Famous painter Paul Gauguin had said, “Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?”

 In a certain sense, art, like philosophy, reflects reality in its relation to man. Art portrays man, issues of his world, his inter-personal and intra-personal relations and at times his relations with the divine.

Talking of portraying philosophy through art one is reminded of the words of Pablo Picasso, “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls”

This dust of ignorance/materialism is often discussed in Bhagavadgita. In chapter III verse 38 in Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says,

dhumenavriyate vahnir

yathadarso malena ca

yatholbenavrto garbhas

tatha tenedam avrtam               

(As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different degrees of this desires)

 The dust on the mirror here refers to the covering of ignorance on soul or spirit. If we do not clean and polish that mirror regularly, it gathers dust, and one is not able to see oneself in its pure form i.e. the soul. For the realisation that we are not perishable bodies but imperishable/eternal souls, a cleansing process of the mirror of the mind by subliminal processes is recommended. Then that can be any therapeutic process like art, music, poetry, writing etc.