Art is made by human beings, and human beings can be conscious of being conscious. The highest purpose of art is to express this self-awareness and encourage its further development.

Consciousness is pure awareness as distinguished from its contents, the objects of awareness. Consciousness can be aware of anything, including itself. Consciousness is found only in living entities, and therefore it is the source of the living force. It is transcendent, non-material, self-referential, absolute and ever-fresh.

Consciousness is unlimited and eternal by nature. It apparently becomes limited when it mistakenly identifies itself with the qualities of its contents: the objects of the material senses and the thoughts of the material mind. The qualities of material objects are imperfect, limited and transient. When we empty our consciousness of the qualities of material objects, isolate and concentrate it in meditative states, it acquires new attributes and functions unique to itself. These purified states of consciousness are inherently and unconditionally (causelessly) pleasurable.

History shows us that people who are developed in consciousness perform more beneficial activities and have more profound influence on society than people who are ignorant of the art of consciousness. Art (or any activity) without a higher conscious purpose ultimately leads to a lower state of consciousness. This is the root cause of all the problems of life.

The best welfare activity for human society is to promote educational and artistic activities that expand the field of knowledge of consciousness and encourage the development of consciousness in the individual. Art aligned with the purpose of consciousness has tremendously beneficial cultural value.

Consciousart.de offers all artists who work in the field of consciousness a free, unlimited venue to display works of Conscious Art to the people of the world.

External Purposes:

1. To transcend dogma and discover the real meaning of all living and dead forms in the view of ultimate reality by:
• Promoting research into higher values based on the sufferings and experiences of our own and others’ lives.
• Researching the inspirations coming from all wise and wholesome contributions to the same search for perfection throughout the course of recorded history.
• Utilizing all available media to distribute those discoveries to form a firm foundation for the development of the conscious realization of all people everywhere.

2. To encourage the public to question their own position in this world and to become sacred pilgrims, desperate searchers, honest inquirers, lovingly and progressively dedicated to the all-good Autocrat, the Master of reality, nature, mercy and law.

3. To expose the environmental problem as our own fault, and it is meant to improve our position in the eternal journey to final sweet perfection.

4. To connect artists, poets, philosophers, philanthropists, ecologists, sociologists and all others in the search for harmony: the conscious art of living.

5. To create a financial base for conscious artists—painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, etc.—to communicate their message to the people of this age through exhibitions, publications, public media, seminars and art festivals.

Internal Purposes:

1. Harmony stands for the values of absolute goodness manifested in the personalities of the Harmonist, the Yuga-Avatar Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and the self-realized souls who have taken shelter of the divine manifestations who have descended to this world to help us understand and develop real spiritual love.

2. The development of consciousness in the individual is the goal of critically analyzing ourselves and the world around us.

3. Everything is perfect from the absolute point of view. If everything is used in harmony with its absolute purpose the conflict is over and Vaikuntha, the land of Divine dedication begins.

4. Even seekers after perfection often lose their vision by overemphasizing their mundane, sentimental identification with some organization, ritual or physical ideal conception, and thus deviate from the ideal of their own search. The search for the perfection of desire, only available in its purest execution, can be protected by the conscious determination not to be satisfied with one’s realization but to always remain anxious for help from above.

5. Art and writing, highly respected in the present age, are media capable of communicating and inquiring about almost everything. Surely they are not meant to gratify the ego of the individual artist, whose glory may be sung only after he has already taken his next birth.

The universal harmony—conscious art—will try to show that the art of living is totally subject to the recognition of the charming beauty of the Divine Artist and the artistic loving manifestations of His eternal servitors. If the devotees of Lord Gouranga (the supreme Lord of Love) with artistic inclinations establish Harmony Schools of Conscious Art centered around solid, merciful, non-dogmatic sadhus (saints and examples of our ideals), then they can direct their power of reason and love to attract the public to develop their own consciousness. If people are fortunate enough to meet those artists or see their work, then their spiritual progress will be greatly enhanced.

Who is a conscious artist?

* A conscious artist wants to promote the values of goodness and purity.

* A conscious artist likes to share his/her inspirations and creations with others.

* A conscious artist wants her/his work to be an instrument of the Absolute Truth.

* A conscious artist wants to utilize his/her art to help all people without limitation or discrimination.

* A conscious artist searches for ways to express his/her sadness about the abuse of this world and its living creatures by misuse of free will by ignorant people.

* A conscious artist tries to see the eternal conscious principle behind the mundane duality, and tries to show others the way to gain such perception.

* A conscious artist learns how to distinguish between light and darkness, good and bad, and feels a strong commitment to universal love.

* A conscious artist appreciates all other conscious artists without discrimination of caste, color, religious background etc.

If you feel that one of more of the above descriptions of a Conscious Artist apply to you, we will be happy to include some samples of your work on consciousart.de for others to see and to be able to contact you. All artists need promotion, especially if they make their living through their artistic activities. We therefore also invite all art promoters, galleries etc. to try and help humanity by helping our conscious artists and by promoting their work to the people of this world.

As you see, we accept any type of art contribution, from architecture to painting, sculpture and even computer art. We consider the language of art very useful to announce the message of love to humanity. Conscious art is beyond sectarian limitation. Beauty, sweetness and love form the substance of the aesthetics in the mode of goodness. We welcome your opinions about your ideas of conscious art and this project in general.

We welcome any friend of the Harmony School of Conscious art to recommend any interesting art contribution in any art category which you consider a valuable contribution to the development of consciousness on this planet Earth. We will report such contributions in a section titled "Appreciation of Conscious Art Contributions." Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to make a suggestion about our program.

Some Additional Points to Clarify the Ideas of the Harmony Project

The western world is traditionally fed up with established, mainstream religions. The new wave of sects and cults has created an amazing impact resulting in the general rejection of all types of faith. At the same time materialism is defeated by its own statistics and the environment is screaming for a change of human habits. All in all, despite the increasing degradation, the world has come to the perfect moment to appreciate the message of love of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and all truthful teachings and messengers.

In the words of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur:

Man’s glory lies in common sense
Dictating us the grace
That man is made to live and love
The beauteous heaven’s embrace.

Karma, the soul and the need for love all need to be understood by common sense, what to speak of general criticism on science, atheism, warfare, intoxication, abortions, consumer society, advertisement slaves and general socio-religious dogmatism. Taking advantage of this we shall make a heartfelt effort to raise others’ consciousness. The service to all divine agents is the conscious art of living.

Die to live = Let the lie of selfishness die, and the eternal glory of your real self-interest can live.

Yours in love and for love alone,
B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami