STORY IN WATER COLOURS BY VISUAL ARTIST - DESIGNER- SWAPNIL
Laughing Buddha
The Role of the Laughing Buddha in a Good Feng Shui Home
There are few feng shui cures as popular and as universal in their application as the Laughing Buddha. Used as a feng shui to bring good luck, abundance, happiness, success, good health; any feng shui bagua area can benefit from the sparkling energy of the Laughing Buddha.
But first, have you asked yourself why is the Buddha laughing? Aren't Buddhas suppose to be serene and peacefully looking within?
Apparently not all of them. The Laughing Buddha feng shui symbol is based on the story of a Buddhist monk who lived in the 10th century China. He was a bit too eccentric for a monk, but his heart was loving and open, and in time he came to be loved by many. He is considered a reincarnation of Gautama Buddha (the historical Buddha); and added the often missing energy of lightheartedness, joy, and laughter to everyday life.
These statues are also called the Happy, the Hotei or the Traveling Buddha, the Laughing Buddha and are often depicted with gold ingots, a Wu Lou (Chinese gourd), a sack of treasures or surrounded by children. And, of course, a big belly!
The Laughing Buddha at Home
You can find the Laughing Buddha in a variety of feng shui products from statues and bells to key chains and jewelry. If you want to use a statue of the Laughing Buddha in your home, where and how would you place it?
What materials should you go for -- metal, resin or wood? Does it matter? Yes, every detail matters if you want to create good feng shui in your home.
The most common feng shui use of the Laughing Buddha is a cure for wealth and good luck. The symbol of Laughing Buddha is considered to bring auspicious energy, wealth, and joyful blessings anywhere it is placed, so now you know why you can usually see at least one Laughing Buddha in Chinese restaurants, for example.
Using the Laughing Buddha Statue as a Feng Shui Cure for Your Home
First, you must decide on best materials and colors for your decor. You can find feng shui statues in a variety of materials, from resin to metal, rock crystal and even porcelain, and the Laughing Buddha statues and figurines are no exception.
Attract and Strengthen Feng Shui Energy With the Laughing Buddha
Do you want to attract more wealth energy? Then look for a statue of Laughing Buddha with gold ingots and place it in the money area of your home. Is your focus on vibrant health? Choose a Laughing Buddha with a Wu Lou in his hand and place the statue in your health feng shui bagua area.
Where to Display Your Laughing Buddha
One of the best feng shui locations for a Laughing Buddha is close to the front door so that you can see it as you come home. It is not a good idea to display your Buddha in the bathroom or the master bedroom. As Laughing Buddha is considered to be a patron of children, it can be good feng shui to have a small statue in your children's room (if they like it); or in the study. You want to show your statue the proper respect, which means never placing it on the floor.
If you love the Laughing Buddha energy and are looking to buy a statue for your home, go for a big one, at least 2-3 feet.
This way, you would actually be able to rub the Buddha belly for luck! The big Buddha belly that can hold deep laughter, as well as stomach all your troubles and transmute them into happiness.
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Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha was a spiritual leader on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived in eastern India/ Nepal during the 6th to 4th century B.C. Born as a prince, he spent his childhood in the lap of luxury. He lost his mother at an early age and his doting father tried his best to keep his young son away from the miseries of the world. When he was a little boy, some wise scholars predicted that he would become either a great king or a renowned spiritual leader. His father hoped that his son would one day become a great king. The prince was kept away from all forms of religious knowledge and had no idea about the concepts of old age, sickness and death. Once on a trip through the city on a chariot he witnessed an old man, a diseased person, and a corpse. This new knowledge about the sufferings in the world gave rise to several questions within his mind and the prince soon renounced all his worldly affairs in order to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Finally after years of rigorous contemplation and meditation, he found Enlightenment, and became the Buddha, meaning “awakened one" or "the enlightened one".
Childhood & Early Life
Several details regarding Gautama Buddha’s early life are shrouded in mystery. He is believed to have been born in Lumbini (today, modern Nepal) in the 6th century B.C. His birth name was Siddhartha Gautama and he was born as a prince. His father, King Suddhodana, was leader of a large clan called the Shakya and his mother was Queen Maya. His mother died shortly after his birth.
