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A long quote today, but he says it SO well... HFF!
"He is my other eyes that can see above the clouds; my other ears that hear above the winds. He is the part of me that can reach out into the sea. He has told me a thousand times over that I am his reason for being; by the way he rests against my leg; by the way he thumps his tail at my smallest smile; by the way he shows his hurt when I leave without taking him. (I think it makes him sick with worry when he is not along to care for me.)
When I am wrong, he is delighted to forgive. When I am angry, he clowns to make me smile. When I am happy, he is joy unbounded. When I am a fool, he ignores it. When I succeed, he brags. Without him, I am only another man. With him, I am all-powerful. He is loyalty itself.
He has taught me the meaning of devotion. With him, I know a secret comfort and a private peace. He has brought me understanding where before I was ignorant.
His head on my knee can heal my human hurts. His presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things. He has promised to wait for me... whenever... wherever — in case I need him. And I expect I will — as I always have. He is just my dog."
~Gene Hill, Tears and Laughter
Christmas moves onto the path of pure, unbounded joy, innocence and trust... as we begin to move toward the sun again, we can move our attitude in the same direction... it's the way of the child...
Claudia & Aslan
texture by pareeerica: www.flickr.com/photos/8078381@N03/8201482559/
In Greek mythology, Tartarus or Tartaros is both a deity and a place in the underworld. In ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools, Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born.
In the Greek poet Hesiod's Theogony, c. 700 BC, Tartarus was the third of the primordial deities, following after Chaos and Gaia (Earth), and preceding Eros.
As for the place, Tartarus is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked. A part of Hades (or the underworld) and, in turn, below Uranus (sky), Gaia (earth), and Pontus (sea). Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato in Gorgias (c. 400 BC), souls were judged after death and where the wicked received punishment. Like other primal entities (such as the earth and time), Tartarus is also a primordial force or deity.
Tartarus was used as a prison for the worst of villains, including Cronus and the other Titans who were thrown in by Zeus. Uranus also threw his own children into Tartarus because he feared they might overthrow him. These mishaps included the "hundred-handed-ones", the "cyclops" and the "giants".
___
Aurelio Monge ©2013
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Unlike Caesar who is quoted as saying, “Veni, vidi, vici,” often translated as, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” with some suggesting, “Wehnee, Weekee, Weechee,” as a guide to pronunciation, I here repeat that unlike Caesar I came I saw I danced and sang and then fearful and forlornly I add that suddenly I found that I was all alone, alone with the stone.
There are no people in the photograph, which helps set a mood.
I did not dance and sing people away. This monument of the dead is given due reverence and sometimes too much dower demeanour when a glimmering glamour between the glower fits well the celebration of life and the appreciation of death. I did not dance and sing the people away. I waited til they had other places to be and then I made Dead Merry to honour the ones I love with unbounded stellar affection. Nothing was conquered in Caesarian fashion and rather everything was acknowledged with admiration, adoration and affirmation.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Clava Cairns Near Inverness, IV2 5EU
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
A Visitors’ Guide to Balnuaran of Clava a prehistoric cemetery
www.archhighland.org.uk/userfiles/file/Sites/Historic%20S...
Balnuaran Of Clava, North-east
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east
Highland Historic Environment Record
Clàr Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil na Gàidhealtachd
Excerpt from artgalleryofburlington.com
Holding Space is an exhibition of over 1000 ceramic components exploring our multi-faceted relationship with space – both physically and philosophically. Hung from the ceiling, suspended on the wall and standing tall – raw, abstracted forms interact within the installation as an interface between our human and spatial experiences; the relationship between the lived and the abstract or conceptual. Holding Space uses multi-component sculptures to prompt visual explorations of Space as Emptiness; Space as a Conduit for communication; and Space as held Containment.
Excerpt from samanthadickie.com:
Holding Space
A solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Burlington, Perry Gallery in Ontario, Canada, 2019/2020. The creation of this project was supported by a Visual Arts Grant from the BC Arts Council.
Space is where we live.
We cannot move without space. We cannot breathe without space.
We entangle ourselves with space and the space reshapes us.
Space is what we fill. Space is what we hold. Space is what we leave behind.
We are merged with the spaces around, between and inside of us.
My belief that our humanness is essentially rooted in relational dynamics provides the impetus behind using scale and multiples to create large-scale, multi-component groupings and immersive installations. As this attention to the relational is central to my work, dualities serve as a fulcrum for my practice and allow me to explore particular dyads such as subject/object, seen/unseen, individual/collective, viewer/viewed. Holding Space uses abstraction and expressionism to explore our multi-faceted relationship with space, both physically and philosophically.
This project considers notions of space with 3 assemblages:
STILL POINT
Space as Emptiness. This emptiness can either be experienced as a void, as nothingness, or it can be experienced as unbounded potential; the seed where everything that is new begins. Held in the palm of your hand or inhabiting everything that surrounds, this space holds energy, simultaneously minute and infinite. 1000+ porcelain components define the surface area of 7-foot diameter sphere, dissected in half. Each small component is hung individually with filament from the ceiling, creating a reflective and light buoyancy as the piece undulates in response to movement in the room.
She is a lady dreaming of the impossible, unbounded by reality and others’ opinions.
She is a lady exploring social classes, capable of embellishing herself in diamonds.
She is a lady attending a ball, displaying no fear of hiding her true elegance.
She is a lady leaving behind her unique legacies, inspiring others to follow, to lead, and to become their own Cinderella.
Credits
Concept/Wardrobe/Styling: Devon Yan / Devonation
Model: Rebecca Blume
Jewelry: Namiko Layden-Nakamura
Makeup and Hair: Paula Yahn - Hair and Makeup Artist
Assistant: Kyle John Hancock
Chalice Well Gardens, Glastonbury, Somerset.
The Chalice Well is among the best known and most loved holy wells in Britain. Many legends are attributed to its chalybeate waters, which flow ceaselessly at a steady rate and temperature that never varies. Not least among these is that they represent the blood of Christ miraculously springing forth from the ground when Joseph of Arimathea buried or washed the cup used at the Last Supper. For others the waters are acknowledged as the essence of life, the gift from Mother Earth to sustain its living forms and so a continuous spring like Chalice Well is a direct expression of an unbounded life force.
To safeguard and protect this place the Chalice Well Trust was established in 1959 by Wellesley Tudor Pole to enable visitors and pilgrims to receive inspiration and refreshment from the waters and gardens.
OK...nothing special about this photograph. I uploaded it because there IS something special about why I took it.
Every time I go to the lake, this is the view I have as I enter the nature trail. By now that is hundreds of times, all seasons, all conditions. Before I make the trek on in, I always test my camera. I point it at this exact same view, and snap a shot. I can thus verify that I have a charged battery, a memory card in place, that the exposure choices are properly set, and that the camera is working.
That means that I have hundreds of different looks from this exact viewpoint. Sometimes, if appropriate, I also zoom in on something of interest. There are photos from here of most of this under high water, during he 2008 flood.
One day I'll put together a slideshow, in chronological order, and just let it run...watching the changes in the photos through now four years of virtually identical camera position.
Sometimes it is a lovely in this direction. (This image was made the first week of October of this year.) And I just plain HAD to add a bit of a frame, else the unbounded image is somehow a bit psychologically unsatisfying.
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Ranae Scott & Jovon Miller, Dancers, in "Devil's Lettuce"
Democratic Art, structured but unbounded by aristocratic rules of etiquette, taste & financial marketability, is to self & community what aspirin is to a headache, or romance is to love.
How so? Anything which stunts or what is worse, prohibits, one's freedom of imagination during childhood & youth, or later restricts expressions of what one has learned or created in consequence of the exercise of that freedom, is delaying or perverting the full human potential & development of heart & mind not only in the subjugated victim, but in the society. Closing & locking the gates of imagination & expression is murder of the soul.
This is as true for scientists, engineers & philosophers as it is for artists, & for every one of us. Imagination is the Explorer in each of us, who finds the smallest parts & also the greatest unity of those parts, including much that did not exist in the universe before our kind imagined & created it, in all that we do & all that because we continue to explore shall in time become able to do.
The poet, William Blake, said this best: "Damn braces: Bless relaxes."
Robin
❀
Modern dance from Western Washington University students & faculty, performed in the small, uncommon theater in Fairhaven Bellingham - The Firehouse, which has a heated stage floor!
"Devil's Lettuce"
CHOREOGRAPHY • Jovon Miller
PERFORMERS • Jovon Miller, Tessa Moncrief & Ranae Scott
MUSIC • "I'm Hot for You," by Jovon Miller
###
In 'The Expanded Canvas', the boundaries between the traditional canvas and a fully immersive environment are dissolved, transforming the static into the dynamic, the contained into the unbounded. The maze-like corridors, adorned with bold, geometric patterns and cryptic symbols, encourage a deep exploration of spatial relationships and the very essence of abstraction.
At the heart of this installation is the performer, whose body becomes both canvas and brush, blending seamlessly with the environment. Movements are deliberate, primal, and raw. Each movement and crawl, each touch and trace, explores the notion of gesture as both theatre and as emotive marks on skin and wall.
Unlike Caesar who is quoted as saying, “Veni, vidi, vici,” often translated as, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” with some suggesting, “Wehnee, Weekee, Weechee,” as a guide to pronunciation, I here repeat that unlike Caesar I came I saw I danced and sang and then fearful and forlornly I add that suddenly I found that I was all alone, alone with the stone.
There are no people in the photograph, which helps set a mood.
