As I write this an installation in the western ghats must be crashing into the flowing water and upon each other. The monsoon rain must be pouring down above the waterfalls and the flowing water downstream must be accelerating, picking and moving everything in its wake.
I can see the animals and insects assemble around the rocks and above the trees curious to witness the reason for the continuous rumble own below the waterfall.
There is nothing in nature that needs extending and streamlining. Everything disperses/ breakdown and gets used by something or someone, during that process and the subsequent process. The nature of process and the process of nature are the same.
Recently a monsoon storm blew into our neighbourhood, A large Teak tree let loose its dry flowers onto a walk way of an apartment not far from where I live. The help that maintains the walkway swept it onto the road. The large uneven and three dimensional arrangement was to be picked up the next day too find its way to the landfill. I was visiting a friends studio here when I saw this arrangement. There grew an irresistible urge to do something with it. I filled my car with these dry flowers and twigs and got back home. Here it lay quietly for a week before I related to it with my body.
1. The neighbourhood got involved in the installation
2. The cats that scurry up this Singapore cherry tree to chase bats. These twigs prevented them for a few days and the bat population around the tree saw a remarkable rise
3. Many varieties of birds were seen picking up the twigs to make nests
4. Many other alterations would have occurred in nature which I did not witness and many more than are beyond our direct observation
As I wander into this building that is under construction and walked through the toilets where the tiles are yet to be fixed. The images reminded me of rock painting and humans primitive instinct to design and form.
I have been pondering about the origin of design and creation of form in the human mind for a long time now. I have not come across any theory which satisfies me. Neuroscience seems to present evidence of where the activity is taking place in the brain and the triggers to such events. Neuroscience explains the How? but not the Why?, certainly not the origin of this instinct.
I will hazard a guess. There may be an singular event that happened that triggered the human being to allow form and design to play a role in developing and practicing awareness - I don't think the brain alone is responsible for this. For this theory to find its legs I have to bring the science of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and the idea of Morphic resonance. Morphic resonance introduces the idea that all human beings use channels outside of the themselves to communicate to each other and that If an important event occurs the experience of one will very soon become the experience of all. In a short story called "Rescue party" Sir. Arthur C. Clarke introduces a planet called Palador where all residents of this planet share one brain. This work of fiction and the science of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake for me are a coming together of a powerful idea.
The event could be an apparition where a form just manifested itself in the sky. How could that be? I will present 3 simple choices under:
1. An alien race that decides to seed our consciousness with form and design decides to project an object that human could relate to or aspire to create
2. A strange arrangement of the clouds and the bouncing of light that perhaps creates a something that triggers the idea of form and design
3. Mind altering intoxicants and the visions that follow
If a simple and functional stroke of the mason's tools on wet cement can trigger this many thoughts I wonder if there is merit in using the word "Simple".
Thanks to a friend I discovered this band "Parvaaz", The sound was fresh and I was interested in collaborating with them. The same friend was making this video and I offered myself to act in it. It was fun to be in front of the camera. I cannot wait to do this more often.
Sudarshan shetty has an marvellous mind. It dwells in that collective niche of our minds where objects and interactions with them takes place. His mind is like a hawk up in the sky and our minds the various life forms down below, like the hawk Sudarshan sees a different view of us humans; our interactions with objects; and with each other.
I spent a few days with him talking about his mind using his work as tools and for this interaction. At that point he was preparing for a show at a gallery in Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum called “It too shall pass”. I believe the works he put out at this show were at a cusp, He shifted over to a place where he is more assured of his work and is able to boldly experiment.
When this was shot on camera in the year 2010 it was meant to be a long version documentary, As the years passed by I lost touch with Sudarshan who got even more busy and famous. I tried editing it a few times to bring it to a stage where I could identify gaps and perhaps then speak with Sudarshan to shoot the gaps. The edits did not go well and so did my attempts at speaking with Sudarshan. So in the year 2016 I resolved to give it shape and it turned out to have 5 shapes.
Special thanks my friend Sowmya who brought it together....
Opening Note at the 3rd Annual Meeting (Joya Chakravarty and Mohan Polamarasetty)
10 Dec, 2016
Happy to be back at the Purva Carnation Community Centre.
