COMPASSIONATE TEACHER.

In 1980 I was commissioned to paint a large picture on Jesus the Teacher, which is now in the Ecumenical Centre in Whitefield, Bangalore. The idea of this painting was to show that the essential teaching of the Guru Jesus is about compassion. He represents the Burning Bush, which Moses saw in the desert, and which when he approached it, asked him to remove his shoes as the ground was holy. Then a voice from the fire said: "I am who am: YHWH. I have seen the suffering of my people!" This was the central revelation of the One who is beyond any name, as the name YHWH cannot be pronounced, as it has no vowels revealed to us. So the Jewish people referred to this Lord as Adonai, the Holy One of Israel. But still, this mysterious "I AM" whose word resounds in the Universe, is also an eye, that sees the suffering of human beings, and other creatures. This eye is also the Third Eye, and is an eye which sheds a tear, in which human beings are born. I painted this image soon after the notorious 'Bagalpur Blindings', which shocked the nation. At that time Dalits in Bihar were blinded, and this cruel act revealed a blindness in the whole social system that allowed such a thing to happen. The Compassionate Teacher is concerned about blindness, and the human need to be awakened, and see the reality. This theme of vision as opposed to blindness is I feel the basis for an art which emerges out of compassion.

The Liberating Dance.

The image of the dance seems to be central to all cultures. The dancer in some way breaks free from the gravity that weighs the body down, and makes it inert. The dancer crosses over boundaries, and steps over obstacles. This movement reveals the working of Grace, that which liberates the creature from the inertia of the world and its cares. The image of the dance is closely related to an understanding of what 'liberation' is all about. It is a "pass over" to another world, a stepping across from darkness into light. The Biblical psalmist speaks of leaping forth in joy, of being delivered from the deeps of inner turmoil and suffering. Life emerges from the primal waters, like the lotus stem that comes up from the dark and muddy depths of a pool, to reach for light, and blossom above the waters. In the Christian tradition, the Risen Christ first descends into the underworld, in order to liberate all those who have died. This is called the 'Anastasis', and is represented in Christian iconography as a kind of dance. The Risen Lord steps over the waters of death, he passes over the encircling streams of life to reach the "further shore". These are all poetic images which describe a spiritual process of transformation. In the same way the 'Lord of the Dance' or 'Nataraja' in the Shaivite tradition, is the Creator who is both a giver of life, but also a destroyer of all that stops us from being set free. He carries the fire of destruction and transformation, while at the same time assuring his disciples that they should not fear, and beating the drum of the rhythms of the Cosmos. As he dances he steps across the demon of darkness and blindness, showing the way to a new life.

The Spiritual Power of the Elements.

Fire, water and Earth are not just elements that we have to try and harness in order that human cultures can develop and gain control of our environment. Rather, these elements have a spiritual meaning. It is this spiritual energy within the elemental reality of our world that gives our art forms a link to what moves the whole of creation. The artist is concerned with the elemental. The potter, for example, works with clay, but this means also working with water that makes clay supple and pliant in the process of creating new forms. Air also helps in fashioning the clay object, filling the space within its hollowed out interior, and in that way helping in the process of drying, so that the clay does not crack and fall into pieces. Finally it is in the fire that the clay form is made permanent, uneffected by the power of water to disolve earthen bodies, reducing all living beings to the undifferentiated matter of mother earth. This process of creating a vessel or image out of clay, has been understood as symbolizing the transformation of nature by art. Only by understanding this process of transformation that is going on in the elemental world, can we begin to also realize an inner power that shapes our lives, giving meaning to all human cultures.

The Fiery Heart of the Cosmos.

