We may choose to look at our normal life as mundane, ordinary, uneventful or as something eventful, with stimulating points of growth and progress at given moments of the day. When one looks at anything at all, and looks with a deeper vision that seeks out the spirit behind the object or the subject and the experience, then there is a possibility that life can become simple and extraordinary. Peaks of joy and bliss can be felt as the Divine glow is perceived in everything, event or object, thought or feeling or sensation … anything at all can become occasions that bring us closer to the highest we can fathom here and now, in whatever constitutes our being, in the presence of beauty.
Let us take a snapshot view of our everyday life. It begins with the opening of our eyes as consciousness rises to the surface being. The moment is even more precious if the hour of awakening happens to be the very hour of dawn. There is a beauty in the silence around us, as the phenomenal world around us is largely still awake or gradually awaking. There is a deep silence as of Gods asleep. In the depth of that silence, it becomes possible to listen to one’s own silence harboured within. The first splash of cold water on one’s face adds glory to the awakening day as we step out of drowse and with wide-eyed freshness, face life, only to embrace it. Then stepping outdoors, when luck is on one’s side, the eastern sky undergoes changes, and one almost perceives an artist at work, splashing colours of varied shades and hues and shaping a dawn that is at once a breathtaking joy to behold and the herald of the future to unfold in silence promises hidden within its folds. There is an intriguing beauty in the way the unknown is strewn across our path, with dawn casting its opening signature on the seal about to break.
Then there is Nature we are surrounded with, wild or tamed. When one looks closely at plants, behind their appearances there is a spirit of giving, just for its sake. They are made that way, just to give, and the flowers, their crowning glory, bear testimony to this giving, this self-offering. There is beauty in being aware of this. There is gratitude in the heart for being made aware of this. There is a joy that dances within to be gifted the nearness of all things green and there is an aspiration to always value Nature as she is offered to us. The play of little animals scurrying about, receiving prasad from the giving hands of plants and trees is an added occasion for joy. There is beauty in watching the harmony between the animals and the plants. There is no vengeful bickering there, there is a sweet and harmonious giving and taking, all for the joy of living, for existing. There is an immense beauty in this perception of the harmony in Nature. There is beauty in the way leaves fall from the trees, spent, used, their purpose fulfilled. There is a beauty in the way they fall with grace and self-giving, only to be embraced by the soft hands of the earth for the other lives to share and be sustained, for new life to begin. There is a beauty in this perception. There is beauty in the way the winds sweep across the earth, touching us gently, giving us sensations of hot and cold, brushing past trees, making the leaves move, rustle, producing soothing sounds that reach far in whispers. There is beauty too in the fiercest of hurricanes that blow across countries, at the way the strong winds scoop up waves after huge waves tossing them carelessly across the coast, thrashing rocks and sand and anything across it’s path. There is an immense beauty in coconut trees leaning under the weight of the force, giving in, without breaking, not confronting them; in huge trees being uprooted within seconds and thrown upon land, large, majestic, fallen. There is an awesome beauty in the encounter with the other side of Nature, the furious and the so called destructive. But here too, the dance of Mahakali prevails. There is destruction from which life regenerates, where renewal is assured. The eye that sees the wrath of Mahakali dancing on the chest of a blissful Shiva, withdrawn in Samadhi also sees Her immense love for her creations. This relationship perceived also seethes with the beauty of the Divine forces at work, in accordance to a higher Intelligence.
There are countless such encounters with beauty in everyday life that we may possibly come across. The fragrance of fresh flowers abloom in the garden throw us into a subtle world of ecstasy; A sincere and simple smile on an unknown face is beautiful and we return that gesture with gratitude. There is beauty in this. There in Power in this, the power that enables us to recognize our kinship with one and all and in that recognition to feel freedom, a freedom that uplifts one and enables one moment of growth? There is beauty in the dark clouds gathering at the edge of the horizon, brimming to the full, ready for a cloud burst and the subsequent showering of rejuvenating waters upon the earth. There is beauty in watching the falling rain drops and a greater beauty in watching the water eagerly seeping into parched earth, which equally eagerly absorbs the droplets into itself, both becoming one. There is a power in this beauty. A harmony is at work and the sky and the earth merge in strange ways. There is power in this and we realize the harmony in nature and we grow likewise, seeking that same harmony around ourselves and within. This beauty which kindles that flame of aspiration is powerful.
We meet a dear friend, or someone more than a friend, more than kin, with whom some soul connection looms though we cannot put our finger to it. Eyes meet and a depth is dug into our souls, and a smile speaks pages. There is beauty in this encounter and a power to inch our way inwards a little more.
Let’s now turn our attention to how we carry ourselves physically in our everyday lives. Is there beauty in a good posture? Is there beauty in the way we stand, walk, sit and rest? If there is, what are the aspects of this that gives beauty to the form? If there isn’t, then why not? And if there is beauty, how does it impact us? And if it doesn’t, why not? Anyone on the path of this yoga will have to become aware of himself, right to the details. These are some aspects of that detail. And if there is perfection in the way we carry ourselves, is this a sustainable perfection or is this perfection a fleeting appearance dictated by egoistic claims of vanity? Like this, we can encounter beauty or a lack of it in our being as well, in the way we speak, listen, eat and clothe.
The Soul in us tends towards the Beautiful, together with Love, Truth, Goodness, as Sri Aurobindo spells out in ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’. He also places the true place of Beauty and that is to interpret the Eternal (Aurobindo, 1997, p. 155):
“It (the soul) insists on Truth, on will and strength and mastery, on Joy and Love and Beauty, but on a Truth of abiding Knowledge that surpasses the mere practical momentary truth of the Ignorance, on an inward joy and not on mere vital pleasure,—for it prefers rather a purifying suffering and sorrow to degrading satisfactions,—on love winged upward and not tied to the stake of egoistic craving or with its feet sunk in the mire, on beauty restored to its priesthood of interpretation of the Eternal, on strength and will and mastery as instruments not of the ego but of the Spirit.”
It is soul-growth or the gradual definition of the psychic quality in us that beauty empowers. “It is the soul in us which turns always towards Truth, Good and Beauty, because it is by these things that it itself grows in stature; the rest, their opposites, are a necessary part of experience, but have to be outgrown in the spiritual increase of the being.” (Aurobindo, 1997, p. 632)
What can be more fitting than to conclude this exploration of beauty in everyday life with The Mother’s quotation:
Let beauty be your constant ideal.
The beauty of the soul
The beauty of sentiments
The beauty of thoughts
The beauty of the action
The beauty in the work
So that nothing comes out of your
Hands which is not an expression
Of pure and harmonious beauty.
And the Divine Help shall always
Be with you.
- The Mother.
- Jayanthy
Reference
Aurobindo, S. (1970). Savitri. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.
Aurobindo, S. (1988). Foundations of Indian Culture (3rd, Revised ed.). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.
Aurobindo, S. (1997). Synthesis of Yoga (Vol. Volumes 33 and 34). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.
Aurobindo, S. (1999). Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.
Garcia-Rivera, A., Graves, M., & Neumann, C. (2009). BEAUTY IN THE LIVING WORLD
Journal of Religion and Science, 44(2), 20.
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