Young friend, I won’t quote your long and wordy letter here. You asked me to comment about the “art of living”, but that particular phrase is already pre-owned, branded and packaged. Let’s talk of life as an art form instead and see where our words take us.
What is art? Subject to a million debates, whatever else it is, this much is artfully clear — art is a symbol of the free ranging spirit of our personalities, it is your emotional signature in action, an expression of the inexpressible.
Art continuously redefines itself, is always on the move, always focusing on the tiny details as well as the big picture. You can see this quality in every art form. And what is life? No one really knows what it is, but we all know what it does and how it moves. Life, whatever else it is, is always active, ever renewing itself, refining and re-defining as it moves along, completely sensitive to everything it encounters.
Notice the close resemblances? Art is that outer expression of us which imitates life’s inner impressions within us. Life and art are both an effervescence of delight, a resurgence of passion and both drink from the same source spring of inspiration and joy whose clear dark waters nobody ever sees.
But that effervescence is reserved only for a rare few. Billions of people have banished art from their lives, have snuffed out the lamp and mourn in darkness, not knowing that sweet fulfilling light is only a match stick strike away.
I know this because I am both an insider and outsider — both your reality and your aspiration — and so lucky to have worked with some of India’s finest artists. I have seen great designers in action, I have marvelled at their moving meditations, their sudden and swift reconnection with the source spring within. I have watched in awe as music maestros sat immobile in silence and suddenly exploded into frenzy as a fresh inspiration seared their consciousness. I have found myself in tears as great choreographers struck open hidden chords in my heart. I have sat, amazed, watching phenomenal cinematographers reimagine a planet with a dozen suns, explode in a frenzy, shifting lights and cutters, screaming abuses as they tweaked dimmer stats and sculpted a woman’s face, created a new persona that would have remained ever hidden in the glare of a single solar orb.
My comment on life and art? Forget all theory and study. Discover the art in your life. Someone is a fantastic cook, someone loves to drive a car, someone else has an imagination that takes him on a fantastic journey, yet someone else loves to juggle with numbers. Art is who you deeply are, art is what you love yourself to be. Discover your art and discover life.