वेदाआधी तू होतास - बाबुराव बागूल
वेदाआधी तू होतास, वेदाच्या परमेश्वराआधी तू होतास,
पंच महाभूतांचे पाहून, विराट, विक्राळ रूप
तू व्यथित, व्याकूळ होत होतास,
आणि हात उभारून तू याचना करीत होतास,
त्या याचना म्हणजे ‘ ऋचा ’
सर्व ईश्वरांचे जन्मोत्सव, तूच साजरे केलेस,
सर्व प्रेषितांचे बारसेही, तूच आनंदाने साजरे केलेस
हे माणसा, तूच सूर्याला सूर्य म्हटलेस
आणि सूर्य, सूर्य झाला
तूच चंद्राला चंद्र म्हटलेस, आणि चंद्र, चंद्र झाला
अवघ्या विश्वाचे नामकरण
तू केलेस
अन् प्रत्येकाने मान्य केले, हे प्रतिभावान माणसा,
तूच आहेस सर्व काही, तुझ्यामुळेच संजीव सुंदर
झाली ही मही
- बाबुराव बागूल #BaburaoBagul
Translation
You existed before the Vedas, you existed before the Lord of Vedas
Witnessing the huge, monstrous form of the five elements
You were getting distressed, anxious
You raised your hands in the first plea
Thus was formed the first 'Richa' (Hymn)
You created the Gods and celebrated them
You created the apostles, and rejoiced with them
O my primordial man! It was you who called the Sun, “Sun”
And so it became the Sun
You called the Moon 'Moon',
And so it became the Moon
It was You who created this universe and named it so
It was You who validated everything in it.
O omnipotent man, you are everything
And it is because of You that
This universe is alive, beautiful
Image Credits: Adam and Eve (Marc Chagall)
Things That Make Your Day: The Elder Brother
No words can describe this...
The most heartwarming thing I've even seen pic.twitter.com/zRPd1RF7P2— Perfect Babies (@perfectbabies) September 1, 2017
The Zen Master and a Little Girl
Life, birth, death are the constituent questions of philosophy. The complexity of these subjects is overwhelming and hence the explanations seldom have continuity. I came across this anecdote about a Zen master (a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition rather than ritual worship or study of scriptures) Seung Sahn Soen-sa, which channels the knowledge into a childlike simplicity. Soen-sa recounts his conversation with Gita, the seven-year-old daughter of one of his students at the Cambridge Zen Center, after the death of the center’s beloved cat, cleverly named Katz. (“Katsu!” is a shout that is described in Chán and Zen Buddhism encounter-stories, to expose the enlightened state (Japanese: satori) of the Zen-master, and/or to induce initial enlightenment experience in a student). Katz had died after a long illness and was given a traditional Buddhist burial, but the little girl remained troubled by his death. One day, she came to the him for an explanation.
“What happened to Katzie? Where did he go?”
Soen-sa said, “Where do you come from?”
“From my mother’s belly.”
“Where does your mother come from?” Gita was silent.
Soen-sa said, “Everything in the world comes from the same one thing. It is like in a cookie factory. Many different kinds of cookies are made — lions, tigers, elephants, houses, people. They all have different shapes and different names, but they are all made from the same dough and they all taste the same. So all the different things that you see - a cat, a person, a tree, the sun, this floor - all these things are really the same.”
“What are they?”
“People give them many different names. But in themselves, they have no names. When you are thinking, all things have different names and different shapes. But when you are not thinking, all things are the same. There are no words for them. People make the words. A cat doesn’t say, ‘I am a cat.’ People say, ‘This is a cat.’ The sun doesn’t say, ‘My name is sun.’ People say, ‘This is the sun.’
So when someone asks you, ‘What is this?’, how should you answer?”
“I shouldn’t use words.”
Soen-sa said, “Very good! You shouldn’t use words. So if someone asks you, ‘What is Buddha?’, what would be a good answer?”
Gita was silent.
Soen-sa said, “Now you ask me.”
“What is Buddha?”
Soen-sa hit the floor.
Gita laughed.
Soen-sa said, “Now I ask you: What is Buddha?”
