THE COSMIC DANCER

MADHUR DHINGRA

// Madhur is a professional photographer based in New Delhi, India. In his private photography, he is interested in impressionistic abstractions of humanity in the street, in festivals, or going about their daily lives. We present some images from his series “Krishna – The Cosmic Dancer”.

After studying photography at the art institute “Triveni Kala Sangam” in Mandi House, New Delhi, Madhur started his career in photography in 1998. He keeps experimenting with new techniques and styles to make his images unique. His exhibitions and work have been acclaimed and published in India, Europe, Canada and the United States of America.

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”

Pablo Picasso

What draws you to the arts?

“Art for me is my expression for that ‘Unexpressed’ and ‘The Unknown‘. Call it God if you please to do so. I firmly believe all forms of art spring directly from that source.”

What do you like best about abstract photo art such as the images you have shared with us?

“The images displayed here are the second in a series of a personal journey where I search answers to some fundamental questions about life, its meaning and purpose and then later my understanding about nature of ‘Reality’. This quest is taking me to every nook and corner of India meeting sadhus, monks, philosophers, scientists and charlatans alike. … Needless to say, restlessness, emptiness and a void are always at play, no matter how I approach my images.“

The images & story ‘The Cosmic Dancer’ is the ‘second’ in the eight part series that Madhur is currently working on in different spiritually charged places of India.

“These images are a part of a personal journey where I search answers to some fundamental questions about life, its meaning and purpose and then later my understanding about nature of “reality”. This quest is taking me to every nook and corner of India and also nearby Himalayan Buddhist centres in Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Zanskar, Ladakh (Little Tibet) meeting monks, philosophers, scientists and charlatans alike,” Madhur explains.

“Constant interaction with brilliant Vedic & Buddhist scholars has made me understand that the whole concept of a ‘Creator God’ proposed by organized religions is a childish one. It had failed to fully comprehend that unconditioned, non-dual, eternal, omnipresent force. God is not a glorified ‘personality’ sitting somewhere in the universe, directing lives of its people or attending to minute details of its day to day operations. We need to understand that the Universal Mind does not exist separately along the universe but in it and as it. The universe was not arbitrarily created by any outside intervention but is self- born and is governed by the eternal Law Of Cause and Effect. The impressions of all objects in the universe lie dormant within the inner depths of the Universal Mind, until they become active by the working of Karma. They are then projected in our familiar space-time dimension which we know as the material world. The universe is not only self-actuating but also self-determining.”

The Cosmic Dancer

Images of this story were shot in the 5000 year old villages of Barsana Nandgaon & Vrindavan,(India) during the festival of Holi. Colour runs riot during this festival. These places have an immense spiritual significance for Hindus, as Nandgaon is the foster home of Lord Krishna and Barsana the birth place of Krishna’s beloved Radha.

“Krishna may be an enigma to someone agnostic like me, but He is God to millions, who go ecstatic even at the mere mention of His name. He is the personification of the ‘One And Only’ Consciousness that exists in everything and anything. He is the Cosmic Dancer who dances in the universe.”

We have also featured images from Madhur´s first part of this series, entitled The Ultimate Void.

Some images are cropped for lay-out. Please click on the photos to see a larger image in original proportions