Spirituality in art¹

The desire-life-art speaks through Julius Caesar: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Aspiration-life-art speaks through Lord Buddha. Before he attained his enlightenment, he sat at the foot of the bodhi tree and declared: "I shall not leave this seat until I have achieved enlightenment."

Realisation-life-art speaks through the Saviour Christ: "I and my Father are one.” The Vedic seers of the hoary past declared the same message: "Brahmosmi — I am Brahman." Down the sweep of the centuries, seekers have been praying and meditating in order to reach the same ultimate goal — the goal of inseparable oneness with the Absolute Supreme.

The animal art, the human art, the divine art and the supreme art. The animal art enjoys and destroys. It enjoys the unreal, which is ignorance-night. It destroys the real, which is a genuine hunger for Truth, Light and God.

The human art cries and smiles. It cries for constant success. But when it suffers the blows and buffets of life and success is not achieved, it is doomed to disappointment. Again, when human art is crowned with success, it smiles at its glories.

The divine art grows and glows. It grows into a divine instrument to please the Absolute Supreme in His own Way. And when it is pleasing Him, it glows soulfully, beautifully and triumphantly like the morning sun.

The supreme art ascends and transcends. It ascends the Himalayan height, and then it transcends it. It is an ever-transcending reality, and its goal of today is only the starting point for tomorrow's goal in its endless journey to the ever-transcending Beyond.

As life itself is an art, even so each individual is an artist in his own right. Each seeker-artist is fully and sleeplessly conscious of his animal art, human art, divine art and supreme art. But there are many human beings on earth who are ignorant of these arts. Ignorance is bliss, they say. When is it bliss? If we are not aware that a calamity is about to take place, and if we are not assailed by worries and anxieties, then at that time ignorance is a veritable bliss. But very often our ignorance prevents us from averting a calamity and then we have to suffer the consequences. A child is ignorant of the capacity of fire; so he touches fire and burns his finger. Again, there are some who will see eye to eye with Robert Browning: "Ignorance is not innocence but sin." Now what is sin? Sin is man's limited consciousness — the consciousness that is earth-bound rather than Heaven-free. The earth-bound consciousness binds the seeker-artist. The Heaven-free consciousness liberates the seeker-artist. It is on the strength of spirituality that a seeker-artist has to paint and liberate his life.

When Sri Krishna left the body, he did not take back his message of transformation-light. He said that by virtue of his code of life, life would be transformed. His vision-message of nature's transformation the Transformer Sri Krishna left here on earth. The Liberator Buddha left his message of liberation here on earth. The Saviour Christ left his message of salvation here on earth.

Each sincere seeker-artist can easily claim these supreme messages of life's transformation, life's liberation and life's salvation as his own, very own. For these three supreme artists — Sri Krishna, the Buddha and the Christ — are all playing their respective roles in and through him at the same time.