Gita hit the floor.
“What is God?”
Gita hit the floor.
“What is your mother?”
Gita hit the floor.
“What are you?”
Gita hit the floor.
“Very good! This is what all things in the world are made of. You and Buddha and God and your mother and the whole world are the same.”
Gita smiled.
Soen-sa said, “Do you have any more questions?”
“You still haven’t told me where Katz went.”
Soen-sa leaned over, looked into her eyes, and said, “You already understand.”
Gita said, “Oh!” and hit the floor very hard. Then she laughed.
Soen-sa ends the anecdote with an exchange intended to be funny, but in fact a tragic testament to contemporary Western education being a force of industrialized specialization, deliberately fragmenting the unity of all things and de-conditioning our inner wholeness:
As she was opening the door, she turned to Soen-sa and said, “But I’m not going to answer that way when I’m in school. I’m going to give regular answers!” Soen-sa laughed.
One may disagree with the explanation and have so many cross questions but there is no doubt about the strength of the single fabric answer which even a child can understand.
[This anecdote appeared originally in brainpickings ]
[Picture Credit: Octavio Ocampo, The Buddha, Surrealism]
Things That Make Your Day: Dear Daddy
'Women empowerment' and 'Open Letters' are probably two of the most abused phrases around us. Every one talks about the first and writes the second, to further a third -hidden agenda. What is different about this video is it has no masquerades. It is actually an advertisement (By CARE Norway) and easily one of the most powerful adverts to come out in the recent times. What makes it extremely powerful, is the transcript-an 'Open letter', that an anonymous girl writes to her father. The letter, a mini autobiography, leaves a message... and a mirror with our faces
Credits: #DearDaddy Campaign, CARE Norway.Dear Daddy,
I just wanted to thank you for looking after me so well, even though I am not yet born. I know you already try harder than Superman, and you might even let mommy eat sushi. But I need to ask you a favor. Warning. It’s about boys because you see, I will be born a girl, which means that by the time I’m 14, the boys in my class will have called me a whore, a bitch, a cunt and many other things. It’s just for fun of course, something boys do. So you won’t worry and I understand that. Perhaps you did the same when you were young, trying to impress some of the other boys.
I’m sure you didn’t mean anything by it. Still, some of the people won’t get the joke and funnily enough it isn’t any of the girls, it’s some of the boys. So by the time I turn 16 a couple of the boys will have snuck their hands down my pants when I am so drunk I can’t even stand straight. And although I say “no” they just laugh, it’s funny, right? If you saw me daddy you would be so ashamed because I am wasted.
No wonder I am raped when I am 21, 21 and on my way home in a taxi driven by the son of a guy you went swimming with every Wednesday. The guy who always told insulting jokes but they were of course only jokes so you laughed. Had you known that his son would end up raping me you would have told him to get a grip. But how could you know, he was just a boy, telling weird jokes and in any case it wasn’t your business. You were just being nice. But his son, raised on these jokes becomes my business.
Then finally I meet Mr. Perfect and you are so happy for me Daddy because he really adores me. And he’s smart with a great job and all through the winter he goes cross country skiing three times a week just like you. But one day he stops being Mr. Perfect and I don’t know why. Wait. Am I overreacting? One thing I do know, I am not the victim type. I am raised to be a strong and independent woman. But one night it is just all too much for him with work, and the in-laws and the wedding coming up, so he calls me a whore, just like you called a girl in middle school a whore once.
Then another day he hits me. I mean I’m way out of line, I can really be a bitch sometimes. We’re still the world’s greatest couple and I’m so confused, because I love him and I hate him and I’m not sure if I really did do something wrong and then one day he almost kills me. It all goes black, even though I have a Ph.D., a fantastic job, I’m loved by my friends and family, I am well brought up and nobody saw this coming.
Dear Daddy, this is the favor I want to ask:
One thing always leads to another so please stop it before it gets the chance to begin. Don’t let my brothers call girls whores because they’re not. And one day some little boy might think it is true. Don’t accept insulting jokes from weird guys by the pool or even friends because behind every joke there is always some truth.