When Siddhartha was a little boy, learned seers prophesized that the boy would either be a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. His father wanted Siddhartha to become a great king, so he raised him in the lap of luxury and shielded him from religious knowledge of any kind.
His father did not want Siddhartha to learn about human hardships and sufferings as he was afraid that such knowledge might propel the boy towards spirituality. So, he took great care to ensure that his son was raised in seclusion and kept away from knowledge of processes like aging and death.
Having spent all of his life confined to his palace, young Siddhartha grew curious and asked a charioteer to take him on a tour of the city. While travelling through the city he came across an old crippled man, a sick man, a dead man, and a holy man with no home.
These sights shocked him as he had no prior knowledge about the concepts of sickness, old age, death, and asceticism. The charioteer explained to him that sickness, aging and death were a part and parcel of life, and that some people renounce their worldly life in order to seek answers to questions regarding human sufferings.
Siddhartha was very troubled after witnessing these sights. The opulence of palace life no longer interested him and he realized that he had to seek the ultimate truth.
Later Life
At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace and family to lead an ascetic life. He thought that living a life of self-denial will provide him with the answers he was looking for. For the next six years he lived a life of extreme austerity, eating very little food and fasting till he became very weak.
Over these years he also gained five followers with whom he practiced rigorous austerity. In spite of living such a simple life and subjecting himself to great physical sufferings, Siddhartha was not successful in getting the answers he sought.
After starving himself for days he once accepted a bowl of rice from a young girl. After having this meal he realized that living under harsh physical constraints was not helping him achieve his spiritual goals, and following a path of balance was better than living a lifestyle of extreme self-denial. His followers, however, abandoned him believing that he had given up on his spiritual quest.
Following this he started meditating under a fig tree (now called the Bodhi tree) and promised himself that he would not move until he had found enlightenment. He meditated for several days and saw his entire life and previous lives in his thoughts.
After meditating for 49 days, he finally realized the answer to the questions of suffering that he had been seeking for so many years. He found pure enlightenment, and in that moment of enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha ("he who is awake").
At the time of his enlightenment he gained complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. He called these steps the "Four Noble Truths". Legend has it that initially Buddha was reluctant to spread his knowledge to others as he was doubtful of whether the common people would understand his teachings. But then the king of gods, Brahma, convinced Buddha to teach, and he set out to do that.
He went to the Deer Park in Isipatana where he found the five companions who had earlier abandoned him. He preached his first sermon to them and the others who had gathered there. In his sermon, he focused on the Four Noble Truths: Dukkha (suffering), Samudaya (cause for suffering), Nirodha (state of mind free from suffering) and Marga (way to end suffering).
He further explained the Marga in his Eightfold Path to end the cravings which cause suffering. He taught that “Truth” is found through the Middle Way by way of the Noble Eightfold Path. The path includes Right Viewpoint, Right Values, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, and Right Mindfulness among others. Gautama Buddha spent the rest of his life travelling, teaching a diverse range of people from nobles to criminals.
Major Work
Gautama Buddha is a major figure in Buddhism. The religion of Buddhism has its foundation in his teachings; he gave the Four Noble Truths which express the basic orientation of Buddhism and provide a conceptual framework of the Buddhist thought, and proposed the Eightfold Path to end suffering.
Personal Life & Legacy
When Siddhartha was 16, his father arranged his marriage with a girl of the same age named Yaśodharā. This marriage produced one son, Rahula. He eventually renounced his family when he embarked on a spiritual journey as an ascetic.
Buddha, later on reconciled with his father, King Suddhodana. His wife became a nun while his son became a novice monk at the age of seven and spent the rest of his life with his father.
Gautama Buddha is believed to have died at the age of 80. At the time of his death he told his followers that they should not follow any leader.
He was a highly influential figure in world history. The principal figure in Buddhism, he is also worshipped as a manifestation of God in Hinduism, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Bahá'í faith.
