Sahaja Yoga Meditation

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Janie Frith is a talented artist living in Victoria. The paintings presented here are examples of her recent work and result from a visit to the beautiful Wilsons Promontory near where she lives.

The colours, patterns and layering of sand, rocks, bush and trees and nature's moulding and shaping of the environment provide an endless source for her inspiration.

Janie in her own words

I always loved to draw and paint as a child and with a mother who let her children choose whatever path we wished, I was able to pursue my interest in art.

This led to studying art at tertiary level and then going on to teach for over 20 years. Motivating others and unlocking their creativity was a great occupation, but it became important for me to create my own work.

When I started to express my own creativity, I developed a great sense of satisfaction and inward peace. When I paint I truly feel that state of thoughtless awareness that is referred to in Sahaja Yoga teaching - when you are aware of everything around you, but not thinking!

Meditative and gentle paintings that celebrate nature have been the focus of my work rather than to aggravate or challenge viewers.

Over the years my exhibitions have been of the local environment, tidal coastal shorelines with small boats resting on them. The rhythm and flow of the tide and ever changing light provide a constant source of inspiration.

Being close to nature helps to soothe our senses, and by directing our attention on natural things our hearts open.

"Artists have to raise the public eye to their standards of taste and not stoop down to the cheap demands of the public, thus surrendering their freedom." Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

What is it in an artwork that enables it to transcend the limitations of the culture in which it was created, giving it a universal appeal? Why do the works of Shakespeare, Michael Angelo or Mozart have the ability to move audiences so powerfully, hundreds of years after they were produced, in a culture and society with vastly different values and preoccupations to that of their original audience?

It has been argued that works such as these have a depth and subtlety of expression which enables them to transmit the artists' experience of the sublime, or the divine. In fact the eminent psychologist Carl Jung has said that the "ability to reach a rich vein (the unconscious/sublime) in such materials and to translate it effectively into philosophical literature, music or scientific study is the hallmark of what is commonly called genius." Definitions of this subtle quality are limited in their value, for this quality by its very nature eludes the limitation which definition implies. Despite the elusive and somewhat ethereal nature of this phenomena, it has been recognised and described not only by artists of genius throughout the ages and across the cultures, but those arch sceptics and rationalists the scientists.

By Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Artists have to raise the public eye to their standards of taste; and not to stoop down to the cheap demands of the public, thus surrendering their freedom. This can be done by contacting of educational and social institutions, by the enlightened artists. Through articles in magazines and newspapers, the ideas of such artists can be propagated. Through dramas, films and radio talks, people can be educated for the understanding of real art. Thus the dignity of art can be maintained. By coming into contact with the public at large through these societies, the social-self of an artist will develop into a keener and more sensitive being. It will react to the slightest unrest in the nation; to the slightest imbalance in the society. If he sees a leper on the street, his heart will go out with such sympathy that, through his art, he can create an atmosphere by which social workers, doctors, scientists, and the people in charge of the state will be forced to think of some solution to the problems of leprosy. If an artist finds his countrymen being unpatriotic or cowardly, he can, through others, create a deep respect in their minds. Such is the motivating power of an artist. They are the loveliest flowers of the creation, the sweetest dreams of the Creator, and the dearest parts of the human society. Perhaps they do not know how they are loved, worshipped and followed by their spectators..." (extract from souvenir - India)