Dear Daddy, I know you will protect me from lions, tigers, guns, cars and even sushi without even thinking about the danger to your own life.
But Dear Daddy, I will be born a girl. Please do everything you can so that, that won’t stay the greatest danger of all.
I'll Write a Song for Them
I'll
write a song for them
A song
about you.
And the
passage to 'Us'
Like the
interstice between
The
dreams and the dread
From
which the yarns
Of
passion are made
In the
desolate moments
When the
morning was far
When the
twilight waited
For a
moon or a star
A song
for those moments
To the
music of dawn...
I'll
write a song for them
I'll
write a song for them
About
the river you are,
The
meadow I am.
How you
dissect and nourish
Me, all
at once!
On a
boulder of basalt,
A tender
sapling
That
breaks it open,
Yet
makes it alive.
Between
friction and spirit
Only
love can survive,
For a poem the wind
Will
write on the water...
I'll
write a song for them
I'll
write a song for them
For a
promise of life
Green,
and so merry.
With
tulips so slender,
And
lilies so white.
On a
porch in the sun
When I
seem all so lost;
While
all I am thinking
Is
nothing, but you.
A noon
spent swirling
Like
sugar in tea.
A story
of finches
That
flew in the morn.
A story
for finches
That
came back to home...
I'll
write a song for them...
Picture: Water Lilies, Claude Monet
अकेली रात काली क्यों होती है?
अकेली रात काली क्यों होती है?
अँधेरे में इतना कालापन किसने डाला?
सजा मिलने पे चमड़ी
काली क्यों हो जाती है?
या चमड़ी काली होने पे सजा?
जादू बुरा हुआ
तो काला हो गया!
जुबान बुरी हुई
तो काली हो गयी…
ये काले को अंक लगाया
तो कलंक कैसे लग गया?
वो जो फन काढ़े काला नाग बैठा है
वो हमसे-तुमसे विषैला है क्या?
सुनने में ये बकवास सवाल
कुछ पुराने बही-खातें न खोल दें
कहीं सफ़ेद दाढ़ी वाला
गोरा हमारा ईश्वर
खुद को काला न बोल दे
वो जो सफेदी नापने
वाला फीता है न
कहीं धुंधला न हो जाये
गोरी राधा का मोहन
कोई सांवला न हो जाये
शायद...
इसी डर से कुछ चीज़ों को
हम काला कहते हैं
Pic Credits: "Negro", Pencil, Charles Wilbert White
Summer Rain
By the tracks with the violet blooms
By a brook with the scattered moon
In the groves of those misty pines
We’ll swing from the serpent vines
Under realm of a drunken night
On the sands both grey and white
I shall search in your oyster eyes
For the foams of the Venus to rise
Through the mast of that fading ship
With my songs on your tulip lips
Seeking shells from a silent shore
We will sail to the land of lore
Whence heart meets the sea and sky
We’ll jump with the birds and fly
Will you listen to the cobalt sea?
Will you run to the rainbow tree?
Will you jump on the passion train?
Will you walk in the summer rain?
Picture Credits: Rain in Oak Forest, Ivan Shishkin, Realism
Poems Are Our Honesty That We Can Sing
Poems are our honesty that we can sing.Poetry, or for that case all forms of creation, are one of the ways, human meets the superhuman.They are not written.They happen.Just like a childbirth, there is a moment of singularity when you conceive a verse.Then you nurture it in your soul.It grows with you, and then one day it takes a form… written or spoken.Once it has a form, it is free and so are you.It is painful.Like all forms of creation, it begins with a chaos and ends in light.Just like a childbirth.This is why in the Hindustani tehzeeb of Shayari, the poets plead you to listen to them by saying “Arz kiya hai”.That is all that a poet really wants.To be heard.Nothing makes one a poet.Just like clouds have rain, everyone has a poem, waiting to precipitate.But it is elusive...Finding that poem, is finding rain in the cloud. No one can.We have to become the poem.There is either rain or the cloud.It needs an ascension, for the clouds to become water and poets to become poems.A jolt, a thrust, a toss into the open skies.It is in those ramblings, we meet our song.Some of us have the words to express them and some have none.But all of us are poets nonetheless.Poems are My honesty that You can sing.
