Sańgam- At the Confluence of the Philosophies of Aesthetics

SAŃGAM At the Confluence of the Philosophy of Aesthetics

Sanjay Doctor

Sańgam: At the Confluence of the Philosophies of Aesthetics by Sanjay Doctor

First Edition: March 2015 Second Edition: June 2015 Digital Edition: December 2015

Published by: Sanjay Doctor Dera Kabira Research Unit 131 Silver Beach, Suryavanshi Hall, Off Savarkar Marg Mumbai 400028. INDIA

Email: [email protected]

Typeset and page design in Pages 5.1 on Macbook Pro

Sanjay Doctor is a philosopher, presently living in Mumbai, India and is pursuing his inquiry about Man, God and the World. His interests have taken him far to examining human thought across Mans’ evolution and close to the light in Anthroposophy of Dr Rudolf Steiner, Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and and the Kásmir Śaivism of Abhinavagupta.

Sanjay is also a visual storyteller and works out of his home studio producing stories based on his research and collaborations.

He is now morphing to becoming a nomad, setting up his derā (camp) at places of vibrant energy. He carries seeds as gifts and receives back others to hold as a seed-keeper.

SAŃGAM At the Confluence of the Philosophy of Aesthetics

Sanjay Doctor

DECEMBER 2015

Foreword | Author’s Note

This project book marks the completion of a year long academic study of Indian Aesthetics and Philosophy in the certificate course in ‘Indian Philosophy and Aesthetics’ conducted by the Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai. Given the prescribed scope and method required by the department, I experience a sense of containment to a more open and creative exploration of the subject and at the same time it has channelised me into creating a formal presentation that can be a springboard to a more intuitive and creative exploration in philosophical research.

The project work is intended to demonstrate the comprehension and application of the broad spectrum of knowledge and inquiry that falls within the gamut of the course syllabus. It also allows for the student to showcase and decide a future area of interest and study within this area.

Therefore, keeping these dual requirements in mind, I have conformed and complied with the assignment structure, and yet to be true to my purpose of study and remain motivated, I have put together a narrative that mirrors the scholastic journey that I took in the past year.

I want to experiment also with a formal classical structuring (syllogism) to this essay that is 6 fold. It is modified to suit the essay.

1) Prayojana : the purpose of the composition 2) Adhīkar: the competence to embark on this inquiry 3) Abhideya: the subject matter to be interpreted as hetu or the logical reasoning to build the argument 4) Sambandha : internal relationships of the components 5) Udhaharana: examples 6) Nigamana : conclusion

My research led me through a study of western european aesthetics, kaśmīr śavism, and central asian islamic art. I spent time 2 weeks at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts library, New Delhi and attended public lectures there. I attended 2 immersion study weeks on kaśmīr śavism at New Delhi and Varanasi respectively. I also attended another immersion week on Sāvitri at Auroville to understand the vision of Sri Aurobindo.

My primary research was an archeological and art study of various monuments in New Delhi and at the Delhi and Mumbai Museums. Add to all this were the weekly lectures held at the university that introduced us to the philosophical questions. I have thus been able to access all three sources of knowledge : (a) śastra (b) guru (c) sattarka.

Along the journey, a guru directed me towards anusandhan, synthesis - that lies between the two paths of sanyojna – conjoining and viyojna, separation. I adopt this path of synthesis in my essay, building on various ideas across time and space. Also I follow a heuristic method to make sense of these ideas to our times, building from my own perception and understanding.

I am filled with a rasa of wonderment of the emerging world-view of aesthetics and its relation to human life. On one hand is the beauty of its art forms, the sahṛdya of a human ‘crystallisation’ in both the prajāpati and the rasika. On the other, is the deeper philosophical meaning and relation of aesthetics to Divinity itself.

Holi, 2015. Sanjay Doctor Mumbai

Digital Edition | Author’s Note Upon the counsel of a well-wisher, I am releasing this version of my research as a Kindle book so that it may reach a wider audience who might find it of interest. As I read through the book, I find that it does not require any editing at this stage of my work. Further explorations will be published as other titles in the series, if it is to be.

Christmas 2015, Mumbai

Acknowledgements

I must first acknowledge the Department of Philosophy, Mumbai University for creating the container for my learning and to the faculty members who lectured on the diverse units covered in the syllabus. Dr. Kamini Gogri, course coordinator, led the program with encouragement and gave us freedom to engage with the program in diverse ways. The HOD, Dr. Kanchana Mahadevan, has set an invigorating scholastic standard. My fellow students have also been most cooperative, providing me their class notes during my study tour.

I am indebted to Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and the Library staff for the cooperation extended and the liberal use of library resources. It was a joy to attend many of the public events that developed my area of study and research. I must also thank Majeed Ahmadi, Centre for Iranian Culture, New Delhi for spending considerable time with me and allowing me to use the library resources.

My pranām to all the teachers and to the trustees of Ishwar ashram Trust, New Delhi for organising and funding the kāśmīr śavism course. My pranām to Mark Dyczkowski, for accepting me as his śiśya at Varanasi. And to Shraddhavan, at Savitri Bhavan, Auroville who provided a conducive learning immersion in Sāvitri.

I am humbled by the course of events that brought about synchronicity and therefore a namaskar to Kāla, Time and to the 3 śaktis – icchā, jnāna and krīyā for their blessings. And to the Bhairavā, that manifests this wonderful world, both within and without - I say, Om namaḥ śiva.

maṅgalaśloka

yasmin sarvaṃ yataḥ sarvaṃ yaḥ sarvaṃ sarvataśca yaḥ

yaśca sarvamayo nityaṃ tasmai sarvātmane namaḥ

In whom everything is, from whom everything comes, Who is everything and everywhere,

Which is immanent in all things, eternal, Him, in the self of all, do I adore.

Abhinava Gupta translated by Bettina Bäumer

☉ Sańgam: At the Confluence of the Philosophies of Aesthetics ☉

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Introduction 1

Section I : 18 Century German Aesthetics 4

Section II : Indian Aesthetics World – view 11

Section III : Central Asian influences 20

Section IV : Synthesis 29

Introduction | &1

INTRODUCTION

The student who embarks on a journey of discovery and revelation is faced with a dichotomy. Our university - level academics are inherited from a colonial past based in o r i e n t a l i s m . M o d e r n d a y professional challenges faced by scholars and academicians to publish in internationally refereed journals has cast a western logical paradigm to research and thesis. So areas of s t u d y s u c h a s h i s t o r y, philosophy and languages has been split into a western logical and scientific school and the indian mystic and mythical philosophy school.

