Another fruitful artwork was minted as an NFT (non fungible token) today, on the WAX blockchain in my collection. It’s the third of a series called “Vedic Avatars”. This particular collectible work is called “Krishna and Radha” and is assigned the attribute of being the divine couple. You can view it on my gallery wall here: https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/asset/1099520222525.
As a total amateur in this business of creating NFTs, I might be missing a few steps but I wanted to get the gods out there, so to speak. This one is also a series of 8 minted prints or editions of the work, so it’s quite rare. And I’ve listed one for sale so far, for the grand price of 8 WAX coins. That’s about a dollar or maybe two, at today’s current price for WAXP coins, as they’re known now.
I am being careful about copyright of images, and all the pieces of the collage are free of copyright and available to use, I hope. Sometimes I’m not sure, but this time I’m safe and the collage is now my own work. I used a photograph and edited it by using some simple programs on the computer as well as online, to create the finished collage. It’s a new field for me to be experimenting in, so you might think the picture looks a bit amateur or naive, and that’s because it is.
I’m not trying to make a masterpiece. Nor am I trying to make sellable works of art. I don’t mind if they don’t sell. My real motivation is to get the gods out there and into the NFT blockchain space. Perhaps people will see them and their lives will be blessed. Nowadays the folks collecting NFT tradeable cards or playing online and blockchain games are used to seeing gods with superpowers. Well these are the originals.
This is where the concept comes from of gods and avatars. The word avatar is Sanskrit for incarnation of god. Or empowered manifestation of the potency of the divinity, as in the Buddha’s case. In today’s collectible NFT creation, I have depicted the original supreme couple, as they are known in the Vedic pantheon. Krishna is depicted with his consort Radharani, and their pastimes are recorded in the ancient Vedic text called Bhagavat Purana.
Radha is a more esoteric form of Lakshmi. Not as many people know about Radharani. Where Vishnu and Lakshmi are seen and worshiped with awe and reverence, being majestic and opulent and obviously powerful, Krishna and Radha are more hidden and so worshiped in love, without the formal awe and reverence. Or perhaps I should say their relationship is one of love above awe and reverence.
In the original pastimes of Krishna with his beloved consort Radha, they are depicted as children, still very young teenagers at most, or not even teenagers yet. So their love is pure and innocent, where they never married in a formal sense. Krishna went and left his home village of cow herders and left Radha behind. She had to marry someone else, and was forever longing for Krishna’s return.
Radharani is thus seen as the topmost lover of Krishna and all devotees of Krishna are considered servants of Radharani. She is the one who can introduce us to Krishna, so to speak. Their love is pure and fee from lust or expectation. This is the epitome of divine love, which is transcendental anyway, implying beyond the bodily concept of life. This kind of love is not anything to do with physical desire or lust in any way. It is a matter of a divine romance.
I’m not qualified to speak too much about such esoteric subjects, but this is a little of what I’ve heard and read in the Bhagavat Purana, as explained by more realized souls. So in today’s artwork, my desire is to convey the image of the divine couple to the greater world, particularly the art world, as well as the gamers and crypto lovers who may be familiar with NFTs.
Take a look at the collection on my WAX blockchain gallery wall at AtomicHub in the link above. Or let me know what you think of today’s photo montage digital artwork, now an NFT in cyberspace. How the gods have travelled.