Picture Courtesy : Egon Schiele , Self portrait with black clay pot, 1911, Expressionism
Things That Make Your Day : Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh
Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh calls himself an actor, sound imitator, singer and a comedian. But for us he is a singularity, a point where the man meets the nature and their sound resonate. He has a vocal range from the flutter of the butterfly's wings to the Shaman's call in the wild, and that range is musical.
As per his website, Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh was born on January, 27, 1964 in the city of Petropavlosk, USSA. He spent his childhood in Ukraine, Kolomiya city. Now he lives and works mostly in Moscow and Berlin.
Listen to the sounds of the earth.
[ Specially recommended for ramblings in the grassland.]
[ Things that make your day, as the name suggests are a series of short blogs that will be a celebration of hope, talent, love, beauty and life ]
(No intentions to plagiarize)
(pic credits http://papizh.ru )
(pic credits http://papizh.ru )
तेज़ाब और माँ
इसका भी मुख ढका है
उनका भी मुख ढका था
ये लोगो से छुप रही है
वो लोगो में छुप रहीं थी
इसे कल जो चाहते थे
उन्हें आज पूजते हैं
ये किसी की बहिन-बेटी
वो सबकी देवी माता
इसे कल भुला दिया था
उन्हे कल भुला ही देंगे
हमारे पाप का विसर्जन
दोनों पे हो रहा है ...
ये जल के पिघल गयी थी
वो जल में पिघल रहीं हैं
उनका भी मुख ढका था
ये लोगो से छुप रही है
वो लोगो में छुप रहीं थी
इसे कल जो चाहते थे
उन्हें आज पूजते हैं
ये किसी की बहिन-बेटी
वो सबकी देवी माता
इसे कल भुला दिया था
उन्हे कल भुला ही देंगे
हमारे पाप का विसर्जन
दोनों पे हो रहा है ...
ये जल के पिघल गयी थी
वो जल में पिघल रहीं हैं
Camouflage
I want to run away, (she said)From the idea of 'we'From everythingFrom you and me...This existenceOr lack of itThis endless tumultThe burden of wishThis rowing and rowingto a nether shoreI somehow end upback to beforeI want to run away,From you and meYes, sweetheart,You are nothing but trueBut we have to rowon seismic waves,Together perhaps,separated may be.Sometimes we surfSometimes we sinkBut row we mustRow to be freeThose who runmust run to surviveBut as with the sheepor deer or fish,For those who runthere must be a herda flock; my dearwe chose to missSo we have to beIn the meleeMaking the wagerslosing to winPainting our facesChanting the rhymesMuting our voicesplaying their mimes.Bowing our headsto absurd adageWe must embracethis camouflageBut we have to beIn the meleeTogether perhaps,separated may beBut row we mustRow to be freeBut row we mustRow to be free
Picture Credits: Sisyphus, Franz Stuck, Mythological Symbolism
Things That Make Your Day : Peeran da Paraga
No one has contributed more to the stereotype of "shayar" in India than Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Mazaz Lakhnavi. Drowsy eyes, those disheveled locks, a halo of nonchalance and a deluge of pain behind a levee of smile. I love Batalvi; and I adore Mazaz. But this post is about neither of them. This is about a little girl singing Batalvi for her school music class (apparently). Looking at her age you might, for a moment think, that she knows not what frying a handful (of corns) of sorrow means; but then you hear her sing, and you know that she knows what she is singing.
It is cliched to quote Shelley's "Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." But this one surely proves it.
Every time I listen to her, it makes my day.
Every time I listen to her, it makes my day.
ਭੱਠੀ ਵਾਲੀਯੇ ਚੰਬੇ ਦਿਯੇ ਦਾਲਿਯੇ, ਪੀੜਾਂ ਦਾ ਪਰਾਗਾ ਬੁੰਨ ਦੇਤੇਨੂ ਦੇਵਾ ਹੰਜੂਆ ਦਾ ਫਾੜਾ, ਪੀੜਾਂ ਦਾ ਪਰਾਗਾ ਬੁੰਨ ਦੇ,
Lyrics of the song and translation
[ Things that make your day, as the name suggests are a series of short blogs that will be a celebration of hope, talent, love, beauty and life ]
(No intentions to plagiarize)
#TweetReview : Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Kanganais fantastic. You hate her and you love her. One of the best double roles ever.
