#libration

The same side of the Moon always faces Earth, but not in exactly the same way. Due to its tilted axis and elliptical orbit, we see about 59% of its surface over time. This simulation compresses a year into 60 seconds, making the Moon's wobble, called libration, visible.

The liberation of Africa from the oppression of Western colonizers in the 1960s became one of the main themes of Soviet propaganda posters

In the second half of the 20th century, the African continent lived through its own ‘parade of sovereignties.’ In 1960 alone, 17 new nations gained independence in what was formerly colonial Africa. While remaining economically dependent on Europe, the former colonies fought for political independence. The USSR tried to provide them with as much assistance as possible and in fact initiated the adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples at the 15th session of the UN General Assembly. At that time, a point appeared in the Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the main strategic policy document of the country, stating that “the national liberation movement is one of the main anti-imperialist forces.”

In addition to providing diplomatic, economic, and military assistance to anti-colonial movements in Africa, the USSR also made use of propaganda. From images of a black slave breaking shackles, to depictions of an international union of workers of all skin colors, and the black population shown groaning under the oppression of white colonizers, African themes became an integral part of Soviet propaganda posters.

At the second Russia-Africa Summit, which opened in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, the pavilions were decorated with Soviet posters exploring the decolonization of the African continent. Below, we’ve assembled some of the most interesting images.

Top Left: The creator of this poster is acclaimed Soviet artist Viktor Koretsky, who made over 40 emotionally charged posters during the Second World War. In the 1960s, the struggle against colonialism in Africa became one of his main themes. The inscription on this poster says, “Freedom to all nations of Africa!”

Top Right: One of the first posters showing the struggle of African nations against Western colonizers was created in 1960 by a group of Soviet graphic artists known as Kukryniksy.The image of a black man who strangles his former oppressor with broken chains is accompanied by an inscription that says, “The nations of Africa will rein in colonizers!”

Bottom: This poster, also by Koretsky created in the style of socialist realism, shows a black man breaking the shackles that bind him. The inscription says, “Africa is fighting, Africa will win!”

Top: Another poster by Koretsky depicts a black man who received a paper from Western countries promising “aid to underdeveloped countries.” However, glancing back, he sees how the same hands that gave him the paper are trying to steal from a basket inscribed with the words “natural resources.” The inscription reads “Neocolonialism is the plunder of nations.”

Bottom Left: The conflict between the oppressors and the oppressed was not the only theme that emerged in Soviet posters of the time. Artists often explored the constructive side of decolonization. For example, this poster is by Soviet-Armenian painter Eduard Artsrunyan, a major figure in modern Armenian art. The work was created at the very beginning of his career, shortly after he graduated from the Institute of Art. The image of a young African man ready to build a happy future in his homeland is accompanied by the inscription, “Africa is building. Africa will win!”

Bottom Right: Artsrunyan created another poster on the same theme two years later, in 1965. This one features an African mother – another popular image for Soviet artists. “Out of darkness and slavery – to freedom, to happiness,” says the inscription.

Left: This poster, created by the artist couple Vladimir and Irina Kalensky in 1961, was dedicated to the parade of sovereignties on the African continent. The inscription on the poster, which shows a black girl bearing the flags of the newly formed nations, says, “The wind of freedom is blowing over Africa!”

Middle: This 1960 poster, made by artists Oleg Maslyakov and Efim Tsvik, also avoids direct political slogans. Instead, it looks forward to a new beginning for the African continent as it awakens from its colonial slumber. “Good morning, Africa,” reads the inscription.

Right: A work by Nina Vatolina, the creator of the famous Soviet poster “Don't chatter”, picks up the theme of the previous poster five years later in 1965. The inscription reads “We live in a free Africa!”

Top: Some of the works of Soviet graphic artists were devoted to prominent figures of the African liberation movement. For example, this one by Viktor Koretsky is dedicated to the memory of the independence fighter and first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo Patrice Lumumba, who was killed in 1961. Lumumba is shown against the silhouette of the African continent and with the same silhouette in his heart. It is accompanied by the inscription, “He carried Africa in his heart.”

