Wonderstand

Aphorisms and Poems

by Sohan Qadri

Bindu Publishers, 2009
ISBN: 9789197789400
64 pages

Sohan Qadri was a yogi, poet and a painter from India, who lived in Copenhagen, Denmark the last 40 years of his life.

His paintings evolve from states of deep meditation, and are informed by the colors of India: luminous, dye-infused works on meticulously serrated paper.

Wonderstand contains sutras and insights on yoga and meditation. It is modern in the way that it inspires us, and at the same time, it ranges alongside many classic texts on the subject.

The title Wonderstand is a play on words that speaks for itself and holds a promise, for the seeker, of both serenity and humor.

The book includes two collections of texts: Aphorisms and The Dot and the Dots .

Qadri´s sutras have been published in Punjabi, Danish and English.

The truth cast into idea
loses its truth
the mold takes hold
-
Make me transcend
my time
my space
and break my border
to you
-
In the loss of longing
belonging gets lost -
hence emancipation

On Qadri's Aphorisms and Dots

From the foreword by Swami Janakananda:

“…Sohan Qadri´s aphorisms are in line with the tantric tradition of India. Sohan´s guru was a tantric, whom he met as a child. He grew up in that tradition in a small village in Punjab.

The word tantra originally means to expand and through that expansion to liberate. When you expand your consciousness there can be no limitations such as taste or judgement. Everything there is, is part of the experience and part of you. The poems of Sohan Qadri show us that “dot” of consciousness, bindu, which is present everywhere, without discrimination, in every thing and every one – you realize your self through anything...

...the dot is placed everywhere, between the lips of lovers, in the northern lights, among the galaxies, and yet we remain right here.

But you don't have to know the secrets of Tantra to experience his poems - they will inspire you and convey its universal message anyway."

Swami Janakananda (Meditation teacher, yogi and writer).

I am a dot
in the orgastic ecstasy
so spiritual
and so mundane
at once
-
I am a dot
in the full, emptying itself,
in the void, filling itself.

Many thanks indeed for sending us the remarkable book `Wonderstand´ by Sohan Qadri. We are big fans of Sohan´s paintings and now we are big fans of his poetic voice too!

Lorna Howarth (Co-Editor, Resurgence Magazine).

No doubt, Qadri reveals his capacity for presenting themes marked by prophetic and sublime quality conveying an overwhelming interest and deep import to an individual soul…
In all these aphoristic quotations, we notice Qadri’s breadth of intellect. Wonderstand has very high qualities of proverbial expressions written with great precision and clarity.
Sohan Qadri’s eyes are fixed upon the sober enquiry of truth…

S. Kumar (Cyberwit).

... a garland of pearls of wisdom like Rubayat (sufi poetry), a collection of gnomic verse where the world of meaning is pressed in minimum of words. Every piece is commentary on
Life at the abstract plane and gives at the same time an easy understanding of life´s rules
for an ordinary man.

N. Meera Raghavendra Rao (The Newspaper The Hindu).

On Qadri's art:

Sohan Qadri with his art liberates the word meditation from its fashionable taste and brings it back to its proper origin, uninfluenced by Western propaganda, misunderstandings and corruptions.

Heinrich Böll (German writer and Nobel Prize Winner).

There are artists. There are tantriks. There are tantrik artists. As far as I know, there are no tantrik yogis who are artists as well. Sohan Qadri is an exception. He is an exceptional artist.

F. N. Souza (Indian painter and writer)

Sohan Qadri, in a few words, believes in an inner and outer sphere in the life of man. Striving to establish contact with this world within, with one´s true self, he sees as utterly essential for all of us. His art belongs to something of the most refined one can perceive, something which touches "the ultimate secret". We can experience his works directly and with strong presence, and thereafter we can slowly decipher and extract their secrets.

Virtus Schade (Art critic and writer, Copenhagen)

Literature:

An interview with Sohan Qadri: You must let yourself be swallowed up... and an article by Sohan Qadri: Yogini