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Madhavan is the staple diet. Looks like a man in love and dilemma. Solid acting
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
@TheBlueEyedSon Thanks😃😃😃
— Deepak Dobriyal(@deepakdobriyal) May 25, 2015
Acting 9/10
Lead actors gen. disappoint in the movies. Side actors do their job well. in TWMR they match
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon (@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Screenplay 7/10
Very fast paced, and contrasting. Nice face-offs.
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Direction 8/10
Locations, delivery, v. good.Everychar. gets ample space. even datto's brother. myriad hues
TanuWedsManuReturns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Casting - 10/10
the best part about the movie.
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Story 4/10
Disappointing at the crescendo. wasted time in dance sequence. The end was premature
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Music 3/10
Very disappointing. Only swagger had some swagger, but mostly because it is a folk tune
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #TweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
All good people get hurt in the movie.Sardarji, Madhavan, Datto, her bro, Jimmy Shergill.
Only the bitch has her way
Tanu Weds Manu Returns
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
Overall 3/5
The actors pull the movie. The end deserved more nourishing.
Tanu Weds Manu Returns #tweetReview
— TheBlueEyedSon(@TheBlueEyedSon) May 25, 2015
I would have given this movie a 4/5, had it continued the promise of the first half. The whole thing was like a a very enticing foreplay, which I really enjoyed, followed by a premature ejaculation. But nonetheless, this was one of the most entertaining movies in a long time. Three cheers for Kanagana, Deepak Dobriyal, Madhavan and the supporting cast.
The Sacred Murders
I did not
to want tell this story. It is a bad memory, a recurrent nightmare. But the
reference to this story or its motif keeps appearing around me. I did some more
research and finally I decided to write this story. This is the story of Leela
and Bhama. I don't know them. I have never met them. They were brother and
sister, born in a lower middle class Bengali Family in north eastern Bihar. Bhama
was about ten years older than Leela. Leela was my mother's friend. They lived
in the same railway employees' colony and went to the same middle school. Like the
middle class colonies of small towns, that colony was also a big burgeoning
family. Festivals were celebrated together, children ate together, played in
the same courtyard, misfortunes were shared and the fabric of their life was
closely knit. Life went on.
Summer
vacations started. After a few days, my mother realized that Leela was nowhere
to be seen. When enquired about, her mother told that she had gone to visit her
grandparents in Bengal. That night my mother had a nightmare. She saw that
someone had taken Leela on a boat ride in a river and pushed her into the
water. My mother woke up sweating with a scream ringing in her head. Leela was screaming
“Naa Bhaiyya naa, Naa bhaiyya naa" (No brother no, No brother no). Crying
she told this story to my grandmother who ignored the nightmare and cajoled her
to sleep. She could not. But these small town colonies are centrifuges; however
you hide the truth at the bottom, it will churn up and surface in a while. Soon
people were whispering and one day Leela's mother who was very friendly with my
grandmother started crying in our verandah. She told that Leela had developed
white patches on her arms and thighs. They took her to doctors. She was
diagnosed with leprosy. There was a big argument in the home one afternoon when
Leela was in school. She wailed on and told that she had begged her son and
husband, but Bhama was adamant. And one day on the pretext of taking her to her
grandparents, he took her and pushed her into a river. My mother’s nightmare
had come true. Shaken, she fell ill. I inherited premonitions and this dream
from her... a girl in faded saree screaming ... drowning.