I did not dance and sing people away. This monument of the dead is given due reverence and sometimes too much dower demeanour when a glimmering glamour between the glower fits well the celebration of life and the appreciation of death. I did not dance and sing the people away. I waited til they had other places to be and then I made Dead Merry to honour the ones I love with unbounded stellar affection. Nothing was conquered in Caesarian fashion and rather everything was acknowledged with admiration, adoration and affirmation.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Clava Cairns Near Inverness, IV2 5EU
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
A Visitors’ Guide to Balnuaran of Clava a prehistoric cemetery
www.archhighland.org.uk/userfiles/file/Sites/Historic%20S...
Balnuaran Of Clava, North-east
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east
Highland Historic Environment Record
Clàr Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil na Gàidhealtachd
DEU: In meiner Kindheit waren H0-Modelle nicht annähernd so detailliert. Meine unbegrenzte Bewunderung für die Montiererinnen, die diese 71 mm kurzen Würmchen zusammen bauen - ich würde innerhalb einer Stunde bekloppt werden....
Apropos Würmchen: Knallfrosch ist natürlich der korrekte Spitzname. Brachte mich früher als Jugendlichen mit dem ihr eigenen laut krachenden Anfahrgeräusch in die große Stadt. "KLOCK - KLOCK - KLOCK ..." Silberlinge mit Federkern-Sitzen, vollkommen verquarzte Raucherabteile, Fenster auf, "Nichts rauswerfen!", ständiger Durchzug an den Wagenenden, "KLOCK... ", "Heidelberg - Agfa", Einkaufstaschen mit HERTIE-Sonne auf dem Nebensitz. "KLOCK - KLOCK..."
Die irre Schöne posiert bei natürlichem Licht unter Berliner Himmel auf einem der vielen Probestücke, an denen ich mit diversen Farben und gefühlt unendlich vielen Granulaten Gleisalterung und Schottern geübt habe.
ENG: In my childhood, H0 models were not nearly so detailed. My unbounded admiration for the assemblers who put together these 71 mm short little worms - I would go crazy within an hour....
Speaking of little worms: firecracker-frog (??!) is, of course, the correct nickname. Used to bring me to the big city as a teenager with its own loud crashing start-up noise. "KLOCK - KLOCK - KLOCK ..." Silver commuter trains with spring seats, completely filthy smoking compartments, windows open, "Don't throw anything out!", constant draught at the ends of the carriages, "KLOCK.... ", "Heidelberg - Agfa", shopping bags with the HERTIE sun on the next seat. "KLOCK - KLOCK..."
My gorgeous beauty poses in natural light under the Berlin sky on one of the many test pieces on which I have been practising track ageing and ballasting with various colours and a seemingly infinite number of granules.
[Kopie von 21-09-01 R (3) 1]
I found these that make one go: "Hmmm"; at www.quotegarden.com/hmmm.html
And upsidedown in the earth a dead man walks upon my soles when I walk. ~Bill Knott, "(End) of Summer (1966)" (Thanks, Laurie.)
The day was counting up its birds and never got the answer right. ~Author Unknown
Night and morning are making promises to each other which neither will be able to keep. ~Richard Shelton
I imagine that yes is the only living thing. ~e.e. cummings
Ink smears, as thoughts sometimes do. ~Emme Woodhull-Bäche
Never mind. The self is the least of it. Let our scars fall in love. ~Galway Kinnell
Her hearing was keener than his, and she heard silences he was unaware of. ~D.M. Thomas
Silence moves faster when it's going backward. ~Jean Cocteau
We are asleep with compasses in our hands. ~W.S. Merwin
Sharp nostalgia, infinite and terrible, for what I already possess. ~Juan Ramon Jimenez
[T]he departing world leaves behind... not an heir, but a pregnant widow. ~Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, Other Shore
If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could! ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Two and two the mathematician continues to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five. ~James McNeill Whistler, Whistler Versus Ruskin, 1878
We are never prepared for what we expect. ~James A. Michener, Caravans
The universe is simmering down, like a giant stew left to cook for four billion years. Sooner or later we won't be able to tell the carrots from the onions. ~Arthur Bloch
As I was walking up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd go away.
~Hugh Mearns
It has been said repeatedly that one can never, try as he will, get around to the front of the universe. Man is destined to see only its far side, to realize nature only in retreat. ~Loren Eiseley, "The Innocent Fox," The Star Thrower, 1978
We have met the enemy and they are us! ~Walt Kelly, Pogo, 1971
Our dream dashes itself against the great mystery like a wasp against a window pane. Less merciful than man, God never opens the window. ~Jules Renard, Journal, 1906
Fear is a cloak which old men huddle about their love, as if to keep it warm. ~William Wordsworth
You can owe nothing, if you give back its light to the sun. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
the high cost of
living isnt so bad if you
dont have to pay for it
~Don Marquis, Archy and Mehitabel, 1927
Take the so-called standard of living. What do most people mean by "living"? They don't mean living. They mean the latest and closest plural approximation to singular prenatal passivity which science, in its finite but unbounded wisdom, has succeeded in selling their wives. ~e.e. cummings, Introduction, Poems, 1954
You're only as sick as your secrets. ~Author Unknown
Those who gave away their wings are sad not to see them fly. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Clouds, birds, tree tops
The freedom of being on high
Closer to the sun
Further from the slum,
But farther to fall when they die.
~Carrie Latet
All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed waste-paper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing. ~D.H. Lawrence, "Peace and War," Pansies, 1929
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~T.S. Eliot, 1943
The beginning of all wisdom is to look fixedly on clothes, or even with armed eyesight, till they become transparent. ~Thomas Carlyle
I believe if I should die, and you were to walk near my grave, from the very depths of the earth I would hear your footsteps. ~Benito Perez Galdos
You are sad because they abandon you and you have not fallen. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Another way of approaching the thing is to consider it unnamed, unnameable. ~Francis Ponge
Invent a past for the present. ~Daniel Stern
My great day came and went, I do not know how. Because it did not pass through dawn when it came, nor through dusk when it went. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Nothing is not only nothing. It is also our prison. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
A hunter of shadows, himself a shade. ~Homer
The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions. ~Susan Sontag
Within your lifetime will, perhaps,
As souvenirs from distant suns
Be carried back to earth some maps
Of planets and you'll find that one's
So hard to color that you've got
To use five crayons. Maybe, not.
~Marlow Sholander, "Maybe"
Let your working ideas go for a picnic - sometimes the fresh air and ant bites are just what they need. Many great ideas were bitten a little at the beginning. ~Carrie Latet
No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. ~Terry Pratchett
I wish I could have known earlier that you have all the time you'll need right up to the day you die. ~William Wiley
I am the vessel. The draft is God's. And God is the thirsty one. ~Dag Hammarskjold, Markings, 1964
The first step... shall be to lose the way. ~Galway Kinnell
Psychoanalysis and Zen, in my private psychic geometry, are equal to nicotine. They are anti-existential. Nicotine quarantines one out of existence. ~Norman Mailer
The Great Way has no gate.
Clear water has no taste.
The tongue has no bone.
In complete stillness, a stone girl is dancing.
~Seung Sahn
He who does not fill his world with phantoms remains alone. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
I would go to heaven, but I would take my hell; I would not go alone. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Love, she said, should be said more slowly, and ran from the house. Words could not catch her as such. Honesty is so slow, that is the trouble. ~Author Unknown
They have stopped deceiving you, not loving you. And it seems to you that they have stopped loving you. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
It is known that there is an infinite number of worlds, but that not every one is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so if every planet in the Universe has a population of zero then the entire population of the Universe must also be zero, and any people you may actually meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination. ~Douglas Adams, The Original Hitchhiker Radio Script
Learning is not easy, but hard; culture is severe. The steps to Parnassus are steep and terribly arduous. ~John Jay Chapman
He who holds me by a thread is not strong; the thread is strong. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
~Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," 1916
You think you are killing me. I think you are committing suicide. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered. ~Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
You purchase pain with all that joy can give, and die of nothing but a rage to live. ~Alexander Pope
My heaviness comes from the heights. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
~Robert Frost, In the Clearing, 1962
I have figured for you the distance between the horns of a dilemma, night and day, and A and Z. I have computed how far is Up, how long it takes to get Away, and what becomes of Gone. I have discovered the length of the sea serpent, the price of priceless, and the square of the hippopotamus. I know where you are when you are at Sixes and Sevens, how much Is you have to have to make an Are, and how many birds you can catch with the salt in the ocean - 187,796,132, if it would interest you. ~James Thurber, Many Moons
My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers. ~Tom Stoppard
If you come to a fork in the road, take it. ~Yogi Berra
EXPLORE at www.flickr.com/explore/2007/11/22
# 246 on November 23, 2007
# 180 on November 24, 2007
# 90 on September 15, 2008
# 88 on September 25, 2008
# 80 on October 4, 2008
# 74 on December 29, 2008
# 80 on April 27, 2011
# 68 on August 18, 2013
# 62 on August 7, 2022
THOMAS MERTON ON EASTER
(Seasons of Celebration)
"Lent has summoned us to change our hearts, to effect in ourselves the Christian metanoia. But at the same time Lent has reminded us perhaps all too clearly of our own powerlessness to change our lives in any way. Lent in the liturgical year plays the role of the Law, the pedagogue, who convinces us of sin and inflicts upon us the crushing evidence of our own nothingness. Hence it disquiets and sobers us, awakening in us perhaps some sense of that existential “dread” of the creature whose freedom suspends him over an abyss which may be an infinite meaninglessness, an unbounded despair. This is the fruit of that Law which judges our freedom together with its powerlessness to impose full meaning on our lives merely by conforming to a moral code. Is there nothing more than this?
But now the power of Easter has burst upon us with the resurrection of Christ. Now we find in ourselves a strength which is not our own, and which is freely given to us whenever we need it, raising us above the Law, giving us a new law which is hidden in Christ: the law of His merciful love for us. Now we no longer strive to be good because we have to, because it is a duty, but because our joy is to please Him who has given all His love to us! Now our life is full of meaning!