I n t h e s t u d y o f a r t a n d aesthetics, western aesthetics covers the classical greek s c h o o l s , m o v e s t o t h e enlightenment periods and culminates with the present day post modernist schools. Each interprets aesthetics anchored in their respective world views. E ve n t h o u g h t h e I n d i a n philosophy and their schools pre-date and are more matured in their insight to the subject, it would be unthinkable to give credence to this essay without examining western aesthetics theories.

Therefore the challenge before the author is to look at western aesthetics for a unifying human thought that resonates with the concept of aesthetics that is endogenous to the culture it is being examined in. It is also seen that there is no real continuous western aesthetic theory as the last hundred years sees a shift in the cultural canvas of the western world towards the euro-centric ‘left-of-the-centre’ theories that c h a l l e n g e t h e c l a s s i c a l traditions and demonstrate iconoclastic artistic expression as the colours of our time.

Introduction | &2

To investigate the essence of various ideas and then meet at the sańgam, the confluence, we begin our exploration with the 18th century German Aesthetics philosophy. In the prevalent cartesian mindset, Western european philosophers were challenged to link the new paradigm of reason with the classical ability of perception.

The backwaters of the emergent ‘philosophical sciences’ was in semantic esoteric theology. Progressive inquiries were held into the nature and meaning of aesthetics - art and relate it to deeper universal truths.

Crystallising this school, will allow us to then look at more classical eastern thought and seek answers to the questions posed by the German Aesthetics school. The depth of intellectual maturity in the eastern classical schools is not demonstrated by the German philosophers but the study is important to find the esoteric world views held by them.

After this first section that relates closer for a modern day reader, we must look at the answers to the issues in the works of Indian philosophy as expounded by Abhinavagupta and the kásmir śaivism school, (~10 CE). The reason to examine this school is that by this time, all the main orthodox and heterodox schools of Indian Philosophy had matured and were in dialogue with one another. In kásmir śaivism we find a coming together of many schools like a māhānadi. By positing that the Universal Unity, tattvas - elemental beings, are reflected within all sentient beings and insentient entities, it opened up a new fountainhead that was carried forward as newer tributaries. Specially for the philosophy of Aesthetics, the detailed insights in the nature of cognition, the emotive states, artistic expression and the metaphysical view of the Absolute Unity, builds a grand world view.

The third section enlarges our geographical boundaries by looking at Indian sub-continent as part of a central asian c u l t u ra l a n d i n t e l l e c t u a l identity rather than as south–asian. The Sarada civilisation dialogues span from places as far as western Europe, Central Asia all the way to China. If we shift our perspective and accept our language of art, culture and philosophy under a central asian perspective then we can d i s c a r d t h e s a n s k r i t brahmanical view of history as espoused by orientalists. We m e e t I s l a m , i t s a r t a n d philosophy and give it a rightful place in the schools of Indian Philosophy. Rather than an invasive agency, we can claim it to be a collective and composite force of Indian progressive culture.

Finally, the fourth section will reach a conclusion. I choose to create a synthesis and dissolve the dichotomy of the east and west so that we can finally dip our selves at the sańgam and be filled with wonder and awe at the Light expressed in Human expression.

Section One

18th Century German Aesthetics

Section I : 18th Century German Aesthetics | 4

S E C T I O N O N E

18th Century German Aesthetics

In the 18th century, Europe saw an intense philosophical development of the idea of art as understood today. The traditional idea that art is a special vehicle for the expression of important truths established the framework for German aesthetic thought.

From the roots of an esoteric school of the semantic philosophies, Early Christianity embedded universal ideas as divine truths. The Enlightenment saw new ideas sprouting forth from the light of free thought and science. The framework grew with great academic minds building a new framework based upon ancient and classical philosophies. It was a time when the fine arts were developing with great skill in western Europe. The perennial speculation of Man’s relation to God and the Universe was contemplated upon to find a rightful place for the fine arts as sciences and also provide a continuity with the prevailing theological traditions. A narrative was in the making.

In a meta-philosophical frame of cartesian thought, logic required a defining structure and order to declare it as a truth. Connecting the self to the other required that subjectivity in the self find an objective connect to others so that personal experience may be transposed to universal facts. The idea of Beauty, a personal judgement, needed a universal commonality.

The philosophers that follow were influential in creating nodes along a stream of thought that created a formal school of philosophy. What is of interest to this essay is the embedded deeper esoteric thought of basic truths that are discussed in relation to philosophies about art and aesthetics. They reveal a history of the ancient Europa (as distinct from present Europe) that had crystallised the insight and wisdom from folk-culture and contemplative thought from the time of early christianity.


Perfection, Truth and Pleasure

Leibniz and his follower, Christian Wolff, init iated a frame of ideal ism and perfectionism. The world is perfect. It was created by God from all possible worlds because it was the most perfect. Thus each object and all its properties must in some way or the other contribute to the maximal perfection of the actual world. Perfection is the harmony of a multiple objects or parts situated with a purpose. This order in things is Truth. For Leibniz, revelation of perfection leads to pleasure:

Pleasure is the feeling of a perfection or an excellence, whether in ourselves or in something else. For the perfection of other beings is also agreeable, such as understanding, courage, and especially beauty in another human being, or in an animal or even in a lifeless creation, a painting or a work of craftsmanship, as well.

Beauty

Wolff then brought attention to the sensory mind that perceives perfection existing in an object. As God was omnipresent in all, perfection would be present in the self and the other. From this came forth the idea that Beauty emerges as the perception of the perfection with the feeling of pleasure: He states in the Psychologia Empirica:

Beauty consists in the perfection of a thing, insofar as it is suitable for producing pleasure in us.

Beauty needs preceptors who can perceive it sensorily. It is therefore relational, rather than intrinsic, to the object. The subject, as the self, is required to input the sensory data from the object for pleasure.

Perfection of God

The most perfect and therefore most orderly of all possible worlds exists for a reason, namely, to mirror the perfection of God. Sentient and cognisant beings such as ourselves exist for a reason, namely to recognise and admire the perfection of God, that is mirrored in the perfection of things in the world and of the world as a whole.

The perfection that is added to the natural world through human artistry is also part of the perfection of the world that emanates from and mirrors the perfection of God. Thus, in admiring the perfection of art, we are performing part of our larger function in the world, namely admiring the perfection of God.

The chief aim of the world is this, that we should cognise the perfection of God from it. The experience of beauty is knowledge of this truth by means of the senses.

