Truth and Beauty

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Letter COM:3242906 (150 lines)

Internet: "Kishore, Subramaniyam (Frankfurt)"

<SKishore (AT) de (DOT) imshealth.com>

15-May-00 09:07

Manoram Caitanya (das) JPS (Madras - IN) [4619]

Truth and Beauty

---------------------------

> Truth and Beauty

>

> Srila Prabhupada first published this essay in India, in the old

> tabloid

> version of his then-fortnightly magazine Back to Godhead (November 20,

> 1958). It contains the unforgettable story of "liquid beauty," in which

> Srila Prabhupada dramatically exposes the underlying principle of human

> sexuality. This illuminating exposition on the nature of truth and beauty

> is

> timeless and startlingly relevant for those in search of the "inner self."

>

>

>

>

> There may sometimes be arguments about whether "truth" and "beauty" are

> compatible terms. One would willingly agree to express the truth, one

> might

> say, but since truth is not always beautiful--indeed, it is frequently

> rather startling and unpleasant--how is one to express truth and beauty at

> the same time?

> In reply, we may inform all concerned that "truth" and "beauty" are

> compatible terms. Indeed, we may emphatically assert that the actual

> truth,

> which is absolute, is always beautiful. The truth is so beautiful that it

> attracts everyone, including the truth itself. Truth is so beautiful that

> many sages, saints, and devotees have left everything for the sake of

> truth.

> Mahatma Gandhi, an idol of the modern world, dedicated his life to

> experimenting with truth, and all his activities were aimed toward truth

> only.

>

>

> Why only Mahatma Gandhi? Every one of us has the urge to search for

> truth

> alone, for the truth is not only beautiful but also all-powerful,

> all-resourceful, all-famous, all-renounced, and all-knowledgeable.

>

> Unfortunately, people have no information of the actual truth. Indeed,

> 99.9 percent of men in all walks of life are pursuing untruth only, in the

> name of truth. We are actually attracted by the beauty of truth, but since

> time immemorial we have been habituated to love of untruth appearing like

> truth. Therefore, to the mundaner "truth" and "beauty" are incompatible

> terms. The mundane truth and beauty may be explained as follows.

>

>

> Once a man who was very powerful and strongly built but whose character

> was very doubtful fell in love with a beautiful girl. The girl was not

> only

> beautiful in appearance but also saintly in character, and as such she did

> not like the man's advances. The man, however, was insistent because of

> his

> lustful desires, and therefore the girl requested him to wait only seven

> days, and she set a time after that when he could meet her. The man

> agreed,

> and with high expectations he began waiting for the appointed time.

>

>

> The saintly girl, however, in order to manifest the real beauty of

> absolute truth, adopted a method very instructive. She took very strong

> doses of laxatives and purgatives, and for seven days she continually

> passed

> loose stool and vomited all that she ate. Moreover, she stored all the

> loose

> stool and vomit in suitable pots. As a result of the purgatives, the

> so-called beautiful girl became lean and thin like a skeleton, her

> complexion turned blackish, and her beautiful eyes sank into the sockets

> of

> her skull. Thus at the appointed hour she waited anxiously to receive the

> eager man.

>

>

> The man appeared on the scene well dressed and well behaved and asked

> the

> ugly girl he found waiting there about the beautiful girl he was to meet.

> The man could not recognize the girl he saw as the same beautiful girl for

> whom he was asking; indeed, although she repeatedly asserted her identity,

> because of her pitiable condition he was unable to recognize her.

>

>

> At last the girl told the powerful man that she had separated the

> ingredients of her beauty and stored them in pots. She also told him that

> he

> could enjoy those juices of beauty. When the mundane poetic man asked to

> see

> these juices of beauty, he was directed to the store of loose stool and

> liquid vomit, which were emanating an unbearably bad smell. Thus the whole

> story of the beauty-liquid was disclosed to him. Finally, by the grace of

> the saintly girl, this man of low character was able to distinguish

> between

> the shadow and the substance, and thus he came to his senses.

>

>

> This man's position was similar to the position of every one of us who

> is

> attracted by false, material beauty. The girl mentioned above had a

> beautifully developed material body in accordance with the desires of her

> mind, but in fact she was apart from that temporary material body and

> mind.

> She was in fact a spiritual spark, and so also was the lover who was

> attracted by her false skin.

>

> Mundane intellectuals and aesthetics, however, are deluded by the

> outward

> beauty and attraction of the relative truth and are unaware of the

> spiritual

> spark, which is both truth and beauty at the same time. The spiritual

> spark

> is so beautiful that when it leaves the so-called beautiful body, which in

> fact is full of stool and vomit, no one wants to touch that body, even if

> it

> is decorated with a costly costume.

>

>

> We are all pursuing a false, relative truth, which is incompatible with

> real beauty. The actual truth, however, is permanently beautiful,

> retaining

> the same standard of beauty for innumerable years. That spiritual spark is

> indestructible. The beauty of the outer skin can be destroyed in only a

> few

> hours merely by a dose of a strong purgative, but the beauty of truth is

> indestructible and always the same. Unfortunately, mundane artists and

> intellectuals are ignorant of this beautiful spark of spirit. They are

> also

> ignorant of the whole fire which is the source of these spiritual sparks,

> and they are ignorant of the relationships between the sparks and the

> fire,

> which take the form of transcendental pastimes. When those pastimes are

> displayed here by the grace of the Almighty, foolish people who cannot see

> beyond their senses confuse those pastimes of truth and beauty with the

> manifestations of loose stool and vomit described above. Thus in despair

> they ask how truth and beauty can be accommodated at the same time.

>

>

> Mundaners do not know that the whole spiritual entity is the beautiful

> person who attracts everything. They are unaware that He is the prime

> substance, the prime source and fountainhead of everything that be. The

> infinitesimal spiritual sparks, being parts and parcels of that whole

> spirit, are qualitatively the same in beauty and eternity. The only

> difference is that the whole is eternally the whole and the parts are

> eternally the parts. Both of them, however, are the ultimate truth,

> ultimate

> beauty, ultimate knowledge, ultimate energy, ultimate renunciation, and

> ultimate opulence.

>

>

> Although written by the greatest mundane poet or intellectual, any

> literature which does not describe the ultimate truth and beauty is but a

> store of loose stool and vomit of the relative truth. Real literature is

> that which describes the ultimate truth and beauty of the Absolute.

>

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