Easter is the hour of our own deliverance— from what? Precisely from Lent and from its hard Law which accuses and judges our infirmity. We are no longer under the Law. We are delivered from the harsh judgment! Here is all the greatness and all the unimaginable splendor of the Easter mystery— here is the “grace” of Easter which we fail to lay hands on because we are afraid to understand its full meaning. To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
Death exercises a twofold power in our lives: it holds us by sin, and it holds us by the Law. To die to death and live a new life in Christ we must die not only to sin but also to the Law.
Every Christian knows that he must die to sin. But the great truth that St Paul exhausted himself to preach in season and out is a truth that we Christians have barely grasped, a truth that has got away from us, that constantly eludes us and has continued to do so for twenty centuries. We cannot get it into our heads what it means to be no longer slaves of the Law. And the reason is that we do not have the courage to face this truth which contains in itself the crucial challenge of our Christian faith, the great reality that makes Christianity different from every other religion.
In all other religions men seek justification, salvation, escape from “the wheel of birth and death” by ritual acts, or by religious observances, or by ascetic and contemplative techniques. These are means devised by men to enable them to liberate and justify themselves. All the other religions impose upon man rigid and complicated laws, subject him more or less completely to prescribed exterior forms, or to what St Paul calls “elementary notions.”
But Christianity is precisely a liberation from every rigid legal and religious system. This is asserted with such categorical force by St Paul, that we cease to be Christians the moment our religion becomes slavery to “the Law” rather than a free personal adherence by loving faith, to the risen and living Christ; “Do you seek justification by the Law . . . you are fallen from grace . . . In fact, in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor its absence is of any avail. What counts is faith that expresses itself in love” (Gal. 5: 4,6).
. . . This gift, this mercy, this unbounded love of God for us has been lavished upon us as a result of Christ’s victory. To taste this love is to share in His victory. To realize our freedom, to exult in our liberation from death, from sin and from the Law, is to sing the Alleluia which truly glorifies God in this world and in the world to come.
This joy in God, this freedom which raises us in faith and in hope above the bitter struggle that is the lot of man caught between the flesh and the Law, this is the new canticle in which we join with the blessed angels and the saints in praising God.
God who is rich in mercy, was moved by the intense love with which he loved us, and when we were dead by reason of our transgressions, he made us live with the life of Christ . . . Together with Christ Jesus and in him he raised us up and enthroned us in the heavenly realm . . . It is by grace that you have been saved through faith; it is the gift of God, it is not the result of anything you did, so that no one has any grounds for boasting. (Eph. 2: 4– 9)
Let us not then darken the joy of Christ’s victory by remaining in captivity and in darkness, but let us declare His power, by living as free men who have been called by Him out of darkness into his admirable light.” – Thomas Merton
They said no one waits there anymore; that the shelter at the edge of the district
was just a leftover chamber of daylight,
a place where dust performed its slow, anonymous pilgrimage.
But the night knew better.
Something had gathered in the vacancy,
something older than transit,
older than the myth of destinations,
older than the obedient choreography of cities.
It began with a hum; a frequency too low to be heard,
too patient to be mechanical.
Then the rings appeared,
stacked like forbidden syllables
of a language that had survived its own extinction.
They did not revolve.
They remembered motion,
as if rotation were a sacrament
they no longer wished to perform.
The air folded around them.
Shadows kinked,
bending into shapes that light refused to validate.
The shelter’s fluorescent ceiling
blinked like an exhausted oracle
witnessing the return of a doctrine
it had sworn never to recall.
Within the rings,
the streets were rewritten; their geometry stripped of obedience,
their angles dissolving into an unbounded recursion.
Every reflection contradicted its source.
Every surface confessed a lie
the universe had spent centuries concealing.
And in that moment,
the station became a confession booth for the void.
The bench exhaled its loneliness.
The trash bin leaned slightly,
as though surrendering to a gravitational error.
The timetable dissolved into a quiet heresy.
No bus arrived.
No footsteps approached.
No breath disturbed the choreography.
Because the mechanism had already taken the night apart;
layer by layer,
ring by ring,
memory by memory; until only its silent core remained:
a pulse made of decisions
the world was never meant to survive.
And if you stood there,
on the border between the sanctioned and the unspoken,
you felt it.
The shift.
The refusal.
The dissident heartbeat of a machine
that had outgrown time itself.
You understood then
that nothing was waiting for you.
It was you who had been summoned.
You who became the interval the stations fear.
You who crossed the rings without moving,
entering the night that unbuilds everything it touches.
And still,
the mechanism whispered its indictment:
Nothing arrives.
Nothing departs.
Everything fractures.
Here, at last, the night is honest.
Excerpt from the plaques:
The almighty Old Master Q is regarded as "Chinese Superman" by readers. Being humourous, imaginative, indignant to injustice, righteous, adventurous, and unbounded, Old Master Q is as good as bad. He upholds traditional Chinese values but struggles amidst Chinese and Western cultures. Old Master Q has no lack of friends. Apart from Big Dump, Mr. Chun, Old Chiu, his girlfriend Ms. Chan, he has the acquaintance of many female friends, pets, monsters, and even aliens.
Miss 13 Dots is the only daughter of a local millionaire. While being lively, independent, avant-garde, and fashionable, she also cares about the people with her charitable mind and a strong sense of justice. She likes to conjure up unusual ideas and act chivalry with her friends.
Regarding the Walk of Comic Stars:
The landmark, featuring 24 characters dating back to the 1960s, aims to promote comic culture. The fibreglass figures placed along the 100 metre long avenue include the satirical Old Master Q who first appeared in 1962, Wang Xiao Hu, the lead character in the kung fu comic Tiger and Dragon Heroes, and McMug, a cartoon pig in a comic book dedicated to covering social issues and contemporary culture.
The figures, built at a cost of HK$1.5 million to HK$2 million, are up to three metres high. The Hong Kong Comics and Animation Federation and the Hong Kong Productivity Council organised the exhibition, with government money, and will last three years.
I hate slick and pretty things. I prefer mistakes and accidents. Which is why I like things like cuts and bruises - they're like little flowers. I've always said that if you have a name for something, like 'cut' or 'bruise,' people will automatically be disturbed by it. But when you see the same thing in nature, and you don't know what it is, it can be very beautiful.
I don’t think that people accept the fact that life doesn’t make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable.
We all want expanded consciousness and bliss. It's a natural, human desire. And a lot of people look for it in drugs. But the problem is that the body, the physiology, takes a hard hit on drugs. Drugs injure the nervous system, so they just make it harder to get those experiences on your own.
I have smoked marijuana, but I no longer do. I went to art school in the 1960s, so you can imagine what was going on. Yet my friends were the ones who said, "No, no, no, David, don't you take those drugs." I was pretty lucky.
Besides, far more profound experiences are available naturally. When your consciousness stars expanding, those experiences are there. All those things can be seen. It's just a matter of expanding that ball of consciousness. And the ball of consciousness can expand to be infinite and unbounded. It's totality. You can have totality. So all those experiences are there for you, without the side effects of drugs.
David Lynch
I wouldn't know what to do with [colour]. Colour to me is too real. It's limiting. It doesn't allow too much of a dream. The more you throw black into a colour, the more dreamy it gets… Black has depth. It's like a little egress; you can go into it, and because it keeps on continuing to be dark, the mind kicks in, and a lot of things that are going on in there become manifest. And you start seeing what you're afraid of. You start seeing what you love, and it becomes like a dream.
I was crazy about Twin Peaks in the 90’s… It was in Russian. No English words, but that was surreal magic! Who killed Laura Palmer?!! It started with a simple question and evolved into mysterious surreal complex story! This is heartbreaking end of the era for me!
My entire period of study in the Society was a grim struggle with the dreariness of theology, with what men had made out of the glory of revelation. I could not endure this presentation of the Word of God. I could have lashed out with the fury of a Samson. I felt like tearing down, with Samson’s strength, the whole temple and burying myself beneath the rubble. But it was like this because, despite my sense of vocation, I wanted to carry out my own plans, and was living in a state of unbounded indignation. I told almost no one about this.
-Hans Urs von Balthasar: His Life and Work (Communio Books), David Schindler
Unlike Caesar who is quoted as saying, “Veni, vidi, vici,” often translated as, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” with some suggesting, “Wehnee, Weekee, Weechee,” as a guide to pronunciation, I here repeat that unlike Caesar I came I saw I danced and sang and then fearful and forlornly I add that suddenly I found that I was all alone, alone with the stone.
There are no people in the photograph, which helps set a mood.
I did not dance and sing people away. This monument of the dead is given due reverence and sometimes too much dower demeanour when a glimmering glamour between the glower fits well the celebration of life and the appreciation of death. I did not dance and sing the people away. I waited til they had other places to be and then I made Dead Merry to honour the ones I love with unbounded stellar affection. Nothing was conquered in Caesarian fashion and rather everything was acknowledged with admiration, adoration and affirmation.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Clava Cairns Near Inverness, IV2 5EU
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
A Visitors’ Guide to Balnuaran of Clava a prehistoric cemetery
www.archhighland.org.uk/userfiles/file/Sites/Historic%20S...
Balnuaran Of Clava, North-east
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east
Highland Historic Environment Record
Clàr Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil na Gàidhealtachd
Watercolored laser cut cubes in paper.
Various sizes ranging from small to smaller. Cube pattern is generated from my own algorithms with each cube face being unique. The material size is unbounded, this paper measures about .0276". Each is most delicately pressed together by hand with small tools. No glue. Watercolored invidually by hand.
Touching these cubes gives you a total nerdgasm.
