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Pilgrim’s progress

Artist, writer, scholar and mystic Jean Letschert Ascharyacharya passed away recently

Jean Letschert Ascharyacharya was a learned scholar and an enigmatic artist. “My paintings are windows to secret places in the soul of the beholder,” the Belgian painter who had made India his home for decades, would explain. “Windows through which I have fully disappeared while creating them; disappeared to make them appear real and alive”. Born in Brussels in 1939, Jean Letschert showed early artistic inclination and flowering. A 26-year old Jean Letschert travelled to India and Nepal in 1965 studying Hindu, Buddhist and Tantric art with Tibetan lamas and Hindu priests. Three years later, a scholarship from the Indian Government brought him back to the country; a 12-year sojourn in India cemented his relationship with the rich and complex thoughts and extensive perspectives of Indian spiritualism and philosophy. A thesis on ‘Symbolic Correlation between Human Anatomy and Hindu Iconography’ secured him a Ph.D. from Madras University. Jean Letschert intensely interacted with several spiritual personalities including Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Srimati Revathi Amma, and Nataraja Guru. He considered Nataraja Guru to be his spiritual teacher; under his guidance, he established the Amritabindu Ashram in Kerala devoted to art as a spiritual practice. It did not take long for Jean Letschert to become Swami Ascharyacharya.

During the last two decades of his life, Jean alternately lived in India and France.; since 1999 he established himself in Bangalore. His activities covered a variety of fields including publication of books in French on Indian spirituality including a translation of the Upanishads with commentaries. Friendly yet forthright, charming yet intense, sociable yet detached, Jean Letschert who died on May 3 this year will be missed by many friends and admirers – both inside and outside the art world.

GIRIDHAR KHASNIS

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