All this bring me to an incident related in a book by Deepak Chopra:
It appears an American anthropologist was once visiting some tribe deep in the Amazon Jungles. As he was sitting with the Shaman or the witch doctor of the village, a tribal arrived complaining of a severe tooth and gums pain. On examining the patient it was found that the patient was suffering from a severe tooth abscess. The Shaman thence ventured to tie a thin long thread to the infected tooth and let the other end of the thread on the table. Presently a series of ants came marching out of the tooth down the thread and soon the tribal villager announced that his pain had vanished!
The question I want to raise is why is such a treatment not universal? I'm sure the same method would not be tried in India. The practices that effect a cure in say, Tibet, does not work in say, Sweden. If cures for symptoms are culture specific, then is the cause of the disease too culture specific? Can what cause a diseased condition in India and to an Indian exempt an American? All such aspects have to be considered. Sadly, one section of the society totally ignores the concerns of another section of the society. In my Bhajan group, many of whom are engineers and have been raised on a nutritious diet of science, mouth opinions totally against science without pausing to consider the huge benefits that Science has brought all of us.
At the same time, if I were to draw the attention of a group of scientists to the above incident of an Amazonian Shaman in a book by Deepak Chopra, these individuals would start questioning the credentials of Deepak Chopra who is a qualified doctor in the western system of medicine. Rationalists have profound suspicions of mystics who may be totally sincere about their own experiences, and if everyone were to really approach the other with an open mind, I'm sure humanity would benefit from the total human experience.
I would like to conclude by relating another incident that was mentioned in one of Deepak Chopra's books. It seems again in a South American jungle an explorer from another continent, while attempting to scale a cliff, had a treacherous fall and was very badly wounded. They transported him to a nearby village on a make-shift stretcher as he was in great pain. He was led by a shaman to a hut and laid there. Soon the shaman lit a small fire and put some herbs and the hut was filled with smoke. The villagers rumbled the drums in a sonorous beat, and the smoke caused the injured man to fall into a deep slumber. When he woke up after a long time, he found himself to be alone in the hut and found that he was cured of the wounds. He got up silently and left the place.
Now what do you guys make of all this?
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Stories - The glue that holds societies - 6
That brings me to a very significant incident. In 2007 I along with the group had gone to visit a place called Kuruvanthpura. This is a place in northern Karnataka about 40-50 km from Raichur. This place is actually an island in the Krishna River and the west bank of the river is in Karnataka and the east bank of the river is in Andhra Pradesh. We drove from Raichur up to the river bank in a mini bus. At the river we got into many coracles which accommodate about five persons each. On crossing the river to the island, one is to walk for about a kilometer to reach the temple. The temple is supposed to be a very ancient one and one of the incarnations of Dattatreya - Sripada Srivallabha, was supposed to have sanctified this place in the eleventh or the twelfth century. We stayed there in the island for three days observing various spiritual practices. It was here that a curious incident took place.
As a small digression for those unfamiliar with Hindu mythology, I have to mention that Hindu mythology recognises the existence of 330 million gods, but the entire creation, sustenance and the final destruction of the Cosmos is credited to the Trinity that comprise of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). In the beginning there was only Avyactha, or 'The inexpressible' . In this emptiness, Lord Vishnu (The Preserver) appeared in the form of a child, lying on the leaf of a banyan tree. As soon as he appeared in this form, his mind was filled with doubts about his identity. His questions were then answered by an unmanned voice- the voice of the supreme soul (Brahma), which is his true form. It asked him to meditate upon his soul, which he did, and a thousand petaled lotus emerged from his navel, in which, Brahma appeared. And it was Brahma who created the entire universe and all that is in it. It is to be noted that the three, considered as the Supreme Trinity in Hinduism, are not three separate gods, but three manifestations of the same Supreme soul, The Brahman.
Lord Vishnu is said to recline and sleep while floating on the cosmic waters of consciousness on the huge serpent called Sesha. In the Hindu texts called Puranas, Sesha holds all the planets of the universe on his hoods and constantly sings the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths.
This much of Indian Mythology had to be related by me to continue upon the incident.