Bottom Left: Many poster artists drew parallels between the October Revolution in Russia and the liberation movement in Africa. For example, this 1969 poster by Vasily Boldyrev shows a young black man with a rifle illuminated by the light of the Soviet cruiser Aurora – one of the main symbols of the Russian Revolution. “The Great Lenin has illuminated our path,” reads the inscription.

Bottom Right: Lumumba is also mentioned in a work by poster artist Vadim Volikov titled ‘Hold the colonizers to account!’ It shows African and Arab liberation fighters with a Russian proletarian. Together, they threaten a serviceman clutching a blood-covered knife and bearing the inscription “colonialism" on his helmet. The fighters against colonialism hold posters in three languages, which proclaim:

– We mourn for Lumumba, Africa must live, Remove Hammarskjöld! – [Arabic] Down with colonialism, victory to the peoples! – [Russian] Down with colonialism, free Africa!

Top: Many poster artists drew parallels between the October Revolution in Russia and the liberation movement in Africa. For example, this 1969 poster by Vasily Boldyrev shows a young black man with a rifle illuminated by the light of the Soviet cruiser Aurora – one of the main symbols of the Russian Revolution. “The Great Lenin has illuminated our path,” reads the inscription.

Bottom: This work created jointly by Viktor Koretsky and Yuri Kershin in 1967 shows an African independence fighter as a mirror image of a Russian proletarian revolutionary. The poster bears a quote from the theses adopted by the Central Committee of the USSR’s Communist Party for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution:

​​”The Great October Socialist Revolution dealt a severe blow to the entire system of imperialist colonial rule, and became a powerful stimulus for the development of the national liberation movement.”

The inscription states, “The chains are breaking – this is an echo of our revolution!”

Left: This work by Vladimir Menshikov belongs to the late school of Soviet poster art – it was created in 1980, when the Cold War had entered a new stage of tension. The man depicted in the lower left-hand corner holds a flag with the inscription “Give us freedom!” The image is accompanied by a Poem:

The time of retribution is coming,

The flames of battle flare up;

Throwing off the despised load from their shoulders,

Slaves gain freedom

Middle: This 1967 poster by Soviet and Russian artist of Azerbaijani origin Vilen Karakashev shows the irreversibility of the anti-colonial movement in Africa. “You cannot extinguish the dawn of freedom!” the poster says.

Right: A poster by artist Nikolay Smolyak from 1961 depicts a young African man ‘shoveling out’ a colonialist, who leaves behind footprints bearing the words “slavery, robbery, hunger and terror” on African soil. The inscription says,“Colonialism has NO place on Earth!”

Left: In the USSR, the campaign supporting the African struggle against Western colonial powers was backed not only by individual artists, but also by various publications. For example, this is the cover of the September 1960 issue of the satirical magazine ‘Crocodile’. “Clear out!” says a dark-skinned young man with a broom, banishing Western oppressors from his continent.

Middle: A similar theme is explored by Alexander Vyaznikov and Vasily Fomichev in a poster created in 1972. It is accompanied by a Poem:

Old-school colonizers

As well as modern ones

Should all be sent to the dump

Such is their fate!

Right: The political regime in South Africa, where the Apartheid system even outlasted the USSR, came in for particularly sharp criticism by Soviet artists. In this poster by Eduard Artsrunyan, a black man is trying to break chains that resemble the borders of South Africa. “Colonialism is doomed!” says the inscription.

A 1978 poster titled ‘The Grin of Racism’ by artist Fyodor Nelyubin touches on the same theme. He portrays an embittered colonizer whose sinister smile spells out the words “apartheid” and “genocide.” The work is accompanied by a Short Poem:

In this deadly fight he won’t retain

His old colonial ways!

Another work by Nelyubin, painted in the same year, ridicules the unwillingness of Western imperialists to understand the hostile attitude demonstrated towards them by Africa’s local population. The poster titled ‘Black Ingratitude’ is accompanied by a Poem:

Malicious alarm spreads in the racist camps

Foster is angry, indignant is Smith:

We’ve done so much for the Blacks

But all they shout is “Down with apartheid!”

