ARTIST MASOOD HUSSAIN PAINTS A POPULAR VAAKH OF LALLESHWARI ON CANVAS

                                                                                 

ARTIST MASOOD HUSSAIN PAINTS A POPULAR VAAKH OF LALLESHWARI ON CANVAS

“Aessi aess tai aessi aassav

Aessi daur kaer pata-vath

Shivas sori na zyon ta marun

Ravas sori na ata-gath”

(We have been in the past,

In future, we shall also be.

Throughout the ages, we have been coming and going.

Forever the sun rises and sets.

Forever Shiva creates and dissolves and creates again.)

This Lal Vaakh of Lalleshwari, painted by artist Masood Hussain, when viewed through the lens of Kashmir Shaivism and Tantra, expresses the profound insight that all existence is a cyclical manifestation of the one universal consciousness, Shiva. The repeated coming and going across ages reflects not merely rebirth, but the dynamic pulsation (Spanda) of reality itself, wherein Shiva continuously projects and withdraws the universe within His own being. The rising and setting of the sun symbolises the apparent flow of time, whilst pointing to the unchanging witness consciousness that underlies it. In this view, creation and dissolution are not opposing events but simultaneous aspects of Shiva’s eternal activity, and liberation lies not in escaping this cycle but in recognising one’s identity with the very consciousness that manifests it.

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE UPLOADED PAINTING

This painting by Masood Hussain offers a compact yet philosophically dense visual interpretation of a Vaakh by Lal Ded within the metaphysical horizon of Kashmir Shaivism, wherein the cycle of creation, dissolution, and recurrence is rendered through an interplay of form, colour, and symbol. The parchment-like ground, scarred and inscribed, evokes a temporal continuum marked by rupture yet sustained by an underlying unity. At the same time, the chromatic movement from deep blues (the unmanifest) through verdant greens (embodied existence) to incandescent reds and yellows (Shakti as dynamic energy) articulates a processual ontology rather than a static image. The subtly embedded Shivlinga functions as an axial centre of Spanda (cosmic vibration), suggesting not merely origin but perpetual regeneration, in keeping with the Vaakh’s assertion of endless becoming. The flowing, almost serpentine central band may be read in Tantric terms as the continuum of life-force, mediating between the unmanifest and manifest realms. At the same time, the marginalised yet attentive profile of Lal Ded situates the human subject as both participant in and witness to this eternal rhythm. In its totality, the composition enacts rather than describes the doctrine that “we have been… we shall be”, presenting existence as an unceasing oscillation in which, as the Vaakh affirms, Shiva eternally creates, dissolves, and creates again.

(Avtar Mota )

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