While we were at Kuruvanthpura, we used to bathe in the mornings, in the Krishna River that flowed beside the temple. One day as the group was bathing, Shanthamma started hollering that a big hooded snake was coming at her. None of us could see a thing, but the huge serpent is supposed to have pushed her from behind, even as a few women who were around her held her as she fell. In a panic she flayed her arms wildly and clutched at the air, and as the women around held her, they noticed that she was clasping a silvery idol of Vishnu lying on the serpent Sesha.
This is what strikes me as curious. If it were pure hallucination, how do you explain the physical and very much material presence of the silvery idol? Where did it spring up from? If the materially real idol came into her wildly flaying and clasping hands, could she have really seen a large serpent? If she could see it why not us? Further the story of Vishnu and Sesha is essentially an Indian myth. Why do these Indian religious motifs happen only in India? Why aren't they universal? Or are they? Why do the motifs of the mythologies vary from country to country and civilisation to civilisation? If these still happen in the 21st Century when the world is a global village, is there any significance that myths peculiar to a region are affirmed even by occult events?
As a small digression for those unfamiliar with Hindu mythology, I have to mention that Hindu mythology recognises the existence of 330 million gods, but the entire creation, sustenance and the final destruction of the Cosmos is credited to the Trinity that comprise of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). In the beginning there was only Avyactha, or 'The inexpressible' . In this emptiness, Lord Vishnu (The Preserver) appeared in the form of a child, lying on the leaf of a banyan tree. As soon as he appeared in this form, his mind was filled with doubts about his identity. His questions were then answered by an unmanned voice- the voice of the supreme soul (Brahma), which is his true form. It asked him to meditate upon his soul, which he did, and a thousand petaled lotus emerged from his navel, in which, Brahma appeared. And it was Brahma who created the entire universe and all that is in it. It is to be noted that the three, considered as the Supreme Trinity in Hinduism, are not three separate gods, but three manifestations of the same Supreme soul, The Brahman.
Lord Vishnu is said to recline and sleep while floating on the cosmic waters of consciousness on the huge serpent called Sesha. In the Hindu texts called Puranas, Sesha holds all the planets of the universe on his hoods and constantly sings the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths.
While we were at Kuruvanthpura, we used to bathe in the mornings, in the Krishna River that flowed beside the temple. One day as the group was bathing, Shanthamma started hollering that a big hooded snake was coming at her. None of us could see a thing, but the huge serpent is supposed to have pushed her from behind, even as a few women who were around her held her as she fell. In a panic she flayed her arms wildly and clutched at the air, and as the women around held her, they noticed that she was clasping a silvery idol of Vishnu lying on the serpent Sesha.
This is what strikes me as curious. If it were pure hallucination, how do you explain the physical and very much material presence of the silvery idol? Where did it spring up from? If the materially real idol came into her wildly flaying and clasping hands, could she have really seen a large serpent? If she could see it why not us? Further the story of Vishnu and Sesha is essentially an Indian myth. Why do these Indian religious motifs happen only in India? Why aren't they universal? Or are they? Why do the motifs of the mythologies vary from country to country and civilisation to civilisation? If these still happen in the 21st Century when the world is a global village, is there any significance that myths peculiar to a region are affirmed even by occult events?
Stories - The glue that holds societies - 5
The things that would materialise would fascinate all of us. At some meeting it would be a Shiva ice linga made of sweetened frozen milk; at another it would be that a flame would be burning in a Sai Baba image and the image would have a rudraksha seed plastered into it; at times a plate would be filled with cashew, almonds, raisins and pistachio; elsewhere silver rupee coins of the British era in India would suddenly be seen together with other coins with divine images. Honey would be a very frequent product. One couldn't predict what would come up, and all of us would be very eager to see what would spring up at a congregation.
As our association became more intense, the group began organising visits to Shirdi and to various other Guru Sthans (Places of Guru worship) in India. At such tours, invariably something spectacular would happen. At Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh in 2008, a wooden arm-rest used by hermits in India (a contraption made of wood with a two foot vertical rod having a broad cup like structure to rest the elbow while squatting on the ground; See photograph on left) and a cloth bag sprang up out of nowhere. Shanthamma was advised to hand over those items to two unmarried girls who were in the group.
