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CHAPTER X
209 354. As the artisan starts with the mental image (of the object to be produced) and translates it into physical form by his bodily activity and thus is one with it, so also the Self starts with the mental counterpart of karma and is therefore one with it.
जह चिट्ठं कुव्वंतो उ सिप्पिओ णिच्चदक्खिओ होइ । तत्तो सिया अणण्णो तह चिटुंतो दुही जीवो ॥३५५॥ jaha ciţtham kuvvasto u sippio ņiccadukkhio hoi tatto siya aranno taha cițțhamto duhi jivo (355) यथा चेष्टां कुर्वाणस्तु शिल्पिको नित्यदुःखितो भवति ।
तस्माच्च स्यादनन्यस्तथा चेष्टमानो दुःखी जीवः ॥३५५॥
355. As the artisan making an effort (to translate the mental image into physical form) always suffers thereby and is therefore one with that suffering, so also the Self that acts as stimulated by impure mental states undergoes suffering and becomes one with it.
COMMENTARY
A casual observation of an artist at work will give us the following particulars. The metal or marble which he is going to shape, the instruments used therefore, his dexterity in handing those instruments and the final value which he obtains for the finished product, all these facts are external to the nature of the artist who remains distinct from all the external facts. But instead of such a casual observation if we try to understand the creative activity of the artist then we have a different account of the process. The artist starts with the vision of the object which he is going to make. His creative activity consists in shaping out of the shapeless metal or marble a figure exactly answering to his mental image. With this object in view he sets about to work. Thus looked at from the inner side of the artist's mind, his whole activity is a continuous identical process of expressing in the form of metal or marble what he has in his mind. The method of his work and the instruments employed all become auxiliary and sub-servient to this one process by which the artist transforms his idea into an objective figure.
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