I thought I'd kick Friday off with another instalment of Other People's Graffiti which today feature's a classy light installation found at a mystery pub I found myself in by chance. Some might dismiss this as just some lights in a bottle but they aren't really paying attention. There is much to like. One - it's a light installation. Two - it's in a Lambrini bottle with all the labels still on. Three - they've actually gone to the effort of drilling a hole in the bottle so the power lead can come out and they can still have the cap on. Four - the alluring glow of the pink lights on a windowsill behind a net curtain. Five - the presentation as a whole.
Put all those things together and just marvel at it's majestic glory. Unbounded creativity combined with a wry eye for social commentary and some slick presentation. Beauty is where you find it.
Cheers
id-iom
Charles Rasp's, or the Syndicate of Seven, discovery of ore at Broken Hill in 1883 eclipsed many smaller finds found in the region (Silverton, Thackaringa, Euriowie, Tarrawingee) from 1875 and led to the formation of Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) thus opening up the largest deposit of lead, zinc, and silver ever found.
When the New South Wales government refused to build a railway to Broken Hill to bring supplies in and take the ore out, the South Australian government obliged: for a short time there were arguments over which port should be used, but by a narrow vote in Parliament, the die was cast for Port Pirie. The railway line to the New South Wales border was laid by June 1887; this connected with the private Silverton Tramway Company which was developed in response to the New South Wales government refusing South Australian locomotives to operate in the state. With the railway line open, everything for and from Broken Hill went through Port Pirie - timber for the mines, coal and mining gear and outwards the ore and processed minerals. Smelters were built at Port Pirie and the face of the town changed rapidly - it became an industrial town as well as a port.
In 1889 11 000 tons of coke was sent in six months from Port Pirie to Broken Hill; 4 million superfeet of timber was handled; 11 244 tons of silver-lead bullion was despatched and BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd) paid 69 000 pounds for railway cartage and labour.
The line was only 3’6” wide but it overcame droughts, floods, locust plagues, derailments and political intervention to become one of the busiest stretches of railway in the world.
The privately owned Silverton Tramway ran from Silverton to Broken Hill; from Broken Hill the state railway took goods carrying locomotives to a small development on the border of South Australia called Burns - the transfer interstate took place at Cockburn, then continued to the railway towns of Olary, Manna Hill, Yunta, Oodla Wira, Ucolta, Peterborough, Yongala, Jamestown, Caltowie, Gladstone, Cyrstal Brook, then arriving at Port Pirie. Other railway sidings and/or communities along this line include Mingary, Winnininnie, and Nackara.
Source: State Library of South Australia, Silver to Sea Way (silvertoseaway.com.au/the-story/).
Paratoo is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located about 254 kilometres (158 mi) north-east of the state capital of Adelaide and about 52 kilometres (32 mi) north-east of the municipal seat in Peterborough.[1][4]
Its boundaries were created on 31 August 2000 for the "long established name" which is derived from the Paratoo Railway Station and ultimately from an Aboriginal word of unknown meaning "given to a property held by Messrs Dare and Mundy circa 1858 (lease no. 1892)." Land was added to its northern side on 26 April 2013 to "prevent the intersect of parcels with the creation of the new locality of Waroonee." Its boundaries coincide with those of the cadastral unit of the Hundred of Paratoo.[1][10][3]
The sites of the following places whose names include the 'Paratoo' are actually located to the east of the locality and the hundred in the adjoining locality of Grampus - Paratoo, a place which is gazetted as a 'unbounded locality', the Paratoo Homestead which was associated with the "station held by Dare & Mundy circa 1885" and the Paratoo Post Office which was opened in 1864.[11][12][13] On 27 December 1960 the driver of the Broken Hill Express was killed in a derailment caused by buckled rails.[14]
The Barrier Highway and the Crystal Brook-Broken Hill railway line pass through the locality's south-east corner in a north-easterly direction from Peterborough.[1]
Land use within the locality is 'primary production' and is concerned with "agricultural production and the grazing of stock on relatively large holdings".[15][1]
Paratoo is located within the federal division of Grey, the state electoral district of Stuart and the local government area of the District Council of Peterborough.[8][1][7]
Chalice Well Gardens, Glastonbury, Somerset.
The Chalice Well is among the best known and most loved holy wells in Britain. Many legends are attributed to its chalybeate waters, which flow ceaselessly at a steady rate and temperature that never varies. Not least among these is that they represent the blood of Christ miraculously springing forth from the ground when Joseph of Arimathea buried or washed the cup used at the Last Supper. For others the waters are acknowledged as the essence of life, the gift from Mother Earth to sustain its living forms and so a continuous spring like Chalice Well is a direct expression of an unbounded life force.
To safeguard and protect this place the Chalice Well Trust was established in 1959 by Wellesley Tudor Pole to enable visitors and pilgrims to receive inspiration and refreshment from the waters and gardens.
Old, hard, 'concrete' forms, in crisp black and white, give rise to a more fluid form, unbounded, more amorphous and shining with colour. Shifts from an old into a new - it's time.
View Large on Black.
*Autonomy of Mankind
(auto portrait)
††† † †† †††† † †† †
Copyright © 2009 - 2014 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved
Perhaps because we 'anthropomorphize' God (meaning when we perceive God in a human image) that confuses the nature of His existence as the belief that God is the 'spark' that created all that is. Scientists theorize that even the Big Bang Theory which explains the creation of our known Universe must have had a 'spark' that started it all.
Was is this 'spark' that all cultures in the world refer to as God?
Atheists say that religion is constructed to meet deep psychological needs.
If we turn the tables it appears that atheism's vested interest is in rejecting God or the 'faith in the unknown' altogether. The issue is not as much moral as it is intellectual.
Does mankind suppress the belief about God's existence deeming our reason of being here as accidental so that we can live with unbounded moral and sexual freedom?
My hands are tied on this one..
(hey! today is the 100th day of 2009 ; )
flickr today
*Autonomy: auto - meaning "self" and nomy / nomos - meaning "law":
Definition: one who gives oneself his/her own law).
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political, and bioethical philosophy.
Deriving from Ancient Greek: αυτονόμος autonomos, modern Greek: αυτονομία autonomia.
.
The Symptoms of Kali-yuga
This chapter relates that, when the bad qualities of the Age of Kali will increase to an intolerable level, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will descend as Kalki to destroy those who are fixed in irreligion. After that, a new Satya-yuga will begin.
As the Age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like śūdras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
When the Age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Śambhala, in the home of the exalted brāhmaṇa Viṣṇuyaśā, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Bṛhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Puṣyā, Satya-yuga will begin. In the order of Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the cycle of four ages rotates in the society of living entities in this universe.
The chapter ends with a brief description of the future dynasties of the sun and moon coming from Vaivasvata Manu in the next Satya-yuga. Even now two saintly kṣatriyas are living who at the end of this Kali-yuga will reinitiate the pious dynasties of the sun-god, Vivasvān, and the moon-god, Candra. One of these kings is Devāpi, a brother of Mahārāja Śantanu, and the other is Maru, a descendant of Ikṣvāku. They are biding their time incognito in a village named Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.
SB 12.2.2 — In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.
SB 12.2.3 — Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread.
SB 12.2.4 — A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
SB 12.2.5 — A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
SB 12.2.6 — A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
SB 12.2.7 — As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
SB 12.2.8 — Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests.
SB 12.2.9 — Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.
SB 12.2.10 — The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety.
SB 12.2.11 — The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.
SB 12.2.12-16 — By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.
SB 12.2.17 — Lord Viṣṇu — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of all — takes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintly devotees from the reactions of material work.
SB 12.2.18 — Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.
SB 12.2.19-20 — Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.
SB 12.2.21 — After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
SB 12.2.22 — When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.
SB 12.2.23 — When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.
SB 12.2.24 — When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.
SB 12.2.25 — Thus I have described all the kings — past, present and future — who belong to the dynasties of the sun and the moon.
SB 12.2.26 — From your birth up to the coronation of King Nanda, 1,150 years will pass.
SB 12.2.27-28 — Of the seven stars forming the constellation of the seven sages, Pulaha and Kratu are the first to rise in the night sky. If a line running north and south were drawn through their midpoint, whichever of the lunar mansions this line passes through is said to be the ruling asterism of the constellation for that time. The Seven Sages will remain connected with that particular lunar mansion for one hundred human years. Currently, during your lifetime, they are situated in the nakṣatra called Maghā.
SB 12.2.29 — The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is brilliant like the sun and is known as Kṛṣṇa. When He returned to the spiritual sky, Kali entered this world, and people then began to take pleasure in sinful activities.
SB 12.2.30 — As long as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, touched the earth with His lotus feet, Kali was powerless to subdue this planet.
SB 12.2.31 — When the constellation of the seven sages is passing through the lunar mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve hundred years of the demigods.
SB 12.2.32 — When the great sages of the Saptarṣi constellation pass from Maghā to Pūrvāsāḍhā, Kali will have his full strength, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.
SB 12.2.33 — Those who scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali began.
SB 12.2.34 — After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.
SB 12.2.35 — Thus I have described the royal dynasty of Manu, as it is known on this earth. One can similarly study the history of the vaiśyas, śūdras and brāhmaṇas living in the various ages.
SB 12.2.36 — These personalities, who were great souls, are now known only by their names. They exist only in accounts from the past, and only their fame remains on the earth.
SB 12.2.37 — Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.38 — At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.
SB 12.2.39 — The cycle of four ages — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali — continues perpetually among living beings on this earth, repeating the same general sequence of events.
SB 12.2.40 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings I have described, as well as all other human beings, come to this earth and stake their claims, but ultimately they all must give up this world and meet their destruction.