Many of you may not know this, but after barely a year of starting to teach in Bangalore, we were left without a teaching space. For a few months of that year, we had to suspend classes. The remaining months of that year, we taught from this very hall. And some of our oldest students joined us during those months.
This is our fourth annual day. With happiness and gratitude, I want to let you all know that for the fourth straight year, our student base has doubled – from 15 to 30 to 60 to 120. While heartening, this is mere statistic, and has no significance; just as this date has no special significance. It is not astrologically ordained. It is not an exact anniversary. Yes, it is fairly close to the date that we taught our first class in this city, but to be honest, we do not remember what that date was. The date does not matter as much as does the fact that, since the last three years, we have been able to end the year with a gathering like this. Where we can speak freely with each other. For most of the year, we train our bodies to be an efficient tool – we learn to communicate with the body and through the body.
On a day like this, communication happens primarily through the agency of SPEECH.
Communication, speech, language – is an important part of the subject we are studying. As teachers, we are trained to pay a lot of attention to the language we use in class - you might already have realised that we have specific ways of talking when we conduct our classes.
Today, we present some thoughts on how speech - language, is relevant not just for teachers of the subject, or even all practitioners, but for all humans.
Every speech requires a partner, called ‘attention’. Requesting your attentive partnership for 20 mins,
“Why speak up; what to say?”
Lets walk into a conversation in this hypothetical party.
You are a guest at a friend’s party. You do not know a lot of people. So you are standing, cocktail in hand, at the periphery of a group, engaged in the desultory conversation that strangers usually engage in. Someone brings up yoga. Your ears perk up. Maybe one of the strangers asked the others in the group about the relative merits of doing yoga vs. crossfit.
You want to speak up, but what to say?
You have been studying yoga for maybe 6 months, 1 year, 2 years. Maybe you have experienced some benefits. You hear another person ask, “Does anyone recommend a particular style of yoga”
other people start sharing their experiences and their recommendations, 2 thoughts occurs you: 1) Why speak up? 2) What to say?
Meanwhile a yoga tourist has beaten you to it – someone who has been everywhere, and is at home nowhere – and you hear “Iyengar yoga –good to learn about alignment but not a lot of fun.”
2 thoughts occurs you: 1) Why speak up? 2) What to say?
And then speaks up a disillusioned ex-student of the practice room – “the teachers are not so friendly. In fact, they can be quite curt.”
2 thoughts occurs you, 1) Why speak up? 2) What to say?
The moment is lost. You didn't say anything.
The desultory conversation moves on. It shifts to a stranger asking for advice on what Art to buy. You hear the name of your best friend crop up. Your friend is a talented, original, passionate artist. You personally love your friend’s work. It has given you many hours of joy . But it seems that not everyone in the group of strangers shares your opinion. Someone says the art looks cheap, the style contrived. Another person says the art is ok but the artist is arrogant.
There is always that one person who will say that they couldn't tell when the paintings are right side up.
2 thoughts occurs you: 1) Why speak up? 2) What to say?
If you have been through such situations, and if you think that is a modern-day problem, you are in for a surprise. Patanjali addressed this in the yoga sutras.
Sutra 1.20
श्रद्धावीर्यस्मृतिसमाधिप्रज्ञापूर्वक इतरेषाम्॥२०॥
śraddhā-vīrya-smr̥ti samādhi-prajñā-pūrvaka itareṣām ॥20॥
Sutra 1.20 is a straightforward list of five principles, and a direct advice to follow them in the path of practice.
Śraddhā. Vīrya. Smr̥ti. Samādhi. Prajña
These are just five words. But to discuss their meaning, their relevance, and their application in our lives will take a long time. Today, we will focus on only two of the qualities, and just take a quick look at the meanings of the other three.
Smrti
Memory, intent-ful remembrance, mindfulness – is something that we invoke often in the classes. Memory can be beneficial or it can be counter-productive.
To elucidate this with an example, in the process of learning a difficult asana – say sirsasana or even ardha chandrasana – our first many attempts are a miserable failure. We felt embarrassed when we lost your balance in front of a group of people. Maybe we even stubbed our toe on the floor as we landed down clumsily.
