Tuesday, October 2, 2007

The Man of Sorrow.


In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sits and feels deep sorrow and compassion for his disciples and creation as a whole. I have represented the garden as having a big Banyan tree, whose roots come down from its branches to touch the earth. This tree is considered to be a holy tree, representing the cosmos, where a tree is imagined which has its roots above, and its branches below. This image of the upside down tree symbolizes the Sun as the Seed, from which energy flows out to the earth, like the sap that comes from the roots, giving life to the branches. The roots that are above, but which reach down to the earth, symbolize Grace, which comes down to our material world. Another image of the Sanyassi, is that of the man who sits beneath this tree of Wisdom, and he is so deeply absorbed in his inner thoughts, that an anthill, or mound of the termites, grows up all around him, like a kind of temple that emerges from the earth itself to give shelter to the ascetic who is filled with deep compassion for creation.

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