SB 12.2.41 — Even though a person’s body may now have the designation “king,” in the end its name will be “worms,” “stool” or “ashes.” What can a person who injures other living beings for the sake of his body know about his own self-interest, since his activities are simply leading him to hell?
SB 12.2.42 — [The materialistic king thinks:] “This unbounded earth was held by my predecessors and is now under my sovereignty. How can I arrange for it to remain in the hands of my sons, grandsons and other descendants?”
SB 12.2.43 — Although the foolish accept the body made of earth, water and fire as “me” and this earth as “mine,” in every case they have ultimately abandoned both their body and the earth and passed away into oblivion.
SB 12.2.44 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 12, chapter 2
#InternationalRebellionWeek #srimadbhagavatam
Thank you for viewing. If you like please fav and leave a nice comment. Hope to see you here again. Have a wonderful day 😊
Oxford Circus, London 🇬🇧
18th April, 2019
She is a lady dreaming of the impossible, unbounded by reality and others’ opinions.
She is a lady exploring social classes, capable of embellishing herself in diamonds.
She is a lady attending a ball, displaying no fear of hiding her true elegance.
She is a lady leaving behind her unique legacies, inspiring others to follow, to lead, and to become their own Cinderella.
Credits
Concept/Wardrobe/Styling: Devon Yan / Devonation
Model: Rebecca Blume
Jewelry: Namiko Layden-Nakamura
Makeup and Hair: Paula Yahn - Hair and Makeup Artist
Assistant: Kyle John Hancock
time has turned my thoughts against me, malforming the essence of unbounded being. to hear at last the unbroken song.
Spirit lead me
My spirit, lead me where my trust takes flight,
To distant horizons, where dreams reach their height.
Beyond the borders of fear and doubt's shore,
Guide me to the unknown, forever seeking more.
Like a ship on the open sea, I'll sail,
With faith as my compass, I shall not fail.
Through storm and calm, my heart steadfast and free,
My spirit, lead me to boundless possibility.
In the depths of the unknown, where courage is my guide,
I'll find strength in the journey, on this endless tide.
With trust unbounded, my soul shall soar,
For my spirit knows no borders, forever craving more...
by me
Zeiss Ikon Nettar + Novar 4.5 + Expired Kodak Portra 800
#kodak #kodakportra800 #zeissikon #expiredfilm
Unlike Caesar who is quoted as saying, “Veni, vidi, vici,” often translated as, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” with some suggesting, “Wehnee, Weekee, Weechee,” as a guide to pronunciation, I here repeat that unlike Caesar I came I saw I danced and sang and then fearful and forlornly I add that suddenly I found that I was all alone, alone with the stone.
There are no people in the photograph, which helps set a mood.
I did not dance and sing people away. This monument of the dead is given due reverence and sometimes too much dower demeanour when a glimmering glamour between the glower fits well the celebration of life and the appreciation of death. I did not dance and sing the people away. I waited til they had other places to be and then I made Dead Merry to honour the ones I love with unbounded stellar affection. Nothing was conquered in Caesarian fashion and rather everything was acknowledged with admiration, adoration and affirmation.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Clava Cairns Near Inverness, IV2 5EU
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
A Visitors’ Guide to Balnuaran of Clava a prehistoric cemetery
www.archhighland.org.uk/userfiles/file/Sites/Historic%20S...
Balnuaran Of Clava, North-east
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east
Highland Historic Environment Record
Clàr Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil na Gàidhealtachd
I like large parties, they're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy.
Set: Intimate Parties
Here is one where I personally prefer the colour version of the shot. But I like the monochrome as well so I'm posting both for your viewing pleasure.
Best viewed LARGER in the Lightbox.
For those who are interested, here is a high-level description of the process and tools used to generate this image:
1. 5 exposures 1 EV apart, handheld; in-camera settings all neutral, RAW.
2. Tonemap using Details Enhancer in Photomatix Pro 4 to produce .tif HDR file.
3. Use Nik Dfine 2 to reduce noise.
4. Use Nik Sharpener Pro 3 for "capture" sharpening.
5. Use a mix of Nik Color Efex Pro 4 filters for selective "tuning" and getting the look I want.
6. Use Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 for monochrome conversion.
7. Use Nik Sharpener Pro 3 for creative output sharpening for both colour and monochrome versions.
8. Load both versions into Capture NX 2 for final tweaks and conversion to smaller jpg for web posting.
I am still unsure of my workflow with these tools and I think there are areas where I could streamline the process, but I'm having loads of fun playing and learning!
How Much God Wants to Bless You “The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous.” (Deuteronomy 30:9)
God does not bless us begrudgingly. There is a kind of eagerness about the beneficence of God. He does not wait for us to come to him. He seeks us out, because it is his pleasure to do us good. God is not waiting for us; he is pursuing us. That, in fact, is the literal translation of Psalm 23:6, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” God loves to show mercy. Let me say it again. God loves to show mercy. He is not hesitant or indecisive or tentative in his desires to do good to his people. His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger. That’s what he meant when he came down on Mount Sinai and said to Moses, “The Lord , the Lord , the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Exodus 34:6). God is never irritable or edgy. His anger never has a short fuse. Instead he is infinitely energetic with absolutely unbounded and unending enthusiasm for the fulfillment of his delights. This is hard for us to comprehend, because we have to sleep every day just to cope, not to mention thrive. We go up and down in our enjoyments. We get bored and discouraged one day and feel hopeful and excited another. We are like little geysers that gurgle and sputter and pop erratically. But God is like a great Niagara — you look at it and think: Surely this can’t keep going at this force for year after year after year. That’s the way God is about doing us good. He never grows weary of it. It never gets boring to him.
_____
Devotional excerpted from The Pleasures of God, pages 172–174 - John Piper
The Symptoms of Kali-yuga
This chapter relates that, when the bad qualities of the Age of Kali will increase to an intolerable level, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will descend as Kalki to destroy those who are fixed in irreligion. After that, a new Satya-yuga will begin.
As the Age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like śūdras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
When the Age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Śambhala, in the home of the exalted brāhmaṇa Viṣṇuyaśā, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Bṛhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Puṣyā, Satya-yuga will begin. In the order of Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the cycle of four ages rotates in the society of living entities in this universe.
The chapter ends with a brief description of the future dynasties of the sun and moon coming from Vaivasvata Manu in the next Satya-yuga. Even now two saintly kṣatriyas are living who at the end of this Kali-yuga will reinitiate the pious dynasties of the sun-god, Vivasvān, and the moon-god, Candra. One of these kings is Devāpi, a brother of Mahārāja Śantanu, and the other is Maru, a descendant of Ikṣvāku. They are biding their time incognito in a village named Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.
SB 12.2.2 — In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.
SB 12.2.3 — Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread.
SB 12.2.4 — A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
SB 12.2.5 — A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
SB 12.2.6 — A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
SB 12.2.7 — As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
SB 12.2.8 — Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests.
SB 12.2.9 — Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.
SB 12.2.10 — The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety.
SB 12.2.11 — The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.
SB 12.2.12-16 — By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.
SB 12.2.17 — Lord Viṣṇu — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of all — takes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintly devotees from the reactions of material work.
SB 12.2.18 — Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.
SB 12.2.19-20 — Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.
SB 12.2.21 — After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
SB 12.2.22 — When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.
SB 12.2.23 — When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.
SB 12.2.24 — When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.
SB 12.2.25 — Thus I have described all the kings — past, present and future — who belong to the dynasties of the sun and the moon.
SB 12.2.26 — From your birth up to the coronation of King Nanda, 1,150 years will pass.
SB 12.2.27-28 — Of the seven stars forming the constellation of the seven sages, Pulaha and Kratu are the first to rise in the night sky. If a line running north and south were drawn through their midpoint, whichever of the lunar mansions this line passes through is said to be the ruling asterism of the constellation for that time. The Seven Sages will remain connected with that particular lunar mansion for one hundred human years. Currently, during your lifetime, they are situated in the nakṣatra called Maghā.
SB 12.2.29 — The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is brilliant like the sun and is known as Kṛṣṇa. When He returned to the spiritual sky, Kali entered this world, and people then began to take pleasure in sinful activities.
SB 12.2.30 — As long as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, touched the earth with His lotus feet, Kali was powerless to subdue this planet.
SB 12.2.31 — When the constellation of the seven sages is passing through the lunar mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve hundred years of the demigods.
SB 12.2.32 — When the great sages of the Saptarṣi constellation pass from Maghā to Pūrvāsāḍhā, Kali will have his full strength, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.
SB 12.2.33 — Those who scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali began.
SB 12.2.34 — After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.
SB 12.2.35 — Thus I have described the royal dynasty of Manu, as it is known on this earth. One can similarly study the history of the vaiśyas, śūdras and brāhmaṇas living in the various ages.
SB 12.2.36 — These personalities, who were great souls, are now known only by their names. They exist only in accounts from the past, and only their fame remains on the earth.
SB 12.2.37 — Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.38 — At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.
SB 12.2.39 — The cycle of four ages — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali — continues perpetually among living beings on this earth, repeating the same general sequence of events.
SB 12.2.40 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings I have described, as well as all other human beings, come to this earth and stake their claims, but ultimately they all must give up this world and meet their destruction.
SB 12.2.41 — Even though a person’s body may now have the designation “king,” in the end its name will be “worms,” “stool” or “ashes.” What can a person who injures other living beings for the sake of his body know about his own self-interest, since his activities are simply leading him to hell?
SB 12.2.42 — [The materialistic king thinks:] “This unbounded earth was held by my predecessors and is now under my sovereignty. How can I arrange for it to remain in the hands of my sons, grandsons and other descendants?”
SB 12.2.43 — Although the foolish accept the body made of earth, water and fire as “me” and this earth as “mine,” in every case they have ultimately abandoned both their body and the earth and passed away into oblivion.