It would become a central theme of German Enlightenment aesthetics that even if people know the general truths of morality in some abstract way, the arts can make those truths concrete, alive, and effective for them in a way that nothing else can.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth

Psalm 50: 1-6


Noeta and the Aistheta

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten introduced the term “aesthetics” in his 1735 thesis. He also introduced an emphasis on the emotional impact of art that is lacking in Wolff. Recognising the duality of objective reasoning and our subjective perception, the concept of Noeta and Aistheta came to being.

Noeta is the cognition, by the ‘higher faculties of mind’, of the objects of thought and logic. The Aistheta, from objects of sense, is the subject of the Aesthetics, the science of perception.

Baumgarten introduces the idea that a work of art is not just a medium, more or less perfect, for conveying truth, but a locus of perfection in its own right. This aspect of Baumgarten's early poetics clearly impressed his student Meier, who states that:

Aesthetics is in general is the science of sensible cognition. This science concerns itself with everything that can be assigned in more detail to sensible cognition and to its presentation. Now since the passions have a strong influence o n s e n s i b l e c o g n i t i o n a n d i t s presentation, aesthetics for its part can rightly demand a theory of the emotions.

Meier emphasised that aesthetics should deal with the passions because they have a “strong influence on sensible cognition.” His position is that not only do passions have influence on sensible cognition, but that they are themselves a great source of sensible pleasure, and therefore part of the aim of art to arouse them.

Mendelssohn was instrumental in introducing the topic of the sublime into German aesthetics, that became central to the subsequent german discussion of the sublime, especially in Kant. Mendelssohn says that either immensity of size or strength first captures our attention :

… arouses a sweet shudder that rushes through every fibre of our being…giving wings to the imagination to press further and further without stopping. All these sentiments blend together in t h e s o u l , b e c o m i n g a s i n g l e phenomenon which we call awe.

Photographed by the Author, at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013)


Free Play

Immanuel Kant classified aesthetic experiences into 3 types: • experience of natural beauty, • experience of sublimity in nature • experience of the fine arts

He proposed that taste, the ability to appreciate a beautiful object, was free from: • utilitarian purpose – disinterest • must appeal to all – universality.

Kant's argument is that our subjective pleasure in a beautiful object is an expression of the free play of the cognitive faculties of imagination and understanding. It follows that these cognitive faculties must in fact work the same way in everyone.

Our taste is subjective and at the same time universal. He termed this principle sensus communis. For Kant, all art is intentional human production that requires skill or talent, yet fine or “beautiful” (schöne) art is produced with the intention of doing what anything beautiful does, namely, promoting the free play of the cognitive powers.

Above: Bust of Christ by Cristoforo Solari, ~1500 AE Venetian Style, Marble

Right: Classical Violin, Wood. Photographed by the Author at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013).

A work of genius must have a spirit (Geist), which it gets through its content, typically a rational idea, relevant specifically to morality. Yet for a work of art to be beautiful it must also provide freedom to imagination. So a work of art succeeds when i t p re s e n t s a n ‘ a e s t h e t i c i d e a , ’ a representation of the imagination that ‘at least strives toward something lying beyond the bounds of experience’. A successful work of art also ‘stimulates so much thinking,’ such a wealth of particular ‘attributes’ or images and incidents, ‘that it can never be grasped in a determinate concept’ - thereby stimulating a pleasurable feeling of free play among t h e i m a g i n a t i o n , u n d e r s t a n d i n g , a n d reason.

Loving an object as beautiful, in its natural form, to hold the sublime i n h i g h e s t e e m a n d sacrifice our self interests is a ground for moral conduct

At the same time it must satisfy the demand that a work of art have both a purpose and a content.


Well-being

Herder proposed that aesthetic experience is that of well-being arising from a perception of the true order of Nature. The perception of true harmony and well-being in the things around us, generates a correspondent harmony and feeling of it in ourselves. A resonance of the outer with the inner. This feeling can come through the engagement of any, or all of ones senses:

whatever preserves, promotes, expands, in short is harmonious with the feeling of my existence, each of my senses gladly accepts that, appropriates that to itself, and finds it agreeable: the perception of harmony in nature makes our own being feel well-ordered, just as the perception of disharmony in nature inevitably although painfully attracts our attention. the feeling of beauty is a subjective response to the perception of objective harmony, a subjective feeling of well-being triggered by empathy with the well-being of other things in the world.

May we not rejoice that we live in a world of good order and good form, where all results of the laws of nature in gentle forms reveal to us as it were a band of rest and motion, an elastic-effective constancy of things, in short beauty as the bodily expression of a corporeal perfection that is harmonious both within itself and to our feeling?

Art, Philosophy and Religion

Hegel’s age was an age of criticism and of reflective thought about art. His writings are centric of a tradition that gave immense importance to art for the advancement of mankind and his awareness of the world and his place in it.

Art expresses man’s fundamental beliefs about the world and himself. Hegel’s system of philosophy revolved around the triad of art, religion and philosophy. Art expresses its content in sensory form, religion does so in pictorial imagery and philosophy in the form of conceptual thought.

He recognises the Absolute and its relation to the human spirit. Art expresses this by revealing the Absolute. Man is the highest manifestation of the Absolute and therefore art should pay more attention to man than other entities. Man and his cognitive abilities and practical work are not only a manifestation of the Absolute but the highest phase of the Absolute wherein the Absolute becomes self-conscious and ‘returns to itself ’. Man’s objective spirit comprises of the world history. The absolute spirit comprises the triad of art, religion and philosophy. Man becomes aware of the nature of the universe and his place in it and thereby ‘spiritualises’ the non-human world.

Idea is the concept together with the reality of the concept. So in the case of man, if soul is the concept, his body is the reality and the whole man is the Idea. The universe as a whole is an idea, it is a unity of its concept and its reality. Likewise a work of art is also a unified whole and it arises by the coming together of its various parts and the realisation of its concept. It not only expresses the Idea but is the Idea itself. In revealing the Absolute it helps to realise the Absolute.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Proportions of the Human Figure (Vitruvian Manek), 1490 AE. ; Pen, ink and watercolour over metalpoint


From this section on 18th century German Aesthetics, we receive ideas as sprouted seeds to expand our essay. We take forward the ideas:

The Idea of God, Man and the World plays outs in the idea that God, as an omni-potent transcendental being, has created an unique world for Man and all sentient and cognisant beings. Perfection is the harmony of each entity in this order. Our purpose is to admire the perfection of God. When we perceive this perfection in harmony, a sense of pleasure arises and this is Beauty.

