When Art Opens toward Ananda

A new post in the series - Satyam Shivam Sundaram

A series featuring inspiring words from various sources, words that speak of timeless truths, words that remind me of the deeper and hidden truth behind surface events and phenomena, words that shine light when all seems dark, words that are just what I need - for this moment and for all times to come.


I recently had the opportunity to witness some of the great marvels of Indian sculpture and temple architecture in southern Karnataka. The world-renowned temples of Belur, Halebidu and several other small towns and villages on what is famously called as the Hoysala trail showcase some of the masterpieces of the magnificent scultpural heritage of India.

One could write plenty of words to describe what the experience of being in the presence of such splendid works of art is like. Or one may simply say nothing. Today I am inclined to choose the second option.

But the other day as I was trying to re-live, for myself, some of those moments of standing in a silent awe when faced with the marvelous and intricate beauties of these ancient temples, I recalled some words I had read some years ago.

I recalled the words on Beauty and Ananda by Nolini Kanta Gupta, a great yogi-scholar, a poet and one of the foremost disciples of Sri Aurobindo from his revolutionary days. These are words which remind us that great art, perhaps all art, is not merely about creative expression or aesthetic satisfaction.

Great art has the potential to open the mind and heart to the Truth. To the Knowledge, knowing which all else may be known.

Great art can be an opening to the Delight. Delight in and of the Truth, Beauty, Knowledge, Power, Love. Delight in and of the Divine.

Both for the true artist and the true rasik.

At Hoysaleswara temple, Halebidu
Photo by Suhas Mehra

OF BEAUTY AND ANANDA

Truth is Beauty's substance -- it is Beauty self-governed.

Beauty is Delight perfectly articulate.

Love is Beauty enjoying itself.

Knowledge is the light that Beauty emanates.

Power is the fascination that Beauty exerts.

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All Art is the re-creation of Truth in Beauty.

Rhythm is the gait of Truth dynamic with Delight.

The Truth of a thing is its native substance, the being in its absolute self-law. Satyam is that which is of Sat.

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Beauty is delight organised.

Poetry is the soul's delight seeking perfect expression in speech.

Speech is self-expression. It is the organ of self-consciousness. The nature of the speech shows the nature of the self-consciousness. The degree of perfection in utterance measures also the extent to which one is conscious of oneself.

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Beauty is the soul's delight perfectly articulate and organised.

Where the soul does not speak out, where the rhythm of the spirit does not manifest, there comes in ugliness.

Things are ugly when they are not true to themselves, not sincere, not self-expressive.
In a sense, natural and beautiful are the same, the perverse commensurate with the ugly.

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Beauty is not merely balance, symmetry, measure, a regular disposition of features. A form, an embodiment, need not be pretty to be beautiful.

Mere formal beauty is a power, but a surface power; there is a deeper unity of rhythm in the embodiment that is beautiful by its transparent soul-expression.

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Art is the incarnation of Truth in Beauty, The Divine the truest Truth and the Beauty most beautiful, The incarnation of the Divine the supreme Art.

An art with the Divine left out is like a trunk without the head: It is built with the lower members and not with the higher members of Beauty; Skill it may possess but not greatness; it may please the senses, but cannot enrapture the soul.

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The very nature of Art is rhythm and harmony.

The Divine is integral harmony and perfect rhythm.

The element of divine harmony and rhythm is the measure of the beautiful in Art. Even so it is with the art of life.

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All things are beautiful, for the All-beautiful is in every thing.

The domain of Art encompasses the entire creation.

The Divine is present everywhere, but in essence.

In the manifestation there is a varying and developing degree of the Presence.

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The Brahman is there equally in the saint and the sinner, in the knowledge and in the ignorance, -- it is the static Brahman.

But the saint and the knowledge manifest and embody the dynamic Brahman.

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The stress of Life is to reveal and incarnate more and more of the dynamic Divine, the creative Ananda of consciousness in its self-nature.

The progress of art too consists in recording this march of the soul in its ever-growing consciousness and ever-deepening Ananda towards a higher incarnation of the Divine.

~ Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta, Vol. 2, pp. 357-359

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To see the previous post in the series Satyam Shivam Sundaram, click here.

To see all the posts in the series, click here.

