Art of Life. . .

I do not believe a human being can be creative. If we perceive creation around us with a certain profoundness, we can imitate in many different ways, in permutations and combinations, and seem creative in society, but actually, we are not really creative. Everything that can be created has already been done in creation. We are clever craftsmen at the most. No human being should ever think that we are creating something. In some way, knowingly or unknowingly, we are reproducing a few things from the impressions we have taken in. No one can really create anything new here. Anything you create, whether it is a piece of jewelry or clothing, a building, or whatever else, in any form and color, already exists somewhere in nature. Shankaran Pillai came to meditation Center, and he wanted a room with a view. He was given an appropriate room in the Chitra block. Then he complained, reiterating, “I wanted a room with a view.” Attendants said, “This is the room that has the best view.” Shankaran said, “The obnoxious mountains are in the way.”

This is what has happened to a lot of human beings. They do not see things as they are. Instead, they have ideas. If you want to make something beautiful, the first thing is you should not have any idea. An idea need not necessarily have anything to do with reality. If instead of having an idea, you have perception, and you simply drink life all the time, if you want to create something or you want to make something happen, it will all be with you – in terms of shapes, forms, colors, sounds, or whatever else. Whether you want to create music, clothing, or a building, if you pay enough attention, it will all be there. Suffering is not valued because we always saw suffering as self-created, whereas joy as not self-created. When you are connected with life, you are naturally blissful; when you are unconnected with life and become a mental mess, then you have suffering and frustration. So I would like to categorize art in these two ways – art which comes from that deep level of frustration and suffering, and art which comes from a joyful expression of life.