The binary awareness through the senses and thoughts, extends to perception and reasoning. The senses are held in harmony by thoughts and logic. Emotions are the result of sensory pleasure and the purpose of art is to arouse them. We are filled with a sense of awe when we sense and become aware of either the divine artistry, human artistry or both.

The free play of imagination and understanding leads to aesthetic experience. Art must have intention and also a free play of imagination and understanding. Morally significant ideas are also conveyed through art. Perception of the harmony and well-being in the world around resonates in us to create a subjective sense of well-being.

Art expresses man’s fundamental beliefs about the world and himself. The Spirit of Man has the objective - a sense of world history, lived and shared with the collective and at the spiritual level expresses the world in sensory form as art, in pictorial form as religion and in conceptual thought as philosophy.

Rudolf Steiner, Foundation Stone Meditation (christmas 1923 AE) Godly Light | Christ-Sun | Warm Our hearts | Enlighten Our heads | That good may become | What we From hearts found |

What we From heads | Direct with single will.

Section Two

Indian Aesthetics

Section II : Indian Aesthetics | & 11

S E C T I O N T W O

Indian Aesthetics

The concept of ‘art as yoga’, suggested by Ananda Coomarswamy, gives us a frame to look at Indian aesthetics that exalts art to a higher faculty and also provides the possibility of examining the transcendental.

Art is a statement of the philosophy of the age that produced it. The axis mundi of Indian philosophical dates back to about 300 BCE. This was a watershed in a traditional metaphysical schools. A deep ecology spiritualism that had crystallised into the Vedas, Puranas and Upanishads and met with new ideas as expounded by the schools of Jainism and Buddhism that reviewed the concept of God, Man and the Universe.

Key ideas germinated and finally blossomed into the aesthetic theory of Indian arts.


Sabda

As per classical theory, there are 3 main sources of knowledge, pramanas; • pratyaksha – perception; • anumāna – inference; • śabda – verbal testimony.

Of these śabda incorporates the human world view and experience. The meaning and purpose of śabda expands from its vedic ro o t s t o t h e t h e p ro g re s s i ve a n d evolutionary expression of poetics, kāvya.

In the Vedic - Upaniṣad view, śabda is an exalted mode of communication from the ṛṣis. As per their classic theory, words are held together in a sentence by: • mutual expectancy, ākānkshā, • appropriateness, yogyatā and • proximity, sannidhi.

It restricted a liberal view of śabda for it was merely a pramana with no intrinsic aesthetic value. It is connected to the overall purpose of human life, the Purūshārthas - dharma, artha, kāma, moksha. For the Realists, such as Mīmāṁsaka, the purpose of śabda was to preserve the sanctity and authority of the Vedas, protect it from the emerging heterodox schools, and establish dharma. The listener has no role either in creation or interpretation of śabda.

The Buddhist challenged the ritualistic function of śabda and introduced the written word to Indian philosophical discourse. It posits that valid, bonafide experience was possible outside the ritual and thus began the epistemological journey from yagna to kavya.

Around 5 CE With Bhartṛhari came the concept of sabdabrahman. Language is the basics of all knowledge including art. Consciousness follows speech. Unlike the Buddhists and Śaṅkara for whom words are an obstacle in the ultimate realisation, śabda was not concept-free nirguṇa, but a concept loaded cognition and realisation. It established the base for a saguṇa Brahman. Śabda became that bridge between the visible and invisible, life and liturgy, temporal and timeless.

sati pradīpe, satya-agnau,

satsu tārāh, Ravi, Indusu.

Vina me mṛiga-shāva-aksyā, tamo bhōtam idam jagata.

The Sun has been lighted, the glow from fire illuminates where I sit, the sun is busy with his diurnal journey, the moon shines bright in the sky, the stars twinkle overhead.

Yet, my world is dark without the doe-eyed beloved.

Brihatṛihari Verse 14, Sṛingāraśtakam


Sphota

As the transition from the realism of the M īmāṁsakas to the idealism of the grammarian – philosophers took place, language evolved further from being just an imperative to that of action. It was recognised as the express ion and experience of transcendental beauty.

Sphota means blossoming. The expression through śabda is an efflorescence of thought. It is spontaneous. Meaning was held in the totality of the vakya ( string of words held together by ākānkshā, yogyatā and sannidhi) and not in the words themselves.

• In the pasyanti stage, Sabdatattva, the elemental being, resides with potentiality and potency, egg like, in consciousness.

• In the madhyama phase, vacaka is formed. • In the audible phase called dhavani, ( or śruti or nāda), the artha separates from the nāda and reunites with it in the listener.

The problem of meaning in art is, ‘how does it reunite?’. A flash of meaning appears rather than a process of logical reasoning. The meaning shifts away from the domain of intellect to that of intuition. From manas to pratibhā. Outer meaning to inner consciousness.

Saraswatiī (Variant: Tripura Sūndari) Private Collection, Mumbai

Photographed by the Author.

Symbols also evolve as śabda – metaphors called sanketa. Symbols are mediators between the subject and object, expressed and the suggested. Symbols lead to sphota, making sense of antiquity and tradition.

⇠ Saraswatī: The four hands symbolically mirror her husband Brahma's four heads, representing manas (mind, sense), buddhi (intellect, reasoning), citta (imagination, creativity) and ahamkār (self consciousness, ego). The four hands hold items with symbolic meaning • a pustaka (book or script): symbolises the

Vedas representing the universal, divine, eternal, and true knowledge as well as all forms of learning

• a mālā of crystals (rosary, garland): representing the power of meditation, inner reflection and spirituality.

• a water pot: represents powers to purify the right from wrong, the clean from unclean, and the essence from the misleading

• a musical instrument (lute or vīna): represents all creative arts and sciences, and her holding it symbolises expressing knowledge that creates harmony.

The implication of the Sphota doctrine is that the onus of the meaning in the sentence now shifts shifts from the meaning proposed in the sentence to that of the consciousness of the listener. It has moved from an objective to a subjective reference.


Stage One: Śākṣātartha

The initial encounter of the art object leads to the first level of meaning: śākṣātartha. The emotive mind, Manas, responds to the sensory data and its emotive qualities. It responds to both the rasa and rūpa, aesthetic emotion and form. The emotional consciousness, the designated heart (hṛdaya) is the sańgam, confluence of emotional, intellectual and intuitive intelligences.

Rasa

The rasa concept provides a continuity to the indian art tradition. Bharata (dates 3 BE– 3AE) initiated this school of thought. Rasa is the coming together of the primary emotion, the secondary emotional manifestations of the primary emotion and the canvas on which the emotions are played out. There is a process of transformation from gross (sthula) to subtle (suksma), mundane (laukika) to extraordinary (alaukika), worldly realism (sāṁsārik) to artistic reality and individual to universal. The artistic creator (prajāpatī) and the artistic receiver (rasīka) conjoin at the metaphorical heart, sahṛdya, in a resonant emotional state – tanmayibhāva. Three entities are held in this matrix – the artist, the cognising subject and the art object.

