What is artistic license and how can it be used in devotional dramas?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna Question What is artistic license and how can it be used properly in devotional dramas Answer Artistic license refers to the the freedom the word license means some facility for adjustment the freedom that an artist has in order to depict a particular thing in a more artistically appealing way to adjust the literal narrative that may be given in scripture so artistic license is something which is quite fundamental to the literary, cultural visual and other depictions of Krishna that are found in the history of Indian culture so for example say if we look at Ramlila Ramlila is described in so many different ways by so many different saints and general principle for this sort of depiction Jiva Goswami gives in the Natar Chandrika for this and that is that the artist can adjust the storyline for bringing out the rasa so the adjustment in the story as long as it does not change the as long as it does not violate the siddhant or create rasa bhaas but it brings out the rasa more vividly then that adjustment in the storyline is considered an ornament it is not considered a deviation so for example in the Indian tradition now Kalidas he wrote the famous play Shakuntala now if you look at the Mahabharat itself the description of Shakuntala and the story is very brief now Kalidas has expanded it in more detail so now the artistic license is used by great saints and it is also used by sadhaka devotees so now when great saints use it for example now Jiva Goswami in the Gopal Champu or Vishnachakra Thakur in his 10th Candle Sarvartha Darshani commentary or Kavi Karanakpur is Ananda Chandra Ananda Vrindavan Champu describes many details of Krishna Leela that the specific details we may not find in any of the Puranas so now where are these details come from these details very beautifully intensify the emotions that are involved in those pastimes and help make our transportation and entry into Krishna Leela much deeper richer and sweeter so now for those great saints it is we can say that it is Divya Pratyaksha that it is Divya Pratyaksha means that there are various modes of perception and Divya Pratyaksha or as in the Madhya Sampradaya Madhya Pratyaksha is the perception the divine perception that happens with spiritual senses great saints can see Krishna Leela directly and then they based on those revelations based on their direct perceptions they depict those Leelas so we can say that the revelations which are given by the great saints in their expositions of Krishna Leela they are Divya Pratyaksha now beyond that it is not only such great saints who can do this we can also our imagination is also a very important faculty and actually it is the force of illusion Maya which captivates our imagination and drags into entanglement we imagine okay if I get the sense of objects and I’ll enjoy like this like this like this and then the imagination gets entangled so just as Bhakti allows us to engage our different faculties in devotional service so Bhakti also provides us facility to engage our imagination in devotional service so Srila Prabhupada writes Srila Prabhupada tells in Bhagavatam lecture on June 1 1974 in Geneva 11310 that’s the verse on which he gives lecture so you can imagine that in my heart I have placed now a very diamond throne and Krishna is sitting that is accepted it is actually it becomes even within the mind you think that I have kept one diamond throne very costly throne because Krishna is coming he will sit down here that is not false that is a fact so you create such situation within your heart now Krishna has seated let me wash his feet with the Ganges water Yamuna water so now what Prabhupada is saying is that is not false that’s a fact so first he uses the word imagination you imagine like this and then he says that’s not false that’s fact so what does this mean now we have to move beyond simplistic categories of false and truth to understand this point now ultimately whatever takes us closer to the absolute truth is the truth and whatever takes us away from the absolute truth is false so for example when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would see every forest to be Vrindavan is that false or is that true now from the point of view of literal truth literal we could say material literal truth that forest is not Vrindavan so was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu seeing something false now in one sense Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also acknowledged that it was not Vrindavan because even after he saw that forest as Vrindavan still he kept moving onwards towards Vrindavan so the point here is that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu seeing everything as Vrindavan is every forest as Vrindavan is not a dushana it is not a mistake it is not an illusion it is a dushana it is an ornament it is a testimony to his deep immersion in Krishna Consciousness his fervent attraction to Krishna his all pervading Krishna Prem that everything he sees in connection with Krishna so when we are talking about about offering our imagination to Krishna and devotional service we don’t have to go into categories of simplistic categories of truth and false so for example Krishna Kshetra Maharaj has encouraged devotees to write books on Krishna Smarana and Rama Smarana where they visualize their own pastimes their favorite pastimes and how those pastimes happened and how Krishna reciprocated with his devotees in those pastimes now in the introduction to that book Krishna Smarana he writes that as devotees we don’t make any claim to the truth or the falsity of these pastimes that means whether they occurred historically like this or not is not the important thing what we are doing is we are absorbing ourselves more in Krishna and we are entering devotional service to Krishna we are increasing our immersion in Krishna and thereby we are going closer to Krishna so Manas Pooja which is a very respected and important part of Bhakti tradition centers on using our mind and using our mind also includes using our imagination in Krishna service so we can definitely use this is the scriptural basis for artistic license to use in dramatic depictions Tamal Krishna Maharaj wrote several dramas he wrote Jagannath