As part of the annual intensive workshop for teachers organised by SAFIER, educational wing of Sri Aurobindo Society (conducted from 16th to 24th May 2025 under the title of Anatah-Kamala), on May 23rd, Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti was invited to take one session related to Indian art and culture. Thirty-three participants from across the country including pre-primary, primary and high school teachers, directors, administrators and principals attended the session.
Dr. Mehra briefly shared how Sri Aurobindo helps us understand culture as a soul-mind-body complex through which a people’s collective consciousness is expressed. She gave a few examples to illustrate this point. Thereafter, she showed a wide range of pictures depicting various architectural and artistic marvels from across the breadth and width of India. She had carefully selected these images keeping the wide diversity of Indian cultural expressions in mind.
Speaking of Art and Architecture as the Mind of a culture through which both the people’s aesthetic and scientific sides of mind are expressed, she also shared a few brief anecdotes and stories about some of the specific images that were part of her presentation. Through this, she highlighted for the teachers how Art and Aesthetic development can be made an integral part of the overall learning experience of the students if teachers can do some research about a specific form of art or a particular artistic expression. She also spoke about how Art can also be used to encourage students to get interested in various other subject areas such as History, Geography, Science, Mathematics, Literature etc.
The wide diversity of art expressions discussed throughout the session were appreciated by the participants. These included temple architecture, high sculptural art, painting traditions from different parts of India, dhulichitra, embroidery, musical traditions, and more. The different stories she shared about some of these art expressions made the learning experience more holistic. She also briefly touched upon the three purposes of art that Sri Aurobindo speaks of in his essay ‘National Value of Art.’
To learn more about BharatShakti’s works on the theme – Art and Spirituality, see HERE.