What memory do we create out of that experience? What memory do we carry forward to our next attempt?
The right memory will be to remember all the steps that have been taught to prepare for that asana – in sirsasana, remembering to keep the shoulders lifted, in ardhachandrasana, remembering to steady the standing leg and not to hunch forward.
The hesitation due to the memory of the embarrassment, the fear due to the memory of the fall – that is the wrong memory, and it needs to be discarded with great alacrity.
Samadhi
Samadhi is deep absorption or contemplation on a subject - to the point where the sense of ego or ‘I’ ness dissolves. That very brief moment, when we strike a near perfect balance in a position – where there is neither ‘I’ nor the ‘doing’, but only the existence of the asana. And then our Ego rushes in, saying ‘Yes! I did it.’ And the asana crumbles. In that very brief moment before the Ego rushed in, we experience something akin to Samadhi.
Prajna
Prajna is wisdom. The more familiar and common word, ‘gyan’, means knowledge. Pragya is knowledge plus or gyan plus. Pragyais knowledge filtered through intense contemplation of knowledge and experience.
We come back to our original dilemma 1.Why speak up, 2. What to say?”, and the two principles under discussion today – Śraddhāand Vīrya.
Śraddhā
Śraddhā is loosely translated as faith/trust or reverence. But Śraddhā is not blind faith. It is belief that has been put through the lens of intelligent analysis, and is borne out by experience.
If doing a series of forward bends with the forehead passively rested engenders a feeling of calmness and peace in us, we will develop faith in the position.
The alternate translation of Śraddhā is conviction. This is the meaning we relate the most.
Conviction is generated only because the system has been tried and tested and found to work.
Conviction gives rise to the faith or trust.
Conviction also gives rise to reverence
Vīrya
Vīrya is most commonly translated as vigour and valour; physical, nervine and moral strength. It also means energy and enthusiasm. This energy or eenthusiasm is founded on conviction. When we confidently act on something we are convinced about, that is Vīrya. When we are doubtful, Vīrya cannot play out. Doubt stops us from Action. Even if we act, our actions will be uncertain. Vīrya is that conviction that says, "Of course I have to do it – and I will!"
If there is no conviction (Śraddhā), there is no there is no enthusiasm (Vīrya).
No Śraddhā, no Vīrya
No conviction, no enthusiasm.
Conviction takes surrender. Conviction takes courage. For some of us, ‘Doubt’ becomes the great barrier. Conviction is a little bit like getting into a long-term relationship. It pre-supposes that we are willing to give up on short-term flirtations. It presupposes that we have the courage to leap into the unknown, to speak up, to stand up. This is sometimes not easy.
In our modern times, it presents another peculiar problem. There is almost a sense of embarrassment attached to being ‘convinced’. A sense of gullibility/ un-sophistication, of admitting that we have surrendered that most precious commodity - our free will, our ego, to someone or something. Many of us are almost embarrassed to speak up about the very things that we are most convinced about. Doubt, detachment, cynicism are the tools we use to protect ourselves – our egos – from hurt and insult; not realizing that this lack of conviction keeps us away from the ultimate fruition of our efforts. Conviction is the force of our that has the potential to transform our ordinary acts to yield extra-ordinary results.
As we say often, the bounty of yoga is that one can come in with any level of abilities, or no abilities, the practice will generate the abilities. If one is seeking admission in an IIT or an IIM, one has to go in as person with high IQ. There are stringent rejection criteria. In yoga, there is no rejection criterion. One can come in as a stupid person, a lazy person, a cowardly person, and can practice to become an intelligent person, an energetic person, a courageous person. One only needs the awareness, the intent, and the tools.
Similarly, one can come in as a doubtful person, and can learn to practice the virtue of conviction.
Speaking up is just a natural outcome of our conviction.
We go back to that moment at the party: If we did not speak up, maybe we are not convinced – about our yoga, about our friend.
Either we have not tried the system enough. Or we are afraid of admitting to a conviction.
