The Eye, the Apparatus and Envisioning the Vision

To title a photographic journal Samyak Drishti (Right Vision) is itself a unique act of fathoming infinity of the act of seeing. The Indian philosophy views the ‘seer’ as drshta (द्रष्टा) who could see through time (समय), to find truth (सत्य). Drshta is a witness to drshya (दृश्य / view, scene); drshti / drishti is the eye, which, in turn, is the camera, the apparatus. Ultimately, it is अंतर्चक्षु (the Inner Eye) of the seer that becomes the right exploration of the optic, moving closer to achieving the Samyak Drishti. It is a long and deep प्रक्रिया, the process, which shuns recourse to any short-cuts; instant and easy technological temptations would become deterrents. Samyak Drishti (Pali: Sammāditthi) is a patient practice. But yes, the today when the photographic image has become unprecedentedly vulnerable to deceptive manipulation, Samyak Drishti has acquired greater
signification.

The triumvirate of the words दृष्टि (drshti / drishti or vision), द्रष्टा (drshta / drashta or the visionary) and दृश्य (drshya / drishya, view or the scene) has a profound interpersonal relationship leading to a higher stage of दर्शन (darsana / darshan, the discernment), forming aphilosophy, aतत्त्वज्ञान. When juxtaposed or prefixed with the word सम्यक् (samyak), this relationship acquires a profounder dynamism of its own, like putting two different colors together would. Samyak Drishti isअंतरंग, an intimacy. The philosophical / practical notion of Samyak Drishti ideally forms an enchanting equation between Drshya, Drshti and Drshta conjoined by the elemental samyaktva (सम्यकत्व) or the right path.

Buddhism and Jainism as Darsana

Both Buddhism and Jainism are essentially great Darsana, kind of applied philosophies that comprehend the dynamic relational chemistry of the word samyak individually and collectively getting transformed when conjoined with the ‘D’ words as described above. The concept of Darsana in Indian philosophy is employed in the sense of spiritual cognition. To attain the true darsana or सम्यक् दर्शन or the principle of truth-cognition there are three main stages to undergo (a) gathering of knowledge from experienced persons or from collected utterances of such persons about whose darsana is being sought – this constitutes the stage of listening (sravana), (b) argumentation, logic and reasoning, through further meditation on what had been heard and understood, and (c) mental concentration to enter the heart of the matter concerned – which presumes a mind which is rid of all afflictions or an unprejudiced mind.

In fact, both Buddhist and Jaina Darsana are like Manuals / Handbooks of life, when practiced, they could be as sahaja (effortless) as they are complex. The Pali term for Buddhism is Dhamma, which would literally mean that which upholds or sustains. It is not ‘religion’ in the Western sense of the term nor do we find any proper English equivalent that exactly conveys the meaning of this Pali term. Samyak Drishti concerns what we believe to be true, based on discriminating correctly between what is right (samma) and what is not right (miccha), in other words discriminating between what is helpful and what is harmful. 

According to the second century Buddhist Mahaprajnaparamitasastra, the eight elements of the Dhamma’s Noble Eightfold Path (Pali: ariya atthangika magga; Sanskrit: aryastangmarga) begin with the word samma (Pali) or samyañc (Sanskrit), meaning ‘right, proper, as it ought to be”. The Eightfold Path consists of eight simultaneous practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right samadhi (‘meditative absorption or union’). Right View (सम्यक् दृष्टि or सम्यग्दृष्टि) is the first factor of this Eightfold Path, the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

The important Jaina text of the Tattvartha Sutra refers to Samyagdrsti (सम्यग्दृष्टि) as the ‘Right Path’ which also presumes Right Faith.  Written sometime between second and the fifth century AD, Tattvartha Sutra also begins with सम्यग्दर्शनज्ञानचारित्राणि मोक्षमार्ग, the Samyak path to liberation, constituting Right View, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. Obviously, there is equal and emiment emphasis on Samyak Drishti.

In this discourse of or on Samyak Drishti, what becomes fascinating is the Jaina principle of Anekanta, which attempts to construct a conceptual structure, leaving room for a many-sided view of reality. It aims at formulating a conception of reality, which can accommodate identiy and difference, permanence and change. It therefore seeks to avoid the extreme one-sided views. 

Both Buddhism and Jainism don’t believe in any Creator of the universe; it is viewed as an endless process of change and re-change. It’s the continuous trnasformation that makes up the material world, both past and future are infinite. 

To title a photographic journal Samyak Drishti (Right Vision) is itself a unique act of fathoming infinity of the act of seeing. It is as radical an act of conceiving (the real) and viewing it, at its essential roots…

अस्तु:

Amrit Gangar

Mumbai-based film theorist, curator and historian

He has to his credit three books on German filmmakers and a musicologist, viz. (a) Franz Osten and the Bombay Talkies: A Journey from Munich to Malad, 2001; (b) Paul Zils and the Indian Documentary, 2003; (c) Walter Kaufmann: The Music that Still Rings at Dawn, Every Dawn, 2013. All these three books have been published by the Goethe Institut (Max Mueller Bhavan), Mumbai.
Gangar was the consultant curator of the National Museum of Indian Cinema, Mumbai which is India’s first national film museum under Government of India. He has also curated film programs for the Kala Ghoda Artfest, Mumbai; Kochi-Musziris Biennale, Kerala; Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen, etc. He has presented his theory of Cinema of Prayoga at various venues in India and abroad, including the Pompidou Centre, Paris; the Tate Modern, London; Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan; West Bengal; NCPA, Mumbai, etc. He writes both in English and Gujarati languages and has been awarded by the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi, Gandhinagar.