Once at Shirdi, a two foot long sword shaped chrome steel object with a ring materialised (see photo on right). The object had nine holes in it, which was supposed to have a deep symbolic meaning. Shanthamma was advised by Swamy (Sai Baba) that she was to observe a particular Sadhana for a period of forty days with that object. Subsequently, if anyone who was plagued with a lot of difficulties requested her for help, she was to place the object over the body of the candidate at various places in a manner prescribed and that it would provide great relief to the sufferer over time.
Last year (2010) when the group was visiting a place called Ganagapura in northern Karnataka, Swamy presented Shanthamma with a bundle wrapped in a red cloth. Swamy told her that inside the bundle was His seat and ornaments and clothes. On opening the bundle she found a tightly packed square piece of tiger's skin with rudrakshas (ornaments of Swamy), cloth pieces and sacred ash. (See photo left)
The Rationalists of Bangalore famously used to assert that the things that would materialise were only of the size that could be hidden within sleeves of a shirt or a scarf. But I vouchsafe that the lady wore only a tight fitting short-sleeved blouse and when we went out from our rooms to the temple she carried nothing that could conceal such large things. Further who would ever conceive of such strange objects like the sword-shaped rod shown above or even the wooden arm-rest?
However, I would like to mention that as I seem to understand it, these events are some things that happen to her, and it seems as if they are beyond her conscious control. She can't seem to will it consciously. Perhaps the energies around her cause such events but without her being able to guide it in a given direction.
(To be continued ... )
As our association became more intense, the group began organising visits to Shirdi and to various other Guru Sthans (Places of Guru worship) in India. At such tours, invariably something spectacular would happen. At Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh in 2008, a wooden arm-rest used by hermits in India (a contraption made of wood with a two foot vertical rod having a broad cup like structure to rest the elbow while squatting on the ground; See photograph on left) and a cloth bag sprang up out of nowhere. Shanthamma was advised to hand over those items to two unmarried girls who were in the group.
Once at Shirdi, a two foot long sword shaped chrome steel object with a ring materialised (see photo on right). The object had nine holes in it, which was supposed to have a deep symbolic meaning. Shanthamma was advised by Swamy (Sai Baba) that she was to observe a particular Sadhana for a period of forty days with that object. Subsequently, if anyone who was plagued with a lot of difficulties requested her for help, she was to place the object over the body of the candidate at various places in a manner prescribed and that it would provide great relief to the sufferer over time.
Last year (2010) when the group was visiting a place called Ganagapura in northern Karnataka, Swamy presented Shanthamma with a bundle wrapped in a red cloth. Swamy told her that inside the bundle was His seat and ornaments and clothes. On opening the bundle she found a tightly packed square piece of tiger's skin with rudrakshas (ornaments of Swamy), cloth pieces and sacred ash. (See photo left)
The Rationalists of Bangalore famously used to assert that the things that would materialise were only of the size that could be hidden within sleeves of a shirt or a scarf. But I vouchsafe that the lady wore only a tight fitting short-sleeved blouse and when we went out from our rooms to the temple she carried nothing that could conceal such large things. Further who would ever conceive of such strange objects like the sword-shaped rod shown above or even the wooden arm-rest?
However, I would like to mention that as I seem to understand it, these events are some things that happen to her, and it seems as if they are beyond her conscious control. She can't seem to will it consciously. Perhaps the energies around her cause such events but without her being able to guide it in a given direction.
(To be continued ... )
Stories - The glue that holds societies - 4
It was around this time in 2003 that my wife's cousin wed. When my wife chose to accompany the groom (assume his name to be Anant) from his house to the marriage hall in a bus that was arranged by the girl's side, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the groom's mother-in-law (assume her name to be Shanthamma) was a devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba too, and that the bride's parents had adorned the interior of the bus with a large image of Sai Baba. There were Sai Baba Bhajans (Hindu devotional songs) playing on the record player too. A few months after the wedding, my wife's aunt informed my wife that Shanthamma, in one of the gatherings at her cousin's house had suddenly materialised a figurine of Shirdi Sai Baba and presented it to her cousin. Soon Shanthamma's talent of materialising things spread around the families of all our relatives.