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SHRI MAHALASA NARAYANI
SHRI MAHALASA NARAYANI is the powerful Kuladevata (family deity) of many Hindus, especially in western and southern India.
‘Mahalasa’ is another name for the Supreme Lord Vishnu’s famous avatar (incarnation): Mohini, the Enchantress.
Temples dedicated to the worship of Shri Mahalasa Narayani are present in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and many other places.
The most popular temple of Supreme Mother Mahalasa is at Mardol in Goa, which is over 450 years old. Other temples, like the ones in Kumta and Basrur, both in Karnataka, are also said to be over 400 years old.
Yet, Shri Mahalasa Narayani has other ancient and historic temples dedicated to Her, including at Nevase in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, where she is known as Shri Mohiniraj of the Amrut Manthan (the epic churning of the ocean) fame. It is believed that it is from Nevase that Shri Mahalasa Narayani came to Verna in Gomantak, that is present-day Goa. Before Nevase, there is a Mohini temple in Nepal, near the world-famous Pashupatinath temple.
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Narasimha
Narasimha is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, one who incarnates in the form of part lion and part man to destroy an evil, end religious persecution and calamity on Earth, thereby restoring Dharma.
Narasimha iconography shows him with a human torso and lower body, with a lion face and claws, typically with a demon Hiranyakashipu in his lap whom he is in the process of killing. The demon is powerful brother of evil Hiranyaksha who had been previously killed by Vishnu, who hated Vishnu for killing his brother. Hiranyakashipu gains special powers by which he could not be killed during the day or night, inside or outside, by god, demon, man or animal. Coronated with his new powers, Hiranyakashipu creates chaos, persecutes all devotees of Vishnu including his own son. Vishnu understands the demon's power, then creatively adapts into a mixed avatar that is neither man nor animal and kills the demon at the junction of day and night, inside and outside. Narasimha is known primarily as the 'Great Protector' who specifically defends and protects his devotees from evil. The most popular Narasimha mythology is the legend that protects his devotee Prahlada, and creatively destroys Prahlada's demonic father and tyrant Hiranyakashipu.
Narasimha legends are revered in Vaishnavism, but he is a popular deity beyond the Vaishnava tradition such as in Shaivism. He is celebrated in many regional Hindu temples, texts, performance arts and festivals such as Holika prior to the Hindu spring festival of colors called Holi. The oldest known artwork of Narasimha has been found at several sites across Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, such as at the Mathura archaelogical site.
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Nataraja
Nataraja is a depiction of the Shaivism Supreme God Shiva as the cosmic ecstatic dancer. His dance is called Tandavam or Nadanta, depending on the context of the dance.
The Pose and artwork is described and explained in Tweleve Shaivism Thirumuraigal Tirumurai and Shaiva Siddhanta Sathirangal Shaiva Siddhanta.
The classical form of the depiction appears in stone reliefs, as at the Ellora Caves and the Badami Caves, by around the 6th-century. Around the 10th century, it emerged in Tamil Nadu in its mature and best-known expression in Chola bronzes, of various heights typically less than four feet, some over.The Nataraja reliefs have been identified in historic artwork from many parts of South Asia, in southeast Asia such as in Bali, Cambodia, and in central Asia.
The sculpture is symbolic of Shiva as the lord of dance and dramatic arts,with its style and proportions made according to Shaivism texts on arts. It typically shows Shiva dancing in one of the Natya Shastra poses, holding Agni (fire) in his left back hand, the front hand in gajahasta or dandahasta mudra, the front right hand with a wrapped snake that is in abhaya (fear not) mudra while pointing to a Sutra text, and the back hand holding a musical instrument usually a damaru. His body, fingers, ankles, neck, face, head, ear lobes and dress are shown decorated with symbolic items, which vary with historic period and region. He is surrounded by a ring of flames, standing on a lotus pedestal, lifting his right leg and balancing over a demon shown as a dwarf (Apasmara or Muyalaka) who symbolizes ignorance and illusion. The dynamism of the energetic dance is depicted with the whirling hair which spread out in thin strands as a fan behind his head. The details in the Nataraja artwork has been variously interpreted by Indian scholars since the 12th-century for its symbolic meaning and theological essence.
