Voice
Archana Ravi
Archana Ravi is a vocalist from Aotearoa New Zealand. She sings Indian classical and devotional music.
Living Painting
Nirvana Shatakam
by Archana Ravi
Music fromIndia
A Sanskrit hymn from around 800 AD, sung in a temple lit by the setting sun.
Best with headphones
Nirvana Shatakam is a Sanskrit hymn attributed to the philosopher Adi Shankara, around 800 AD. In six verses, it describes the self not as mind, body or the world around us, but as pure consciousness and bliss.
Archana Ravi sings it inside a 3D-sculpted Kolkatan temple, lit by a single warm light as the sun sets beyond the middle archway.
The artwork was sculpted and painted in ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, EbSynth and After Effects.
Credits
- Voice
- Archana Ravi
- Hymn
- Adi Shankara
- Recording and mixing
- Avelin Chetty, Jonathan Hislop
- Digital art, filming and post-production
- Jonathan Hislop
Digital art
Jonathan Hislop
Jonathan Hislop is a digital artist based in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the founder of Sounds of a Sphere. Jonathan films traditional musicians and dancers, then sets them inside worlds built from the visual heritage of their own cultures: temple carvings, miniature paintings, illuminated manuscripts.
Each world is built by hand in Unreal Engine, Nuke, After Effects and Photoshop. No generative AI is used at any stage. Musicians and cultural advisors guide how their tradition is represented.
These Living Paintings have filled a room at the BNZ Auckland Diwali Festival three years running, opened the Māoriland Film Festival, screened at international film festivals and been shared by New Zealand embassies around the world.
Each verse ends with the refrain chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham: I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva.
-
mano buddhi ahankara chittani naaham
na cha shrotra jihve na cha ghraana netre
na cha vyoma bhumir na tejo na vaayuhu
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’hamI am not the mind, the intellect, the ego or the memory.
I am not the ears, the tongue, the nose or the eyes.
I am not space, nor earth, nor fire, nor air.
I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva. -
na cha prana sangyo na vai pancha vayuhu
na va sapta dhatur na va pancha koshah
na vak pani padam na chopastha payu
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’hamI am not the breath of life, nor the five vital airs.
I am not the seven elements of the body, nor its five sheaths.
I am not the voice, the hands, the feet, nor any part of the body.
I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva. -
na me dvesha ragau na me lobha mohau
na me vai mado naiva matsarya bhavaha
na dharmo na chartho na kamo na mokshaha
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’hamI hold no hatred or desire, no greed or delusion.
I hold no pride, and no jealousy.
I am not duty, wealth, desire or liberation.
I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva. -
na punyam na papam na saukhyam na duhkham
na mantro na tirtham na veda na yajnah
aham bhojanam naiva bhojyam na bhokta
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’hamI am not virtue or vice, pleasure or pain.
I need no mantra, no pilgrimage, no scripture, no ritual.
I am not the experience, nor what is experienced, nor the one who experiences.
I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva. -
na me mrtyu shanka na me jati bhedaha
pita naiva me naiva mataa na janmaha
na bandhur na mitram gurur naiva shishyaha
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’hamI have no fear of death, and no division of caste or creed.
I have no father, no mother, not even birth.
I am no relative, no friend, no teacher and no student.
I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva. -
aham nirvikalpo nirakara rupo
vibhutvaccha sarvatra sarvendriyanam
na cha sangatam naiva muktir na meyaha
chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’hamI am beyond duality; my form is formless.
I am everywhere, present in every sense.
I am neither bound, nor freed, nor limited.
I am the form of consciousness and bliss, I am Shiva.
