Objective Art
Please share with us your vision of the benefits of the arts for our process of growing towards ourselves, in therapy, meditation, worship.
The arts can be immensely helpful in therapy, in spiritual
growth, in your meditations. But it is taking a hard and long way
unnecessarily. The shortcut is: first, meditation, and then out of
meditation comes creativity of its own accord. Otherwise, it is a
long journey; even one life may not be enough.
For example, the paintings of Picasso are nothing but his
nightmares, as if somebody is not painting but vomiting. It has
helped him to relieve himself of his tensions, schizophrenia,
paranoia and all kinds of mental repressions. But it is not of much
use to you. In fact, if you go on looking at a Picasso painting for
a long time, you will feel sick, because it is vomiting. You will
start feeling nauseous. This is not real art.
The people who created the Taj Mahal - that is real art. They were
Sufi mystics who knew what meditation is. And they created the Taj
Mahal in such a way that if on every full-moon night, exactly at
nine o′clock in the evening, you just sit looking at the most
beautiful architecture in the whole world, you will find suddenly
you are becoming silent, peaceful, serene. Something is transpiring
between you and the Taj Mahal.
Gurdjieff used to call the Taj Mahal, objective art. It means:
created by people who are fully aware, able to create something
which can help people to grow. He would not call Picasso an
objective artist. Picasso is a subjective artist, he is just
throwing up whatsoever is in his mind. It is not going to help
anybody. Picasso feels relieved, but for how long? Soon he will
gather tensions again. Soon he will be again in a state of insanity,
and then he will paint. Painting is a release for him.
The people who built the Taj Mahal - it is not a release for them;
it is their experience. And they are trying somehow to make
something which can also give you the same experience - at least a
glimpse of it.
In India there are many places of objective art, and it is obvious
why they are in India - because for ten thousand years the country
has been involved with meditative techniques. The caves of Ajanta
and Ellora... there are many caves; the whole mountain has been
carved. Great caves have been made into the mountain. A line of
caves - perhaps thirty or thirty-five, and each cave has its own
beauty; not just beauty, but its own meditative fragrance from a
different angle.
In the last cave, Buddha is lying down just before he died. It is a
long statue - perhaps thirty feet long. Just sitting by the side,
alone in the cave, you can again feel something that must have been
felt by people who saw Buddha dying - the release of his light, the
release of his soul becoming universal. Somehow the statue gives you
an insight into it.
Tourists miss it. It is not something that you simply go in and have
a look and then rush into another cave. That is simply idiotic. And
most of the tourists are idiots. Most of them are old women having
nothing to do. Perhaps they have finished their husbands - now
there is nobody even to nag. India is full of old women from all
over the world.
Tourists cannot understand it. You have to sit down. You have to be
quiet and silent. The cave is very cool - remains cool even in the
hottest summer - and outside is the lush green valley. If you can
sit for an hour or more, then perhaps some glimpses of objective art
will be felt.
There is one cave in Ajanta which has been made of special stones
which are musical. You can just hit them with your hand, with your
finger, and you will be surprised that they resound just like a
guitar. If you are really a good musician, you can create any music
on those pillars in the cave, on the walls of the cave.
But if you are not a musician, no problem: you simply sit there.
Once in a while a breeze comes in, and with the breeze there is a
murmuring music in the cave. And it is so soothing. I have never
known anything that can be so soothing to your mind, to your heart,
to your body - so relaxing. This is objective art.
But your question is, "Can art help somehow in being more healthy
spiritually? Can it become a therapy?" Yes, it can; vomiting is a
therapy. And when you are feeling nauseous, it is good to vomit,
have a good vomit, and you will feel clean. The nausea is gone. But
this is not something of great help. Please go vice versa: first
meditation, then out of meditation there is a spontaneity of
creativity.
Right now you don′t know even what areas of creativity can bring out
your potential for spiritual growth. To paint? - everybody is not a
painter. To write poetry? - everybody is not a poet. To play music?
- everybody is not a musician. How are you going to choose in your
confusion? But if you are silent through meditation, utterly silent,
suddenly you feel a tremendous urge to create something, to become a
musician.... It comes spontaneously!
I know one of the great musicians in India - it is inconceivable,
the way he created music. You know the name of Ravi Shankar - Ravi
Shankar married that great musician′s daughter; Ravi Shankar is his
disciple. He was capable of creating music with anything. He would
start hitting just two pieces of steel, and you will be surprised
how many and how beautiful were the sounds he could create out of
it. He was a born musician.
A meditator finds his potential and starts moving towards it. Then
poetry or dance or sculpture - whatever happens spontaneously - is
objective art. It is your contribution.
It will help you to grow spiritually. It will be your real therapy,
because growth is therapy. It will give you authentic spiritual
health. And, by the way, it will help many other people who can for
a few moments sit silently, listen to your music, or watch your
dance, or see your painting. They will be immensely benefited
because your art will give them a certain direction towards
meditation.
So my suggestion is, everything starts with meditation. And if you
try other things, you will be going on a sorry-go-round for many
lives, round and round - I cannot call it a merry-go-round - but
you will never reach to your center.
The first and the foremost act of a sannyasin is to reach to his
center, and then leave everything to that experience to explode in
its own way. Then you are natural. Then whatever you do is helpful
to you and helpful to others. This is the only love, compassion that
you can share with humanity.