Return to Oneself
- sebastiancvarghese
- May 7, 2015
- 4 min read
Prodigal son is the quintessential archetype of the young and the restless. Many artists have done works based on this ancient tale. My favorite one is the painting by Rembrandt. The Return of the Prodigal Son is one among the Dutch master's final works, completed within two years before his death, in 1669. It is now in the collection of Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The detailed expression of tenderness and the immense compassion on the face of the father upon the return of his son and the son's body language, the final arrival at his original being, is masterly depicted with all the possible glory and simplicity. The optimum perfection in expressing something universal makes this fairly large painting by Rembrandt, one of the most significant works in art history.
The time tested craft of his brush work and his eye for creating the rare and dramatic lighting are all well documented. Yet it still amazes me how well the master of oil colour could create the mood of a particular point in time, as we all go through similar moments of emotions in life.
The story begins with the son's sudden departure from his ancestral home as a frustrated young soul. He enters into the night-street and its dangerous but seemingly enchanting mysteries. He being young and restless, loses himself in the shady back-alleys of the city. He wanders the distant lands for decades crisscrossing the dark paths of the lost souls. This apparently excites his fidgety soul with a not-this-but-the-next-experience mindset, worth for all it's novelty and intensity.
The sad and inevitable downside hits him eventually, as his indulgence with the extremes burns down his own system of consumption. It makes him so sick, poor, self destructive and outright crazy. After crossing all lines of sanity, he enters into the dark night of the souls. Eventually he loses it completely and even forgets who he is, where he comes from and where he really belongs to. He is a parentless child now, far away from his home. He has become a completely lost soul.
His consciousness could not recognize the real. Yet even when the darkness of ignorance descents upon a lost spirit, there exists a feeble glimmer of grace, simmering in the seemingly hopeless ashes of one's inner vestige. His return begins as the subconscious cell-memory whispers in his ears to rejoin his ancestral home. Led by it, he arrives at the door steps of his own origin somehow and knocks at his childhood door.
The remaining bit of his innocence makes him to beg for mercy. At last he surrenders and submits to his own destiny. Comforted by his father's compassion, even when the son does not recognize that it is his father, or it is his own home, or even his own land, and yet without his knowledge he is being rejuvenated, healed and nourished. He forgives himself to start a new life.
He becomes a humble servant to the process of his own rebirth. In the grand flow of time and along with the destined scheme of events, he passes through the healing process.
He walks his 'fire-walks' along the same path of the Thadhagatha. He washes his own feet like the blessed lady from Magdalena and finally he walks the delicate walk on water like that of the man of love and compassion from Nazareth. He does all these with a focused awareness, but with a realxed attention.
At last, after many years of persistent practice, the light shines from within, in the slowest and tedious possible way and finally it happens at his father's deathbed. This is one glorious night of a spotless full moon, as bright as the morning Sun. The process is subtle and as slow as a wild flower blooming. Not dramatic, but sublime and soft, like an eyelid slowly parting. Once the eyes are open, he starts to see clearly the real as it is, vivid and sharp. He is a seer now.
He realizes fully that he is at his own home. He completely owns and honors this abode now. There is no separation any more. He has lit the light within. He has become his own light. He abides fully in the Self. He has arrived.
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I do not look at this story as a morality tale. It is really about one person's internal journey of the 'search for the truth' about life and subsequent return to one's own self. The lost home is inside oneself. The futility of the quest for more and more, outside of us, is something to contemplate. Simpily put, its all about examining the EGO making process and the struggle to maintain a self image. The real question of purpose reamins always...
Many studies have already published on this painting. The following is an excerpt from a paper by Susan Donahue Kuretsky on this work. (Vassar College, NY)
"In the painting, father and son (role reversals in relation to recent happenings in the artist’s life) are presented in a powerfully reciprocal union in which they play equal and inter-dependent roles— giving and receiving in a way that fills the needs of both, and thereby illuminating a central aspect of human love. Rembrandt’s works have often been called universal because they give visual access to ideas or experiences that surpass time and place. Indeed, his art reveals a constant search to explore and understand the trials and rewards of human existence in its broadest sense."
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