If science, art and religion are all open pathways when utilized properly, we attempt, in this issue, to discover what true art consists of. “Ask the practitioner and inquire of the adept,” is the recourse we have resorted to herein. Music, poetry, dance, painting and film, described in these pages, are duly five sacred constituents of the infinite expanse of Advaitic experience. We have heard, seen, possibly have even known what these sacred forms have suffered at the hands of people with a desire for fame, a yen for pleasure, and the singular search for wealth that occludes and excludes all other considerations. The sweet, exalted and transporting presence of God simply disappears from the medium and atmosphere which covets such fugacious, spurious and soporific attainments. Led on by “artists” who support a mere masquerade of true attainment, beings rush to the affluent and the popular for their inner fulfillment, scarcely ever experiencing the superlative presence of divinity residing in pure artistic expression. Thus, the authentic luminaries of art, science and religion seldom get recognized by the masses, and the masses then have little recourse and access to the more profound insights and inspirations of the various refined fields. How is music made sacred? Is it sacred already? Is all dance divine? Does all poetry reflect the divine muse within? Do all works of art speak of the highest realization? Does it really matter, or is all realization, like beauty, in “the eye of the beholder?” Possibly some of these questions may find answers in the following pages. But if not, suffice to say that where the medium is purified — where a lustral regimen has been adhered to — there, spiritualized expression will reach its zenith. When sensitive artists, seeking the highest, place their gifts and talents in action and offer the fruits of such before the world, they must first and necessarily have subjected them to purification and intensification. Any instrument, whether it be a metal tube or a fleshy tube, a wooden box with strings or a metal box containing film, a tome of writings, a paintbrush, or the human body, is always under the control of consciousness. Like different conditions of water — some fit for drinking, some for swimming, some for washing dishes and some only for carrying waste — the consciousness of human minds is also pure or impure, as the case may be. In artistic endeavor, then, as in spiritual practice, purification of what is limited or impure renders the medium fit to emanate the truth or essence of any given expression, such as inspired choreography, a masterpiece on canvas, an original composition, a unique film, or a work of literary genius — all which have the ability to transform lives. So here is the acid test with regards to true artforms, at least for the discriminating person. As is consistent with all modes of existence — with work, dreams, visions, relative experiences of all types — if they help reveal the divine essence in human nature and assist human character by way of positive accretion, then they can be said to be real, authentic, and ultimately meaningful. Otherwise, too much distraction and wasted energy plague them, as well as their host, all amounting to “vanity and vexation of human spirit."