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Linking with ABCWednesday, O: O is for Opening

Flowers, Home, Saris and More

She definitely has a way with words.

Regular readers of Dagny know what an inspiring and inspired writer she is. But there is also another side to the nature of her inspiration which I have recently experienced. Her words have the ability to quieten me down, making me ready to discover that deep and calm place within. A place from where emerge some ideas, thoughts, words and sentences carrying that 'feel' of calmness and quiet depth.

To what extent any composition expresses a sense of quietness, that is for the readers to decide. But as a writer I know how I feel when I am inspired to write something at the request of this dearest friend. Zen-like, I think one may call it. Naah! Serene and yet fully present and absorbed in the experience of writing. Serenely Rapt, may be?

Dagny inspires me not only with the stories she tells, but more so with the way she makes these stories seem like our stories, mine and hers, and of everyone else who reads them. The grounded and earthy wisdom that is gently enfolded in her words, the quietness with which that ray of light shines upon the reader's being -- that is an experience felt by all who have visited her space, Serenely Rapt. 

You must have heard that highly creative people are creative in ways more than one. This is true of my friend Dagny too. While the pages of Serenely Rapt showcase her beautiful stories, anecdotes, reflections and ponderings on various shades and hues of life, she dazzles with another side of her creative self via Rugs of Life. If you haven't yet seen this space of hers, you don't know what you are missing!

When she suggested that I write a guest-post for her blog, I was naturally overjoyed. And also a bit unsure whether any writing of mine would stand up to the standard that Serenely Rapt is famous for. That's when the warmth of her love and friendship, and her calm confidence in me, my thought process, words and way of expression came to my rescue. And a post with the title, Musings on Home, Flowers and More took shape.

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MUSINGS ON HOME, FLOWERS AND MORE

I feel a sense of gratitude to those fourteen-plus years of my life when I was living between two cultural spaces. What we Indians call as non-resident-Indian (NRI) experience, gave me ample opportunities to reflect on the meaning of home, being at home and being in what many post-modernists call as a state of hybridity or in-between-ness.

I remember today an essay I wrote about thirteen years ago, in which I had pondered over the meaning of home. The essay, published on Sulekha, was based on an analysis of the voices of a few Indians living outside India with whom I had some interactions in an online discussion forum, combined with my own decade-long experience, at that time, of living, studying and working in the United States. In that piece I had come to a tentative conclusion that perhaps home means “a place where we can be really free, free at heart.”

End of this month will mark eight years of my return to India. No more of that NRI experience. However, at different points of time in these last eight years, this question of “what is home” has often surfaced in different ways – personally as well as socially. But it has also become obvious to me that the question has now taken on a more emotional and psychological shade than a mental or intellectual one, which was the case earlier. The experience of this question is also more inwardly grounded than something that is outward and identity-based. And this, I believe, is what makes me feel more ‘at home’ with the question itself. Let me explain.

About two years ago, I found myself going through an intense phase when this question – what is home – became a very real and living struggle for many months. In a way I was spending all those months ‘at home’ (my parental home, to be precise – the home where I grew up) but then it wasn’t really my home anymore. It didn’t feel like that.

The part that felt ‘like home’ was my parents. Especially, my very ill and fragile mother who was the reason why I was spending all those months there, away from my home and in my mother’s home. And yet the longing to go back to my home was very much there despite the mental awareness that I needed to be at my parents’ home. 

TO READ REST OF THE POST, CLICK HERE.

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A TALE OF TWO SAREES

Like I said, Dagny has a way with words. But then, she also a way with saris. Or for that matter, any old fabric which transforms into something entirely new and completely beautiful when it comes into her hands.

A few months ago, she gave new lives to two of my old saris. The sheer beauty of her work made me speechless when I held in my hands the new-born pieces she sent me. What had been once two old saris were now in front of me in totally new forms, speaking quietly of the remarkable gift and talent of the artist. The experience wouldn't have been complete if I didn't write a little story of that creative rebirth I witnessed. And yes that writing too came about in a moment of quiet and joyful spontaneity.

If you haven't read that little story of two saris and their rebirth, how about clicking it HERE and making that correction now.

