Bhagavan Das on Emotion in Art

Bhagavan Das · Down to Earth Series · 10 pages

From Bhagavan Das, The Science of the Emotions, Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1924, third edition, chapter X, “Emotion in Art — Illustrations,” pages 372–81. A searchable PDF of the second edition of 1908 is held in the Constitution of Man Series.

The chapter takes up what happens when an emotion is exercised on representations rather than on people. Das describes those who, originally virtuously inclined and taking pleasure in deeds of charity and service, begin instead to take pleasure in tales or dramatic representations of such deeds, and sink by degrees into contentment with a purely imaginary exercise of their benevolence — and, where worldly position gives them the power, may fall further into devising real scenes of cruelty in order to excite and expand what he calls the pitying self. Lest that seem far-fetched he offers a domestic instance: singing birds separated from their mates and caged apart so that they will sing more passionately, a practice whose very commonness hides the cruelty in it and which is only partially redeemed by the petting of the animals — no more noticed, he adds, than the significance of fattening animals for slaughter. The extreme cases follow, the emperors of decadent Rome who planned situations involving the deaths of thousands in the arena in order to observe the behaviour of human beings in extremis, whom he classes as aberrations of nature rather than as savages governed by simple hatred.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.5 MB, 10 pages)