Natyashastra Quotes

“The essential nature of our Self or Atman is joy; Brahman, is joy; the world is joy. We are from joy, and we return to joy, which is our sole essence, prior to birth, during life, and on death. For reasons that I have discussed earlier, the joy which is the nature of our real Being, is pushed to the margins because the buddhi (mind), ever active and never still, and the ahamkara (ego), the futile sense of ‘I’-ness, dominate our lives. The spiritual purpose of life then is to quieten the mind and vanquish the ego, so that the chit or the Atman, the silent and joyful observer within us, awakens and makes us aware of who we really are—purnta or unblemished joy and fulfilment. As Stella Kramrisch, one of the first Western observers to understand the linkage in Hindu art between the creative and the sublime, writes: ‘Art originates in Mahat (The Great Consciousness) and evolves in buddhi. Subsequently, the ego apprehends and according to its limitations, modifies the work in progress, but it has no part in the creative process.’1
The purpose of art, then, must be to take us closer to anand. It must, in some way, jolt us away from our routine and mundane preoccupations, and transform our consciousness so that we are more predisposed to discover who we really are. The beautiful must be liberating. As a verse of the Natya Shastra says: ‘Let Natya be the fifth Vedic scripture … leading to joy and spiritual freedom.’ The Upanishadic dictum is—Raso vai saha: He is rasa. The ‘He’ is Brahman. Brahman is joy.”
― Pavan K. Varma, Echoes of Eternity: A Journey Through Indian Thought