For the rasīka, this culminates in a sense of wonder, beyond classification and emotion. Camatkār is a state of aesthetic wonder. This leap into a world of bliss is beyond temporal and spatial limitation of pleasure and pain, of subject-object dichotomy. There is a totality in this deep contemplation with absence of conceptual thought. There is fluidity (druti), enlargement (vistāra) and expansion (vikāsa) . The outward seeking consciousness of the rasīka then returns to an internal state of self awareness and this state is viśránti.

Rūpa

Aesthetics and metaphysics are closely held together and therefore an aesthetic form is but a reflection of the the one primal form – Puruṣā. It also bridges the correlation of the microcosm (jivātman) with the macrocosm (paramātma).

In Dhyāna, the artist meditates on and visualises the cosmic Puruṣā. In the mārgi tradition there are many bijamantras and yantras available to facilitate the artist. Rūpa is an aesthetic transformation of a natural visual form. There are six essential ingredients of rūpa: 1. pramana: ………….. proportion 2. rūpa -bhed ………… perception 3. bhāva: ……………… emotion 4. āvanya-yojnā …… grace 5. sadṛsya ………………. resemblance to reality 6. varnika–bhanga .… artistic use of tools/materials

Form expresses rhythm and harmony as Chhānda (छानद). It expresses the metaphysical, by interpreting the sensory experience. Thus rūpa depicts pure physical beauty and sensual qualities to arrive at a śākṣātartha, the first level of sensory encounter with the art object.

Saraswati, Ivory Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai.

Photographed by the Author.


Stage two: Parokṣārtha

Anandavardhana’s dhvani theory espoused that a word or sentence, and by extension an art object, is capable of providing meaning at several levels. Parokṣārtha builds and proceeds from śākṣātartha, that even after the senses have been saturated with meaning, further meanings still prevails.

T h e a r t i s t e x e r c i s e s h i s c r e a t i ve consciousness – pratibhā to encode both an overt and covert meaning. The rasīka in turn makes a parokṣā inquiry as a deeper artha revelation. A larger envelope of the context is created within the gāthas, kathās, symbols, allegory and inner logic of the composition. A leitmotif of the period in which the art object is created. Whilst śākṣātartha depended on perception as mode of cognition, in this stage, inference as anumāna that comes into play.

Anandavardhana’s dhvani theory explains the Parokṣārtha stage. The basic dynamics of dhvani is a shift of meaning from the superficial perceived meaning to a deeper, richer, inferential meaning. This is arthantara. A dialectic tension must be held together by the aesthete between the primary and secondary meaning.

Pattern cognition is a natural attribute of human thought. Panjara , the visual geometry, unravels the concealed logic of the art object.

Carmel Berkson The Life of Form in Indian Sculpture (2009)

Buddha, Bronze Author’s Collection, Mumbai. Photographed by the Author.


Aesthetic Experience.

Kaśmīr Saivism is tradition that brings together a number of heterodox and Advaita systems together and appears in its zenith with Abhinavagupta (10 CE). It is a robust philosophical system and is a progressive challenge it poses to the Vedic school and influence other schools of Indian philosophy.

Abhinavagupta does not consider the schools of Realism, which include Sāṃkhya, Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika, Mimāṁsā and Cārvakā, to provide a satisfactory basis for art. Saṅkara rejects the world of objects because Brahman is passive and nirguṇa. Therefore all creative processes, whether in nature or in human consciousness, including art objects, are in the status of māyā.

Kaśmīr Saivism counters the concept of māyā with the concept of ābhāsa. Abhinavagupta defines it as:

all that appears, all that forms the object of perception or conception, all that is within the reach of external senses or the internal mind, all that can be said to exist in any way and with regard to which any kind of language is possible, be it the subject, the object, the means of knowledge or knowledge itself, is ābhāsa.

The Chānogya Upaniṣad hints at this concept when it declares:

pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidam pūrṇātpūrṇamudacyate. pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇmeva avaśiṣyate.

That is the whole, this is the whole, from the whole the whole manifests. From the whole when the whole is negated, what remains is the whole.

Reality of ābhāsa appears at 3 levels: • appearance as appearance • appearance as self projection • appearance as providing a value.

The world manifests through a free and spontaneous creative activity, spanda in the Absolute. It is the self expression of the Absolute. The created world reflects the very nature of the Creator. In the same manner, an art object reflects the nature of the prajāpati, the artist. It implies that the artist’s creative self expression is a reflection, at the human level, of Siva’s creative self expression. A connect from the transcendental to the immanent.

T h e i m m a n e n t G o d h e a d i s prakāśavimarśamaya.

• Prakāśa, the Siva tattva is aham, the subjective that is passive and dormant.

• Vimarśa is tvam, the śakti tattva that is active as reflexive consciousness. - It has a centrifugal dimension that is

expansive – the vistāra. - It also has a centripetal force that is

inward – prakāśa. • Tat is idam, the inert nara. The object of

experience.

Ardhanareswara (Siva and Durgā), Pāta Painting on Patti, Folk Art, Puri Orissa.


Vimarśa is not māyā but a līlā. This is the split of Kaśmīr Saivism with Advaita Vedānta. For the Saivite aesthete, the self has to go outward to seek out and participate in worldly experience rather than turning back on the world.

Process of Cognition:

1. A wish to perceive the object 2. The subject’s sensory comes

in contact with the object and brings back an image of the object.

3. First the object is dimly p e r c e i ve d – n i r v i k a l p a pratyakṣa

4. The subject unions with the object by taking it inward – savikalpa pratyakṣa

5. The subject becomes what the object is – anūbhava

6. Evolution of rasdhavni , rūpadhavani and leading to experiencing layer upon layer of rasa and rūpa in the progressive art experience and the inner sense of form is revealed as rasaprajna.

The artist’s creation and the subject are in a resonance through the subject’s direct intuitive process. The aesthetic faculties of the subject will depend on factors of śikṣa or training, saṃskāras, inherent psyche impressions, in context of the gāthās and kathās . Art becomes a source of knowledge and transcendent experience.

Finally, there is the inward dissolution of the aesthetic experience, when there is no more search for symbol ic meaning, no more wanderings with the gāthās and kathās. It is state of bliss, the fullest delight from the complete and ultimate knowledge of the object. It is a state of viśránti.