And while you are at Rugs of Life, do spend some time browsing through the great collection of rugs Dagny weaves with love and care. A few minutes of going through the different narratives that accompany each of her creations will be sufficient to appreciate the genuine reverence she has for the divinity that hides in matter. That, in essence, is the real source of the beauty that spills out from all that she weaves.

He and She: A Photo Essay

A new post in the series: Things of Beauty

I found Her & Him - Them - hidden in the back in a dusty corner of a large shop in the temple town of Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. A Chola-style Ardhnarishvara, who now adorns a small corner in my home.

The Chola style of Ardhnarishvara form, often cast in bronze or panchaloha (an alloy of five metals -- copper, lead, zinc, gold, and silver), is unique because of three arms, two on the Shiva side and one on the Shakti/Parvati side. However, in the majestic Brihadeeshwarar temple, built by emperor Raja Raja Chola I at Thanjavur, one finds a magnificent eight-armed form of Ardhnarishvara:

When I saw my Ardhnarishvara that evening, I knew why I had stood totally transfixed earlier that morning at the Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple in front of this:

Source

When I saw my little Ardhnarishvara I knew exactly the spot that will be His/Her abode in my home.

Why did this particular spot come to mind spontaneously? Perhaps because a contemporary form of Ardhnarishwara, framed under glass, already has found its home there. 

A painting made by the young Delhi-based artist, Bindu Popli, titled "You and Me 2" hangs on the wall just above the panchaloha Ardhnarishvara. (Actually it is a print of her painting -- can't afford all original works even though the artist is my sister and gives me great discounts!) And yes, there is also a "You and Me 1", a print of which hangs in another room.

I have always thought of this particular work as the artist's vision of Ardhnarishvara -- a totality that lies beyond duality, a non-duality that is beyond the unity of opposites, a oneness that is beyond the complementarity of the masculine and feminine principles. 

Several years ago, the artist had done another Ardhnarishvara, which she actually called by that name. This was a wall mural in her previous studio.

Small photographic prints of this Ardhnarishvara have also found home in my place. In three different versions -- coloured, black & white and sepia under the stairs. 

So yes, I do feel a special connection with this particular form of the Divine, Ardhnarishvara! Here are three that adorn my home, up close. 

May the Two That are One and the One That is Many continue to grace my inner Home too.

          

               

"Without Him I Exist Not, Without Me He is Unmanifest."

(The Mother)

Each now was a part of the other’s unity,

The world was but their twin self-finding’s scene

.......

For we were man and woman from the first,

The twin souls born from one undying fire.

(Sri Aurobindo, Savitri)

Unless specified all photos are from personal archives, taken by family members.

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To see the previous post in the series, click here.

To see all posts in the series, click here.

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To see the previous photo essay on this blog, click here.

Raising the Discourse

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recently completed visit to the United States created a great deal of excitement among Indian-Americans, as well as among many other sections of both the Indian and American establishments including government, business, media and others.

Understandably, the political pundits, diplomatic experts and media-folks were and still are busy dissecting and analysing each aspect of Prime Minister Modi’s visit and also the various speeches he gave at different venues. 

On September 27 Narendra Modi gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. While the content, focus and emphasis of the entire speech was commendable in its own right, including the PM’s oratory, one specific thing stood out in particular for me.

That was when the Prime Minister made a reference to Yoga in the context of individual responsibility to address the problem of climate change. On that global stage he reminded the esteemed audience that Yoga is a unique and one of the most invaluable contributions of India to the humanity. He emphasized that Yoga is a complete approach to living a holistic life, and is a path to attain overall well-being, both for the individual and the collective. 

This, he reminded the UNGA, is what could very naturally result in a deep rethinking and reorienting of our modern lifestyle, leading to less consumption, a more mindful and conscious approach to life and living. Such an approach based on individual commitment and responsibility, according to the Prime Minister, must be one of the key components of a comprehensive plan to address the huge problem of climate change. To create a greater awareness about the benefits of Yoga, he even proposed for the celebration of an International Yoga Day.

By speaking of Yoga for a couple of minutes in this way, Narendra Modi persuasively reminded the audience that while he may be speaking at the UNGA as a democratically elected Prime Minister of the nation-state of India, he is in fact also representing one of the oldest civilizations of the world, one that has made immense contributions to the world and humanity. 

