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| A couple nights ago I went to a film about Antonio Gaudi, the Spanish architect. It was basically just the camera travelling through the structures and the surrounding environments - no plot or characters or dialoge, or even monologue for that matter. The beginning caught my eye, however. They started by showing various religous paintings, sculpture, etc. One painting showed Mary holding a baby Jesus, and Jesus was in Vishnu mudra! I was wondering if anyone here knew if this depiction is fairly common, or if this particular mudra has meaning across "religions" (yes, this debate is another topic altogether!). I know that the art and architecture of Spain is heavily influenced by Islamic tradition, and am interested to find out how strong any other influence is in that region. I'll be looking it up as well and will let you know if I come up with anything. |
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| Dear LoraB:
Happy Holidays. Since you got all As with GPA close to 4, and you are now free to dive into Yoga, and you also asked for input, let me give my input. My input is : Do not make it very complex as it can be made complex by mysterious theories around this. The base fact in this subject is that Jesus Christ spent lot of time in Tibetan (then India) area where he learnt Yoga which was incorporated in his teachings later. Now, this concept is depicted in many paintings where he is either in a Meditation Pose, or doing some Yoga based Mudra (Mudras is Jesture, Asana is Posture, Bandha is Lock, etc.), or such.
Merry Christmas to all Yogis
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| Thee is a Hindu sect that also vererates Jesus as the ultimate Yogin. If it is the correct painting, this was painted by a Spanish artist at the request of a Hindu who follows this belief. It was painted about 1920. Since that time many others have been done. |
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| Lora what is the Vishnu mudra ? Reason I asked is I also noticed the same thing, when I was travelling in Barcelona my friend and I went into loads of museums and checked out all the Romanesque paintings of Virgin Mary and Jesus, and he always seemed to be holding his hand a certain way, and my friend and I were wondering at the time what it meant ( peace ? ). So yes this depiction seems to be pretty widespread. I am just intrigued as to what it signifies.
BTW if you are into Gaudi you must get to Barcelona someday. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State | Now that you mention it, I've seen that hand gesture in Jesus paintings
dozens of times. I've seen priests do a variety of mudras during blessings
and whatnot (I mean Christian priests).
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| Bomberpig,
Vishnu mudra is when the ring and pinky fingers remain up, while the pointer and middle fingers are curled down...
And thank you! Romanesque was the word I was desperately searching for this morning and couldn't come up with to save my life. I'm definitely planning on getting to Barcelona. Was planning on hitting Dublin this spring/summer if possible, but am rethinking and zooming in on Barcelona. Why not both?  |
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| LoraB - 2004-12-23 10:43 PM
Vishnu mudra is when the ring and pinky fingers remain up, while the pointer and middle fingers are curled down...
That's the one ! I must tell my friend about this - baby Jesus doing yoga ! Anyhow I think if time permits you should go to both Dublin and Barcelona. Try to get to Trinity College Library in Dublin and check out the Book of Kells, it' worth a look. You might be able to get cheap flights from the UK to Spain, check on the net ( Easyjet, Opodo ). And you will LOVE Barcelona - the architecture, the food, the lifestyle... wish I am there myself ! |
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| Dublin is cool!
Barcelona is HOT!!!
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| Please don't misunderestimate me, I can do more than just lame jokes. For example I found this useful link:
http://smh.com.au/news/World/Gurus-book-claims-Jesus-practised-yoga/2004/12/17/1102787275036.html?oneclick=true |
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Yoga and Art