Cognition gives way to samādhi. This is the symbol of the troika, triśula, of the beauty of the art object, the rasika and Siva. Now there is only one revelation, that: Beauty is Siva.

Krishna and Radha in Rasalīlā, Painted on Wood, National Museum, New Delhi. Photographed by the Author.


From this section on Indian Aesthetics, we receive ideas as sprouted buds to expand our essay. We take forward the ideas:

Śabda is an intentional and informed human expression. As an agency, it is a source of knowledge and as an agent, capable of being encoded with artha, purpose and kāvya, poetics. Śabda establishes the idea of a saguṇa Brahman with qualities. Language is recognised as the expression and experience of transcendental beauty. Sphota is the efflorescence of expression through Śabda. The encoded meaning bursts forth rather than being logically derived through reasoning. The meaning shifts away from the domain of intellect, manas to that of intuition, pratibhā. The artha of the sentence shifts from the meaning proposed in the sentence to that of the consciousness of the listener.

Rasa is the coming together of the primary emotion, the secondary emotional manifestations of the primary emotion and the canvas on which the emotions are played out. The artistic creator, prajāpatī, and the artistic receiver, rasīka, conjoin at the metaphorical heart, sahṛdya, in a resonant emotional state along with the art object. For the rasīka, this culminates in a sense of aesthetic wonder -camatkār. After a deep contemplation with absence of conceptual thought, the rasīka then returns to an internal state of self awareness and this state is viśránti. Rūpa is the expressed form reflects an aspect of the absolute. It interprets the sensory reception and presents the first level of sensory encounter with the art object.

Dhvani theory espoused that a word or sentence, and by extension an art object, is capable of providing meaning at several levels. Even after the senses have been saturated with meaning, further meanings still prevail. The basic dynamics of dhvani is a shift of meaning from the superficial perceived meaning to a deeper, richer, inferential meaning.

In Kaśmīr Saivism, the world as maya, an illusion, is countered with the concept of ābhāsa, all that is available to the sensory mind and in our reasoning mind. Just as the world is the self expression of the Absolute, and reflects the very nature of the Creator, an art object reflects the nature of the prajāpati, the artist. The artist’s creative self expression is a reflection, at the human level, of Śiva’s creative self expression. The artist’s creation and the subject are in a resonance through the subject’s direct intuitive process. Art becomes a source of knowledge and transcendent experience. Finally, there is the inward dissolution of the aesthetic experience, into a state of bliss, viśránti. Beauty is Siva.

Section Three

Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Section III : Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics | & 20

S E C T I O N T H R E E

Central Asian Islamic Aesthetics

Islamic art is a motif of 3 main influences which have been classified under a religious gross class by the west. Art flourished, held in a dynamic tension by 3 forces – Arabic, Persian and Turkish cultures.

The popular examples are mainly from Arabia, emerging from an islamic theology from its founder, the Prophet. The other is that from Persia, which has a history pre-dating the birth of Islam. The Central Asian Persian art was pollinated by the influences of the East by the trade along the silk road. The Ottoman empire, brought its own style to Islamic art with influences from Europe. Further the division of the faith into 2 sects, that of Sunni and Shia, reflects on the subaltern theologies that came together under Islam but remained as shadows to the dominant Quran-based theology. The Arabs wanted Jihad – to convert the infidels to Islam waged at the battle-head of an army. The Persians and Central Asians ware already an artisan and craft based economy and imbibed Islam as a subtle ideology that resonated with their folk beliefs.

Our focus is to look at the guiding principles in Islam that were the fountainhead of a unique metaphor in aesthetic expression.

We begin with a journey on the Silk Road, māhānadi, that carried a pan-asian cultural affinity and look at a path of new ideas.


Silk Road

The Great Silk Road was a Māhānadi that spanned from China to Central Asia with tributaries into Russia and Venice. Routes along the Persian Royal Road, constructed in 5 BCE by Darius I of Persia, may have been in use as early as 3500 BCE. By 475 BCE, the Persian Royal Road ran some 2,500 km from the city of Susa, on the lower Tigris to the port of Smyrna (modern Iszmir in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea.

In 329 BE, Alexander founded the city of Alexandria at the mouth of Fergana Valley in Tajikstan. It became a major node on the northern Silk Road and a sea link to Guangzhou in China. Trade was not restricted to only Silk. Gold, ivory, exotic and luxury objects, animals and plants were traded. It brought political and cultural integration amongst the diverse groups..

The Parthians adopted most of the Greek system before them and the Gandhara culture grew in Peshawar region of northwest Pakistan.

The Hans moved westwards with their ‘heavenly horses’ and reached Persia. They brought back to with them many artefacts, e s p e c i a l l y religious artwork and opened up the Silk Road. The unification of Central Asia with northern I n d i a within the Kushan empire in the 1-3 CE f o s t e r e d m u l t i cultural interactions. The Iranian empire of Persia was in control of a large area of the Middle East extending all the way to India.


Central Asian Religious Beliefs

Not only Silk, but religious ideas also travelled along this road. Buddhism came to China from India by travel via Kandahar and did not reach Tibet till 7CE. It also travelled east as recorded in the kingdoms of Kotan and Kashgar in 400 CE by Chinese travellers.

Christianity travelled to the west when the Roman Church outlawed the Nestorian sect in 432 CE and their followers settled along the Silk Road. The first church was consecrated at Changan, Iran in 638 CE. Christians living in Persia, were persecuted intermittently by their conflict with the native Zoroastrian priests who often strove to elevate their native faith over such non-traditional religions as Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Manichaeism.

The culture of Muhammad's time included belief in a number of spirits and powers, in particular those associated with rocks, springs, and trees. Deities were associated with various stars and planets, and the most important of these were goddesses.

A superior deity was known as Allah, al-Llah or "the God," but this god was somewhat vaguely defined and did not figure strongly into the religious practices of the time.

Pre-islam religions worshipped a Mother Goddess derived from the Moon, named ‘Al-Lat’. She is a triple goddess, similar to the Greek lunar deity Kore-Demeter-Hecate. Each aspect of this trinity corresponds to a phase of the moon. In the same way Al'Lat has three names known to the initiate:

Q’re: the crescent moon or the maiden; Al'Uzza, literally 'the strong one' who is

the full moon and the mother aspect;

Al'Menat, the waning but wise goddess of fate, prophecy and divination.

Islamic tradition recognised the trinity (referred to in the Quran : Verse 18-19 of Sura an-Najm, “Star” 53) firmly associating al-Llah as a pre-Islamic deity paired with the three forms of the Goddess.

