I was always interested in Asian culture, and recently my interest focused on Southeast Asia—India, in particular.

My dilemma was that there were virtually no Asian Indians in our local area, and if I had worked only from my imagination, it still would not have been enough, because any authentic culture demands a thorough knowledge of traditions and customs.

Ironically, a few months later a gentleman from England called my gallery to make an appointment with me. When he arrived to our Idaho gallery we were stunned to see a Hindu Swami from top to bottom dressed in his own traditional robes.

His intention was only to share an urgent, confidential and spiritual message, then return back home. But after hearing him, we all convinced him to stay with us longer. During five days of his visit he was teaching us about his culture and faith, eventually agreeing to model for me.

This turned out to be a four-month-long painting project, because every detail had to be authentically accurate.

The Enlightenment is not only about the Hindu worship and prayer, but about all of us finding our own way to spiritual enlightenment, peace and contentment.

Respecting the differences of our spiritual crossroad paths demonstrates maturity and is part of reaching the enlightenment.

Everybody needs time to reflect and contemplate, and the most inspirational and peaceful place to do so is the nature.

Through the Swami’s focus on beauty, wisdom and love everything is reviving, both spiritual and physical thirst is getting quenched, and the scorched hill is releasing its first flower as a symbol of rebirth.

Many people from across the world appreciate, respect and understand my work, but recently quite a few contacted my gallery with a complaint that I painted ’’Enlightenment ’’, a story about a Hindu swami.

Their irate comments are mostly coming from fundamentalist Christians who do not accept any themes apart from their own approved biblical characters.

Their concern is that I got deceived by the Devil who allegedly sent a Hindu swami across the whole world as counterfeit to Jesus’s model. Ironically, both models for Jesus and the monk paintings came through my very front door almost miraculously.

They are saddened, because they are convinced that I had lost my discernment between good and evil. Other groups of Christians accused me of the same in the past when I chose to paint even Jesus. A few even suggested that I should burn all my paintings and writings.

These people fail to comprehend that I am a journalist visionary artist who paints diverse cultures, faiths and realities from both the visible and non visible realms.

I am still learning and discovering new cultures, but I can assure you that the monk is no different from all of us who are seeking god and the truth.

In fact, he is one of the most humble, friendly, accepting and giving individuals I have ever met in my life, and during the four days he stayed with us, I found out that he was an answer to my prayer; for the past year I had been seeking to learn about different traditions and indigenous cultures from around the world.

I have been growing as an individual, and my understanding on life has significantly widened in ways I cannot describe, and only through my art can I fully reveal my new perspectives.

I am a citizen not only of this whole, but of the whole universe, and I will continue expressing all of its faces, personalities and emotions.

As someone said: ‘’Even the stopped clock can show the correct time twice a day’’, I choose to be outside the time and robotic limitations of this finite world’s alarm clock.

I had the honor of meeting hundreds of scholars from all over the world. The cumulative years of all their studies would mount up to some twenty five thousand years.

The odd fact is that they still disagree about the origin and the future of humanity, they still debate and debunk each other’s speculations, they still accuse each other of insufficient or inaccurate findings, they still insult each other with belittling and prideful commentaries and conclusions.

I choose not to be involved in such debates and arguments, especially if they are profit or control orientated. So much of scholarly work is done based only on prejudice and self-interests.

Conclusions and firm convictions hurt us if they are based on control—breading untold tragedies.

I have read and studied Bible as well as different ancient writings. However, I discovered that I needed to develop my own understanding about the truths. My way of understanding the reality became very private to me, because it’s always changing, expanding and evolving. I could share my views today, but tomorrow it might be all different.

Change is the only thing that is permanent—everything else is temporary. The facts can be distorted and diluted as they pass through the perspectives and disseminations of millions of people; we need to find our own discoveries without pride and arrogance and share them with consideration.

I don’t have twenty five thousand years to study like my fellow intellectuals, and even if I did, I still would not know the final truth. So I prefer to chronicle and interpret the transformation of our beliefs and perceptions through art and poetry.

I do not wish to join or form any organized religious or philosophical institutions. I choose to be free, and only when I’m free can I enjoy my life’s spiritual journey…

All of us in our family have different interpretations of spirituality pursuing our own path to truth and that keeps us closer together and teaches us to be more accepting of other cultures and beliefs.

Jesus shared with us: “I am the way, the truth and the light. No one comes to my Father, but through me.” I feel that he invited us to participate in the divinity. Each of us is one of kind original path to the way of truth and light, and without our individual love and effort we cannot understand and reach God. “Through me” is my own co-creation with the Creator of the universes. Father is something understandable in the patriarchal society as a symbol of miracles, power, greatness and love.

I am aware of huge arguments over this statement alone; misinterpretation of just this particular phrase has caused countless wars, segregations, divorces and conflicts. Both fear and oppression create artificial truths.

