RAWA Artists Serving the Humanity

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti created many departments in Ananda Marga, all for the service of humanity. RAWA, Renaissance Artists’ and Writers’ Association is one of them. He stated, “Art for art’s sake” is not acceptable; rather the expression should be, “Art for service and blessedness.”

How is the present day art related to service? Often the motivation for creating art seems to be fame, money and fashion, but we find also really inspiring and uplifting paintings, DA. Shrii Shrii Anandamurti mentioned that whatever sound has been produced on this earth, whatever song has been sung, will continue to reverberate in the cosmic hub for infinite time.

What comes to literature, he said; ‘the true writer is not only a creator but a sage as well’. He explains; ‘long ago, before the advent of printing, separate letters used to be moulded from clay which was then fired like a brick. The handicraft that uses fired clay is called “terracotta” in English. The terracotta industry originated in Vishnupur, India. This handicraft was copied by other places and so the industry spread.

Latin liter is the origin of the English word “later” (red). When clay is fired it turns reddish, thus reddish soil is called “laterite soil”. The art that rose up on the basis of these clay letters is called “literature” in English. The Sanskrit word sahitya is not identical to the English word “literature”. For it to be sahitya it must imbibe the thought of welfare. All sahitya is literature, but not all literature is sahitya. Literature takes us to the real path of benevolence, to the path of growth and fulfilment.

Valmiki’s Ramayana has sahityik value, but no literary value. Vyasdeva’s Mahabharata is almost cent per cent sahitya, but it has more literary value than the Ramayana. Amongst English writers we find in Shakespeare an unprecedented fusion of literature and sahitya. In George Bernard Shaw’s and Milton’s compositions we find also sahitya. Kipling’s compositions are more literature than sahitya. However dazzling pure literature may be, it is transitory.

Rabindranath Tagore’s compositions demonstrate an unprecedented blending of literature and sahitya. He was such a great poet, but he hardly utilized 10% or 15 % of his entire capacity. Had we saved him from all troubles, perhaps he would have produced much more literature. It is my personal opinion that we should help those people who have some genius to maximally utilize their potentiality. Before Rabindranath was awarded the Nobel Prize, there were many scurrilous attempts to belittle him in every way. The anglicized surename “Tagore” is derived from thakkura.

Wordsworth’s compositions do not have that much literary value, but they have great sahtyik value. Romain Rolland’s works have profound sahityik value, but while their literary value cannot be sneezed at, they are not that wonderful.

Sahitya does not in any way mean that something has to be written down. Sahitya can be oral as well, and the Vedas are an example of this. There are fifty letters in Sanskrit, called aksamala, the garland of letters...held together on the chest of Parama Purusa through the dance of Parama Prakrti.

Even after the invention of written script people did not write down the Vedas and other scriptures. Out of the 108 extant parts of the Vedas, fifty-two had vanished, never to be recovered. Apart from written form of the Vedas, the unwritten portion was oral sahitya.

King Alfred encouraged written English literature, therefore he is called the father of English literature. During King Alfred’s time the educated English in the higher rungs of society preferred to study French, a matter of pride. They used to go to Paris, from time to time in order to perfect their French accent.

There is a story connected with this. England’s Henry the Eighth was an unruly king. Once he came to Paris with his family. One day, while under the influence of liquor, he beat the queen, (princess?) so mercilessly that one of her legs became practically crippled. For several days she was obliged to drag it behind her as she walked. When the time came they returned to London (Londre in the aristocratic French language). The residents of the city fell head over heels in the nooks and crannies of the royal residence trying to see whether or not the king and queen had brought back any new fashions from Paris.

They saw [Princess] Elizabeth dragging her leg and thought perhaps that this kind of walk was some kind of ultra-modern French style. Within three to four days most of the women in the aristocratic households were dragging their leg behind them when they walked and taking a lot of pride in it. Elizabeth’s style of walking while dragging her leg was called the “Elizabethan gait”.

These texts were short cut and edited by DA from Shrii Shrii Anandamurti’s books

A Journey in Joy and Service

In 1527 King Henry injured his left foot while playing tennis, and the resultant swelling led him to adopt a single loose black velvet slipper, rapidly prompting a new fashion among his courtiers. Eventually Henry was forced to return to Westminster unable to walk due to his grossly swollen legs and morbid obesity. He was carried around his palace in a chair. Further bouts of fever and cautery to his leg ulcers followed, and he deteriorated rapidly, and died in 1547. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789029/

Samples

Tagore; “From the lotus of beauteous forms I have drunk the nectar of the formless. In the depths of misery I have discovered infinite bliss. I have listened to the message of the infinite silence. Although a mere microcosm I am not just a joke of Providence, Surrounded by limitless Macrocosmic wealth… I am a traveller, the path is my resting place. My coming and going are one and the same”, http://manybooks.net/titles/tagoreraetext04thgnr10.html

George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize winner; “Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.” “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.”

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” “A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.” http://manybooks.net/titles/shawgeor33283328.html.

William Wordsworth; “Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future”. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamwor140940.html

Romain Rolland; “It is the artist's business to create sunshine when the sun fails. If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

His (Swami Vivekananda) words are great music... I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock”,

To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse.” http://manybooks.net/titles/rollandr10861086810868-8.html.

Some seemingly spiritual minded authors

Neale Donald Walsch wrote an angry letter to God. He claims that God answered him, and he wrote down the answers. This was the birth of a series of books called Conversations with God. All his CwG books have made the New York Times Bestseller list since 1995, https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/57882891/pdf-free-download-conversations-with-god-download-online.

Marianne Williamson is a spiritual author and lecturer. Time magazine, “Yoga, the Cabala and Marianne Williamson have been taken up by those seeking a relationship with God that is not strictly tethered to Christianity.” A Return to Love, A Course in Miracles. https://www.scribd.com/doc/197842135/A-Return-to-Love-by-Marianne-Williamson

An Indian-American Dr. Deepak Chopra specializes in spirituality, Ayurveda, mind-body medicine and holistic healing. In his many books he combines the best of ancient wisdom and modern science. 20 million copies sold worldwide. http://www.ebook777.com/deepak-chopra-collection/