ART FOR ART’S SAKE
If there was no stage, will you still perform?
If there were no audience, will you still sing?
If there were no viewers, will you still carry on…simply because it gives you happiness?
There are three essential things that an artist craves for- Stage, Audience, and Fame. Mahacharya ji asks, “In the need for an audience, a stage and fame aren’t we restricting our guna or skill?” We acquire guna because we are able or merely for the happiness it gives us. But once the guna is acquired, why are we confined by the chains of a STAGE, an AUDIENCE or FAME?
Says Mahacharya ji,"The purpose of acquiring guna is to be free, and not to remain in shackles."
Back in the days, there used to be a large number of audience compared to the performers. As a result, a performer did not have to wait or even look for an audience to hail the performance. Consequently, a performer became a celebrity. With time, in the want of that celebrity hood, as the number of performers increased, in a similar pace, the number of audience decreased. Thus, in today’s date, there are more performers, but hardly any viewers or audience.
Mahacharya ji states that acquiring a skill or guna or acquiring the state to be able to do something is a stature next to God.
Going by the theory, if an artist is God and the audience his followers, today "defying the age old norm, the follower is being looked for by its God."
As a matter of fact, the entire scenario is a result of the want for a stage by the artist which ultimately leads to the search for an audience. Thus, instead of searching for an audience, a true artist creates for the sake of art which is his God. A true artist creates but for the pure happiness that his art imparts. A true artist creates simply because he can create.
"The reflection of one’s saadhana or dedicated practice does not need a stage. Wherever it shows, that in itself is a stage."– Mahacharya shri sourabh J sarkar.
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