Arrested Nature

I have always preferred nature as it is, untouched by human intervention. Whenever I create or buy a work depicting natural scenery, I tend to choose one without buildings, dams, boats, ships, or any other human construction. There is something deeply beautiful, to me, about nature being allowed simply to remain itself.

That is why, when I received this craft work from Chakravarthy, sent by his wife, Sharla, I initially hesitated even to begin it. It is a beautiful lake scene, with mountains, clouds, and water. But the buildings along the lakeside created in me a certain hesitation, even irritation. They seemed to intrude upon what would otherwise have been the untouched beauty of the landscape.

Still, someone had invested money in the craft, and I did not want that effort to go to waste. So I began it on September 9, 2024, and completed it on October 2, 2026.

I can now appreciate the beauty of the mountains, clouds, lake, and the whole composition. Yet the buildings still seem, to me, an intrusion. Perhaps this is because I have always preferred nature not as we improve it or make it useful to ourselves, but simply as it is.

But then I had to confront another thought. When we paint a virgin landscape or reproduce it through cross-stitch, are we not also arresting nature? We take something free and living and fix it within a canvas or a piece of embroidery, preserving it for our own enjoyment. Even our attempt to celebrate nature can therefore become another kind of human intervention.

That is the little self-contradiction of human life. We want nature to remain untouched, yet we also want to capture its beauty and keep it for ourselves.

And that is why I call this work “Arrested Nature.”

For me, doing cross-stitch or any kind of artwork is not merely a way of passing time; it is a kind of sādhanā.

In the traditions of monastic orders, including Buddhist monastic traditions, one can find monks and recluses spending considerable time creating works of art. Among Hindus, however, this seems to be less common. I have always enjoyed it. I learned cross-stitch from my mother, and I continue to do it as part of her legacy.

Ashram, October 2, 2026