Times Then and Now
Reminiscences and Reflections
Part-2
Dr. Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc.,
Ph. D
Retired
Principal
GUDIVADA-
A.P
B1-16
What we are by nature and what we acquire
through learning make us what we are. Neither nature or nurture can be the sole
determinant of our destiny as so often claimed erroneously and asserted
dogmatically.
B1-17
Everyday is our birthday as it is the first
day of the rest of our life.
B-1-18
Just as the mystery of man is so enigmatic
that it baffles man himself, so is the mystique of the muse that it never fails
to fascinate us.Each mood and manner of presentation is unique and insightful
and touches our very core; it effortlessly elevates us from our mundane plane
and transports us to unknown realms of subtle understanding and sublime
awareness of our identity with all that exists. Equally baffling and fascinating
are the myriad meanings of abstract paintings, each a creative inspiration
captured in lines and colours by the artist in his moments of heightened
awareness. They present themselves anew as much to their viewer as to their
creator .
B1-19
The universe is a dynamic web of energy
patterns , declares the physicist with ringing spiritual overtones of advaita
Vedanta, which sees the universe as but an infinite network of inter related
patterns wholly integrated and perfectly harmonious.
B1-20
If scientists are the creators of the
reality they perceive with their eyes in the macrocosm, artists- painters ,
sculptors, poets, musicians, actors et al-are the creators of the reality they
experience as microcosm that presents itself before their mind’s eye.If repeatability
or reproducibility is the hallmark of the reality of the scientist, it is
inimitability that lends uniqueness to the artists reality/ creation.
One revels in delving deep into the hard
facts of reality and gaining a greater understanding of it through the sheer
power of his mind while the other thrives in exploring the wide world of
imagination and capturing aesthetic glories from the deepest layers of his/her
heart.They both rise above the level of ordinary consciousness and attain, one
in his insightful moments and the other at moments of his creative best, to the
states/domains of heightened awareness involving a leap of the imagination. The
need /call of the hour is that the scientist’s insight and the artists vision
should mix mingle and merge leading to the emergence of unified picture, a
fuller, more integrated picture of the imminent reality in which they
compliment rather than contradict each other.
Instead of putting/pitting science against
art or positing mind versus heart , if man were to view the scientific findings
and the artistic outpourings as expressions/ facets of a higher reality
revealed through probings from two different view points and learn to master
the technique of exploring one realm through the perspective of the other that
would be a fitting finale to man’s age old quest for knowing himself and
through it, apprehending the spiritual unity behind the multiplicity of the
mundane/plurality of the phenomenal world as also the harmony underlying the
diversity and contradictions of the ocular universe-the missing bigger picture.
There is no deep difference between the
scientific and artistic mind: they both include maximal creativity with maximal
freedom. ‘Science is both theoretic and experimental; art is only experimental’
as averred by Miroslo Holub.
B1-21
Our failure to appreciate the subtle
theories of science or the great works of art is to be traced to our
inadequacies rather than to the deficiencies in them. Through study and
practice, we should constantly sharpen our intellect, sensitise our finer
instincts, hone our sensitivities and enliven our deadened sensibilities to be
able to appreciate the subtleties of science and the beauties of art and scale
the heights of science and capture the glories of art.
B1-22
Supermarkets , the temples of consumerism,
rather than the museums , the temples of our culture and heritage, are the
favourite haunts of the people today, especially the youth of the species.
B1-23
These days when the philosophy of
consumerism has engulfed everything that makes life worth living and the trend
towards increasing commodification as also the logic of commercialization is
making inroads into every aspect of life, values and other cultural attributes
such as art and literature are getting slowly but steadily vulgarised and
marginalised and artists and writers need robust hearts and abundant optimism
to keep going.
B1-24
Since the publication of C P Snows ‘The Two
Cultures of The Scientific Revolution’ we seem to have been steadily
progressing from his two cultures, the culture of science and that of
literature to no culture.
B1-25
Those that dare to think differently and go
off the beaten track to explore the uncharted terrain are apt to be despised by
the society and disowned by their families. Yet ,strangely, they form the
backbone of all progress.
B1-26
A busy artist creates because of an inner
compulsion which he cannot resist and an inwardly felt summons before which he
is powerless. Before he actually knows what he is creating, the act of creation
will have been accomplished. The artist as creator ceases to be and watched
over his creation as a mother fondly watches a new born baby but without her
attachment, for he has to move on to(get on with) his next creation .As perceptively observed
by Arnold Toynbee, ‘ For a writer, the act of publication always , I suppose , has the effect of turning into a
foreign body the work that , so long as it was in the making, was a part of its
maker’s life’. What is true of writing is also true of art.
B1-27
The way we look may alter with age and the
clothes we wear may change from season to season. But what should not change
are the smile we wear on our countenance , the glow that radiates from our
eyes, the convictions we cherish, the values we hold dear and the spirit that
says live on. These should be our thumb impression , not signature which too
will change with time.
B1-28
What intuition reveals, faith affirms and
reason ratifies.
B1-29
Strange as it may seem, man is his most
formidable challenge, an inexhaustible source of mystery, (a riddle wrapped in
a mystery inside an enigma as it were) and a multifaceted enigma shrouded in
obscurity throwing up ever new and fascinating riddles every now and then-
mostly when least expected. Thus the phenomenon of man is the most inscrutable
mystery, at once enticing and frustrating which stubbornly refuses to go away.
B1-30
Get wind of how the wind blows/lies in good
time, lay/cast an anchor to windward instead of throwing/flinging your resources to the winds for wisdom lies not
in sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind nor in waiting for a capful of
wind to become a gale and finding yourself before the wind and soon thereafter
between wind and water nor even in fighting windmills but certainly in getting
windward of your circumstances before the wind is taken out of your sails and
you lose your second wind thereby reducing yourself to a total wreck.
(To be continued)
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