In a very subtle but powerful way, PM Modi made the audience understand that this oldest civilization has much to contribute to address the most serious problems of the modern world. In fact, he even reminded the world that Indian culture, because of its inherently and deeply spiritual view of life and living, may be able to lead the world in raising the individual and collective consciousness, thereby facilitating the search for sustainable and holistic solutions to the most complex problems resulting from massive industrialization and mechanization of the world.

Through this brief but thoughtful reference to Yoga, the Indian Prime Minister not only brought the glory of Indian civilization on to the global stage, he also brought home one of the deepest truths revealed by the truly enlightened in all the world civilizations, thereby emphasizing the universality and the wideness of the Indian spiritual outlook. He very subtly reminded the global audience that only a radically different and an elevated consciousness can provide a sustainable way out of the present evolutionary crisis humanity seems to be facing.

While making his reference to Yoga he indeed gave important hints to the kind of new consciousness that is needed for a better tomorrow. Yoga, he said, is not only a means to better health, but a way of life that has the potential to gradually raise the mind, heart and body to a level of self-awareness and consciousness that is wider, higher, and deeper than the one in which the mass of humanity persists at present.

Some of the other remarks made by the Prime Minister during his speech, especially with regard to greater sharing of technologies and new advances in renewable and other alternative sources of energy, greater sense of global responsibility to fight terrorism, greater need for the world to work together to address the problems of global poverty, lack of sanitation and unavailability of clean drinking water, also highlighted the need for an elevated and wider collective consciousness. He emphasized that the world today needs a consciousness that is more unitarian, integrative and harmonizing instead of one that is grounded in separative, divisive, egoistic tendencies which at present generally guides most of the actions and decisions taken by the individual nations, particularly the Western powers.

In a uniquely Indian way Prime Minister Modi elevated the usual discourse on some of the most pressing problems in today’s world to a level where lasting solutions can be found only when humanity begins to see, experience and live life differently. He indirectly pointed out that sustainable solutions can’t be found only through a materialistic-rationalistic approach to life. By making a small but powerful reference to the age-old discipline of Yoga and the deeper connection between Indian spirituality and reverence for Mother Nature, he emphasized for the global audience that radical solutions demand a radical shift in consciousness and particularly require an approach to life that is more grounded in inner truth-seeking. And he very aptly reminded that it is India that has given to the world and humanity a time-tested approach to inward turning, called Yoga. 

Only an Indian leader could have said this on a global stage, and only a leader who is in touch with the deeper Indian spirit could have said this so convincingly and so powerfully. Narendra Modi showed to the world that the eternal and timeless Indian view of life, which values a higher synthesis of matter and spirit, has the potential to create a better tomorrow. 

India is destined to work out her own independent life and civilisation, to stand in the forefront of the world and solve the political, social, economical and moral problems which Europe has failed to solve, yet the pursuit of whose solution and the feverish passage in that pursuit from experiment to experiment, from failure to failure she calls her progress. Our means must be as great as our ends and the strength to discover and use the means so as to attain the end can only be found by seeking the eternal source of strength in ourselves. (Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo, vol 8, p. 25)

Image: Google

Beads that Matter

A new post in the series - Reminders to self

I discovered a beautiful article yesterday on my daily digest from Dailygood.org 

Something about the piece stayed with me for a long time, including the title itself, Beauty and The Dumpster. I share below the last two paragraphs from the article, the essence of the piece in my opinion. Or at least the essence that spoke to me. So very directly. So very quietly and strongly.

My ancestors also were first-generation immigrants, who arrived in this country with only what they could carry. The little they came to own was theirs for a lifetime. Anything that broke was repaired; chairs and sofas re-covered, tables refinished. Objects did not come and go but remained stable, adding to the stability of the world. What I have of theirs contributes to the weight of my being.

It is common these days to lament how materialistic we have become, but I do not believe this is accurate. It seems to me that we have not yet begun to value matter. Much that is made today is not intended to last and cannot be repaired. Mana is unable to fill our possessions. Lacking substance, they cannot become proper vessels for spirit. We may ask where objects come from, but they no longer have stories to tell. They too have lost their roots. How, then, are we to leave tangible mementoes of ourselves when we go? What will be left to caress?