2. What do you say?
Today, through various vocational institutes, online courses, we can study anything we want to. There needn’t be any relationship between the subjects. However, when Patanjali studied the sciences of the body, of language and grammar, and of yoga, he was not studying unrelated subjects. If we call Patanjali a gifted polymath, we do him injustice. His genius lay in realizing that these three are related aspects of the same subject.
In Eastern philosophy, speech is recognized as an Action - the the tongue being the Organ of Action. We discussed in the previous section how conviction forms the bedrock of our actions. Knowledge also forms the bedrock of our actions. If we are to speak logically, intelligently and appropriately, we must have enough knowledge about the subject. We must have already though through our subject many times over.
Western thinking only recognizes the vocalized part of speech. But according to Eastern thoughts, there are underlying layers of speech - 3 of them.
The speech of the physical tongue, Vaikhari is heard through the ears. ‘Vaikhari’ literally means flowering. It is the stage when the seeds of our thoughts flower into words.
It is the underlying layer of speech that we are concerned about today. The second level of speech is called Madhyama – ourmental speech or thoughts. It is verbalised but not vocalized, and therefore, not audible.
The third and fourth levels of speech are more subtle, and we are not qualified yet to discuss those.
But speech in the form of Madhyama is something that we are all familiar with, even if the word itself might be unfamiliar. When we are preparing for an important meeting, or a presentation, Madhyama is what we use, as we silently repeat and refine our speech or presentation.
As Prashantji has said in his talks, Madhyama represents that part of our mind that is under our control. The rest of the mind is not really within our control – even though we may like to think that it is. Thoughts arise and thoughts pass. Even with great determination, we cannot control them much. But Madhyama is within our control. It is our chance to sharpen and develop our faculty of logic and analysis.
Usually at this time of the year, we often ask the students to write down your experiences of studying yoga. Sometimes we ask some of the senior students to come for an Open House and share their experiences. It is an opportunity for you to reflect, to take stock of your knowledge, to learn to string your thoughts together, and to communicate them in a way that is appropriate for your audience: to develop the principle of Madhyama. Like all qualities, this also needs practice, and this also improves with practice.
Allow me to spend the final minutes in pre-empting some responses to questions that come up among lay-people.
Q: “Why this insistence on the loyalty to the tradition? If all yoga is one, why isn’t it alright to practice different styles of yoga – go to a different teacher every week?”
A: “Would you ask the same question to a singer of hindustani classical music? All Hindustani classical music is also one, isn’t it? Same ragas, same taals. What is the need for this expressed allegiance to a gharana?
Just as in yoga, the music gharanas are also translated as styles. Just as in yoga, the cornerstone of the practice is the Guru. Thegharanas emerge from the creative style of a genius, who gives existing structures a totally new approach, form and interpretation. Every gharana has its own distinct features.
It is the same with yoga. Not only is there a difference in the physical expression of the asanas, but the principles, the motivation, the attitude, the emotions also differ across different so-called 'styles' of yoga. Mixing up traditions can be like trying to cross a river by straddling across two boats."
The above is just one of the many ways to answer the question. Depending upon who the questioner is, it might or might not be the best way. Sometimes, we might still be caught without an answer. And sometimes it might be best to just be quiet. But picking up and analyzing common questions like this is a way to think through and clarify one’s own understanding of the subject.
We end with a supplementary hypothetical question:
Q: “If BKS Iyengar could figure out a distinct way of practicing yoga, why cant Tom, and Dick and Harry?”
A: “We will go back to the analogy with our system of classical music.
The gharanas emerge from the creative style of a genius, who gives existing structures a totally new approach, form and interpretation
‘Genius’ is one of the rarest, if not the rarest, phenomenon in the human condition. Geniuses are called so because they do something that fundamentally transforms, or has the potential to transform, established ways of doing things.
Our beloved Guruji was such genius. If you educate yourself earnestly about Mr. BKS Iyengar, through the work that he has left behind, you will realise that Mr. Iyengar was no Tom or Dick or Harry.”
Ending with the earnest hope that Śraddhā and Vīrya are established within you.
Tesla did not use the word "scientist" he said "the scientific man". This proves that all that Tesla cared about was to be scientific, going by his life and work he stood tall both as an artist and scientist.
