32 ESSAYS IN NATIONAL IDEALISM.

The doctrine here so sternly stated, means, in other words,,
that imitation and portraiture are lesser aims than the
representation of ideal and symbolic forms : the aim of the
highest art must always be the intimation of the Divinity
behind all form, rather than the imitation of the form
itself. One may, for instance, depict the sport of Krishna
with the G-opis, But it must be in a spirit of religious-
idealism, not for the mere sake of the sensuous imagery
itself.

By many students, the sex symbolism of some Indian
religious art is misconceived: but to those who com-
prehend the true spirit of Indian thought, this symbolism
drawn from the deepest emotional experiences is proof of
the power and truth alike of the religion and the art.
India draws no distinctions between sacred and profane
love. All love is a divine mystery ; it is the recognition
of Unity. Indeed, the whole distinction of sacred and
profane is for India meaningless, and so it is that the
relation of the soul to God may be conceived in terms of
the passionate adoration of a woman for her lover.

Again, the conception of a personal aspect of the
Infinite is not in India, any more than in ancient Egypt,,
limited to that of a male being. The energic power (sakti)
of a divinity is symbolised in literature and art as a divine
woman. I choose, to illustrate this type of symbolism,,
the strangely lovely Prajnaparamita (Plate II) from Javar
now in the Rijks Museum at Leiden. This figure of
personified " Transcendent Wisdom," is the sakti of the
Tantric Buddha, Adibuddha, who here in Maliayana Bud-
dhism occupies the place of Siva.* She is Nature, the

* " Whose fairer half is the Mother who gave birth to all the
fourteen worlds and the animate and inanimate kingdoms thereof."*
—Kailayamalai.