As I kept mulling over what I had read in this piece, particularly the last paragraph, I was reminded of those days last year when my sisters and I were trying to sort through some of the possessions of our mother after her departure from this world. I found myself looking carefully, really seeing and feeling through some of my mother's personal objects that have made their way into my home.

Like her sphatik mala that she used for her japa practice, which now adorns the frame housing an old B&W picture of her and my father taken a day after their wedding. The picture rests comfortably on a cupboard which serves as my dressing table, and every time I gaze at the sphatik mala I hope that something of the magical healing power of those beads will rub over me. Every time I wrap that mala over my wrist I hope and pray that something of the energy and force added to those beads by my mother's constant japa practice over many years will rub on to me.

It seems to me that we have not yet begun to value matter. Much that is made today is not intended to last and cannot be repaired. Mana is unable to fill our possessions. Lacking substance, they cannot become proper vessels for spirit. 

This reminder was needed. This reiteration is needed. For me. For all, I suppose.

Meditating on this thought also reminded me of two posts I had written during the time I was engrossed fully with the task of organizing and sorting my mother's personal possessions.

In "The Stuff of Our Lives" I wrote:

And ultimately at some point in time, that definitive moment comes when all our possessions, all the objects, all the stuff we so meticulously collected over our lives stays here in this physical realm, as our last journey out of this realm commences. What happens to all that stuff – the stuff of our temporary lives? Do we ever wonder about this all the while we are busy collecting, possessing, accumulating? Do we ever imagine, even for a split second, how will our loved ones handle all that stuff we so carefully kept in our closets, cupboards, and drawers?

In "Material Life" I reminded myself of the eternal advice from the Mother:

The Divine is in things also and that is why they must be treated with care.

Today I remind myself again of this reminder. Today all I can write is this:

If only we can learn how to feel and value the spirit in the matter. If only we can learn how to transform our material possessions as vessels for the spirit.

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To read the full article "Beauty and the Dumpster" by Meredit Sabini, click here.
To read my post "The Stuff of Our Lives", click here.
To read my post "Material Life", click here
To read all the posts in the series "Reminders to self", click here.

Photo: mine

An Extraordinary Moment

August 2012. 

I stood there. In awe. In front of That. Couldn't move my eyes off That.

And in a few seconds it happened.

The tears started flowing. Tears that must flow when your heart is so full, so very full that it just doesn't know what else to do. It melts through your eyes.

These are the moments when the mind doesn't know what is going on. The mind just goes out of the picture. Thankfully. And you are there simply in that moment of oneness with That. With the Spirit of That which is in front of your eyes.

Like that afternoon of August 2012, when I stood in front of the bodhisattva Padmapani at Ajanta Caves (cave 1). What an extraordinary experience it was! There were many people in the cave, admiring, whispering, talking, taking pictures, strolling about. But all of them, all of that disappeared. Sort of.

And there I was, frozen at the spot, right in front of the over-life-size Padmapani, painted on the wall of the cave. And the tears wouldn't stop. What I felt was and still remains indescribable. But that's because describing is the task of the mind. There was no mind involved in what I was feeling. Or at least that's how it feels even after two years.

The only word that comes to mind when I recall that experience is - Gratitude. For that Experience, that Moment. For those Artists who have given us such Works of Art.

Art that has the potential to take you into Silence. To give you a taste of that rare Joy when you connect with something Beyond, something Higher than yourself. Art that expresses an aspect of Divinity through Matter.

Art that is not only to be enjoyed on the surface. It can't be because it doesn't reveal itself fully on that level. It has to be felt, experienced in a different way.

I feel blessed to have had that moment when I could experience the Padmapani in that way. Sort of.

Painting is naturally the most sensuous of the arts, and the highest greatness open to the painter is to spiritualise this sensuous appeal by making the most vivid outward beauty a revelation of subtle spiritual emotion...

... the unique character of Indian painting, the peculiar appeal of the art of Ajanta springs from the remarkably inward, spiritual and psychic turn which was given to the artistic conception and method by the pervading genius of Indian culture. 

Indian painting like Indian architecture and sculpture appeals through the physical and psychical to another spiritual vision from which the artist worked and it is only when this is no less awakened in us than the aesthetic sense that it can be appreciated in all the depth of its significance. 

