Recreating the music of the universe

Eight months in a year, K Khosa lives in an abode near Dharamshala. Four months he spends in Delhi, Mumbai. Last week he was in Kolkata, with works for the second exhibition at the new Gallery K2. And the works make it crystal clear why Khosa chooses to spend his calendar far from the madding crowd.

Dalai Lama's Dharamshala is synonymous with Buddha's world of non-violence, meditation, peace. Close to Khosa's home in the hills is a Chinmaya Mission which, again, propagates meditation as a mode of at-taining peace. Both reflect the introspective mood that's the natural state of Himalaya. Standing in its lap, Khosa is surrounded by pines, deodars, willows. Smiling upon his blissful solitude are suns and stars shimmer-ing through fleecy clouds.

I have yet to visit Khosa's studio. So how did I know about the still mo-ment when he becomes one with the unbouded universe that the Vedas described as Virat? Simple: By spending a few quiet moments before his canvas. Life Waves, Thought Waves, From the Source of Being, Beyond Sorrow, Hope... the titles take you into the heart of the canvas. More pertinently, the chemistry that breaks through the paints and lines draws you like a magnet.

The forms are recognised as men and women, but they're not Kashmiri or Bengali, Indian or phirang, black or white. The lines they're draped in are not dripping pigment nor recognisable form of foliage. Forceful swirls of wind or water they may be; nutrons, protons, electrons they're more akin to.

That's when I'm reminded of this basic truth: The air I breathe in has touched my fellow beings, trees, animals, birds, animates, inanimates, clouds, the sun, moon and stars... And what I exhale, bounds me to the universe which wouldn't be what it is without me. Khosa might term this experience, 'From the Source of Being.' I dub it Vishwaroop Darshan.