Friday, November 28, 2008

Losing One's mother - an artistic perspective

I lost my mother on Nov 16. Although I am 50 years old now, in my mother's presence I had always felt like a 10-year-old boy. Now that she has passed away, the full import of my 50-year-old existance has suddenly become apparent to me. The sheltered life that I had led all these years has now vanished.
My shoulders are now gradually being weighed down by the increased burden of familial responsibilities passed down by my mother.
There is a great vacuum in my being that I am still trying to fathom. What is it that I have lost with my mother's passing?
When my father passed away in 2003, I could still withstand the loss as my mother being his representive was still beside us.
However now I am completely cut off from the physical presence of my parents. From the artist's perspective it appears the sky of my life has suddenly become cloudless. But I am confident that just as my father's spiritual presence became stronger after his disappearance, my mother's presence will be felt by me, stronger now than ever.
The bond of parents is an unbroken chain as until the time of our own death and probably even further, their benevolent glance will always be upon us from whichever realm they have moved on to.
In fact as parents leave their physical body, they leave a part of their postive karmic energy behind as a safeguard for their children. This energy depending on its strength looks after the children as a guardian angel.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

The life of an artist.

As mentioned in my post yesterday, a toddler's curiosity is the epitome of an artistic soul, and therefore one who manages to preserve this innocent curiosity to squeeze out the juice (rasa, which translated from the Sanskrit means mellow or essence) from every object that he perceives is an artist.
An artist is therefore never a comformist who changes and adapts his characteristics, mind and desires according to the requirements of material life of eating, sleeping, mating and defending.
I'm not saying that artists ignore the business of human life but rather that they do not do so by sacrificing their innocent curiosity to uncover the truth of their surroundings and their true eternal destiny.
I understand a true artist as one who strives for truth unlike the politicians, industrialists and scientists who have no qualms about distorting or even destroying the truth for dominant power, profits and fame.
As such artists cannot in spirit be part of the establishments of modern civilisation including religious and artistic institutions which thrive on fund management as for survival's sake they don't mind compromising on truth or even those principles enshrined in their belief or constitution.
An artist is never a cheat. His media is truth. This is portrayed in the beauty of his artistic creations be they paintings, sculptures, drama, literature or music. An insincere person's attempt to produce artistic works will show up in the glaring flaws in his works.
Of course in today's world many such insincere artists are making the mark everywhere as their patrons being politicians, industrialists and dry academicians being flawed personalities lack the purity to uncover the artist's flaws and end up being cheated in turn.

from science to art

I have been thinking about real science as opposed to the current science of half baked theories and abusive applications. The real science is based on lessons drawn from observation of nature and life experiences and not deductions derived from laboratory experiments.
I was wondering how ancient sages had studied the world and cosmos so thoroughly as illustrated in the various Hindu scriptures, without the use of laboratories or precision instruments as I was parking my car below the 17-storey low cost flats where I live. At this moment, I coincidentally witnessed a toddler which had just begun walking being led from a shop along a concrete corridor. The mother was trying hard to get the child to walk along with her as it was catching hold of and `feeling' the vertical beams of the metal grille gates of a closed shop. It dawned on me that the baby's curiosity in trying to investigate the shiny metallic paint coated metal beams would have been exactly how the wise sages studied the world and cosmos so thoroughly.
The sages who were themselves great artists, philosophers, scientists, writers and builders of the great monuments of ancient times, must have used the toddler's method of investigating and understanding nature and the cosmos.
Scientists today appear to be blindly groping in the dark trying to figure out theories and inventions in total disregard of nature thus creating great chaos in the world as seen by the onset of global warming, social ills, poverty, unnecessary tension and a general lack of happiness.
True enough in the arrogance of being able to manipulate nature (on a lesser level) in maximising the tapping of natural resources, creating and mass producing machines meant to increase comfort, fast and easy travel and transport and entertainment, all aimed at short term gains; scientists and world leaders are acting like God and have no qualms about undermining the natural realm that they are inhabiting.
It is my hope that soon, we can return to a way of life built around simple and effective nature based science and arts and bring happiness to humankind, other fellow beings and the natural world on the whole.

liberator of bakasura

liberator of bakasura
krsna art line drawings by Rasa Rasa Rasika Devi Dasi (2002)

bloom

bloom
the new flower by chandramugila (2003)

About Me

i am a writer working with an English daily for the past 14 years. I specialise in environmental journalism and review art and culture.

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slum child's pet

slum child's pet
a duckling being kept as a pet by a slum child in Manila.