***

My painting“Search for Truth” that I created when I was 12 clarify my discoveries.

“Search for Truth” is a painting about humanity’s search for the origin, destiny, and meaning of life.  It is a story of how we look for the truth and how we treat others as they also try to discover it.

With so many scientific achievements we know so little of where we came from and where we are going.  But we know even less of the most important discovery of all – Love.  Only love can accept our differences as we journey through life.  And only love can allow space for our growth.

The astronaut here represents many of us searching for truth in a controlling way.  Although we are still searching, we are convinced that we have already discovered the truth and that everyone should believe it only our way. And believe it at any cost.

Just like this man, we stand on a strange little planet trying to posses it.  Like a giant we trample on the flowers reaching for light that represent meek and gentle souls ruled by the ignorant, the cunning, the powerful, the prideful, or the aggressive. Sadly, most of the tiny planet is already trampled.

Through his stiff and cumbersome space suit the astronaut is not able to touch and smell the blossoms and is able to view them only through his shatter-proof mask.  He presumes the air here is toxic and void of life.  So he fears to remove his suit and get contaminated. Yet despite his great knowledge he has not figured out that if flowers bloom, then he too would be able to breathe safely.

Even though he dwarfs the planet of flowers, he himself gets dwarfed by a grand space of galaxies and mysteries, which I portrayed through many reality designs including two sets of DNA where divine and human lives interact continuously.

I believe everyone should have an opportunity to search for truth their own way.  Humility, peace, child-like enthusiasm, acceptance, and sincerity is the true infinity engine!

The environment of my life was exceptionally inspirational and positive—the experience was a truly heaven on earth. But not everybody had such circumstances in life like I had.

Through my visionary experiences, I feel the pain of other people as deeply as their own. I am convinced that here on earth there is also hell: if you don’t think that it exists— think again!—Darfur, 911, Auswitz, Stalin’s exiles, Pol Pot, Hiroshima and countless others.

Then there are 815 million people worldwide who go hungry every single day: millions who suffer from malnutrition, diseases, slavery, homelessness, physical mutilations, gang rapes, robberies, imprisonments and abuses of every imaginable kind.

What about depression that results in suicides, divorces that result in split families, unemployment that results in hopelessness, eating disorders that result in weakness and slow death, or millions of children trapped in a horrific educational system resulting in apathy, drug abuse, peer pressure and a waste of time.

Those who have not experienced hell on earth have no awareness of real suffering.

To me Hell is also a state of mind, the scorching heat of anger, the envy and control. And what can be worse than our families being separated or killed?

Already here on earth we have our own challenges: from man made to natural disasters—    too much—way too much for our hearts and minds to handle.

Imagining an eternal future that is even worse than this life on earth would paralyze us and control us with total hopelessness! This misconception was created only for power and control.

I know people who are sure they have been saved for an eternal bliss in heaven, but who    extend a helping hand just because they expect a reward from God.

I also know people who would sacrifice not just the time or money, but their life out of pure love without any expectation of a prize or praise. In fact, many of them are not even sure, if there is another life after this at all! Yet, they lay their lives to total strangers for nothing in return, only because they couldn’t have done anything less.

Heaven does exist within us and outside us; I also believe we can create our own heaven here on earth, not just for ourselves, but for others as well.

The purpose of living is living life for others and creating relationships. And that is where we will find true happiness and glimpses of heaven…

Sometimes life to me is like a Rubik cube twisting to all possible directions.

I believe our future can never be predicted no matter how much we try to pretend that we can. We simply need to live in each moment as if it was our first and last in compassion, freedom, action and faith.

Life is precious. We should not take anything for granted. Living every moment as if it was our first and last is a genuine life of gratitude, acceptance and wisdom.

The art of life is loving and listening to one another.

Life appears incomplete, but no matter what position or time it is set at ~ it is already solved and ready for us (just like in a puzzle cube).

Our experiences are waiting for us—we simply chose to live through the challenges and mistakes. If we don’t live through difficulties, we cannot see the solved puzzle at the end. If there is nothing new, there is nothing old.

There is no real ending: the future paints the past, and the past models for the present that  is continually changing.

If we knew the end, then there would be no future. Wisdom of the future depends on today’s decisions.

If we knew the beginning, then there would be no beginning. And if we knew the present, then the present would not come to us as a gift.

Some of us are convinced that we have already found the truth, others are still searching for the greatest power, but the ultimate truth lies humbly within each of us ~ the best place to hide the infinite treasure. And that is a true power and the greatest mystery of God.

We are all ONE, no matter in what form, space or time.  As ONE we can change the world if we start changing ourselves. Respect is acceptance.

We live in a beautiful universe ~ even ruined by destruction it slowly resurrects itself remarkably, because there is a quantum world that is virtually EVERYWHERE. And it is indestructible. It holds IT—INFINITE TARGET.