I spend 6 weeks to date as an artist in resident at Khoj in Delhi and the most frequent question that was asked was if there was a difference between a scientist and an artist.
Discipline:
Both the scientist and the artist start with hypothesis, the scientists hypothesis originates from a white paper/s and a hunch whereas the artist's starts from a hunch with no supporting white paper. Once the commitment is made both the scientist and artist get down to rigour and practice. The Scientist goes to a lab and conducts research and the artist traverses his mind and conducts thought related research throwing in materials in the mix. The limiting factor of the artist gets exposed here, since the artist relies on thought and since thought arrives out of knowledge, if the artist has limited knowledge or worse if the knowledge is tinted by his experiences and opinions that he could not overcome then the result from the artist will be as limited as his experience. The limitation of the scientist on the other hand is that she is expected to place the finding within a transitory boundary in the ever changing and expanding field of science.
Process:
The process or the path to discovery involved with both these disciplines is rigour, continuous filing of ideas, testing them and filing the results. Both are open to change, In fact, in both cases the origin of the idea and the stated process changes drastically along the path to discovery. The attitude involved with the process is ridden with a few differences. The artist takes it his right to blank unproductive phases as part of the process to discovery, whereas the scientist driven simply by the rigour and training looks at these phases as mere obstacles to urgently and routinely overcome.
Creativity:
The scientist looks to find and contribute to solutions for any and certain human condition. The boundaries that the scientist defines and works from within limits creativity, creativity as popularly understood. I am in no way suggesting that creativity must be a universal pursuit too. Creativity like perfection is a relative, elitist and useless concept . Since the scientist works within stated and accepted boundaries somehow we are to believe that there is no scope for creativity when creativity exists in every field not matter how narrow nor wide.
Human condition to highlight vs human condition to solve:
The scientists defined goal is to apply and alleviate human suffering or any other human pursuit that will eventually lead to directly addressing the human condition. The artist has no immediate need nor immediate goal but that does not mean that art has nothing to do with human condition. In the case of science the goal is implicit and immediate and in the case of art, stating a goal will result in distancing from the goal itself.
My conclusion post thinking through for this blog is that there is no difference and in fact those who see a difference are victims of indoctrination that our education system inflicted. Both the artist and scientist need to pull teeth and separate thin air in order find breakthroughs.
Where I introduce the exercising machine called "Asanaut" for the Astronaut based on Yoga.
Read MoreSeparating the mind and body
Read MoreBefore, After and Now at Khoj, The undivided mind (2016)
Read MoreAesthetic observation of 4 arms on a man.
Read More
http://khojworkshop.org/opportunity/the-undivided-mind-art-science-residency-2016/
Khoj put out an interesting artist residence program which I took to immediately, It is called the Undivided mind and the invited were to artists that were exploring the frontier of the mind and science. I felt this was an interesting opportunity to bring together all the subjects that I have been obsessing about, climate change, evolution of the human body, transformation of the human mind, space travel and qunatum mechanics. I used my personal practice as a yoga student, climate change consultant and disruptor to put together a proposal and it is here.
I convinced my friend, student and photographer Vivek Muthuramalingam (http://www.vivekm.com/) to join me and added Ankit Shekhawat (Moonraft) to join us in this adventure.
We put a proposal out and Khoj thought that it was a good idea and the proposal goes like this.
Foundation principles:
A logical pile up of conditions and rules constitute reality.
Evolution is a matter of function. Human beings drop parts of their body when it was not needed and developed new parts or remake the dropped parts.
When human beings carefully simulate the experience of having two more arms they will instinctively miss them.
Human being, practices of the human being, responses of man and society, are the four pieces (constantly in a state of flux) that constitute evolution. A symbiotic interaction between them results in evolution.
The practices and responses of human beings form and define society. Their immediate and primary interaction with society is with the body and therefore studying and actively engaging this important feature will help manage evolution. This feature can be accessed when one reflects on the various professions human beings practice and the way the human body is used to achieve whatever ends they seek to achieve with that profession. These professions keep changing in response to the invention of new tools and with ideas of human beings with it the overall direction and evolution of the human being and society.
