ARTIST MASOOD HUSSAIN PAINTS A SLOKA (16.21) OF BHAGWAD GITA IN HIS LALLESHWARI SERIES

“Maarukh maar  buth kaam kroodh lobh

Na’ta kaan barith maarnai paan

Manaai khyan dikh swovitsaar sham

Vishay teuhund kya  kyooth dur zaan’…(Lalleshwari )

 (Subdue lust, anger, and avarice;

Those murderous fiends within;

For if left unchecked, they undo thee.

They yield not to force;

But starve them with restraint

And the purity of thought;

And they shall perish of themselves.)

 The above Vaakh of Lalleshwari is inscribed at the top centre of this painting in Nastaliq. The Vaakh defines the painting.  This Lal Vaakh may be read as a profound echo of the inward discipline taught in the Bhagavad Gita (Sloka 16.21), and the non-dual insight of Kashmir Shaivism, wherein the true battle is not waged in the outer world but within the field of consciousness itself. Lust, anger, and greed are not merely moral failings but expressions of ignorance that bind the self to the lower forces of nature, as the Gita teaches through its doctrine of the three fundamental qualities. The counsel to “slay” these, not by force but by starvation, accords with the Upanishadic insistence on self-knowledge and restraint, in which the senses are withdrawn, and the inner Self stands revealed in its purity. Likewise, in the Gita, Sri Krishna exhorts Arjuna to master desire not through suppression alone but through disciplined detachment and sustained practice. In Kashmir Shaiva thought, these passions are understood as contracted forms of universal consciousness, and their transcendence lies not in destruction but in their reabsorption into higher awareness through recognition of one’s true nature. Thus, the “starving” of these inner forces signifies the withdrawal of attention from sense-objects, depriving them of the energy that sustains their hold. When the mind is instead nourished by clarity, restraint, and inward awareness, the limited ego gradually dissolves, and the innate, luminous Self shines forth unobstructed. In this light, the Vaakh does not advocate violence against the self, but a subtle transformation of consciousness, where the lower tendencies are neither indulged nor crudely suppressed, but gently transcended. It is a call to inward mastery, where true sovereignty arises through understanding, and liberation dawns as the natural fading away of ignorance.

 MY INTERPRETATION OF THE PAINTING 

This painting may be read as a profound visual meditation aligned with the inward discipline of the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the non-dual insight of Kashmir Shaivism, while embodying the Vaakh of Lal Ded: at its centre, the abstracted form of a being in padmāsana emerges not as a literal figure but as a field of consciousness, with the deep blue orb suggesting the luminous Self, encased within a red, almost visceral matrix of embodied existence; around it, serpents rendered in vivid turquoise and patterned darkness coil as symbols of lust, anger, and greed, not violently confronted but subtly marginalised, visually “starved” in accordance with the teaching that these inner forces perish when deprived of attention and sustained by restraint and purity of thought ; echoing Bhagwad Gita’s  verse (16.21), “trividhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśanam ātmanaḥ, kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet” (“there are three gates leading to the ruin of the self—lust, anger, and greed; therefore one should abandon all three”); the intense interplay of colour—expansive blues of consciousness, fiery reds of desire and transformative energy, and electric turquoise of restless impulse—creates a distinctly Tantric resonance, where nothing is denied but everything is transmuted, and thus the painting becomes a contemplative space in which lower tendencies are neither suppressed nor indulged, but gradually dissolved into higher awareness, revealing the innate, radiant stillness of the Self. The artist masterfully transforms inner philosophy into a vivid, meditative vision where colour, form, and symbolism breathe the living wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita and the mystical insight of Lal Ded.

(Avtar Mota)

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