Vedic Art, the art of soul awakening, was born over 5 thousand years ago. Initially, it was the oral tradition, and after many centuries it saw its written form just like many other timeless truths about God, Cosmos and Man it has found its own place in the holy Hindu books – the Vedas.

The art of Vegas is an ancient practice which, in a natural and simple way, assists the man awakening the inner power of creation that is hidden inside each man. For centuries, it was available to yogis and those fluent with Sanskrit. At last, towards the end of the 1980’s, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the originator of Transcendental Meditation decided to pass its basics to one of his disciples, the Swedish artist-painter, Curt Källman, to adjust them do the needs of the Western Civilization. That is how Vedic Art originated as a method of spontaneous painting thanks to which we are able to create one’s inside and perceive all the creative abilities which lurk in there.

BROADENING THE CONSCIOUSNESS

Curt Källman returned to Sweden, and in the year 1988 he opened the first Vedic Art center on the Öland island, thus founding the new artistic school based on the traditional Vedic wisdom. Today people from all over the world go there to paint together, watched by the Master himself.

“We all come from the same space where we used to be the energetics oneness. Unfortunately, just a few of us remember that today.” – says Curt Källman. “Fortunately, after many ages of blind straying we have reached the point where the old world order collapsed creating the room for the Golden Era. Millions of people all around the world and all continents awoke to the new, different, inner look at one ones own life. One of the methods with which we can broaden our consciousness and touch the inner core is Vedic Art.”

The art of the Veda consists in spontaneous drawing or painting where no techniques or abilities count but the very act of creation depending on expression of ones own feelings. Thousands of years ago Hindu sages noticed that art and life stay in such intimate relation with one another that sometimes it is difficult to separate and that is why we speak of the “art of living.”

„Vedic Art is not an ideology, religion or philosophy. It is the knowledge on the laws of nature and the universe and the way to reach the higher consciousness through creative activity which requires no talents or workshop basics.” - Curt Källman explains. “It is an individual process by means of which you can express your individuality with no expectations and demands whatsoever.”

PAINTING WITH THE SOUL

There are 17 principles of Vedic Art which, like a navigation map, help every one find the „way home”, the way to their own inner space. The principles are joined like chain-links where one by one, they originate from the need of the previous link. Altogether, they build a perfect wholeness which presents the process of creation – both in art, and each sphere of our life.
”The art of the Veda is based on 17 principles which are the key words presented in proper order, which open the subsequent doors inside everyone who has heard them and chosen to use them.” - says Curt Källman.
“They can not be read from any book or recited like a children’s rhyme. If I recited them right now, one by one, creating no opportunities for their proper reception and complete focusing, and giving myself no time for feeling them inside me – nothing would happen. You would just hear or read a line of empty words. Only being with them in this holy hour which means the time given by you to yourself makes them become sensible and deeply meaningful. The fact that each word starts an individual inner process in each of us and opens next and next doors is a miracle right in the very moment presented to you by yourself. It is also then that the painting is born straight from our inner space which mirrors the very process of creation. That is why at Vedic Art workshops why we do not teach any painting techniques or means of copying the surrounding nature but we put the essence of the process on creation on the canvas.”

BURN-OUT SYNDROME REMEDY

Curt Källman states that thanks to finding out about the universal truths of creation contained in Vedic Art nobody is endangered by the inner burn-out syndrome neither in the private nor in the professional life. When seized by weakness or infirmity and can see no solution, we go to the doctor’s and ask for some stimulants – that is what happens most frequently. That is how the majority of contemporary people behave. However, the ancient people knew that each of us possesses their own inner source of power and, by means of different practices, they tried to  reach it.
That is why, according to Källman, despite reaching your hand for another Prozac, reach it to get the paints and brushes.
”Vedic Art develops and ennobles a man through synchronization of the brain hemispheres and their fuller usage.
It makes us aware that our creative power is the motor which gives us the possibility of unlimited creativity in all walks of life. Painting is just one of the ways to see it inside yourself, and to experience it on the deep level.”– says Curt Källman.

WATER PAINTING

For Curt Källman, the art of the Vedas is the most proper beginning one should start with. Only with such a foundation one should take further steps and learn about different painting techniques. According to the Painter, each man has all the wisdom we need inside and we do not need to learn anything – we just need to recall what we have forgotten in the process of reincarnation. The Vedas help the man to find the way to the forgotten eloquence which is hidden just inside the man, and which is available to man’s Higher Self only.

”I graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Stockholm and I know from my experience that all the workshop skills I had learned there have been very useful to me.” –Curt Källman says.
“However, I realize that the most important thing is the creation driving force thanks to which the students can have the opportunity of real self-expression and can avoid stresses resulting from the ideas that are imposed on them. It is thanks to Vedic Art that I have seen how strongly creation can unite people when they recognize that the processes of broadening one’s consciousness do take place in others. A man who had once felt this creative power can never be stopped in their creativity.”

The presumptions of Vedic Art do not consist in real copying of the surrounding world but initiating of the act of spontaneous creation. In this way we make contact with our cosmic DNA, being common for all people helps us broaden our consciousness and recognize ourselves. This is a process of transformation during which the creativity frees from the rule of the intellect thus letting our consciousness broaden in the act like the limitless and completely spontaneous creative process.
A great example of such an attitude to the process of creation are the „water paintings” done by Curt Källman with gold dust on the surface of the lake Mallorca which just melted and disappeared after a moment leaving the memory of the very act of creation only.

STADNINA UKRYTYCH EMOCJI

In Sweden, the Vedic Art outdoor painting workshops most often turn into international festival of spontaneous creation being the basic form of expression of one’s own personality. Curt Källman’s center on the Öland island used to be a farm but the old stables have been reconstructed to serve as atelier which can hold up to a few tens of painters at a time. People who came to the workshops for the first time are always a bit lost at the beginning, and they look at their paintings with much criticism. It also happens that painting according to Vedic Art principles stimulates their suppressed and hidden fears, blockades and negative emotions which make daily life difficult. The workshops give the chance to confront them and to transform them through artistic expression. It is when the process of individual transformation begins and sometimes it may be accompanied by the feeling of reluctance to continue taking the classes. Fortunately, the last day is the completion for the whole process of the struggle with one’s own intellect. Everybody feels proud of their experiences and their works of art. They look at their own paintings amazed and full of self-admiration. This is a moment of understanding and joy for everyone who were patiently freeing themselves from the domination of the intellect for the whole five days.

THE STATE OF JOY

The primary task of Vedic Art is to awaken the humans’ inner power of creation through artistic activity. This method is meant for everyone not just artists or people who deal with art professionally. A businessman, a clerk or a salesman can be as much creative at work and in their private life.
"A human being who is conscious about oneself is also able to enjoy life because such person knows what the treasure is, and what - just a delusion. Such a person knows oneself and can appreciate their own uniqueness and use the potential they have been given. Such a person understands that everything that they participate in is a gift and a possibility to see oneself, and to make one’s choice of who he or she wants to be indeed"  – claims Curt Källman.

Text: Elżbieta Jóźwiak