~ Sri Aurobindo, Indian Art, CWSA Volume 20, pp. 302-304 

~ Photo by Suhas Mehra

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Linking this post with ABC Wednesday, X: X is for Extraordinary. 

That Late Night Chat

P: Listen, I have something to tell you. I was thinking that here we are, almost a couple. People speak of us as if we are made for each other....

S: But aren't we? I mean, do you even doubt that?

P: You never let me say my thing....the moment I begin you cut me off. What's the point, really? I better not say anything. And simply do what I must do.

S: Okay, okay, I won't interrupt now, go ahead and tell me. Tell me all that is running through that pretty little head of yours. And what about this thing that you must do?

P: I was thinking that while it is true that we are a couple and yes, maybe we are made for each other as everyone says, but we are still two individual people. Very different.

S: So? Everyone is different.

P: But that's not what I want to say really. You see, there is this thought that has been bothering me for a while now. There is this urge in me, sort of like a deep wish, a deep desire maybe, I don't know...that I should venture out in the world on my own, alone, find out what more I can be. Not as one part of the "couple", not as one piece of the "made for each other". Just me, by myself.

S: Hmmm....

P: Don't just "hmmm" me, tell me how you feel about this. About what I have just told you.

S: I don't know...it is all a bit sudden. I need to think about it.

P: But still you must have some initial reaction to it.

S: Well, yes I do...

P: So what is it? Out with it!

S: Are you sure you want to hear? And you won't mind whatever it is that I say to you?

P: No. I won't mind, tell me. I am strong enough on the inside.

S: Well, if you say so, sweety! I think it is a foolish idea.

P: What?

S: See, I told you you may not like it. Why are you pricking me?

P: Okay okay, I won't react, just go ahead and tell me why you think it is a foolish idea.

S: Well, for one, how will you survive out there? It is a big bad world out there, my dear! You need me.

P: Need you? Why?

S: Don't you see, there is danger out there. People with daggers, razor-sharp instruments ready to pounce upon you the moment you become vulnerable, the moment you begin to become dull.

P: I have been living with you so for long, you have your sharp teeth too, that razor-sharp blade of yours always ready to shape me into form.

S: Yes, but I do that out of love, my love for you, baby.

P: Love? Is that love?

S: Yes, do you have any doubt? Don't you see that the whole world thinks we are made for each other?

P: Well, the world says it because they are afraid of your sharp bite. And anyway, it is only "our" little world that says so. The big bad world, as you say it, out there doesn't care, we are nothing for them. I can very well manage without you, you know.

S: Even with those daggers, swords, blades out there!?!

P: No, not with them. On my own. But of course from time to time I might, I know I will need some help. But if I am strong enough and learn how to take care of myself, I can work with others as partners for the time being, and manage myself very well. Thank you very much!

S: Aha! So you are really hell bent on this "being on my own" thing. You have made up your mind?

P: Yes.

S: And what, may I ask, will you do out there "on your own"?

P: I will write.

S: What else can you do? That's the only thing you know.

P: But what else do I need to know? That's my thing, my dharma as they say!

S: And will you be taking up a job somewhere as a writer to make your ends meet?

P: I might, for some time. So what?

S: Wouldn't you be giving up a part of your "own" self when working for another?

P: That will be just to earn my bread. My other or bigger work will be for myself.

S: What other work?

P: To write my own story.

S: Ha....your own story? Who would want to read that?

P: Doesn't matter. But I need to write, write for myself.

S: Write for yourself....what notions you have!

P: You will not get it, you see. You are just...

S: I am just what? Say it...

P: You with your sharp teeth, your ever-readiness to bite me, to make me smaller....

S: Listen girl, I don't make you smaller, I make you fit for your work, your dharma as you say!

P: I know I know, you make me ready. But that's your work. Yes, your dharma! You don't do it for me, you do it for yourself, to fulfill the very purpose of your existence. Otherwise why is there any need for you at all? Nobody really needs you.

S: You do.

P: I do, because you are here. But if you weren't I can find other partners to help me get ready. It is I who is the real thing in this partnership that is going on between you and me. Not you. So get that straight, okay!