The
cultural and religious traditions in India have unfortunately condoned and to
an extent ratified such murders. One might argue that euthanasia is a separate
debate in itself. But this is not euthanasia. This is no mercy killing. In
fact, traditionally lepers, pregnant women, social outcasts, victims of curses
(like snake bite) and children are not even given proper cremation in Hindu belief system. There is a
famous puranic story of Raja Vena, who was shunned by his own folks because of
Leprosy and denied proper rites. It was later that Prithu performed proper
rites for him and absolved him of his sins (at Prithudaka-Kurkushetra). The
death of Leela was less out of mercy and more out of shame and liabilities that
disease would bring. These social dogmas and canonical codes had poisoned the
head of the brother so much that he thought murdering someone whom the society
expected him to protect, was a just and sanctified way. Leela was killed by her
brother. And the weapon of her murder was our sacred delusion...
Another
instance of such sacred murder came up in my discussions with Abhijeet, a
colleague and friend. In his neighbourhood there was a family. The family elder
was a retired old man who suffered a stroke and was paralyzed. Bedridden and
unable to perform his chores, his care demanded both money and patience which
the family bore for a while. Soon the patience became diminutive and medical
bill became longer. One day his son, an educated man, religious in his conviction
and upright in his morals, proudly informed that his babuji had become very old
and it was now his sacred duty to take him to Varanasi for Kashi Karwat.
Kashi
Karwat is a very famous temple in Varanasi and also a tradition. Some stories
attribute this name to the fact that Kashi or Varanasi is never static and
keeps moving. Some say it is named so because Ganga took a turn (or karwat) at
this place. There is one more story. Kashi is considered the city of moksha.
The Padma Puran mentions that any person who knowingly or unknowingly dies in Kashi
will directly attain moksha, the highest state of human soul. It is believed that in Satyug (ancient age of purity) this temple used to have a saw (or a karwat) which was loosely
hung from the ceiling of the temple. The saw used to descend upon the lucky few
chosen by Gods. The tradition continued. The dimensions of the temple changed with time. The city flourished and the temple sunk. The central room or the
Garbh Griha which houses the deity is now around 30 feet below the ground
level. For a long time there was a saw placed over the Shiva Linga over which
the devotees would jump and perform Kashi Karwat. This was banned by British
and the said saw was removed.
But Kashi
Karwat continued in another format, a mellower one. As Kashi is the said to be the stairway to
heaven, it is a great desire of many old Hindus to spend their last days in
Kashi (Kashi Waas), which may finally culminate in death in Kashi (Kashi Labh).
There are many muktibhavans (houses of liberation) where moksharthis (those who
wish to die in Kashi) can stay in for around 15 days within which they have to
die or look for some other abode. Those who do not die are many times left in
the city in absolute penury. They eventually die, but not due to old age, but
starvation.
So the
old man in our story was taken on such a Kashi Labh. Of course no Kashi Labh
will materialize unless a dip in Holy Ganga is taken. The old man, unable to
move, weakened by age and apathy, was taken to the bone chilling water in the river
and given a holy dip. He had the Kashi Labh…
There are
people who really wish to die in Varanasi. They have absolute faith in the
spirit of the city and they have full right to that. But this tradition like
Sati, which might have started as a willful expression of love, became a tool
of those who want to get rid of their old, unwanted and ailing family members. The
ostracism of Lepers which might have been started as a precautionary measure
against epidemic in ancient world, turned into an excuse for murder.
The sad
part is that these murders, cold blooded and premeditated, are not at all
scorned by the society. Our society which so proudly wears the tiara of benevolence,
mercilessly provides a backdoor exit for those who help it shun its less
fortunate or less productive members. I have heard of rape victims who were
given poison by their mothers, I have known wealthy people trying experimental
(read cheap) medicine and spiritual therapies on their ailing parents, we know
that female infanticide happens mostly because centuries back some old men felt
that only male progeny could provide moksha and carry the family name. Sects still celebrate the sacrifice of Issac and still many people see human sacrifice with bewilderment and as a testimony of utmost devotion. Although modern religions discourage human sacrifice in principle, the silent abetment and the murders continue under the cloak of hypocrisy.
As I said
I did not want to tell this story. It is recurrent nightmare. It is a treachery
and a murder that went unnoticed and unpunished. And the most unfortunate part
is someone somewhere will still justify this on name of religion and culture.
These are just two of our many sacred murders…
Image Credits: Head of a Drowned Man, Theodore Gericault, French Romanticism