In Sight—Cognition or Darshana: A New Perspective on Artistic Vision

Various readings of Darshana (and Darshan) have been presented by scholars of Indian art and theory. Most agree that Darshana (द शन) is a “seeing” or “viewing” that involves interactivity and a heightened perception. While Darshana can be understood as insight, realization or revelation, translations of Darshana embrace the concepts of seeing, looking at, observing, perceiving, discerning, becoming visible or known, and literally “sight” or “viewing.” It also refers to the auspicious viewing of a sacred image to take into oneself the power of the deity or a blessed glimpse of the divine. In addition Darshana can mean “cognition” or knowing. Having cognizance of something is to have knowledge or perception of something. In his Vedic Science, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi presents his teaching on Darshana, including the discussion of this in relation to form or Vedic cognition gained in higher states of consciousness. Maharishi explains that the term Darshana can refer to six systems of Indian philosophy and also a six-fold iteration of self-referral consciousness. In its fullest sense, Darshana is the realization of the details of the sequential unfoldment of self-referral consciousness. This paper will introduce the concept of Darshana from the point of view of recent theory in an art context, before looking more closely at Darshana, considering the six-fold self-referral structure of consciousness that Darshana embodies, its qualities, and bi-directionality or Lamp at the Door, Ṛitaṃ Bharā Pragyā, number and Vedic Mathematics, perception, artistic sight and Devatās, all from the perspective of Maharishi Vedic Science. The purpose of this paper is to reveal Maharishi’s unique insight into the phenomenon of Darshana and how his teaching can illuminate our understanding of a variety of topics, including artistic sight, self-realization and knowledge, today.