S: See, how edgy you have already become. That's because of my constant support to keep you fit and working. Otherwise how will you get all these big ideas about being on your own!?!

P: Whatever....I am not going to argue with you, I have made up my mind. And I am going to go. Out there, to find myself, as they say in all those books I have been marking.

S: Yes, you and your books and those markings! All those big big words!

P: Why are you jealous? Just because you are not really needed by me, is that it?

S: Whatever....

P: So that's it then. It is settled. I am getting out of our relationship, out of this confinement, and am ready to explore the world on my own. Ta-ta!

S: What? Right now? You are leaving me right now?

P: Right now is just as good a time as any. So why not now?

S: I know you can survive without me. It is I who needs to think what am I good for anymore.

P: I am sure you will figure something out. Like I did. When I realized that I needed to reinvent myself. To find my true purpose, as all those books say.

S: Aren't you forgetting something? Who will lead you, out there? You have always been an instrument, not the real doer of things. You are not the 'real' writer. You only assist.

P: You are right. But you are also not right.

S: What? How can both things be true at the same time?

P: They can. They can when the instrument realizes that she too is just as real as the real doer of things, the real writer. When the instrument becomes her real self, so to speak.

S: You and your big words! Must be all those big books you have been marking!

P: But don't you see? There is some great stuff in those big books as you call them. You should stop being so rigid and sharp-tongued and have some flexibility.

S: And how am I supposed to be flexible?

P: I don't know. But that is your problem, no? You should figure it out. Maybe sometimes one has to break oneself open completely in order to fully see oneself in all one's parts and pieces. Maybe there are some parts in you that you don't need anymore now that the world is changing so fast. Maybe you will find that only some parts of you are worth keeping, and maybe just maybe, there might be a new you as a result of all that breakage and reassembly.

S: There you go again...with all those big words from those big books....

P: Whatever....I am willing to do all that it takes to reinvent myself fully, to write my own story, even if it requires me to break myself fully open. If you don't want to reinvent yourself, I can't force you. I can only offer advice, that too because we have been together for so long. It is your choice to listen to it or not.

S: Well....Anyway, you better get going now...it is already nearing the time when the owner of this house comes knocking to look for that USB he left here yesterday. What a crackpot of a name it is - USB!

******

The above conversation between a sharpener called S and a pencil called P was recorded on a rainy night a few years ago, by a reliable micro-recorder hidden in the top drawer of a writer's desk. Ever since the writer had started doing all his work on the computer, the two ex-lovers S and P had been feeling unappreciated and unnecessary. This led P to some serious introspection, and she finally decided to move out of the confines of the desk and do her own thing. Write out her story. Reinvent herself.

"The Story of a Smartpen formerly known as P" will be out in the book-market soon.

And what happened to the poor, dejected fellow S, you ask? To find out, stay tuned!

Original image sourced from here

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This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda. The prompt this week is -- Stationery Chats.

The Absence

Source

An unexpected visitor her memory isn’t. Present, always. 

Yet today, on Ram-navmi, the day her Ishta Devta chose to come on the earth in a human form, I sense her Absence. 

Her form in this life, form that I knew, form that gave me mine.

Unexpectedly, by this window. 

Is it the scent in the air that feels like the touch of her soft hands? Or the mystical hum of the wind-chime that speaks like her smiling eyes? Or the pleasing dance of the bamboos in the breeze that sings of the time she wasn’t formless?

She is absent. Again. 

******

Linking this post with Write Tribe's 100 words on Saturday - Prompt - An Unexpected Visitor

Art and Society

This post was re-published in Tamarind Rice, July 2014


A new post in the series - When a Picture Leads

A post inspired by some late night browsing of old pictures; 
this time from a visit to Cholamandal, an Artists' Village near Chennai

In today’s world where art has become another peg in the mighty wheel of commercialism and consumerism, we have experts -- art critics, museum and gallery wallahs, art dealers and others -- who tell us what is “beautiful” art, what is more “valuable” and what is “priceless.” They do this through their selection process and via picking up the art they believe can ‘sell’. In some sense they are not only reading or guessing society’s aesthetic sense; they are also shaping it. 

