Publisher's Synopsis
A translated and revised work for lovers of good reading ...
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We will focus here above all on Hindu aesthetics as developed by Abhinavagupta, one of the highest representatives of Kashmir Shivaism. The ultimate nature of aesthetic experience is at stake here, and Abhinavagupta develops that crucial idea consisting in the comparison of aesthetic experience with mystical experience, of aesthetic enjoyment with the ânanda that characterizes the knower of Brahman. Perhaps in this sense contemporary art (as well as the philosophy of art and aesthetics) has much to learn and can discover a "new" path - perhaps rediscover a perennial path - for artistic creation as well as for aesthetic tasting. For Abhinavagupta shânta-rasa becomes the axial aesthetic value, the axis that runs through the remaining aesthetic values, that articulates the different aesthetic experiences giving them their ultimate meaning: the contemplation of the atman that is Silence, Peace and Joy in its state of greatest purity and intensity. In this way the true "work of art" becomes a path that leads to spiritual fulfillment through authentic yogic contemplation of both the creative artist and the active receiver capable of transcending their egoic limitations, their mental movements. In this sense, genuine aesthetic enjoyment becomes the anticipation of spiritual enjoyment, the promise of permanent fulfillment that art like Hindu religion and philosophy always have in mind, as the terms moksha, mukti, kaivalya, etc. indicate. In this way the true "work of art" becomes a path that leads to spiritual fulfillment through authentic yogic contemplation of both the creative artist and the active receiver capable of transcending their egoic limitations, their mental movements. In this sense, genuine aesthetic enjoyment becomes the anticipation of spiritual enjoyment, the promise of permanent fulfillment that art like Hindu religion and philosophy always have in mind, as the terms moksha, mukti, kaivalya, etc. indicate. In this way the true "work of art" becomes a path that leads to spiritual fulfillment through authentic yogic contemplation of both the creative artist and the active receiver capable of transcending their egoic limitations, their mental movements. In this sense, genuine aesthetic enjoyment becomes the anticipation of spiritual enjoyment, the promise of permanent fulfillment that art like Hindu religion and philosophy always have in mind, as the terms moksha, mukti, kaivalya, etc. indicate.
