Chapter Five: A Mystical Glance
“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”
- Thoreau
The days now seemed to be filled with fresh artistic wonders. On Wednesday, June 15th, after eight hours of patient work, Sri Chinmoy completed another large work. On one sheet of white paper, 25¼” square, that had a grid pattern superimposed on its surface, he drew 37,163 birds. A most enchanting “guided tour” of this avian landscape was given by the artist as he displayed the drawing for the first time. “See, here there are blue birds descending, descending,” he said, pointing out two limpid forms in the centre of the sheet. The placement of the birds’ eyes clearly determines the downward direction of their spiralling movement.
“This one is a bird in its nest,” he continued, his finger travelling to the top of the page, where a red bird peeked from a delicate an-like configuration. “This part reminds me of an Indian village,” the artist resumed, indicating a cluster of purple nubs over a background of yellow birds. And so he went on, bringing to life the many intricate details of this vast work. To him, the drawing was saturated with an intensity of feeling and significance. In the late afternoon, he took his drawing out into his front garden and rested it on a chair on a shaded portion of the lawn. Then, he took slides of it from various angles. These were the first slides he had taken in almost eighteen years. As he was engaged in his task, a stray beam of sunlight from the setting sun stole around a corner of his house and illumined a small area of the drawing in the lower right-hand corner. It was such an extraordinary experience to see this section of birds suffused with golden light, as if a glance from God had alighted on the birds and rested there. The slides were developed in Manhattan that evening and Sri Chinmoy was able to view them around midnight. They captured the brilliance and clarity of the artwork with special accuracy. Something more besides: in one corner, dissolving the birds in a golden haze, was a perfectly orbed sphere of light.
On Saturday, June 18th, Sri Chinmoy gathered for counting many small, miscellaneous sheets of paper on which he had drawn birds over the past few days. They were scattered in various rooms of his house. The smallest of these were tiny, flower-bordered hearts. There was a hive of activity as the counters, equipped with tracing paper, calculators and even magnifying glasses, set to work. The artist enjoyed this counting marathon and, as the day progressed, he completed several larger works to add to this total. He also took an additional set of slides, which were developed during the afternoon. By day’s end, the revised grand total stood at an even 713,000, and Sri Chinmoy marked the eve of Father’s Day by announcing this auspicious figure.
The artist taking a photo of his latest work on June 18th, 1994.
Photo: Vidagdha
- This article was completed in November 1994.
- The Golden Boat, Part 11, Agni Press, New York, 1974, p. 35.
- From the sonnet “Cosmic Consciousness” (written July 28th, 1938) in Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, 1989, p. 134.
- When he first began the bird drawings, with each new million, Sri Chinmoy would ask a different person to be in charge of the counting team. It fell to my turn for this third million series of birds. My responsibilities involved not only maintaining accurate records for each drawing – including its measurement, type of paper and medium used by the artist, and number of birds – but also keeping Sri Chinmoy informed on a daily basis of the individual and cumulative totals.
- From private correspondence between Sri Chinmoy and the Gorbachevs, unpublished.
- Concerning the Spiritual in Art, M.T.H. Sadler (translator), Dover Publications, Canada, 1977, p. 25.
- For examples, see: image search
- Yoga and the Spiritual Life, Agni Press, NY, 1974, p. 48.
- The Outer Running and the Inner Running, Agni Press, NY, 1986, p. 17.