At the heart of the Cosmos there is a fire, and it is the discovery of this fire that helped human beings to create cultures. The image of the hearth, but also the furnace in which matter is transformed by fire, has been related to the energy that lies in the pulsating heart. Without this energy there could be no life. But how are we to understand this energy that drives the life stream of the Universe? I would relate this energy to Compassion, which is a concern for the suffering, but also the liberation, of all creatures. In the Buddhist Mahayana tradition, Salvation will only finally come about when the whole of Creation is liberated, right down to the last blade of grass. St. Paul speaks of the whole creation travailing, and groaning for the liberation of the human community. Human suffering is enmeshed with the suffering of the rest of nature. The process of enlightenment is not just an escape from nature, and the world as we know it, but rather a willingness to return to the earth, and work alongside all creatures in the search for a spiritual freedom. This, I feel is the true meaning of the Cosmic Dance. By participating in that rhythm that binds all creatures together in a cosmic movement of life, we begin to realize the meaning of the Word, which is the primordial Sound that underlies all forms of existence. This Word, or Shabda, is what all mystics intuitively recognize as the Unity of Being. It is like the breath that enlivens the body. It is like the bread that we all need in order to nourish the body.

THE ANGEL OF COMPASSION

In primal cultures there was a belief in the angelic forces in nature. In the Judeo-Christian tradition these Angels were known as Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Azrael. They were the guardians of Creation. They represented the Divine Compassion active in Creation. The Angels would appear to human beings, often as they travelled on the way, and were in difficulties. An Angel appeared to the prophet Elijah when he was feeling defeated, and hopeless. The Angel gave him food and drink, and told him to set out on his journey which was a long way to the Holy Mountain. And so he had the strength to walk for forty days through the wilderness. There are many other stories of these Spirits of the Cosmos coming to help, and encourage human beings on their spiritual search. Recently we had a meeting of young people coming from the Western Ghats in South India. One of the participants painted a picture of an Adivasi couple in the forest, who are spoken to by the ancestral spirit of the tree. It is this Spirit of the Forest that challenges the way in which human development is destroying the natural environment. Can we imagine an Angel of Ecology, who reminds us of the profound inter connectedness between the human being as part of a community, that includes all creatures and binds the individual to the whole Cosmos? We are part of a vast fabric of beings. And it is this web of life, and inter dependence of all living beings on the Wholeness of Reality, that the spiritual energies of the Cosmos remind us of.

COMPASSION as the UNITY IN ALL

Compassion, Karuna, is a wisdom that has an insight into the unity of all things. This wisdom enlightens those who are willing to see, or discover this unity. The gesture, or Mudra, of giving, is the hand that reaches down to touch the earth, and in return the earth itself acknowledges that this Wisdom unites all beings. We may discover this Wisdom in the vision of the Lord Buddha, or nearer our own times, in the poetic understanding of St. Francis of Assisi, who in his Canticle of All Creatures, sees that there is a love or bond between all natural elements; between fire and water, earth and air, sun and moon. Singing of this unity it is said that he picked up two sticks which he found in a small wood where he was living as a wandering friar. He did not possess a musical instrument, but with the two pieces of wood he pretended that he was playing an instrument by rubbing them together, as if to create a sound. Then suddenly as he was dancing and singing, he thought of the Cross, as a musical instrument, on whose vertical and horizontal beams the music of the Universe was played. Thinking of this he began to shed tears. Another mystic, Julian of Norwich, had a vision of the hand of God, in which there was a small hazel nut. She was told by a voice in her vision, that this small nut was in fact the whole world.

KARUNA: Cosmic Compassion

In Indian thought, 'Karuna' or Compassion, transcends the individual, and even the human, and is seen as the energy that brings the whole of Creation to birth. It is this concept of Compassion, that also helps us to understand the deep connection between different religious traditions. All Faiths speak of Compassion, and the concern of the Divine within the human for those who suffer. This compassion is essentially creative, in that it releases that energy flowing in the hearts of all living and sensient or sensitive beings; caring for the Other, and cooperating in the eternal process of bringing all things to birth. It is in that sense that we would like to understand art as an expression of Compassion; and it is through this creative impulse that we call art, that there can be a dialogue between Faith traditions, and also a longing, and hope, for the future of our planet earth.