Love Treasures

— 144 Watercolour Paintings by Usha Patel

cover

Price: Rs 600

Pages: 180
Dimensions (in cms): 22x28
ISBN: 978-93-5210-236-5
Hard Cover
   
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry

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About Love Treasures

This book contains 144 watercolour paintings that illustrate brief passages from The Mother by Sri Aurobindo. Usha Patel, the young artist, took up this work in 1970 with the Mother’s blessings and completed the paintings in seven years. Encouraged by the Mother, she showed the first forty-six finished paintings to her. Each colour plate is presented on a full page with the corresponding sentence from The Mother printed below. A life sketch of Usha, some photographs of her, and several birthday messages and letters to her are placed at the end of the book. In 1985 a book with the first twenty-four paintings was published. The present edition contains the complete set.

REVIEW

This book contains a collection of 144 watercolour paintings, depicting Sri Aurobindo’s book The Mother, painted by the Ashram artist Usha Patel. Usha settled in the Ashram when she was nine years old, in April 1944. She studied in the Ashram school, and the Mother made her captain of the young children’s group.  She developed as a painter under the Mother’s direct guidance. Many of her paintings were shown to the Mother, who even gave titles to some of them. She also learned painting from the Ashram artists Krishnalal and Jayantilal, who had been students of Nandalal Bose of Shantiniketan.

Usha felt the inspiration for the paintings in this book in 1970 while listening to a reading of Sri Aurobindo’s book The Mother.  With the Mother’s approval, she commenced her inner journey. She plunged into the consciousness of the words and phrases, and expressed it through paintings with colours and lines. On certain occasions, the Mother gave detailed instructions on how to depict a particular passage from the book.

The Mother used multiple instruments for her work to express the new consciousness on earth, whether through art, music, poetry, or through work in Ashram departments. She was always looking for a receptive instrument to express it. She chose her prayer of June 14, 1914, for Usha‘s sixteenth birthday, and told her, “This is your prayer”:

It is a veritable work of creation we have to do: to create activities, new modes of being so that this Force, unknown to the earth till today, may manifest in its plenitude. To this travail I am consecrated, O Lord, for this is what Thou wantest of me. But since Thou hast appointed me for this work, Thou must give me the means, that is, the knowledge necessary for its realisation. We shall unite our efforts: the entire individual being will concentrate in a constant call for the knowledge of the mode of manifestation of this Force, and Thou, supreme center of the being, Thou wilt emanate the Force fully so that it may penetrate, transfigure and overcome all obstacles. It is a pact Thou hast signed with the worlds of individual life. Thou hast made a promise, Thou hast sent into these worlds those who can and that which can fulfil this promise. This now demands Thy integral help so that what has been promised may be realised. [CWM, Prayers and Meditations, p. 173]

The Mother spoke about what one might refer to as the future painting, where the artist should not be limited by modern or classical style and technique, but try to express the true inner vision of the soul, without blindly replicating outer appearances. She said:

The discipline of Art has at its centre the same principle as the discipline of Yoga. In both the aim is to become more and more conscious; in both you have to learn to see and feel something that is beyond the ordinary vision and feeling, to go within and bring out from there deeper things. Painters have to follow a discipline for the growth of the consciousness of their eyes, which in itself is almost a Yoga. If they are true artists and try to see beyond and use their art for the expression of the inner world, they grow in consciousness by this concentration. [CWM, Questions and Answers 1929–31, p.105]

When Usha wanted to go to Paris to study painting, the Mother wrote: “You cannot learn to be an artist with the tricks – it is as if you wanted to realise Divine by imitating religious ceremonies.... Develop your inner being—find your soul and at the same time you will find the true artistic expression.” [CWM, On Education, p. 235]

The Mother valued true feeling and consciousness more than any precise and decorative but lifeless work, and a true artist puts the full power of his aspiration in his work to reach perfection.

As we go through this book, we feel the artist’s sincerity and appreciate her ability to capture this consciousness. Using the symbolic style of painting, at times leaning towards graphics, she developed her unique style. Sometimes, while depicting Divine forces, she used dots and not lines to express the subtlety. She used very vibrant colours and powerful rays of light in rhythmical lines descending from above. Through these paintings, we experience an inner journey of aspiration, surrender, and openness of the being to the Divine. Through the painter’s inner vision of rejection, courage, and faith the inner sadhana is reflected, in all its beauty and complexity. The paintings evoke a meditative mood, and urge the observer to turn inwards. They carry a spiritual atmosphere, a joy and aspiration that one feels in a sacred Presence.

The following painting depicts the true state of action. It has a very balanced central composition, where we can see five figures in a stream of light, portraying different states of the being: offering, sacrifice, service, receptivity, and finally the manifester—the figure at the summit with outstretched hands.

 

In this next painting we see a calm and serene world. The delicate outline, or silhouette, of the Divine Mother, softly merging with the aspiring soul, expresses the divine words of Sri Aurobindo: “Always she will be in you and you in her; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are hers.”  These profound words and the visual image stir our deepest layers; one can meditate on this painting.

This book will be valuable for art lovers who want to experience the words of Sri Aurobindo through paintings.

—Liubov Romashko

Liubov grew up in St Petersburg and studied  culture and arts at St Petersburg University. Currently she lives in Pondicherry and works at Mother’s Embroidery Department. She also teaches Russian in the Higher Course at SAICE.

Reviewed in August 2022