The Indian Express
13 September
There’s no cause for renunciation, just thrill in beauty
SWAMI CHAITANYA KEERTI
When you see a beautiful face of a man or a woman or a child, if really you are struck by the beauty, the experience is not only aesthetic; it is religious. In that moment of beauty, God has looked at you through that face; God has revealed himself to you through that face. Through those eyes, the depth of existence has been communicated. Depth has talked to depth, there has been a dialogue. It has not only been aesthetic. Suddenly one morning you are light and graceful. You are fresh and unburdened. The past is no more haunting you and the future has not yet started. You look at the sky, a vast emptiness, and everything stops within you. You also become a vast emptiness. It is not just an aesthetic experience; it is religious. Beauty is truth… and truth is beautiful!’’ Thus says Osho.
God is not against beauty. God is all for beauty and richness. That’s why he has created so much beauty and richness in existence that it overflows. Just one look at nature proves this point. Look at the mountains and rivers, brilliant bright flowers in nature basking in majestic glory. It is nothing but God’s signature. God believes in abundance. Hence, this immeasurable splendor and creation all around. He untiringly goes on creating universe after universe. Those who are in the know do not call it universe — they have coined a new name: Multi-verse. And only a multi-dimensional person on earth can represent God in totality.
Many incarnations have come unto this earth to represent God. But Indians have worshipped only one incarnation as the total incarnation of God — Purnavtar. We know him as Lord Krishna. His birthday was celebrated a month ago as Janmashtmi. Only he is the perfect example of all that we seek in life: Beauty, Bravery, Celebration, Compassion, Festivity, Laughter, Mischief, Politics, Spirituality and ultimately Wisdom. Krishna has it all. He is the most romantic and fashionable, he decorates himself with colourful clothes, peacock feathers, flute and other hypnotic paraphernalia, which can make any young man jealous of him. In his heart of hearts, every young man dreams of being as charming as Krishna, with numberless gopis dancing around him. This eternal romance of Krishna and Radha is described in India as the romance of Purush and Prakriti, God manifesting as two, the polar opposites of Yin and Yang, but Krishna goes beyond the manifestation in two. He is not simply content with one Radha — he has thousands of gopis! Let these girls feel jealous of each other, he accepts them all.
Besides accepting and embracing all and rejecting none, Krishna’s personality is emphatically colourful, playful and totally beautiful. And this is ultimate divinity and godliness. God accepts everything and everybody because it is all his own manifestation. The so-called religious people are often seen condemning beauty and bliss of life as something mundane and despicable. Incapable of enjoying the beauty and bliss of life themselves, they start teaching renunciation and rejection. This is not the case with Krishna. He is all for rejoicing and beauty. To the mystic yogis such as Krishna, beauty is truth and truth is beauty. God’s creation in any form can only be beautiful, there’s no other way of being.
Osho says: Beauty is the first glimpse of the divine. Wherever you see beauty, remember you are on holy ground. Wherever, I say: in a human face, in a child’s eyes, in a lotus flower, or in the wings of a bird in flight, in the rainbow, or in a silent rock. Wherever you see beauty, remember, you are on holy ground — God is close. Beauty is the first glimpse of the divine; so there is no dichotomy between beauty and truth. The aesthetic and the spiritual are not two things, two points on the same path, two milestones on the same pilgrimage.
