The Crucifixion Painting: The story behind this painting of Christ’s crucifixion is based, perhaps surprisingly, on the Indian religious epic, the Mahabharata. In one chapter of the Mahabharata, just before the battle between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Krishna awakens to find Duryodhana, the head of the Kaurava clan, standing at His head, and Arjuna, one of the Pandavas, at His feet. Since He sees Arjuna first, He asks Arjuna what he would like from Krishna in the upcoming battle. Arjuna can choose among foot soldiers, soldiers on horses, those mounted on elephants, soldiers in chariots, and all the other parts of a great army. But Arjuna is quite content to have only the Lord, in the person of Krishna, on his side. The Kauravas get the entire army – but they are defeated. In many paintings of the crucifixion, the viewer is above Christ or on an eye level with him. However, in this painting, the viewer is standing at the feet of Christ, looking up at God, as Arjuna did, and as we all should do. This perspective is paramount in the composition of this painting: the viewer is led into the painting looking directly at the feet of Christ, and actually becomes part of the painting, participating in the painting by serving as a witness to the crucifixion. This humble position at the feet of Christ leads to the ideal viewing point, a chance to rise up to divinity. Life is God’s play, a play in which the positive and negative come together. The symbol of the cross is that of the negative and the positive coming together. The cross symbolizes death of the individual and eternal life in God. It represents the ever-bubbling ego of man which causes him to oppose God, and the positive act of negating this ego and realizing divinity. As Sai Baba teaches about the meaning of the vertical and horizontal bars of the cross, Cut the ‘I’ feeling clean across and let it die on the cross. The block on which Christ was made to stand is shown here as a rainbow. Christ’s feet are on the red, representing the material world of flesh and blood. Divinity walked among us to help us and heal us and teach us, as it also did with Krishna, as it has done, miraculously, many times before, and as it has done once again in Sai Baba. And the rainbow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it so that I may remember the ever-lasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. (The Bible, Genesis 9:16) An image of this painting was viewed and held by Sri Sathya Sai Baba during evening Darshan on 27th February 2011.