It was precisely at that time when I saw this middle-class lady with no ambitions of fame or glory, leading just an average life in one of the non-descript parts of Bangalore, it convinced me about the genuineness of such phenomenon. I agree that I didn't subject her to the rigorous scrutiny that a strong sceptic would subject such things to. To me that was unnecessary. To me the plain truth was evident in the very nature of those circumstances, and I felt I could trust her. We invited her home one day for lunch with a view to honor her, and as the lunch was being served and the kheer (dish made of sweetened milk) was being poured into the diners' cups, the lady (Shanthamma) told my wife "Please check up the kheer cup, Swamy has come !" (Swamy is a deferential term for a Guru and she meant her Guru Shirdi Sai Baba)
True enough, in the cup were what in India is referred to as Padukas (miniature footwear models considered to be a blessing from a Saint) made of white metal. Later that day, in a private meeting with her, she materialised a figurine of Sai Baba in my presence.
Meanwhile, it had so happened that my brother-in-law who was living in the U.S. was felled by severe rheumatoid arthritis that left the joints of his body painful and swollen. His health began deteriorating steadily and he had to resort to very potent allopathic medicines. Over a period of time these medicines wreaked havoc with his serum parameters and he became wan and haggard. He quit his job and decided to return to India. The doctors in the U.S. had warned him that should he happen to quit the medications prescribed, his condition would worsen drastically. But the drugs were playing havoc with his other health paramters.
On returning to India, he happened to meet Shanthamma who advised him a few spiritual practices to follow. Before he returned home, she asked him to place both his palms adjacent to each other facing upward, cupped adequately to receive whatever material that happens to appear. It so happened that his cupped hands were filled to overflowing with udhi (sacred ash), padukas, cardamom, nutmeg, rudrakshas and the such. She also advised him to mix a small portion of the sacred ash in a cup of water and ingest it daily. Simultaneously he also happened to consult a homoeopathic doctor who recommended that the strong drugs be suspended forthwith. With all these steps being taken, his serum parameters gradually revived and the severity of the rheumatoid arthritis gradually reduced to a great extent. Presently, he is free of all allopathic medication, and though he still suffers from an arthritic condition, his health has revived to an extent where he has returned to the U.S.
Our association with this lady who is a devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba increased because of having seen such phenomena and over a period of time a Bhajan group (Hindu devotional songs) was formed and we have witnessed various forms of the occult manifesting at these congregations.
(To be continued ...)
It was precisely at that time when I saw this middle-class lady with no ambitions of fame or glory, leading just an average life in one of the non-descript parts of Bangalore, it convinced me about the genuineness of such phenomenon. I agree that I didn't subject her to the rigorous scrutiny that a strong sceptic would subject such things to. To me that was unnecessary. To me the plain truth was evident in the very nature of those circumstances, and I felt I could trust her. We invited her home one day for lunch with a view to honor her, and as the lunch was being served and the kheer (dish made of sweetened milk) was being poured into the diners' cups, the lady (Shanthamma) told my wife "Please check up the kheer cup, Swamy has come !" (Swamy is a deferential term for a Guru and she meant her Guru Shirdi Sai Baba)
True enough, in the cup were what in India is referred to as Padukas (miniature footwear models considered to be a blessing from a Saint) made of white metal. Later that day, in a private meeting with her, she materialised a figurine of Sai Baba in my presence.
Meanwhile, it had so happened that my brother-in-law who was living in the U.S. was felled by severe rheumatoid arthritis that left the joints of his body painful and swollen. His health began deteriorating steadily and he had to resort to very potent allopathic medicines. Over a period of time these medicines wreaked havoc with his serum parameters and he became wan and haggard. He quit his job and decided to return to India. The doctors in the U.S. had warned him that should he happen to quit the medications prescribed, his condition would worsen drastically. But the drugs were playing havoc with his other health paramters.