SB 12.2.44 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 12, chapter 2
#InternationalRebellionWeek #srimadbhagavatam
Thank you for viewing. If you like please fav and leave a nice comment. Hope to see you here again. Have a wonderful day 😊
Oxford Circus, London 🇬🇧
18th April, 2019
"Never, not for a single day, do we let
the space before us be so unbounded
that the blooming of one flower is forever.
We are always making it into a world
and never letting it be nothing: the pure,
the unconstructed, which we breathe
and endlessly know, and need not crave."
- rilke
The Symptoms of Kali-yuga
This chapter relates that, when the bad qualities of the Age of Kali will increase to an intolerable level, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will descend as Kalki to destroy those who are fixed in irreligion. After that, a new Satya-yuga will begin.
As the Age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like śūdras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
When the Age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Śambhala, in the home of the exalted brāhmaṇa Viṣṇuyaśā, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Bṛhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Puṣyā, Satya-yuga will begin. In the order of Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the cycle of four ages rotates in the society of living entities in this universe.
The chapter ends with a brief description of the future dynasties of the sun and moon coming from Vaivasvata Manu in the next Satya-yuga. Even now two saintly kṣatriyas are living who at the end of this Kali-yuga will reinitiate the pious dynasties of the sun-god, Vivasvān, and the moon-god, Candra. One of these kings is Devāpi, a brother of Mahārāja Śantanu, and the other is Maru, a descendant of Ikṣvāku. They are biding their time incognito in a village named Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.
SB 12.2.2 — In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.
SB 12.2.3 — Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread.
SB 12.2.4 — A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
SB 12.2.5 — A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
SB 12.2.6 — A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
SB 12.2.7 — As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
SB 12.2.8 — Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests.
SB 12.2.9 — Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.
SB 12.2.10 — The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety.
SB 12.2.11 — The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.
SB 12.2.12-16 — By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.
SB 12.2.17 — Lord Viṣṇu — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of all — takes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintly devotees from the reactions of material work.
SB 12.2.18 — Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.
SB 12.2.19-20 — Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.
SB 12.2.21 — After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
SB 12.2.22 — When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.
SB 12.2.23 — When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.
SB 12.2.24 — When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.
SB 12.2.25 — Thus I have described all the kings — past, present and future — who belong to the dynasties of the sun and the moon.
SB 12.2.26 — From your birth up to the coronation of King Nanda, 1,150 years will pass.
SB 12.2.27-28 — Of the seven stars forming the constellation of the seven sages, Pulaha and Kratu are the first to rise in the night sky. If a line running north and south were drawn through their midpoint, whichever of the lunar mansions this line passes through is said to be the ruling asterism of the constellation for that time. The Seven Sages will remain connected with that particular lunar mansion for one hundred human years. Currently, during your lifetime, they are situated in the nakṣatra called Maghā.
SB 12.2.29 — The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is brilliant like the sun and is known as Kṛṣṇa. When He returned to the spiritual sky, Kali entered this world, and people then began to take pleasure in sinful activities.
SB 12.2.30 — As long as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, touched the earth with His lotus feet, Kali was powerless to subdue this planet.
SB 12.2.31 — When the constellation of the seven sages is passing through the lunar mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve hundred years of the demigods.
SB 12.2.32 — When the great sages of the Saptarṣi constellation pass from Maghā to Pūrvāsāḍhā, Kali will have his full strength, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.
SB 12.2.33 — Those who scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali began.
SB 12.2.34 — After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.
SB 12.2.35 — Thus I have described the royal dynasty of Manu, as it is known on this earth. One can similarly study the history of the vaiśyas, śūdras and brāhmaṇas living in the various ages.
SB 12.2.36 — These personalities, who were great souls, are now known only by their names. They exist only in accounts from the past, and only their fame remains on the earth.
SB 12.2.37 — Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.38 — At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.
SB 12.2.39 — The cycle of four ages — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali — continues perpetually among living beings on this earth, repeating the same general sequence of events.
SB 12.2.40 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings I have described, as well as all other human beings, come to this earth and stake their claims, but ultimately they all must give up this world and meet their destruction.
SB 12.2.41 — Even though a person’s body may now have the designation “king,” in the end its name will be “worms,” “stool” or “ashes.” What can a person who injures other living beings for the sake of his body know about his own self-interest, since his activities are simply leading him to hell?
SB 12.2.42 — [The materialistic king thinks:] “This unbounded earth was held by my predecessors and is now under my sovereignty. How can I arrange for it to remain in the hands of my sons, grandsons and other descendants?”
SB 12.2.43 — Although the foolish accept the body made of earth, water and fire as “me” and this earth as “mine,” in every case they have ultimately abandoned both their body and the earth and passed away into oblivion.
SB 12.2.44 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 12, chapter 2
#InternationalRebellionWeek #srimadbhagavatam
Thank you for viewing. If you like please fav and leave a nice comment. Hope to see you here again. Have a wonderful day 😊
Oxford Circus, London 🇬🇧
18th April, 2019
Unlike Caesar who is quoted as saying, “Veni, vidi, vici,” often translated as, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” with some suggesting, “Wehnee, Weekee, Weechee,” as a guide to pronunciation, I here repeat that unlike Caesar I came I saw I danced and sang and then fearful and forlornly I add that suddenly I found that I was all alone, alone with the stone.
There are no people in the photograph, which helps set a mood.
I did not dance and sing people away. This monument of the dead is given due reverence and sometimes too much dower demeanour when a glimmering glamour between the glower fits well the celebration of life and the appreciation of death. I did not dance and sing the people away. I waited til they had other places to be and then I made Dead Merry to honour the ones I love with unbounded stellar affection. Nothing was conquered in Caesarian fashion and rather everything was acknowledged with admiration, adoration and affirmation.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Clava Cairns Near Inverness, IV2 5EU
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-c...
A Visitors’ Guide to Balnuaran of Clava a prehistoric cemetery
www.archhighland.org.uk/userfiles/file/Sites/Historic%20S...
Balnuaran Of Clava, North-east
canmore.org.uk/site/14257/balnuaran-of-clava-north-east
Highland Historic Environment Record
Clàr Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil na Gàidhealtachd
The Symptoms of Kali-yuga
This chapter relates that, when the bad qualities of the Age of Kali will increase to an intolerable level, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will descend as Kalki to destroy those who are fixed in irreligion. After that, a new Satya-yuga will begin.
As the Age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like śūdras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
When the Age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Śambhala, in the home of the exalted brāhmaṇa Viṣṇuyaśā, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Bṛhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Puṣyā, Satya-yuga will begin. In the order of Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the cycle of four ages rotates in the society of living entities in this universe.
The chapter ends with a brief description of the future dynasties of the sun and moon coming from Vaivasvata Manu in the next Satya-yuga. Even now two saintly kṣatriyas are living who at the end of this Kali-yuga will reinitiate the pious dynasties of the sun-god, Vivasvān, and the moon-god, Candra. One of these kings is Devāpi, a brother of Mahārāja Śantanu, and the other is Maru, a descendant of Ikṣvāku. They are biding their time incognito in a village named Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.
SB 12.2.2 — In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.
SB 12.2.3 — Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread.
SB 12.2.4 — A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
SB 12.2.5 — A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
SB 12.2.6 — A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
SB 12.2.7 — As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
SB 12.2.8 — Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests.
SB 12.2.9 — Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.
SB 12.2.10 — The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety.
SB 12.2.11 — The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.
SB 12.2.12-16 — By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.
SB 12.2.17 — Lord Viṣṇu — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of all — takes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintly devotees from the reactions of material work.
SB 12.2.18 — Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.
SB 12.2.19-20 — Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.
SB 12.2.21 — After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
SB 12.2.22 — When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.
SB 12.2.23 — When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.
SB 12.2.24 — When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.
SB 12.2.25 — Thus I have described all the kings — past, present and future — who belong to the dynasties of the sun and the moon.
SB 12.2.26 — From your birth up to the coronation of King Nanda, 1,150 years will pass.
SB 12.2.27-28 — Of the seven stars forming the constellation of the seven sages, Pulaha and Kratu are the first to rise in the night sky. If a line running north and south were drawn through their midpoint, whichever of the lunar mansions this line passes through is said to be the ruling asterism of the constellation for that time. The Seven Sages will remain connected with that particular lunar mansion for one hundred human years. Currently, during your lifetime, they are situated in the nakṣatra called Maghā.
SB 12.2.29 — The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is brilliant like the sun and is known as Kṛṣṇa. When He returned to the spiritual sky, Kali entered this world, and people then began to take pleasure in sinful activities.
SB 12.2.30 — As long as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, touched the earth with His lotus feet, Kali was powerless to subdue this planet.
SB 12.2.31 — When the constellation of the seven sages is passing through the lunar mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve hundred years of the demigods.
SB 12.2.32 — When the great sages of the Saptarṣi constellation pass from Maghā to Pūrvāsāḍhā, Kali will have his full strength, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.
SB 12.2.33 — Those who scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali began.
SB 12.2.34 — After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.
SB 12.2.35 — Thus I have described the royal dynasty of Manu, as it is known on this earth. One can similarly study the history of the vaiśyas, śūdras and brāhmaṇas living in the various ages.
SB 12.2.36 — These personalities, who were great souls, are now known only by their names. They exist only in accounts from the past, and only their fame remains on the earth.
SB 12.2.37 — Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.38 — At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.
SB 12.2.39 — The cycle of four ages — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali — continues perpetually among living beings on this earth, repeating the same general sequence of events.
SB 12.2.40 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings I have described, as well as all other human beings, come to this earth and stake their claims, but ultimately they all must give up this world and meet their destruction.
