Chapter Eight: The Tree of Life
“All means are sacred which are called for by the inner need.”
– Wassily Kandinsky [10]
Without pausing long enough even to enjoy a slight breathing space, Sri Chinmoy completed another major work on Tuesday, June 28th. This one, on a delicate pale blue background, measured 26” x 20”. A special feature of the drawing is that the birds surround a massive vertical shape that rises like a pillar in the centre of the page. It is clearly not a bird, yet it contains insets of birds.
Sri Chinmoy revealed the unique symbolism of this drawing later that evening, when he remarked, “This one is the Tree of Life, the source of life, a life-giver.” The drawing was reproduced in actual size the following day and displayed at a public meditation that night. By way of introduction to it, the artist said, “This is the universal Life-Tree, protecting and guiding all the seekers and all the souls.”
It is perhaps interesting to speculate whether the artist deliberately set out to create a shape that would represent the Tree of Life, or whether that sacred interpretation was suggested by the spontaneous shape that evolved. Certainly, the directional thrust of the birds and the tapered sides at the top of the tree indicate that this larger form was uppermost in his mind from the very beginning.
And yet, I do not want to suggest that the drawings are in any way the result of a mental process. They are the extension of a meditative experience. The shapes are called forth by an inner reality or need. It is very possible, I believe, that the artist first experienced the Tree of Life on some inner level and his drawing is the spontaneous echo of this experience through the medium of art.
Surely it is just such an experience that compelled United Nations Secretary-General and poet Dag Hammarskjöld to write the following beautiful poem:
God the Artist
You take the pen,
and the lines dance.
You take the flute,
and the notes shimmer.
You take the brush,
and the colours sing.
So all things have meaning and beauty
in that space beyond time where You are.
How, then, can I hold anything back from You?