Puri Natakam in which at the start of which he analyzed this quite well and then he has also written a book called Prabhupada’s Final Pastimes not the TKG’s diary, the TKG’s diary is a literal account of events that happened in the last days of Sri Prabhupada’s Manifest Leela but Prabhupada’s Final Pastime is more of a artistic depiction where along with Prabhupada and his disciples he also reveals characters like Bhakti Devi, Shraddha Devi, Vrinda Devi and others and how they are also participating in the pastimes of Sri Prabhupada in order to intensify the rasa in order to increase the reciprocation of affection between Sri Prabhupada and his disciples and to raise Prabhupada’s disciples to higher levels of dedication by increasing their love for Sri Prabhupada and by intensifying their feeling of imminent separation from Sri Prabhupada so this because it very beautifully movingly depicts the rasa of the sweet relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple this again is not a dushana we don’t have to go into a hypercritical mode and wonder whether actually Bhakti Devi and Vrinda Devi and others had this discussion or not the point is we are meant to use all our resources in devotional service and that way we can use our imagination also in devotional service so for example when devotees are doing drama now scripture does give us some description of the kind of dress that Krishna would wear, the kind of dress that Gopis would wear but it does not give us exhaustive description so naturally the devotees when they dress in particular costumes they will try to use their imagination to depict Krishna in as vivid a way as possible and not just Krishna all the associates of Krishna also and similarly when we have dialogues now the scripture does give some dialogues but we don’t get a exhaustive narrative of everything that was spoken through scripture so therefore in order to bring out the emotions more the devotees can expand the dialogues and now when this sort of expansion of dialogues is happening we don’t see it again from the category of truth and falsehood so such artistic depictions should be seen as attempts to use one’s artistic talents in devotional service so that we ourselves become more absorbed in Krishna and so that we can help others to become more absorbed in Krishna now like in other forms of devotional service we have to take some cautions so just like when we sing we can use different tunes in Krishna’s service but then we don’t change the mantra we don’t start singing any other mantra so like that so there are limits when we are using artistic skill in devotional service so like that we shouldn’t while using our artistic imagination depict something which contradicts the siddhanta of Krishna so for example now the novel Mrityunjay makes makes Karna into a hero of the Mahabharata a wronged hero who meets a tragic end because of what is depicted as the favoritism of Krishna and the envy of Arjuna that is actually the opposite of the reality as depicted in the Mahabharata so as devotees we should not depict this and we should not condone this so where some artistic depiction contradicts the siddhanta of the Mahabharata or the Ramayana or of Krishna Leela in general then that sort of depiction should definitely be avoided and similarly if some depiction creates a rasabhas then that sort of depiction should also be avoided so we need to be careful and we need to consult if we have any doubts or if we are doing some drastic changes in Krishna Leela then then we can we need to consult senior devotees and then carefully contemplate and decide what to do for example Bhakticharu Maharaj has made the Abhay Charan series so once when I met him and I had lunch prasad with him so I asked Bhakticharu Maharaj about how he did this and I asked about artistic license so there are he mentioned two events and I actually had questions about the exact two same events so for example eventually Prabhupada is requesting Subti Murarji to allow him to give him free passage on Jalduta and she says no, you are an old person so my secretary is telling that you may die on the way to America you may die there so now Prabhupada begs, Prabhupada and she agrees so now here in the Abhay Charan is depicted that Subti Murarji says that you Prabhupada, you are like my father and I cannot I cannot be a part of something that may cause my father’s death so then Prabhupada starts walking away and then he turns around and there is a look of utter determination on his face and then he says that if you really consider me to be your father and yourself to be like my daughter then will you not fulfill my last wish my last wish in life is to before I die try my best to fulfill my spiritual master instruction so please give me passage and then Subti Murarji’s heart melts and she allows him to and she gives him passage and she gives him all support for the journey so now when I ask Bhakti Charu Maharaj that this is not that Prabhupada saying she is saying that you are like my father and Prabhupada is saying if you are like my daughter this particular dialogue is not there in Nilayamrit so and he says that this is the Abhay Charan is based primarily on Nilayamrit so he said yes it is not there and that is his artistic depiction and similarly when in America he has also depicted Kalki or Kali sorry not Kalki, Kali and Kali comes and madams David the first student of Srila Prabhupada who was aspiring to become his disciple but who suddenly went mad because of drugs and attacked Srila Prabhupada Prabhupada had to flee from that area so he describes that was Kali’s attempt to stop Srila Prabhupada’s machine and so there is a depiction of Kali over there now that is again artistic license so artistic license we should not become hyper critical about it thinking that this is not depicted in Shastra but at the same time we should not use artistic license for arbitrary licentiousness where we take for taking arbitrary for taking extreme liberties rather and depicting things which are either against the Siddhanta or against the Rasa so by carefully understanding Siddhanta and Rasa and then prayerfully using our imagination and devotional service we can intensify our own absorption in Krishna Leela and we can also use our imagination to help others also become more absorbed in Krishna Leela.
Thank you. So