On returning to India, he happened to meet Shanthamma who advised him a few spiritual practices to follow. Before he returned home, she asked him to place both his palms adjacent to each other facing upward, cupped adequately to receive whatever material that happens to appear. It so happened that his cupped hands were filled to overflowing with udhi (sacred ash), padukas, cardamom, nutmeg, rudrakshas and the such. She also advised him to mix a small portion of the sacred ash in a cup of water and ingest it daily. Simultaneously he also happened to consult a homoeopathic doctor who recommended that the strong drugs be suspended forthwith. With all these steps being taken, his serum parameters gradually revived and the severity of the rheumatoid arthritis gradually reduced to a great extent. Presently, he is free of all allopathic medication, and though he still suffers from an arthritic condition, his health has revived to an extent where he has returned to the U.S.
Our association with this lady who is a devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba increased because of having seen such phenomena and over a period of time a Bhajan group (Hindu devotional songs) was formed and we have witnessed various forms of the occult manifesting at these congregations.
(To be continued ...)
Stories - The glue that holds societies - 3
The years from 1985 to 1988 were spent in a partial belief of the existence of God, and I ventured to adopt a few practices that would strengthen a spiritual experience. But nothing at all happened and my doubts again became stronger. It was in 1988 that I befriended a liberal atheist, who though born a Christian, was not a practicing Christian. Being of an amicable type and of a somewhat generous nature, he had undertaken to encourage some people who badly needed his moral support. He had even taken a little bit of their financial burden upon himself and aided them monetarily. This friend was a bulwark to me over a period of many years in times of my most intense crises, and seeing him to be quite an honorable person despite being an atheist, and since my own inclinations were that way too, I was quite sceptical of the existence of the so-called supernatural phenomena and of God. By and large I fully trusted the methods of science which bases its nourishment on rationalism and empiricism, although by that time I had an incipient doubt that our senses cannot be totally trusted. I had experienced certain states that the doctors to whom I ventured to relate had labelled hallucinatory. So I was not too sure about the one hundred percent reliability of my own senses of perception.
It was largely in this state of unbelief that I spent the years from 1988 to 1998. In 1999 I again had a set of experiences that could be called strange, and from then on till about 2003, I was in a vascillating state of mind. All the while after my marriage in 1996, my wife had remained an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba (a Saint of India who seemed to have encouraged all religions), and true to my form, I used to make fun of her beliefs. Nor was I a believer in astrology nor in any of the ritualistic practices of my religion. However from around 2001, I started reading the biography of Shirdi Sai Baba. The first reading left me rather unimpressed, but I gradually found a need in me to bow down to his image that was there in the room which was placed there by my wife.
In the year 2003, my sister-in-law happened to visit an astrologer in Bangalore who reputedly gave her quite an accurate reading of her circumstances. By that time, my curiosities in the occult had been sufficiently aroused to prompt me enough to test him out. So I made my wife consult him with her birth charts only to assess for my own curiosity how much these people could divine out of a person's birth chart.
I was quite surprised that the astrologer just by seeing her birth chart told that she was married to a man who was the only son to his parents (true) and whose other sibling was a sister (true). He also told my wife that my sister lived far away in another country (true) and that she had a daughter and a son (true). He further told her the nature and the temperment of my father quite accurately. He further told her that we were living on a premises that we owned and not rented (true). He also told her that she had no children (true). With him predicting so many thing so accurately without ever having met her before, I was quite impressed.
With experiences like these I found my faith in the occult becoming stronger and stronger.
(To be continued ...)
It was largely in this state of unbelief that I spent the years from 1988 to 1998. In 1999 I again had a set of experiences that could be called strange, and from then on till about 2003, I was in a vascillating state of mind. All the while after my marriage in 1996, my wife had remained an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba (a Saint of India who seemed to have encouraged all religions), and true to my form, I used to make fun of her beliefs. Nor was I a believer in astrology nor in any of the ritualistic practices of my religion. However from around 2001, I started reading the biography of Shirdi Sai Baba. The first reading left me rather unimpressed, but I gradually found a need in me to bow down to his image that was there in the room which was placed there by my wife.
In the year 2003, my sister-in-law happened to visit an astrologer in Bangalore who reputedly gave her quite an accurate reading of her circumstances. By that time, my curiosities in the occult had been sufficiently aroused to prompt me enough to test him out. So I made my wife consult him with her birth charts only to assess for my own curiosity how much these people could divine out of a person's birth chart.