Nataraja is a well known sculptural symbol in India and popularly used as a symbol of Indian culture.
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Kali Mata
Kālī is a Hindu goddess. Kali is one of the ten Mahavidyas, a list which combines Sakta and Buddhist goddesses.
Kali's earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. She is the goddess of one of the four subcategories of the Kulamārga, a category of tantric Saivism. Over time, she has been worshipped by devotional movements and tantric sects variously as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, Adi Shakti, or Adi Parashakti.Shakta Hindu and Tantric sects additionally worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also seen as divine protector and the one who bestows moksha, or liberation. Kali is often portrayed standing or dancing on her consort, the Hindu god Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her. Kali is worshipped by Hindus throughout India.
Iconography and forms
Kali is portrayed mostly in two forms: the popular four-armed form and the ten-armed Mahakali form. In both of her forms, she is described as being black in colour but is most often depicted as blue in popular Indian art. Her eyes are described as red with intoxication, and in absolute rage, her hair is shown disheveled, small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth, and her tongue is lolling. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads. She is also accompanied by serpents and a jackal while standing on the calm and prostrate Shiva, usually right foot forward to symbolize the more popular Dakshinamarga or right-handed path, as opposed to the more infamous and transgressive Vamamarga or left-handed path.
In the ten-armed form of Mahakali she is depicted as shining like a blue stone. She has ten faces, ten feet, and three eyes for each head. She has ornaments decked on all her limbs. There is no association with Shiva.
The Kalika Purana describes Kali as possessing a soothing dark complexion, as perfectly beautiful, riding a lion, four-armed, holding a sword and blue lotuses, her hair unrestrained, body firm and youthful.
In spite of her seemingly terrible form, Kali Ma is often considered the kindest and most loving of all the Hindu goddesses, as she is regarded by her devotees as the Mother of the whole Universe. And because of her terrible form, she is also often seen as a great protector. When the Bengali saint Ramakrishna once asked a devotee why one would prefer to worship Mother over him, this devotee rhetorically replied, "Maharaj, when they are in trouble your devotees come running to you. But, where do you run when you are in trouble?
About the Writer
She also worked as Design Columnist for many Nationalized Magazines and started the famous and highly traffic grabber fashion & Lifestyle blog ‘Swapnil Saundarya’ available in English as well as in Hindi . Swapnil has also authored three books namely ‘Gehne – The Art of wearing Jewellery’ , Fashion Pandit and The Fascinating History of Indian Jewellery . She has launched her own Designer Jewellery brand namely ‘Swapnil Jewels & Arts’ and now with a desire to add new dimensions to the design and Art industry , she started ‘ Swapnil Saundarya Label ‘ with a motive to make everybody’s life beautiful and just like their Dream World .
In the words of Swapnil , “All my designer products are very close to my heart because all of them are intricate yet striking, bold yet feminine. They truly represents the spirit of a woman “
” My greatest satisfaction is a happy client “, she added.
Nature, Art, Various Cultures, Religion inspired Swapnil in designing.
Swapnil says, ” Jewellery is an expression of form, shape, function creatively with techniques old & new. With revere for the traditional techniques of jewellery making, my endeavour is to showcase a collection that is conformist to the technique & non-conformist in the way it is rendered.
Parallel to it is the collection that follows the modern techniques of jewellery making with coloured gemstones, pearls…left best to the imagination!!!
Swapnil has worn several hats , Jewellery Designer, Fashion Consultant, Jewellery Journalist , Craft Expert, Writer and Painter. More recently she diversified into Handicraft Products as an experiment in her journey in design .
Every experiment in her life she avers has been … “a step in my journey of growth and self discovery, a kaleidoscopic part of life that enriches the fabric of my work and existence.”
AWARDS / RECOGNITION
- Received the ‘Excellence Award 2016’ in Fine Arts from Uttar Pradesh Art Society
-The Story behind one of the most admirable products of her label namely Desi Doll has covered by India Voice News Channel , telecasted on 7th of Jan 2016
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