While there are serious drawbacks to this process of erecting an industry out of and for art, I am wondering if this can be, in some way, seen as an 'interim' solution to the perpetual question of how the society supports the arts? If as a society our sensibilities are more consumption-oriented and commercialistic at this point of our collective evolution, our approach to supporting the arts will also be along that line.

How might this change in a future society that has evolved to a higher level of individual and collective consciousness? 

Perhaps some hints of an answer to that can already be seen in the emerging trends of community-level art fairs featuring local artists, artist cooperatives which manage galleries and organize exhibits, and artists’ villages. Certainly there are examples of such ideas being translated in practice in many parts of the world. 

In my neck of the woods we have Cholamandal, an artists' village near Chennai, which has grown "without any funding or support from the government, quasi-governmental bodies, charitable foundations, art bodies like Lalit Kala Academy or persons apart from the small grant that it is entitled to, like any other art organization in the country." The village welcomes visitors to enjoy their permanent gallery of paintings, sculptures as well as the display of art and craft work which are available for sale by the artists themselves. Go on, click on their website to know more.

Perhaps this is a sign of things to come. Perhaps change is already happening, societies are evolving, art is evolving, artists as discoverers of Divine through Beauty are evolving, as they are searching and discovering new forms of collective living and working which doesn’t in any way inhibit or limit their individual creativity and work. 

Perhaps I am being too optimistic. But why not?


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All photos by yours truly.

For previous posts in this series, click here and here.

Linking this post with Write Tribe Festival of Words, Free Write
Linking also with DailyPost Weekly Challenge: Threes

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An Old Song and the Greatness of Indian Sculpture

Outside a cave at Ellora, Photo by Suhas Mehra

Sometimes channel surfing on TV actually does yield some good results. Like that afternoon in Delhi, while passing an idle hour and randomly clicking buttons on the TV remote I came across a song I had almost forgotten. And this is a song I used to very much like once upon a time. 

Listening to this song that lazy afternoon naturally led me to re-read some of the absolutely masterful passages on Indian Sculpture by Sri Aurobindo. Interesting, I thought, how re-discovering an old song on TV can make an afternoon so enriching when we go deeper into an idea that is merely hinted in the song. Afterall, TV watching can also be educational at times, it seems! Of course, I am not getting cable TV installed in my home right away, but surely will be spending a few more afternoons searching on youtube for some old favorite songs, just in case some musical inspiration is needed to re-read some more from the Master's Works.

"All Indian art is a throwing out of a certain profound self-vision formed by a going within to find out the secret significance of form and appearance, a discovery of the subject in one’s deeper self, the giving of soul-form to that vision and a remoulding of the material and natural shape to express the psychic truth of it with the greatest possible purity and power of outline and the greatest possible concentrated rhythmic unity of significance in all the parts of an indivisible artistic whole."

"The inspiration, the way of seeing is frankly not naturalistic, not, that is to say, the vivid, convincing and accurate, the graceful, beautiful or strong, or even the idealised or imaginative imitation of surface or terrestrial nature. The Indian sculptor is concerned with embodying spiritual experiences and impressions, not with recording or glorifying what is received by the physical senses. He may start with suggestions from earthly and physical things, but he produces his work only after he has closed his eyes to the insistence of the physical circumstances, seen them in the psychic memory and transformed them within himself so as to bring out something other than their physical reality or their vital and intellectual significance. His eye sees the psychic line and turn of things and he replaces by them the material contours."

Excerpts from The Renaissance in India and Other Essays on Indian Culture 

Material Life

A new post in the series - Satyam Shivam Sundaram

A series featuring inspiring words from various sources, words that speak of  timeless truths, words that remind me of the deeper and hidden truth behind surface events and phenomena, words that shine light when all seems dark, words that are just what I need - 

for this moment and for all times to come.

Photo taken at my home, Diwali 2013

Last few days have seen me occupied taking care of many details about lots of material things. The following words, for me, are a good reminder for keeping the right attitude and deepening the inner view when working on such important matters of life...

The Divine is in things also and that is why they must be treated with care.

*

Not to take care of material things which one uses is a sign of inconscience and ignorance.

You have no right to use any material object whatsoever if you do not take care of it.

You must take care of it not because you are attached to it, but because it manifests something of the 

Divine Consciousness.

~ The Mother, Collected Works, Volume 14