I was quite surprised that the astrologer just by seeing her birth chart told that she was married to a man who was the only son to his parents (true) and whose other sibling was a sister (true). He also told my wife that my sister lived far away in another country (true) and that she had a daughter and a son (true). He further told her the nature and the temperment of my father quite accurately. He further told her that we were living on a premises that we owned and not rented (true). He also told her that she had no children (true). With him predicting so many thing so accurately without ever having met her before, I was quite impressed.
With experiences like these I found my faith in the occult becoming stronger and stronger.
(To be continued ...)
Stories - The glue that holds societies - 2
As a preparation to narrate the story I am interested in relating, I have to briefly summarise that I was a lukewarm believer in God in my childhood days and that I was not raised with too much of a religious background. I viewed the religious festivals that my family used to observe when I was a kid as a happy break from the routine (the schools would thankfully be closed during those days) and as an opportunity to eat delicious dishes that were specially cooked only on those days. My favorite festivals were the Ganapathi festival when we would go around the whole neighborhood raiding houses to see the decorations of the god Ganapathi that people had done, and also for the eatables that they would distribute. Then there was the Dussera which again was a festival of displaying dolls of various kinds - some of which were even imported, and then of course the Divali - the grand festival of lights and firecrackers. My view of these festivals were hardly devotional, and was one of pure enjoyment.
Since my prayers were largely unanswered (I would pray quite intensely that I do well in studies) and due to the consequent stress that I had to go through, I started developing an incipient doubt whether God did really exist. Later, as I left my home at Bangalore to pursue my studies at Delhi, the readings that I did (authors like Bertrand Russell, Albert Camus, Nietzsche, Sartre, and other authors with Marxist leanings) removed any traces of doubt that God did not exist. Most of my friends were also atheists.
It was in 1983 that I faced a period of intense trauma, stress and anxiety that led to a rather precarious health condition. Under such circumstances, in 1984, I was given a field assignment with a devout believer in God. I used to have elaborate discussions with him and all the time I used to be a champion of the methods of science and of rationalism. I would disparage all things held sacred by him, and even disparage things sacred to my own religion. As I spent more and more time with him, I happened to notice a series of remarkable coincidences that were rather striking to my understanding. Over a period of time these coincidences became so prominent that I started feeling he had some divine power. But the fact is that he was innocent of any wilful manifestation of those coincidences and that is when I came to suspect things of an occult nature that are not always observable to all. But on returning to Bangalore from the field, I again returned to my rationalistic methods. However, by this time I was not too sure.
(To be continued ...)
Since my prayers were largely unanswered (I would pray quite intensely that I do well in studies) and due to the consequent stress that I had to go through, I started developing an incipient doubt whether God did really exist. Later, as I left my home at Bangalore to pursue my studies at Delhi, the readings that I did (authors like Bertrand Russell, Albert Camus, Nietzsche, Sartre, and other authors with Marxist leanings) removed any traces of doubt that God did not exist. Most of my friends were also atheists.
It was in 1983 that I faced a period of intense trauma, stress and anxiety that led to a rather precarious health condition. Under such circumstances, in 1984, I was given a field assignment with a devout believer in God. I used to have elaborate discussions with him and all the time I used to be a champion of the methods of science and of rationalism. I would disparage all things held sacred by him, and even disparage things sacred to my own religion. As I spent more and more time with him, I happened to notice a series of remarkable coincidences that were rather striking to my understanding. Over a period of time these coincidences became so prominent that I started feeling he had some divine power. But the fact is that he was innocent of any wilful manifestation of those coincidences and that is when I came to suspect things of an occult nature that are not always observable to all. But on returning to Bangalore from the field, I again returned to my rationalistic methods. However, by this time I was not too sure.
(To be continued ...)
Stories - The glue that holds societies - 1
Many people know the value of stories - they serve to form a glue that holds a society together. And now that the entire world is a global village - 'one society' - we should make all efforts to exist harmoniously despite differences in the disparate parts of its body. It may be high time that we began sharing our stories. We need to do this with a great sense of urgency so that we understand and have genuine empathy for each other and consequently establish a harmony that increasingly seems to be threatened in the world of today.
