KHUMARI – can we experience it?

I have always been fascinated with the concept of ‘Saptarasavighna’ the seven obstacles in experience of rasa. The word barrier brought me back to my pondering over ‘Saptarasavighna’ (Saptarasavighna is a concept given by Indian aesthete Abhinavagupta, assumed through quite an amount of research to have lived in Kashmir and exited sometime in the 9^th century CE.) Studying Indian aesthetics has had its fascinating moments, the concepts loosely translated in English have derivative meanings, and every now and then, I dawn upon a new meaning of the same idea.

The sheer thought that there are barriers in experiencing emotions, which we assume to be an innate natural experience, in itself is hugely revolting for me. It is like saying that I could have problems in eating or sleeping! But unfortunately, we do have bulimia and insomnia, so maybe there is more merit in thinking about barriers in emotional experiences. With the last year immersed in the world of OTTs and the content not very different from each other’s being churned and ruminated incessantly, could we actually have an inability to process emotions? Does the world (?) choose our experiences (Abhinavagupta, rather Indian aesthetics, of course refers about experiences through human creations: in other words, ‘art’.) for us?

At least eleven centuries back, aesthetes thought that may be one man perhaps may not connect to the expression of emotions of the other. The possibility of self-absorbed individuals, zeitgeist, abstraction; all these were considered as possibilities of hindrances in experience of rasa: the emotional extract received from the artist to the experiencer (further referred to as rasika). Never before have I found this theory more relative before, than in today’s age of information, when we are in a simulacrum of knowing and thinking, mostly assumed as feeling. We see food images assume its taste, we mostly want to touch artworks which are visual, we look at videos and understand lyrics to like a song and we in a continuous random motion flip, scroll and click over images liking them. It pleases me as a visual artist to see the power of images, but also seriously questions our confused sensuality. Often scrolling the reels or promos of new films, series, there seem to be overlaps, as if in a certain period people of same age groups, geographical regions, common belief systems, similar political inclinations cumulatively like similar creations. Do literacy, nationality, faith, politics act as barriers in our art experiences, or do they help us assume abstract ideas into believable entities; appreciating them blindly for their concepts. With these and such questions in mind, the saptarasavighna* seem illuminating.

The significant step in attempting to remove the barrier in experiencing art is to accept that there certainly stands ‘a’ barrier; also to realise that art creations are more to be experienced and appreciated, with a sahridaya (Sahridaya is loosely translated as empathetic, but here would mean more about feeling wholeheartedly). Not be consumed by contemporary and locale, not consider artist or creation as superior or inferior to yourself, how many complications do we bring in an expression that is simply to be consumed! It is fascinating to observe that inferiority is a larger hindrance in experiences because sometimes we simply incapacitate ourselves thinking that we are inferior to walk in others’ shoes, or one cannot understand the complex aesthetics of an artwork anyways. Is understanding an emotion which we all inherently have that difficult? We may not need to walk in anyone’s shoes, sometimes just walking or simple standing with naked feet may be sufficient to become rasika. Superiority also a legit barrier in modern times, where information created an illusion of having understood. Superiority today could also be understood as a privilege of ownership of an art creation, pride is in possessing it than feeling art. Pride can have another side effect too, creating of authority and subsequently the authorized. In such a place, we exchange places; elite become subaltern and vice versa, but it is always some else speaking, word of the author telling the story of the protagonist. This too seems to be a constant barrier in art appreciation in post-war period, when art is used an instrument to ‘voice out’. One loses focus on expression; becomes or stands against the protagonist, how can we experience something when we are agitating!

How complex is the post modern living when our free will to express allows us to create but our mind created blockades to experience that very free will? With all the talk of liberty, platforms to put out our thoughts, the fight for exercising our free will, we succumb to the barriers of our mind, knuckle down to our own doing. Simply by liberating ourselves from our own self, could we appreciate more creatives around us and experience khumari- the state of neutrality just before immense peace.  

*Saptarasavighna

1.       Vivashta (surrender to situation, pre-occupied)

2.       Sambhavanaviraha (beyond possibility, doesn’t have a logical justification)

3.       Swagata-pragata pratiti (ego: posing self/other in the experience)

4.       Upayavaikalya (inability to translate abstract into tangible)

5.       Nyuna/adhika padatva (under-over statement)

6.       Pradhanya (losing focus)

7.       Samshaya (ambiguity)