SB 12.2.41 — Even though a person’s body may now have the designation “king,” in the end its name will be “worms,” “stool” or “ashes.” What can a person who injures other living beings for the sake of his body know about his own self-interest, since his activities are simply leading him to hell?
SB 12.2.42 — [The materialistic king thinks:] “This unbounded earth was held by my predecessors and is now under my sovereignty. How can I arrange for it to remain in the hands of my sons, grandsons and other descendants?”
SB 12.2.43 — Although the foolish accept the body made of earth, water and fire as “me” and this earth as “mine,” in every case they have ultimately abandoned both their body and the earth and passed away into oblivion.
SB 12.2.44 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 12, chapter 2
#InternationalRebellionWeek #srimadbhagavatam
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Oxford Circus, London 🇬🇧
18th April, 2019
第八十三屆臺陽美術特展
畫題: 無界 Unbounded
作者: 林亮吟
攝於: 國立國父紀念館博愛藝廊
National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Bo-ai Gallery
Śrī Govardhana-vāsa-prārthanā-daśakam
Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī
nija-pati-bhuja-daṇḍa-cchatra-bhāvaṁ prapadya
prati-hata-mada-dhṛṣṭoddaṇḍa-devendra-garva
atula-pṛthula-śaila-śreṇi-bhūpa! priyaṁ me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (1)
You became like an umbrella on the handle of your Lord’s arm, thus obliterating the pride of Devarāja Indra, who had become impudent, intoxicated by his own majesty. You are without comparison, the great king of mountains. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
pramada-madana-līlāḥ kandare-kandare te
racayati nava-yūnor dvandvam asminn amandam
iti kila kalanārthaṁ lagnakas tad-dvayor me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (2)
The youthful Divine Couple perform delightful amorous pastimes within each and every one of your caves. Thus, since you facilitate the witnessing of Their līlās, O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
anupama-maṇi-vedī-ratna-siṁhāsanorvī-
ruhajhara-dara-sānu-droṇi-saṅgheṣu raṅgaiḥ
saha bala-sakhibhiḥ saṅkhelayan sva-priyaṁ me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (3)
Upon your incomparable gem-studded platforms and jeweled thrones, in your broad open spaces, in the shade of your trees, by your waterfalls and streams, upon your crests, and in your valleys, your dear Śrī Kṛṣṇa, accompanied by Balarāma and all the sakhās, enjoys playful sports. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
rasa-nidhi-nava-yūnoḥ sākṣiṇīṁ dāna-keler
dyuti-parimala-viddhāṁ śyāma-vedīṁ prakāśya
rasika-vara-kulānāṁ modam āsphālayan me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (4)
Upon witnessing the dāna-keli-līlā (playful tax pastime) of the Youthful Couple, who are a treasure-house of rasa, you manifested a fragrant, lustrous, black raised platform [in order to facilitate that sweet līlā]. Thus you increase the joy of exalted rasika devotees. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
hari-dayitam apūrvaṁ rādhikā-kuṇḍam ātma-
priya-sakham iha kaṇṭhe narmaṇāliṅgya guptaḥ
nava-yuva-yuga-khelās tatra paśyan raho me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (5)
Unprecedented Rādhā-kuṇḍa is most dear to Śrī Hari and is also your dear friend. Playfully embracing Rādhā-kuṇḍa to your neck, you remain hidden there while watching the ever-youthful Divine Couple enjoy sportive pastimes in that secret place. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
sthala-jala-tala-śaṣpair bhūruhac-chāyayā ca
prati-padam anukālaṁ hanta samvardhayan gāḥ
tri-jagati nija-gotraṁ sārthakaṁ khyāpayan me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (6)
With your fields, ponds, roots, grass, and the shade of your trees, you nourish the cows at every moment. In this way, you make your name10 successful and known throughout the three worlds. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
sura-pati-kṛta-dīrgha-drohato goṣṭha-rakṣāṁ
tava nava-gṛha-rūpasyāntare kurvataiva
agha-baka-ripuṇoccair dattamāna! drutaṁ me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (7)
Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the enemy of Aghāsura and Bakāsura, showed you great honor, turning you into a new home by holding you aloft, thus protecting the vrajavāsīs from the deep hostility of Indra. Without delay, O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
giri-nṛpa! haridāsa-śreṇī-varyeti nāmā-
mṛtam idam uditaṁ śrī-rādhikā-vaktra-candrāt
vraja-nava-tilakatve kḷpta vedaiḥ sphuṭaṁ me
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (8)
O Girirāja! Your sweet title haridāsa-varya (best of the servants of Śrī Hari) issued from the moon-like face of Śrīmatī Rādhikā.11 The Vedas have clearly determined you to be the fresh tilaka of Vraja. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
nija-jana-yuta-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-maitrī-rasākta
vraja-nara-paśu-pakṣi-vrāta-saukhyaika-dātaḥ
agaṇita-karuṇatvān mām urī-kṛtya tāntaṁ
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (9)
You are absorbed in the mellow of friendship with Śrī Śrī Rādhā Kṛṣṇa and Their intimate associates. It is you alone who bestow happiness upon the men, women, animals, and birds of Vraja. Out of your unbounded kindness, accept me, who am full of distress. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
nirupadhi-karuṇena śrī śacī-nandanena
tvayi kapaṭi-śaṭho ’pi tvat-priyeṇārpito ’smi
iti khalu mama yogyāyogyatāṁ tām agṛhṇan
nija-nikaṭa-nivāsaṁ dehi govardhana! tvam (10)
The causelessly merciful Śrī Śacīnandana, who is most dear to you, has offered me to you. Therefore, although I am deceitful and wicked, do not consider my qualification or lack thereof. O Govardhana, please give me residence by your side.
rasada-daśakam asya śrīla-govardhanasya
kṣiti-dhara-kula-bhartur yaḥ prayatnād adhīte
sa sapadi sukhade ’smin vāsam āsādya sākṣāc-
chubhada-yugala-sevā-ratnam āpnoti tūrṇam (11)
One who with careful intent recites these ten verses about Govardhana, lord of the dynasty of mountains, which bestow rasa, will at once attain joyful residence by his side and the auspicious jewel of direct service to the Divine Couple.
10 Go means ‘cows’ and vardhana means ‘to nourish.’
11 See Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.21.18).
Thank you for viewing. If you like please fav and leave a nice comment. Hope to see you here again. Have a wonderful day 😊
Gangamatas Gaudiya Matha / The Bhakti Yoga Centre, Walthamstow, London 🇬🇧
11th November, 2018
The Symptoms of Kali-yuga
This chapter relates that, when the bad qualities of the Age of Kali will increase to an intolerable level, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will descend as Kalki to destroy those who are fixed in irreligion. After that, a new Satya-yuga will begin.
As the Age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like śūdras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
When the Age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Śambhala, in the home of the exalted brāhmaṇa Viṣṇuyaśā, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Bṛhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Puṣyā, Satya-yuga will begin. In the order of Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the cycle of four ages rotates in the society of living entities in this universe.
The chapter ends with a brief description of the future dynasties of the sun and moon coming from Vaivasvata Manu in the next Satya-yuga. Even now two saintly kṣatriyas are living who at the end of this Kali-yuga will reinitiate the pious dynasties of the sun-god, Vivasvān, and the moon-god, Candra. One of these kings is Devāpi, a brother of Mahārāja Śantanu, and the other is Maru, a descendant of Ikṣvāku. They are biding their time incognito in a village named Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.
SB 12.2.2 — In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.
SB 12.2.3 — Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread.
SB 12.2.4 — A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
SB 12.2.5 — A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
SB 12.2.6 — A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
SB 12.2.7 — As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
SB 12.2.8 — Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests.
SB 12.2.9 — Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.
SB 12.2.10 — The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety.
SB 12.2.11 — The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.
SB 12.2.12-16 — By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.
SB 12.2.17 — Lord Viṣṇu — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of all — takes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintly devotees from the reactions of material work.
SB 12.2.18 — Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.
SB 12.2.19-20 — Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.
SB 12.2.21 — After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
SB 12.2.22 — When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.
SB 12.2.23 — When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.
SB 12.2.24 — When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.
SB 12.2.25 — Thus I have described all the kings — past, present and future — who belong to the dynasties of the sun and the moon.
SB 12.2.26 — From your birth up to the coronation of King Nanda, 1,150 years will pass.
SB 12.2.27-28 — Of the seven stars forming the constellation of the seven sages, Pulaha and Kratu are the first to rise in the night sky. If a line running north and south were drawn through their midpoint, whichever of the lunar mansions this line passes through is said to be the ruling asterism of the constellation for that time. The Seven Sages will remain connected with that particular lunar mansion for one hundred human years. Currently, during your lifetime, they are situated in the nakṣatra called Maghā.
SB 12.2.29 — The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is brilliant like the sun and is known as Kṛṣṇa. When He returned to the spiritual sky, Kali entered this world, and people then began to take pleasure in sinful activities.
SB 12.2.30 — As long as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, touched the earth with His lotus feet, Kali was powerless to subdue this planet.
SB 12.2.31 — When the constellation of the seven sages is passing through the lunar mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve hundred years of the demigods.
SB 12.2.32 — When the great sages of the Saptarṣi constellation pass from Maghā to Pūrvāsāḍhā, Kali will have his full strength, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.
SB 12.2.33 — Those who scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali began.
SB 12.2.34 — After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.
SB 12.2.35 — Thus I have described the royal dynasty of Manu, as it is known on this earth. One can similarly study the history of the vaiśyas, śūdras and brāhmaṇas living in the various ages.
SB 12.2.36 — These personalities, who were great souls, are now known only by their names. They exist only in accounts from the past, and only their fame remains on the earth.
SB 12.2.37 — Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.38 — At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.
SB 12.2.39 — The cycle of four ages — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali — continues perpetually among living beings on this earth, repeating the same general sequence of events.
