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A LOVER OF LIGHT AMONG LUMINARIES: Dilip Kumar Roy "But I do maintain that asceticism is the greatest of all arts. For what is art but beauty in simplicity and what is asceticism but the loftiest manifestation of simple beauty in daily life shorn of artificialities and make-believes? That is why I always say that a true ascetic not only practises art but lives it"73
He said that he should not be considered an enemy of art like music only because he favoured asceticism. In fact, he knew that India's religious life evolved. with the help of her music. Mahatmaji held those certain values which were different from those held by others. So people had the impression that he was against art. For instance, he did not call that a great art which demands an intimate knowledge of technique for its appreciation. To him. art, in order to be truly great, must, like the beauty of Nature, be universal in its appeal. He was inclined to think that art "must be simple in its presentation and direct in its expression like the language of Nature."74
He loved the beauty of Nature and preferred it to art. He never needed pictures on the walls of his house for his inspiration. He inquired:
"Beside God's handiwork does not man's fade into insignificance?" He said
further.
"Life must immensely exceed all the arts put together.... Is it not grotesque to claim-as so many artists do-that art is the crown of creation, the last meaning of existence?...For to me. the greatest artist is surely he who lives the finest life. It is therefore not art I repudiate, but the lofty airs it gives itself."75
Gandhiji, however, was not doctrinaire about what might sound his anti-art
or ascetic view of art. He felt that Nature sufficed for him but if others were. sincerely convinced that arts such as painting did any real good to humanity, so far so good. But the artist should guard himself against self-deception and selflove and he should be always alive to his duty towards the masses.
Gandhiji, the staunch humanist of his time, assumed that, like art, great philosophy or religion too must appeal equally to all. He favoured the masses. and not the classes. According to him, specialization makes a few people eminent and grows in them hatred for the majority instead of "sympathy and understanding for all."76
Mahatma Gandhi, moreover, was always a man of firm determination. Citing an example, Roy lets his readers know that many political leaders were against his projects meant for the promotion of khaddar because they had doubts. about the success of the spinning wheel in the modern times. But, in the midst of their opposition, Gandhiji remained firm in his insistence for the apparently old method and he, ultimately, met with success in convincing the reluctant leaders.
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