In Yoga, we see the body as five dimensions or five sheaths. The physical body is known as Annamaya Kosha. Anna means the food, so this is the food body. The next one is called Manomaya Kosha or the mental body. The third one is called Pranamaya Kosha which means the energy body. The physical, mental and energy body are all physical dimensions of life. For example, you can clearly see that the light bulb is physical. The electricity, the electrons that flow through the wire, are also physical. So is the light that emanates from the bulb. All three are physical. Similarly, the physical body is gross, the mental body subtler, and the pranic body even more subtle, but all are physical in existence. One’s

karma

is imprinted on the body, on the mind, and on the energy. The karmic imprint or karmic structure is the cement which holds you to the physical body. Although karma is a bondage, at the same time it is only because of karmic substance that you can hold on to the body and be here. When someone dies, we say, “This person is no more.” That is not true. The person is no more the way you know them, but they still very much exist.

The next two dimensions are called Vignanamaya Kosha and Anandamaya Kosha. Vignanamaya Kosha is non-physical but related to the physical. Vishesh Gnana or vignana means extraordinary knowledge or knowledge of that which is beyond the sense perceptions. This is the etheric body. It is a transitory body — a transition from the physical to the non-physical. It is neither physical nor non-physical. It is like a link between the two. Anandamaya Kosha is the bliss body and is completely non-physical. It has no form of its own.

Is There Life After Death?

When someone dies, we say, “This person is no more.” That is not true. The person is no more the way you know them, but they still very much exist. The physical body will fall apart, but the mental and pranic body go on, depending upon the strength of the karma. To find another womb, the intensity of this karmic structure should come down, it should become passive. If the karmic structure has become weak because it has run its course, then it finds another body very easily. When one completes his allotted karma for this life, he will die just like that – without disease, accident or injury. That person may find another body within hours.

If one completes his life and dies peacefully, he need not hang around – it goes on immediately. However, if the karmic structure is very intense, unfinished, then it has to finish it. Now he needs much more time to find another body. This is what you are referring to as ghosts. They are more available to your experience because they have more intense karmic structures. There are innumerable such beings all around you, whether you know it or not, but you will not feel most of them because their karma is dissipated. They are just waiting for more dissipation before they find another body.

Where Do We Go When We Die?

This body is a piece of Earth that we have slowly picked up. Whatever we have picked up in body, we have to drop back atom by atom. When it comes to the mind, the discretionary intellect also gets dropped with the process of death. This whole information that is gathered – the subtler body and the subtler mind and the information that is referred to as karma, the software – is still intact, but the discretion is gone.

If you go into a pleasant state of existence, it is called heaven. If you go into an unpleasant state of existence, it is called hell.

Let us say today you read that the stocks are down and you lost so much money. But you have enough discretion to think, "Okay, it's alright I've lost that, but I still have this. Let me be happy today,” and you can involve yourself in something and be happy.

If you lose this discretion, that is when you go into a compulsively depressed state. Now you will go by your tendencies, whatever kind of quality you have gathered. So when you lose your body, you also lose your discretionary intellect; after that you function just by your tendencies, whichever way they push you, depending upon the type of software you have.

Since there is no more discretion or discernment, if you put one drop of pleasantness into the mind of one who has left the body, this pleasantness will multiply a million fold. If you put one drop of unpleasantness, that unpleasantness will multiply a million fold. It is a little like with children – they go out to play until they are exhausted and cannot go on anymore, because they do not have the necessary discernment as to when it is time to stop.

Do You Know that one only has to use the statement, "The fault is of the sufferer" as a gauge? If you continue to analyze situations in this way, you will progress spiritually and attain liberation.

I didn’t wanted anything related to A Little Life right now. But here I am again—this is quietness. This is me. I hear sounds, I hear the fireworks. I see the time: 11:33 PM. I am noting down everything I do not want to think about, so here I am again.

I look up. Before doing that, I think of looking up, and then I look up. I see myself, and I see myself shining. I see me and the moon. To the moon, but oh, never back. I look up again. I breathe. I see the time: 11:35 PM.

I open my camera. I want to be JB again. I will capture myself without my permission, as I am doing it here right now, at present. I am outside of my mind and not really inside. No music—this is all about the silence. I look up again, and I click.

So close, and yet so far. So close to something, and yet so far. Doom dut da da… Doom dut da da… Doom dut da da…