Dhanavanti Nagda

Dhanavanti grew up in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. From a very young age she had the privilege to benefit not only from an educational experience that was profoundly innovative, but also from the presence and guidance of the Mother. Very early she expressed an interest in art. She tried her hand at photography, then started drawing and painting. This is when she felt with an absolute certitude that this domain would be her field of experience, the path that would lead her to the Divine, her field of Tapasyā as we say in India. This Sanskrit word, which is sometimes wrongly translated by penance, means intense concentration - a tremendous concentration of the will towards a single objective.

Dhanavanti loved drawing human faces, flowers, animals but the first turning point in her artistic quest took place when she realized that the thing she wanted to express more than anything was her inner life. The second momentous stage in her evolution was triggered by a pregnant remark by the Mother. Dhanavanti had shown her some of her drawings. Mother looked at them for a long time, and then gently touched her head, "You have something here, but there [pointing to her hand] something has got lost. Tu dois être consciente jusqu'au bout des doigts. You must be conscious till the very tip of your fingers." This observation filled Dhanavanti's life with meaning. The objective of her Tapasyā was becoming clear. She subsequently discovered that this goal should apply not only to the act of painting but to everything she had to do in her life.

For the fingers to be conscious, they have to obey that which is the deepest and most conscious in us. Therefore, to paint must be the outer expression of an inner state. First, one must establish peace and calm in oneself, annul the external personality, quieten down the mental agitation; then let something speak, allow the inner vision to deploy and to express itself through the fingers.

Dhanavanti's paintings are mystical journeys, discoveries of the invisible, landscapes seen only by the inner eye. They constitute a unique artistic approach, because precisely it is an approach that is not only artistic. Born from meditation, they bear its serene and burning imprint. To look at them is to deepen one's vision.