Contemplating inner spirituality
Ishara JAYAWARDANE
“Delightful are the forests, where man takes no delight, the
passionless ones take delight (in them) for they are no seekers of
pleasure.”
- 99th Stanza from Dhammapada
There is a saying: “The Pen is mightier than the Sword.” In Rasika de
Silva’s case it is the paintbrush that is mightier than the sword. His
exhibition of paintings is called Contemplation and is currently on
display at Alliance Francaise till March 5.
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Kapu
Mahatha. Oil on canvas |
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Rasika |
“Nature and Humanity are one. Without developing our humanity we
cannot preserve nature. We cannot protect nature without developing our
humanity. Therefore we need a spiritual person to safeguard nature. The
question is how do we create a spiritual person? If we take the West,
there is a concept called Spiritual Health.
Locating the mind
“If we cut open our body we can find out where the heart is or where
the kidney is. But can the same be done for the mind? We cannot even
discover where the mind is. But the mind is there. There is war, strife
and rape in this world. All of this is because there is a lack of
spirituality. With the destruction of our nature this humanity is lost,”
said Rasika.
During our interview, Rasika touched Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of
a Superman. A person who has reached a high level of spirituality. Like
that we need to create a breed of man. “Take Bill Gates who has made
millions, but he consumes only a fraction of what he earns. And now he
is giving it back to society so that they may benefit from it. He has
realized this and is aware of this. So he has reached a certain level of
spirituality. So there are many millionaires in America who have
understood this. So in Europe there is this rejuvenation. There is an
understanding that even though technology has improved there is no
development in terms of humanity.”
So there is the awareness that even though you earn more that doesn’t
make you happy. Sometimes a person who earns less may be happier than
someone who makes millions.
“These are some of the things I want to bring out. I want to talk
about nature. I am a nature lover. But I have noticed that very few
really appreciate nature. This love for nature is what I want to bring
about in my paintings,” stated Rasika.
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