On Holiday with some of the most amazing people on the planet.

ellipsis

Ananta

New York City June 2023

el·lip·sis

1. The omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

2. A set of dots indicating an ellipsis.

We live in a world obsessed with immediacy.  Obsessed with instant gratification and brief fleeting encounters with profundity.

I used to suffer from the anxiety of longing to meet these new aggressive approaches to our consciousness.  Producing and consuming at rates that would not allow for deep meaningful experience.

It’s possible we want to truly make the most of our time here, I believe there were altruistic intentions when we first embarked on this new sense of urgency, though it is evident now, our efforts have been counterproductive.  We spend the vast majority of our time witnessing life and very little if any time experiencing it.  There is no time for digestion, contemplation or comprehension.

I turned to religion; ART

I have heard the ways to make the algorithms love us.  How to be seen and heard by the masses. This felt unlike what I wanted.  I think as we go looking for beauty (or anything for that matter), it is easy to overlook the things we already have.  I thought of the way we continually move our goals around to meet our insatiable desire for external satisfactions and realized I will look internally.

Art will manifest for everyone individually so I need not spoon feed anyone with overly complicated and meticulous definitions of my intentions with my expressions.  There should be some room for our individual interpretations according to our experiences.  Small parts and parcels of a supreme creator, understanding the importance of free will.  So, we omit, from our work, the superfluous and elude to our intentions with contextual clues.

I have been working with Kamala for about 5 years and I have never seen anything like her.
Kamala is truly a genius and her movements are nothing short of brilliant.
We decided while shooting some time ago, that we’d do live performance art with her movement.

We’d noticed that people would watch us shoot and they would be extremely appreciative, encouraging and inspired, so we will be doing impromptu performances throughout the city, and possibly a few scheduled ones very soon.

In the meanwhile, please take a minute and watch this vignette of a longer freeform move in NYC June 2023

William Shakespeare wrote “What's in a name?” in Romeo and Juliet.

The idea was that

‘names themselves are a convention to distinguish things or people, but themselves, do not have any worth or meaning.’

What of the Holy Name then?

I recently had the privilege of having association with HH Sacinandana Swami.
It was enlightening, to say the least. I’m going to paraphrase a bit as I recap the part of our time together that is pertinent to THIS conversation.

HH SNS (as I will refer to His Holiness Sacinandana Swami herein) asked my son Nami to stand.
Nami is 9 and is growing like an unruly weed, but he is still a kid. Quite youthful and happy.
”Are you comfortable?” HH SNS asked
Nami nodded his head… more than comfortably. Always excited to have this kind of association, he was elated.
HH SNS spoke of the nature of children for a bit and then asked my nephew Keshava to stand.
Keshava is also quite youthful but at about six feet tall and in his early 20s. He is an amazing musician and an all around great person. ALL OF THAT is eclipsed by his frightening enthusiasm. (If you follow Acyuta or me on IG …. or him, I am sure you’ve seen it.

HH SNS said “I met Ananta almost 20 years ago, in Mayapur, when we were young men. I then would come to New York and when I’d meet with the family, Keshava was a bit younger than Nami here.”

HH SNS urged us to look at the boys. “What my dear friends is the difference between these two, when Keshava was this age?…. It is time!”

Time is always present and all pervading. It is unstoppable and ultimately has its way, regardless of anyone or anything’s objections. Look at the way time paints us. Steadily, inconspicuously, mysteriously. It seems to expand and contract as our moods and consciousness are affected.

HH SNS then spoke to us of the futile efforts we make in order to seize time, or rush time. Without saying, he brought our collective attention to how silly this act is. “We cannot bend the world to our will, we cannot control time.”

Then
HH SNS said “My dear everyone! Krsna tells us. TIME I AM. Kalo smi! I AM TIME!”
Immediately lightbulbs went off and things became so incredibly clear.
He continued “If you can know this, you understand, Krsna is ALWAYS with you.”

We can operate with the knowing, that Krsna is always with us. Time is our friend and we can have deep intimate association simply by consciously BEing.

I thought, this form of Krsna, Time, is such a far out understanding. impossible to grasp, yet completely revelatory. THE NAME! this Name, this sound vibration is non different from Time itself, The Lord, and is completely beyond our comprehension. It is direct association with The Lord. It allows us to transform our relationship with Time.

‘There is no difference in the absolute realm between the name, form or person of the Absolute Truth because in the absolute realm everything is transcendental bliss. There is no difference between the body and the soul for the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa.’ THIS IS RIGHT IN THE BEGINNING OF SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM!

Krsna is your friend…
Then Time is your friend…

we just have to dedicate more energy and will to the friendship.
The Name. It makes everything very personal!

Sit with it, lets discuss it after some time.
Ok gonna go make some art. Talk soon?
Love you.
a.