The world-view of the pre-islamic culture was enriched with cosmology, the planets, the Moon and the Sun. Idol worship was prevalent as documented in the existence of hundreds of idols destroyed around the Ka’bah at Mecca. The discovery of a gold plaque with inscriptions attributes it to be from Emperor Vikramaditya, Parmara dynasty, a legendary 1st century BCE Emperor of Ujjain, India. Thus the doctrines of vedantic- upanishad philosophy and its gods and goddesses would be also available as a community belief system in this era.

Belief Systems Along the Silk Road

In the Middle East, many people worshiped the gods and goddesses of the Greco-Roman pagan pantheon. Others were followers of the old religion of Egypt, especially the cult of Isis and Osiris. Jewish merchants and other settlers had spread beyond the borders of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judea and had established their own places of worship in towns and cities throughout the region. Elsewhere in the Middle East, and especially in Persia and Central Asia, many people were adherents of Zoroastrianism, a religion founded by the Persian sage Zoroaster in the 6th century BCE. The Greek colonies of Central Asia that had been left behind after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great had, by the 1st century BCE, largely converted from Greco-Roman paganism to Buddhism, a religion that would soon use the Silk Road to spread far and wide.

Islam was thus born in the cradle of a theosophist society with an appreciation of diverse views of God and an esoteric theology from all over the world that created a syncretic society. The interpretation of metaphysical concepts in Islam fostered aesthetic expression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujjain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India


Central Asian Islamic Concepts

BEAUTY

Central Asian art, refined by the is lamic theology, centred around the idea of Beauty. The idea is attributed to a divine quality around :

• The outer appearance - beautiful things manifested and created in this world and so attributed to our sense perception

• In God, it is pure inward beat i tude . Beauty most directly recalls the pure Being.

• T h u s a r t , a s s a c r e d , corresponds to an external manifestation of most inward in tradition and hence the close link between sacred art and spirituality.

FANN

Art is fann. It came to be understood as a knowledge that was required for the fulfilment of a science or as a part of elegant behaviour (adab). The words ṣanā ‘a and ṣanʿa clearly c o v e r e d a m o r e s p e c ifi c meaning of creative ability, art and craft in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic lexicons.

IHSAN

Ihsan, means ‘perfection' or ‘excellence' (husn). It is a matter of taking one's inner faith (imān) and showing it in both deed and action, as a sense of social responsibility borne from religious convictions.

Ihsan, meaning ‘to do beautiful things’, is one of the three dimensions of the Islamic religion (ad-din): islam, imān and ihsan.

In contrast to the emphasis of islam (what one should do) and imān (why one should do), the concept of ihsan is primarily associated with intention. One who "does what is beautiful" is called a muhsin. It is generally held that a person can only achieve true ihsan with the help and guidance of Allah, who governs all things. While traditionally Islamic jurists have concentrated on islam and theologians on Imān, the Sufis have focused their attention on Ihsan.

Ihsan is the highest form of worship (ibadah). It is excellence in work and in social life. For e x a m p l e , i h s a n i n c l u d e s sincerity during Muslim prayers and being grateful to parents, family, and God.

TAWHĪD

Art is in the beauty of form. C o n t e m p l a t i o n i s b e a u t y without form, unfolding the formal order, qualitatively, and surpassing it.

Art is knowledge because beauty is an aspect of Reality. It reveals the unity and infinity that is immanent in creation. This consciousness of Divine Unity is tawhīd.

As Islam spread to lands far f ro m A r a b i a , 3 q u a l i t i e s crystallised the idea of the Divine Unity:1. ‘Rubūbīyah’: creator-sustainer.

Al’llah alone caused all things to exist when there was nothing; He sustains and maintains creation.

2. ‘Asmā was Shifāt’: He cannot be described or given attributes. Man must not t r y t o g i ve n a m e s a n d attributes to Al’llah.

3. ‘Ebādah’: only worship Al’llah. All forms of worship must be directed only to Al’llah without an intermediary between man and God.


Aniconism

Aniconism is the foundation of t h i s s c h o o l o f a r t . T h e monotheist opposes idolatry polytheism and so idols of God and even of divine messengers, prophets and saints are avoided because their images could become objects of idolatrous worship and to respect their i n i m i t a b i l i t y. I n s t e a d o f projecting his soul outside of himself, man can c e n t r e i t w i t h i n himself helping him t o r e a l i s e h i s primordial divinity. In creating a mindful void, by eliminating a l l p a s s i o n a t e suggestions of the world, i t instead creates an order that e x p r e s s e s equilibrium, serenity and peace.

Modern Iranian Painting Iranian Culture House, New Delhi

Paradise

P a r a d i s e i s a n e t e r n a l springtime. A garden always in bloom. It is a final state , like a precious minerals, crystals and gold that is indestructible. Persian Art, especially evident from Safavid mosques, sets out to combine these qualities. The celestial springtime blossoms in the stylised flowers and fresh rich colours of ceramic tiles.

Word

In the beginning, and in the very seat of our consciousness, things are spontaneously conceived as determinations of the primordial sound which resounds in the heart, this sound being none other than the first, non-individualised, act of consciousness; at this level, or in this state, to “name” a thing is to identify oneself with the action or the sound which brings it forth. The symbolism inherent in speech—and obscured or deformed to a greater or lesser extent by acquired habits—seizes on the nature of things not in a static fashion, as an image is seized but, as it were, in the act of becoming.” - Titus Burckhardt, Art of Islam (2009)

For the Persian, Unity manifests above all as Harmony. By culture and nature they see, with poetic eyes, their artistic activities is as if animated by an i n n e r m e l o d y. I t i s s a i d proverbially in the East that ‘Arabic is the language of God, but Persian is the language of paradise’.

Arabic script, as it proceeds horizontally on the plane of becoming, starts from the right, the field of action and moves to the left the region of the heart. It is therefore a progression from the outward to the inward.

Collection of Mumbai Museum Library

Allāh amalī, God is my hope. (Tumar)


Arabesque

The Arabesque is both a style a n d m e t h o d t o c l a s s i f y ornamentation in stylised plant forms and strictly geometrical interfacing work. There are 2 poles of artistic expression – the sense of rhythm and and spirit of geometry.

Cosmic rhythms will alternate and complement phases of evolution and involution.

Expanding and contracting, it belongs to the dimension of time. By its mediation of movement, it establishes itself in spatial dimension. With its relation to plant world, forms and designs emerge.

