Spirituality and the Arts

A very special individual gifted me The Laws of the Spirit World, by Khorshed Bhavnagri, for my birthday a few months ago. Since summer this year my outlook on life has changed a lot. I have started looking at everything with more of a spiritual eye.

Why all of a sudden you may ask? No, it was not all of a sudden at all. Over the past years, with events that have taken place in my life, the struggles I have been through, I started asking the question, why me? Why does everything have to happen to me?

One person, who has now become one of my dearest friends, once told me 3 years ago that ‘Everything happens for a reason’. This marked the beginning of my spiritual awakening. I started coming to terms with my struggles and realised that everything that I have been through since I was a child has been core to my self-improvement. I was able to understand why I went through each of the difficulties that I did, and honestly, I am ever so grateful for it.

Although I had started thinking more and more spiritually, I was never really able to express it to anyone until this summer. I really got to know a person who has made me embrace my spiritual side so much and that person is the one who gave me the above book to read.

It is a very interesting book for sure with some interesting ideals about the so-called ‘Spirit World’. I do not know to what extent I believe in it at this point in time and I am not going to talk about that here. I want to use this space to talk about the spiritual reasoning behind the arts and talents that we as human beings possess and how important it is for us to embrace it to the fullest.

I thought I should approach it differently so what I have done is quoted two very fascinating aspects of the book, and will explore my thoughts about it, in relation to the dance aspects of my life.

• ‘Gift. You are given a gift, a talent, to see how you use it – for light or darkness.’

I really love how talent is described as a gift. A gift to me signifies a blessing. For me, my ability to dance for example is a nothing less than a blessing from God. All of a sudden the way in which I look at dance has changed. I respect it so much more and I want to make sure that I can present it in the best way possible. It is the least I can do as a way of giving my offerings to God.

In the same way that dance makes me happier and lifts me up when I feel like I am falling, I believe any talent whether it be singing, painting, acting or writing has the power to do the same.

• ‘Most people with talent focus on using it to earn money and fame, which is not your ultimate purpose. Create something that is a positive contribution to humanity. If you do have the good fortune of being famous, use that as a platform, to spread spiritual knowledge.’

This reminds me of the person who gave me this book to read in the first place, who has recently been using their fame and most importantly their talent to educate people about social issues which exist particularly in our cultural group. This person inspired me to use my ability to dance to do the same: Inspire and educate people; show them what dance can actually do to help one achieve happiness. As a result I started my venture of @praveenauk.

I am hardly famous to comment on what it means to be famous. However, I do want to point out that fame should never be used to define how talented or wise the person is. Yes, the individual is famous for a reason but then what happens to many individuals is that fame boosts their ego negatively and they start losing focus on why they became famous in the first place: that gift. As a result, they lose respect for the arts without them even realising it.

Ultimately fame should be used to help people, educate them, and show them that ‘happiness can be found even in the darkest of places, if only one remembers to turn on the light’ (Yes, I did just quote Dumbledore because this quote is actually brilliant!). Our talent is our light which will not only make us happy but should be used to make those around us happy.

What does this mean for me and dance?

I have always seen dance a mode of communication. I have started using it more and more as a way of expressing my emotions at the time. Now that I have read this book, I have acknowledged that with a spiritual mind-set the arts can be extremely empowering. This is what, not only me, but everyone should do. We should all collectively nurture our talents and then use it to educate our society through the power of arts and ultimately aim to improve humanity.

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