Mandala the Pattern that Connects ( and Liberates ) Part 2

Indian music is combination of ever changing Sur and constant bit or Tal. A singer makes all the variations, depths and heights only to ensure a timely return to the beat or Tal. (Sam sadhana) Some say that Sur is Smriti or the Ehihas and puranas which change with time and Tal is Shruti which like Vedas are eternal and unchanging. This combination of flexibility in firmness (Tough like a metal wire and yet bent in a beautiful curve, observes Swami Vivekananda) is perhaps the peculiarity of Indian mind. The instinct for order and freedom at once in any field is always a sign of very high capacity in that field according to Sri Aurobindo. The analogy of a metal wire drawn in a beautiful curve has a significance: Curve is essence of art, sign of beauty, it involves smoothening, synchronizing and harmonizing and it is in contrast to straight lines, polygons which are invariably part of any mechanical system. This peculiarity of Indian mind has led Swami Vivekananda to declare that in India everything is artistic, symbolic and is supposed to tell the viewer something deeper. He told about how even dresses are not with straight lines, and have folds and curves, homes have decorations on walls and ground. Art was part of religious ceremonies and was used for Chittashuddhi, purification of turbulent mind before the actual ritual started. In discussing the place of art in the evolution of race and its value in the education and actual life of the nation, Sri Aurobindo in his book ‘The national value of art’ has written that the manners, the social customs, and restraint in action which are so large a part of national prestige and make a nation admired like the French, loved like the Irish, or respected like higher class English s based essentially on the sense of form and beauty, of what is correct, symmetrical, well adjusted, fair to eye and pleasing to imagination. The absence of these qualities is the source of national weakness. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan wrote that civilization is not a matter of mere material possession, or speedy communication. It is a state of mind, tradition, culture, sense of values. According to him what distinguishes a cultivated man from uncultivated or barbarous is his pursuit of wisdom, his passion for beauty, his practice of love. The truth is that many of us have become cynical and skeptical, irrationally desirous, with empty, boring and trivial lives due to this lack of cultivation of arts. According to Dr. Radhakrishnan, all great art is a result of contemplative chastity, emotional identity, and heightened vision. Vinoba Bhave said that a man who has seen the true vision of art will not tolerate any ugly habit in his ordinary daily life. That is what children have to be taught. He emphasized that, it is not enough that they should acquire certain dexterity of hand, but their whole outlook must be colored by a vision of beauty. He further said that there is art in posture, in sitting, standing, in cutting lime, banana skin peeling, in short beauty of orderly living is part of appreciation of beauty in any art. He then explained that beauty and purity are interrelated. The very name for Venus is Shukra, which is derived from shuchi meaning purity. In front of this heavenly beauty, there is no value for pearls in ocean according to Vinoba. While describing Ramarajya, Tulsidas wrote that to pay homage to Sri Rama, the Ocean used to cast pearls on the shore by himself. Vinoba wrote that Tulsidas should have added a stanza saying that the children in Sri Rama’s kingdom used to play with those pearls and threw them back in the sea after play. That would have shown real valuation of true versus artificial beauty and luxury to everyone according to Vinoba. Savitri devi a Greek scholar wrote in her ‘Warning to the Hindus’ as follows. According to Plato visible beauty leads to invisible beauty. They stress on spirituality. But nobody puts stress on physical beauty of the Hindu people. .People speak of the Hindu culture as an abstract entity, as if it could grow anywhere and everywhere. According to her, they forget to note that those who live it as a nation are amongst the most beautiful races of mankind. There is no doubt a mysterious identity between that culture and them. From the above examples it is clear that art had great value in Culture and also in National education. An artist was expected to be pious, knowledgeable, intuitive and visionary. This is in sharp contrast to its role today which is similar to that of a nauch girl amusing the masses, appealing to the lowest possible instincts and used primarily as a stress buster in an oppressively huge machinery called modern life. ******