Sri Chinmoy's 'Jharna-Kala' Exhibition at the University of Dhaka

Sri Chinmoy's 'Jharna-Kala' (Fountain-Art) exhibition shows the emotions of the heart in the lines of light Like a fountain of many colors, with hundreds of birds of peace. With this, the exhibition of the artworks of Sri Chinmoy, a Hindu spiritual master of Bangladeshi origin, 'A Line of Light', at the Zainul Gallery of the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Dhaka, began.

Yesterday, Friday afternoon at 4 pm, the exhibition started with the welcome address of the guests by Shantishri, the representative of Sri Chinmoy Meditation Center Dhaka, and introducing the work of Sri Chinmoy.

There was no president, chief guest or speaker in the event. Shantisree said that the guests are the main guests of this exhibition. The exhibition will be open daily from 12 noon to 7 pm till June 22. The photographs in the exhibition are not original works of art. This exhibition has been organized with digital prints of 50 paintings by Sri Chinmoy. All the works are abstract except the birds of peace. There is no particular shape. Thin, medium, thick various brushes or cotton brushes, dyes, paints have been applied to the pot. Colors such as ocher, yellow, orange, red, blue or green are predominant in the drawings.

Shantishri said about these works, Sri Chinmoy named this art of his as 'Jharna-Kala'. These are essentially spiritual paintings. Just as water cascades down from the mountains, the lines and color spectrum in these images create a colorful flow. That dynamism and color conveys a special kind of emotion in the hearts of the audience. Simply put, these pictures are meaningful, creating positive emotions in anyone who looks at them.

And the birds of peace are painted by Sri Chinmoy as a symbol of world peace. Somewhere there is a single bird. There is a flock of birds elsewhere. Sri Chinmoy has drawn about one and a half million such birds of peace. In total, the number of these 'Jharna-Kala' paintings painted by Sri Chinmoy in his lifetime is about 1 lakh 20 thousand. His work has been presented in various galleries around the world including the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, United Nations Headquarters, UNESCO Office, London's Victoria Museum.

Spiritual saint Sri Chinmoy was born in Boalkhali Upazila of Chittagong in 1931. His full name is Sri Chinmoy Kumar Ghosh. He lost his parents at the age of 12. Later moved to Pondicherry, India in 1944. There, he studied meditation and Bengali and English language literature along with spiritual pursuits for 20 years at Aurobindo Ashram. Sri Chinmoy moved to New York in 1964. There he started teaching meditation. Later he established the first meditation center in Queens, New York. Now there are 361 meditation center branches in 71 countries around the world.

Sri Chinmoy is also renowned as a writer, poet, artist, musician and a sportsman besides practicing yoga and meditation. He has written 21 thousand Bengali songs and about 7 thousand English songs. Devoted musicians of Sri Chinmoy from different countries have formed a music group named 'Gandharva Loka Orchestra'. The Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka organized a program of singing Rabindra Sangeet and Sri Chinmoy songs jointly in 2009 by the Gandharva Folk Orchestra and artist Rezwana Chowdhury's song organization Surer Dhara.

On October 11, 2007, this multifaceted spiritual saint passed away in New York, where he is buried. He has not, but through this exhibition his work has come to his homeland.