The stories of the 20th Century were largely stories of the grandeur of Science and haven't they been truly impressive! They have had a large scale impact on the way humankind relates to the universe, and this relation, as Man has found out to his detriment, is causing some sort of an anxiety. Think of the 20th Century philosophies spurred on by the advancements in science and the impact it has had on society - like some pessimistic strains in Existentialism. Think of the theory of the Absurd and the various forms of literature they engendered - especially in plays and in some sorts of fiction. The estrangement that Mankind found itself in relation to the universe in which it was placed, have also been captured in many films too - like those of Tarkovski, others like The Clockwork Orange, Passenger and so many others that I find difficult to list out here. In fact, they all represent stories that humans told each other about the state of the world in the 20th Century.
All one has to do to confirm that the general happiness quotient of humanity has taken a steep dive is to compare the paintings of say, the Dutch School of the 17th Century, specially of Jan Vermeer, Meindert Hobbema, Ruisdale and Frans Hals or even of the French School like Claude Lorrain or Jean Simeon Chardin or Jean Camille Corot and the 18th C English School represented by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough and juxtapose it with those of the 20th Century like those of Braque and Gaugin. The very hues of the colors chosen itself seem to lower my moods. In contrast, in my house I have two prints of the lively paintings of the former type - one depicting a happy peasant family and the other portraying an eager young woman with her spritely dog, who has dismounted a horse, expectantly knocking on a door (of her lover?). These paintings celebrate life the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It is certainly more optimistic than the pessimistic depictions of the modern day.
If you grant it that art tells the story of humanity, then the paintings of the 17th and 18th C seem to tell the story of a happy humanity. Some painters render pictures of a merry humanity, but already in them, you see signs of decay. I invite you to see some prints of Rembrandt.
These stories that the painting of the 17th and 18th C reflect, are of a society not fully corrupted by the Industrial Revolution. With the ascent of science and technology, other stories that cover the realm of an entirely different aspect of humanity has been much ignored and sadly even discredited and in the next few posts I'll try to present some incidents in my life that seek to draw attention that these aspects deserve to be considered too.
(To be continued ...)
The stories of the 20th Century were largely stories of the grandeur of Science and haven't they been truly impressive! They have had a large scale impact on the way humankind relates to the universe, and this relation, as Man has found out to his detriment, is causing some sort of an anxiety. Think of the 20th Century philosophies spurred on by the advancements in science and the impact it has had on society - like some pessimistic strains in Existentialism. Think of the theory of the Absurd and the various forms of literature they engendered - especially in plays and in some sorts of fiction. The estrangement that Mankind found itself in relation to the universe in which it was placed, have also been captured in many films too - like those of Tarkovski, others like The Clockwork Orange, Passenger and so many others that I find difficult to list out here. In fact, they all represent stories that humans told each other about the state of the world in the 20th Century.
All one has to do to confirm that the general happiness quotient of humanity has taken a steep dive is to compare the paintings of say, the Dutch School of the 17th Century, specially of Jan Vermeer, Meindert Hobbema, Ruisdale and Frans Hals or even of the French School like Claude Lorrain or Jean Simeon Chardin or Jean Camille Corot and the 18th C English School represented by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough and juxtapose it with those of the 20th Century like those of Braque and Gaugin. The very hues of the colors chosen itself seem to lower my moods. In contrast, in my house I have two prints of the lively paintings of the former type - one depicting a happy peasant family and the other portraying an eager young woman with her spritely dog, who has dismounted a horse, expectantly knocking on a door (of her lover?). These paintings celebrate life the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It is certainly more optimistic than the pessimistic depictions of the modern day.
If you grant it that art tells the story of humanity, then the paintings of the 17th and 18th C seem to tell the story of a happy humanity. Some painters render pictures of a merry humanity, but already in them, you see signs of decay. I invite you to see some prints of Rembrandt.
These stories that the painting of the 17th and 18th C reflect, are of a society not fully corrupted by the Industrial Revolution. With the ascent of science and technology, other stories that cover the realm of an entirely different aspect of humanity has been much ignored and sadly even discredited and in the next few posts I'll try to present some incidents in my life that seek to draw attention that these aspects deserve to be considered too.
(To be continued ...)
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