In the past popular professions practiced were farmers, rock cutters, carpenters, barbers, builders, butchers, metal workers, soldiers and in the present white or blue and to name a few are; scavengers, teachers, conductors, domestic maids, drivers, retail executives, waiters, cooks, street hawkers, welders, masons, mine workers, prostitutes.
Asanas, which deal with the physical aspect of the Yog philosophy are underlying archetypical forms and have evolved by observing the above said and other professions. Therefore by regular practice of asanas these professionals will be able to perform better. Since asanas are unification of all professions they may also be considered as common and underlying aesthetic documentation of all professions. This unification of professions or unification in general is the universal common denominator of all output by scientists, artists and thinkers.
This activity to codify asanas and develop the subject of Yog results in texts, documents, books and other types of output; some become famous and are revered as milestones in the development of Yog. The finest and most contemporary example of this phenomenon of unification is by Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar, called “The light on yoga”.
We (3rd people) intend to examine the unification process by looking at some of the above professions and by documenting the underlying asanas in them, in juxtaposition we will also cast our observations to the immediate future and study the archetypes that will be popular when human being evolve with professions like astronauts, pilots, space travellers, inter planetary dwellers, robot handlers, scientists.
The process we propose to adapt is best put down in two parts. The first, we will conduct raids into Khirki and document human professional activity on camera and come back to examine and present the underlying archetypes in them. The second will be to put two additional collaborators/models (2 experienced asana practitioners + Mohan) in space suits and in zero gravity. We will document the process as they evolve the idea of what asanas can mean to the human being whose profession and primary interaction is with space. The output may be photographs of the most suitable asanas for them.
These two sets of output may be a series of photographs that document the underlying archetypes. Human beings in the present and future generations will be inspired by this output and it may influence the evolution of these professions and hence evolution. Many other types of output may develop from this core documentation. Ex: A pictorial and easy to use book titled “asanas for the common profession”
The above observations, explorations and relative output deals with the present and immediate future whereas the third will be an examination of yog cast along the evolution line referencing the #5 of the foundation principles.
The process for this third part will require us to collaborate with doctors on the panel and Dr. Venkatasubramaniam in particular with whom we have found common ground. The second collaborator will be Ankit Shekhawat, electronic interaction designer who has in the past explored software based tools that can be controlled with thought and mind. We will examine present inventions whose primary objective is to move objects with thought.
The output may be two parts where one will be a series of photographs of asanas as practiced by a human being with four arms and the other a demonstration of the ability of the present state of the mind to interact with two additional arms and also to experience the movement of these arms. Two prosthetic arms will be attached besides and behind the deltoids of Mohan. These arms will be controlled by the mind whose instructions will result in the upward and downward movement of these prosthetic arms.
The 3rd people propose to output three photographic series and one installation involving prosthetics and thought/mind control. The proposed collaborators are:
Zubin Zarothostramanish - Yoga expert with over 30 years of practice and senior teacher in Mumbai. He is a direct disciple of Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar and my beloved teacher.
Joya Chakravarty - Yog expert with over 15 years of practice and experience and a teacher of yoga in bangalore and my beloved wife.
Ankit Shekhawat - Ankit heads the Emerging Media group and the Labs at Moonraft (www.moonraft.com) . He loves to work on intersection of design, art, culture and technology to provoke the human condition. With more than 9 years of experience he has work in various projects touch upon fields like computer vision, gestural interfaces, projections, robotics, artificial intelligence andsensorial networks. Ankitpreviously worked as a design researcher at HP Labs and holds a Master degree in interaction design from IDII / Domus, Italy
HAT MUST BE THE ASANA PRACTICE OF THE HUMAN BEING AT THIS STAGE OF EVOLUTION?
An indirect eulogy to Mr. B.K.S Iyengar that he richly deserves.
Read MoreA farmer and a yoga teacher have many similarities.
Read MoreA classic piece of literature in the field of Yoga
Read MoreZubin teaches with compassion, passion, precision, and simplicity. Bhavana imbibed precision, Neeta taught with passion and they both were pouring compassion
Read More