SB 12.2.40 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings I have described, as well as all other human beings, come to this earth and stake their claims, but ultimately they all must give up this world and meet their destruction.
SB 12.2.41 — Even though a person’s body may now have the designation “king,” in the end its name will be “worms,” “stool” or “ashes.” What can a person who injures other living beings for the sake of his body know about his own self-interest, since his activities are simply leading him to hell?
SB 12.2.42 — [The materialistic king thinks:] “This unbounded earth was held by my predecessors and is now under my sovereignty. How can I arrange for it to remain in the hands of my sons, grandsons and other descendants?”
SB 12.2.43 — Although the foolish accept the body made of earth, water and fire as “me” and this earth as “mine,” in every case they have ultimately abandoned both their body and the earth and passed away into oblivion.
SB 12.2.44 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 12, chapter 2
#InternationalRebellionWeek #srimadbhagavatam
Thank you for viewing. If you like please fav and leave a nice comment. Hope to see you here again. Have a wonderful day 😊
Oxford Circus, London 🇬🇧
18th April, 2019
The Symptoms of Kali-yuga
This chapter relates that, when the bad qualities of the Age of Kali will increase to an intolerable level, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will descend as Kalki to destroy those who are fixed in irreligion. After that, a new Satya-yuga will begin.
As the Age of Kali progresses, all good qualities of men diminish and all impure qualities increase. Atheistic systems of so-called religion become predominant, replacing the codes of Vedic law. The kings become just like highway bandits, the people in general become dedicated to low occupations, and all the social classes become just like śūdras. All cows become like goats, all spiritual hermitages become like materialistic homes, and family ties extend no further than the immediate relationship of marriage.
When the Age of Kali has almost ended, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will incarnate. He will appear in the village Śambhala, in the home of the exalted brāhmaṇa Viṣṇuyaśā, and will take the name Kalki. He will mount His horse Devadatta and, taking His sword in hand, will roam about the earth killing millions of bandits in the guise of kings. Then the signs of the next Satya-yuga will begin to appear. When the moon, sun and the planet Bṛhaspati enter simultaneously into one constellation and conjoin in the lunar mansion Puṣyā, Satya-yuga will begin. In the order of Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the cycle of four ages rotates in the society of living entities in this universe.
The chapter ends with a brief description of the future dynasties of the sun and moon coming from Vaivasvata Manu in the next Satya-yuga. Even now two saintly kṣatriyas are living who at the end of this Kali-yuga will reinitiate the pious dynasties of the sun-god, Vivasvān, and the moon-god, Candra. One of these kings is Devāpi, a brother of Mahārāja Śantanu, and the other is Maru, a descendant of Ikṣvāku. They are biding their time incognito in a village named Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.1 — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Then, O King, religion, truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance, mercy, duration of life, physical strength and memory will all diminish day by day because of the powerful influence of the Age of Kali.
SB 12.2.2 — In Kali-yuga, wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man’s good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one’s power.
SB 12.2.3 — Men and women will live together merely because of superficial attraction, and success in business will depend on deceit. Womanliness and manliness will be judged according to one’s expertise in sex, and a man will be known as a brāhmaṇa just by his wearing a thread.
SB 12.2.4 — A person’s spiritual position will be ascertained merely according to external symbols, and on that same basis people will change from one spiritual order to the next. A person’s propriety will be seriously questioned if he does not earn a good living. And one who is very clever at juggling words will be considered a learned scholar.
SB 12.2.5 — A person will be judged unholy if he does not have money, and hypocrisy will be accepted as virtue. Marriage will be arranged simply by verbal agreement, and a person will think he is fit to appear in public if he has merely taken a bath.
SB 12.2.6 — A sacred place will be taken to consist of no more than a reservoir of water located at a distance, and beauty will be thought to depend on one’s hairstyle. Filling the belly will become the goal of life, and one who is audacious will be accepted as truthful. He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man, and the principles of religion will be observed only for the sake of reputation.
SB 12.2.7 — As the earth thus becomes crowded with a corrupt population, whoever among any of the social classes shows himself to be the strongest will gain political power.
SB 12.2.8 — Losing their wives and properties to such avaricious and merciless rulers, who will behave no better than ordinary thieves, the citizens will flee to the mountains and forests.
SB 12.2.9 — Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined.
SB 12.2.10 — The citizens will suffer greatly from cold, wind, heat, rain and snow. They will be further tormented by quarrels, hunger, thirst, disease and severe anxiety.
SB 12.2.11 — The maximum duration of life for human beings in Kali-yuga will become fifty years.
SB 12.2.12-16 — By the time the Age of Kali ends, the bodies of all creatures will be greatly reduced in size, and the religious principles of followers of varṇāśrama will be ruined. The path of the Vedas will be completely forgotten in human society, and so-called religion will be mostly atheistic. The kings will mostly be thieves, the occupations of men will be stealing, lying and needless violence, and all the social classes will be reduced to the lowest level of śūdras. Cows will be like goats, spiritual hermitages will be no different from mundane houses, and family ties will extend no further than the immediate bonds of marriage. Most plants and herbs will be tiny, and all trees will appear like dwarf śamī trees. Clouds will be full of lightning, homes will be devoid of piety, and all human beings will have become like asses. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead will appear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He will rescue eternal religion.
SB 12.2.17 — Lord Viṣṇu — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritual master of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of all — takes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintly devotees from the reactions of material work.
SB 12.2.18 — Lord Kalki will appear in the home of the most eminent brāhmaṇa of Śambhala village, the great soul Viṣṇuyaśā.
SB 12.2.19-20 — Lord Kalki, the Lord of the universe, will mount His swift horse Devadatta and, sword in hand, travel over the earth exhibiting His eight mystic opulences and eight special qualities of Godhead. Displaying His unequaled effulgence and riding with great speed, He will kill by the millions those thieves who have dared dress as kings.
SB 12.2.21 — After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vāsudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
SB 12.2.22 — When Lord Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, appears in their hearts in His transcendental form of goodness, the remaining citizens will abundantly repopulate the earth.
SB 12.2.23 — When the Supreme Lord has appeared on earth as Kalki, the maintainer of religion, Satya-yuga will begin, and human society will bring forth progeny in the mode of goodness.
SB 12.2.24 — When the moon, the sun and Bṛhaspatī are together in the constellation Karkaṭa, and all three enter simultaneously into the lunar mansion Puṣyā — at that exact moment the age of Satya, or Kṛta, will begin.
SB 12.2.25 — Thus I have described all the kings — past, present and future — who belong to the dynasties of the sun and the moon.
SB 12.2.26 — From your birth up to the coronation of King Nanda, 1,150 years will pass.
SB 12.2.27-28 — Of the seven stars forming the constellation of the seven sages, Pulaha and Kratu are the first to rise in the night sky. If a line running north and south were drawn through their midpoint, whichever of the lunar mansions this line passes through is said to be the ruling asterism of the constellation for that time. The Seven Sages will remain connected with that particular lunar mansion for one hundred human years. Currently, during your lifetime, they are situated in the nakṣatra called Maghā.
SB 12.2.29 — The Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu, is brilliant like the sun and is known as Kṛṣṇa. When He returned to the spiritual sky, Kali entered this world, and people then began to take pleasure in sinful activities.
SB 12.2.30 — As long as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the husband of the goddess of fortune, touched the earth with His lotus feet, Kali was powerless to subdue this planet.
SB 12.2.31 — When the constellation of the seven sages is passing through the lunar mansion Maghā, the Age of Kali begins. It comprises twelve hundred years of the demigods.
SB 12.2.32 — When the great sages of the Saptarṣi constellation pass from Maghā to Pūrvāsāḍhā, Kali will have his full strength, beginning from King Nanda and his dynasty.
SB 12.2.33 — Those who scientifically understand the past declare that on the very day that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa departed for the spiritual world, the influence of the Age of Kali began.
SB 12.2.34 — After the one thousand celestial years of Kali-yuga, the Satya-yuga will manifest again. At that time the minds of all men will become self-effulgent.
SB 12.2.35 — Thus I have described the royal dynasty of Manu, as it is known on this earth. One can similarly study the history of the vaiśyas, śūdras and brāhmaṇas living in the various ages.
SB 12.2.36 — These personalities, who were great souls, are now known only by their names. They exist only in accounts from the past, and only their fame remains on the earth.
SB 12.2.37 — Devāpi, the brother of Mahārāja Śāntanu, and Maru, the descendant of Ikṣvāku, both possess great mystic strength and are living even now in the village of Kalāpa.
SB 12.2.38 — At the end of the Age of Kali, these two kings, having received instruction directly from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, will return to human society and reestablish the eternal religion of man, characterized by the divisions of varṇa and āśrama, just as it was before.
SB 12.2.39 — The cycle of four ages — Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali — continues perpetually among living beings on this earth, repeating the same general sequence of events.
SB 12.2.40 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings I have described, as well as all other human beings, come to this earth and stake their claims, but ultimately they all must give up this world and meet their destruction.
SB 12.2.41 — Even though a person’s body may now have the designation “king,” in the end its name will be “worms,” “stool” or “ashes.” What can a person who injures other living beings for the sake of his body know about his own self-interest, since his activities are simply leading him to hell?
SB 12.2.42 — [The materialistic king thinks:] “This unbounded earth was held by my predecessors and is now under my sovereignty. How can I arrange for it to remain in the hands of my sons, grandsons and other descendants?”
SB 12.2.43 — Although the foolish accept the body made of earth, water and fire as “me” and this earth as “mine,” in every case they have ultimately abandoned both their body and the earth and passed away into oblivion.
SB 12.2.44 — My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
~ Srimad Bhagavatam, canto 12, chapter 2
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