Creativity, Spirituality And The State
The should have come as a surprisetono one-except perhaps the well-meaning but ingenuous officialdom which de the offer-that Siddhashya Swami, Naraka’s highly regarded spiritual u, would politely turn down the Padma i which was sought to be bestowed on by the government this year. In a letter to the prime minister, the r wrote, "With all respect to yourself to the government i want to convey unwillingness to accept the great art. Beinga sanyasi am little erested in awards. I hope you preciate my decision..." A number of writers and other active individuals, both in India and where, have been known to turn wn honours and awards bestowed by state. And in doing so, they have plicitly questioned the competence of state to confer such awards. The mandated role of the state is to provide stable governance to all its citizens. It is beyond its mandate to sit in judgment over literature or art in any form. When it seeks to do so, it oversteps its legitimate jurisdiction, and unwittingly or otherwise, it compromises the integrity of those it seeks to reward. Art of any form is by its essence an individual's expression of the universality that binds all humankind together. As such, art-in order to be true art-must be above national borders and political ideology. Often, artistic expression represents the voice of political or social dissent, and as such is a critique of the state. By acceptingstateconferred awards, artists trammel their creative and critical freedom and run the risk of becoming mere mouthpieces of the political establishment. If the domain of art and that of the state should be kept separate in the interests of both, this is even more desirable in the case of the spiritual and the state. At its highest level, the spiritual transcends human made boundaries of all political, geographic and religious divisions to attain cosmic consciousness. In the dimensionless realm of the spiritual, the state has no locus standi other than that of a regulatory framework for the routine of everyday living. For the sake of physical nourishment, even the most enlightened of sages must eat, but it would be fallacious to infer that the food eaten constitutes the true being of the sage, which is infinitely more than the atoms which constitute the seer's corporal body. The state presides over the requirements of the external manifestation of spiritual awareness, the bodily need sand the daily functioning of worldly living. But the state cannot attempt to contain the uncontainable inner space of the spiritual, and any attempt to dose, by the bestowing of honours or otherwise, would be a transgression. In the resounding words of Tom Paine, "My own mind is mine own church, who then art thou,vain dust and ashes! By whatever name thou art called...a Church, or a State, a Parliament, or anything else, that obtrudest thine insignificance betweethe soul of man and its maker." Paine would side with those who contend that, shorn of the political encumbrance sought to be imposed onit, what is called Hinduism is notjustareligion but a spiritual discipline andcannot be subsumed by the state. In short, there can't be a Hindu rashtra,but only a Hindutva rashtra.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Jug Suraiya kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Jug Suraiya Speaking Tree,Times of India
Creativity, Spirituality And The State
The should have come as a surprisetono one-except perhaps the well-meaning but ingenuous officialdom which de the offer-that Siddhashya Swami, Naraka’s highly regarded spiritual u, would politely turn down the Padma i which was sought to be bestowed on by the government this year. In a letter to the prime minister, the r wrote, "With all respect to yourself to the government i want to convey unwillingness to accept the great art. Beinga sanyasi am little erested in awards. I hope you preciate my decision..." A number of writers and other active individuals, both in India and where, have been known to turn wn honours and awards bestowed by state. And in doing so, they have plicitly questioned the competence of state to confer such awards. The mandated role of the state is to provide stable governance to all its citizens. It is beyond its mandate to sit in judgment over literature or art in any form. When it seeks to do so, it oversteps its legitimate jurisdiction, and unwittingly or otherwise, it compromises the integrity of those it seeks to reward. Art of any form is by its essence an individual's expression of the universality that binds all humankind together. As such, art-in order to be true art-must be above national borders and political ideology. Often, artistic expression represents the voice of political or social dissent, and as such is a critique of the state. By acceptingstateconferred awards, artists trammel their creative and critical freedom and run the risk of becoming mere mouthpieces of the political establishment. If the domain of art and that of the state should be kept separate in the interests of both, this is even more desirable in the case of the spiritual and the state. At its highest level, the spiritual transcends human made boundaries of all political, geographic and religious divisions to attain cosmic consciousness. In the dimensionless realm of the spiritual, the state has no locus standi other than that of a regulatory framework for the routine of everyday living. For the sake of physical nourishment, even the most enlightened of sages must eat, but it would be fallacious to infer that the food eaten constitutes the true being of the sage, which is infinitely more than the atoms which constitute the seer's corporal body. The state presides over the requirements of the external manifestation of spiritual awareness, the bodily need sand the daily functioning of worldly living. But the state cannot attempt to contain the uncontainable inner space of the spiritual, and any attempt to dose, by the bestowing of honours or otherwise, would be a transgression. In the resounding words of Tom Paine, "My own mind is mine own church, who then art thou,vain dust and ashes! By whatever name thou art called...a Church, or a State, a Parliament, or anything else, that obtrudest thine insignificance betweethe soul of man and its maker." Paine would side with those who contend that, shorn of the political encumbrance sought to be imposed onit, what is called Hinduism is notjustareligion but a spiritual discipline andcannot be subsumed by the state. In short, there can't be a Hindu rashtra,but only a Hindutva rashtra.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Jug Suraiya kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Jug Suraiya Speaking Tree,Times of India