T h e s e c o n d e l e m e n t i s interlacement. Beginning with a circle and shapes within, it develops on the principal of the star shaped polygon. Holons emerge as designs are recursive. The zodiac with its 12 divisions appears in the circle as a 12 or 6 sided polygon. The 5 part or 10 part circle corresponds to the G o l d R u l e . T h e p e r f e c t integration of a part onto the whole.

For the craftsman who must d e c o r a t e t h e s u r f a c e , a geometric interlacement is the most satisfying form, for it is a direct expression of the Divine Unity, through harmony that is reflected in the world, “Unity in multiplicity” and “Multiplicity in Unity”.

Photographed by the Author at Humayun’s Tomb and Safdarjung’s Tomb, New Delhi


Sphere and Circle

Unity is never the result of a synthesis of the components. It exists eternally as a truth and forms are deduced from it.

Christianity sees union with God as an end towards which all human effort must aspire. The central theme in Islamic Art is unity, present at all times and everywhere. It simply needs to be recognised so that mans’s effort in this regards serves only to extricate the Unity that already exists in himself and all things.

The sphere is the threshold between form and its formless principle, indicated by a point without extension. The point expands to a form a sphere or circle – regular forms extend from it by qualitative differentiation and irregular forms by quantitative differentiation. The sphere represents the spirit emanating from the point of Being. Regular forms are archetypes or essences contained in the Spirit and accidental forms to ephemeral beings. Transposed into the universal order, the sphere corresponds to the Spirit (ar-Rūḥ) emanating from the ungraspable point of Being.

Photographed by the Author at Humayun’s Tomb, Safdarjung’s Tomb, Lodi Gardens, New Delhi


Alchemy of Light

“God is the light of the heavens and earth” (Quran 24:35)

For the artist who wishes to express the idea of unity of existence (wajut al-wajūd), there are 3 means: 1. Geometry: spatial order 2. Rhythm: temporal order 3. Light: indivisible

It is the divinity of light that brings things out of darkness. To be visible signifies existence. Just as shadows add nothing to light, things are real, only to the extent that they share in the light of Being. Light is the most perfect symbol of Divine Unity. The Muslim artisan seeks to transform the art object into a vibration of light.

A r t t h e m b e c o m e s a n a l c h e m y. Transforming base, shapeless dull into lustrous Gold. In the spiritual order, alchemy is none other than the art of transmuting body consciousness into Spirit. Muslim architecture transforms stone to light which in turn is transformed into crystals encapsulating the light.

Photographed by the Author at Humayun’s Tomb, Safdarjung’s Tomb, Lodi Gardens and Qutub Minār, New Delhi

Section IV

Synthesis

Section IV: Synthesis | & 29

Art as Sacred At the sańgam, we are in sacred space. Here God, Man and the World are in dialogue about Truth.

At the heart of this dialogue is Man who experiences the outer world brought to him by his senses. His awe and rapture of this world transcends him from the sensory to thought and leads him to the idea of an Absolute, a God. To describe this God, universal principles are established in Truth. The world comprises of sentient and non-sentient beings who are assembled in a great eco-system with each entity having a rightful place and in proportion that is appropriate to the entire system. This is Harmony, and is also Truth. And it pleasing to realise this perfection, so we call it Beauty.

To appreciate this Beauty, Man must express himself. The Word, Śabda, brings together a crystallisation of an idea, the encoding of agents with meaning and the agency that will carry it. The meaning encoded at multiple levels by the artist is a means to express some aspect of the Absolute. We are the receivers, appreciators of the principles of Truth, Perfection and Beauty. We must meet the artist’s expression with the heart, sahṛdaya. The meanings distill and percolate drop by drop, meeting the mind of imagination, perception and intuition. A titration of the received with the substrate. And in a flash, the quality of the Absolute, as the universal principles, get impressed. Filled with a sense of awe, the person, purūśa is supplanted into the cosmic Purūśa and in Iśwara within which lies all creation, śṛiśti.

Then the idea of Aesthetics lifts itself up from a narrow terrestrial frame of the fine arts, to a grand celestial ākaśa that is deeply sacred because, it is at this sańgam, that aesthetics can be understood in the context of the dialogue of Man with Nature and God. We resonate with the divine vibratory world (spanda), creating an inner vibration that amplifies to the cosmic nāda. A sense of well-being of the most perfect world, created by God, establishes itself within us. Filled with this sense of wellness, the Grace of God, the śaktipath, is bestowed upon us.

Taking our place in this world, we must dip ourselves in the māhānadi and be baptised, by this revelation, for our spiritual birth.

Aesthetics establishes itself as a science and art of Divinity. Where matter and spirit are in union. Reason and imagination are in harmony because of free play.

Art is thus sacred, where the most inner dialogue of the prajāpati is expressed as kavya for the rasika to savour.

To do beautiful things, to achieve perfection in what ever we do is Ihsan, it is dharma. An universal truth along with the idea of God as an Absolute (al’Llah) and the morality (imān). Art becomes Fann when knowledge and skills of both the artist and the appreciator combine with a decorum of refined behaviour (adab).

The revelation of the Absolute as an unity, as pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidam , the universal truth is tawhīd.

Section IV: Synthesis | & 30

The point, bindū, represents the formless, transcendental Absolute that presents itself in an vistār, as development and progression. This is the dynamic principle of the bindū. For art to be created it must be bound in structure, space and rules. This boundary is prastār, a containment for the transcendental truth to be received in the immanent.

There are 6 boundaries to a human system: (Pioneering research in group psychodynamics as per the Tavistock model of Group Relations with the additions by Prof. Ajit Mathur, IIM-Ahmedabad)

1. Space: spatial 2. Time: temporal 3. Task of system: primary and secondary 4. Role: function of entities 5. Sentience: ability to work together towards task 6. Understanding: clarification of other boundaries by individual entities and the whole system

And a sacred space, is created by the above boundaries gives an immanent form to ākāsha in which dialogue is born.

All things in this world are born out of ākāsha and become dissolved in the ākāsha: ākāsha is indeed greater than these, ākāsha is the ultimate substratum. - Chhandogyopanoshad I-9-1,2

This is the śakti-kṣetra. So geometry defines space, rhythm defines time and light defines the absolute.

Now the mind has come to the stage of Yoga. Sage Pātañjali declared:

yogaścittavṛttinirodhaḥ Yoga is the suppression of the modifications of mind.

There is only one thought of the Absolute and the mind comes to rest as viśranti. In the heart, śakti, reflexive consciousness, reveals, the reflection of the Absolute, encapsulated as śiva. the Light.

Documents

Sańgam- At the Confluence of the Philosophies of Aesthetics