A human being on this earth mostly identifies oneself by their material possessions, human relations, societal constructs, academic degrees, goals, dreams, aspirations, needs and wants. If we strip ourselves off all these categorical headings, how are we supposed to identify ourselves? Have you ever asked yourself the question 'Who/What am I?' and fumbled to answer it back with the scripted answers coming from civilizational matrices?!
If you have not fumbled, it's not time yet! You aren't ready to come out of the matrix (though very crude, I am drawing a simplistic analogy with maya.) But if you did fumble, you my friend are the Neo of this story :)
Probably the only constant inquiry having the only constant answer through the millennia is—who am I? Strangely enough the answer to the question is what we chant involuntarily with every living moment of ours— our breath! We vibrate with the one and only universal truth―So'ham (सोऽहम्)
So'ham can be broken down to Sah(He/She/That)+Aham(I) meaning I am That. That being the atman or brahman, chaitanya or the pure consciousness.
सः + अहम् = सोऽहम्
Sah/So is known to be the sound of inhalation. Ham is known to be the sound of exhalation.
Both combined, we vibrate to the tune of So'ham. With every breathe that we take we tell ourselves that we are that pure consciousness, nothing more or nothing less. But the awareness of it isn't as easy as putting it in words!
The so'ham mantra chanted in reverse format gives hamso (hamsa) mantra. Hamsa is referred to as a proverbial swan that can separate milk from water.
This skill makes hamsa a symbol of discernment, mark of a great being. Hamsa therefore represents the atman or pure consciousness. The idea behind the artwork was to show the emergence of the ultimate truth (hamsa) in our mind that is starkly controlled by duality (light and dark background). The artwork has a somber background with the entire focus on the swan. The painting is a call to everyone to strive towards realizing the swan song of our breath. So'ham ✨
To listen to the So'ham/Hamso chanting please click here.