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RTA-RITU - An Exhibition on Cosmic Order and Cycle of Seasons

All the religions proclaim the ethics and morality inherent in a worldview centered on immenant, divinity permeating nature, man and the universe. Modern views of ethics and morality on the other hand locate notions of 'sacredness' outside the 'secular' world as belonging to the sphere of personal morality. In traditional perceptions justice is not governed by an external Absolute Being but on the recognition of the perennial ordering principle intrisic in nature. When humans violate the principle, they violate the very structure of the cosmos.

Its root above, the branches below

The eternal fig-tree,

That root indeed is the Pure. That is Brahman,

That indeed is called immortal

On it all worlds do rest

Katha Upanishad 6: 1

 

The cosmic tree, impershably fixed in heaven with its roots above and branches below, reflects the visible manifestation of the sacred throughout the cosmos. Embracing everything from the very subtle to the gross, the tree embodies the inextricable link between the visible and the invisible transcendent source.

Do not mix the true with the false, nor conceal the truth knowingly.

Be firm in devotion; give zakat (the due share of your wealth for the welfare of others).

Will you enjoin good deeds on the others and forget your own selves?

Quran 2. 42-43

A great person conforms his virtue with that of Heaven and Earth, his brilliance with that of the sun and moon, his order with that of the four seasons, his fortune with that of the spirits. He precedes the Heaven and does not contradicts Heaven, succeeds the heaven and obeys the Heaven's seasons. Since he doesn't contradict the Heaven he doesn't contradicts the Heaven he doesn't contradicts humans and spirits.

I Ching, Book of Changes

Every art and every enquiry, and similarly every action and pursuits, is thought to aim at some good, and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

Ethica Nicomachaes, I.1. (1094a)

All phenomena have mind as their forerunner, mind as their chief, and they mind-made. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows as one's shadow that does not leave one.

Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world; it is appeased by love. This is an eternal Law.

By endeavour, diligence, discipline and self-mastery, let the wise man make (of himself) an island that no flood can overwhelm.

Dhammapada 2,3,25

Sacrifice, study of scriptures, charity, penance, truth, perseverance, forgiveness, non-covetousness-this is the eightfold path of Moral order (Dharma). The first four are practised out of vanity, the other four exist in supreme souls.

Mahabharata 3.2,71-72

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

St. Mathew5.44

Love doe snot wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

The new TEstament, Romans 13-10

GUNERNICA, An allegory on social violence.

            This masterpiece was painted by Pablo Picasso as an immediate reaction to the news of the destruction by German bombers of the Basque town of Guernica (28 April, 1937).

            In Picasso's own words the bull represents "brutality and darkness" and the disembowelled horse, 'the suffering humanity.'

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