipedia ---------

curators previous

* 1948 – Rodolfo Pallucchini

* 1966 – Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua

* 1968 – Maurizio Calvesi and Guido Ballo

* 1970 – Umbro Apollonio

* 1972 – Mario Penelope

* 1974 – Vittorio Gregotti

* 1978 – Luigi Scarpa

* 1980 – Luigi Carluccio

* 1982 – Sisto Dalla Palma

* 1984 – Maurizio Calvesi

* 1986 – Maurizio Calvesi

* 1988 – Giovanni Carandente

* 1990 – Giovanni Carandente

* 1993 – Achille Bonito Oliva

* 1995 – Jean Clair

* 1997 – Germano Celant

* 1999 – Harald Szeemann

* 2001 – Harald Szeemann

* 2003 – Francesco Bonami

* 2005 – María de Corral and Rosa Martinez

* 2007 – Robert Storr

* 2009 – Daniel Birnbaum

* 2011 – Bice Curiger

* 2013 – Massimiliano Gioni

* 2015 – Okwui Enwezor

* 2017 – Christine Macel[19]

* 2019 – Ralph Rugoff[20]

—-------------

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Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.

 

Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

 

Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.

 

ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES

Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.

 

The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).

 

Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).

 

A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".

 

In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.

 

In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.

 

ICONOGRAPHY

Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.

 

Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.

 

The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.

 

COMMON ATTRIBUTES

Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.

 

Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.

 

VAHANAS

The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.

 

Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.

 

The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.

 

ASSOCIATIONS

 

OBSTACLES

Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."

 

Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.

 

BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)

Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".

 

AUM

Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:

 

(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).

 

Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.

 

FIRST CHAKRA

According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".

 

FAMILY AND CONSORTS

Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.

 

The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.

 

Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.

 

The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.

 

WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS

Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.

 

Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).

 

Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.

 

Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."

 

GANESH CHATURTI

An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.

 

TEMPLES

In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.

 

There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

 

T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.

 

RISE TO PROMINENCE

 

FIRST APEARANCE

Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:

 

What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.

 

POSSIBLE INFLUENCES

Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:

 

In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.

 

Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."

 

One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.

 

A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.

 

First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

 

VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE

The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .

 

Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".

 

Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.

 

PURANIC PERIOD

Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.

 

In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:

 

Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.

 

Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.

 

SCRIPTURES

Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.

 

The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.

 

R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.

 

BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM

Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.

 

Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.

 

Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.

 

Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.

 

Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.

 

The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

 

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