Walking the path of beauty
November 2010
By Divyaa Kumar
Learning to live in the moment and appreciate everything around us can lead to a direct communion with the almighty
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All of us are attracted to beauty – be it beautiful things, people, or places. Beauty can also be one of the easiest, simplest, and most direct paths back home to God.
Most of us are aware that there is one God. As all aspects flow from this one source, there is, of course, only one divine beauty. In addition, whenever we experience, feel, touch, and see anything that we consider beautiful, we are actually in touch with this one beauty, with divinity itself. Therefore “all things bright and beautiful” – be it art, jewels, a flower, a beautiful face, a quality – are tools helping us touch the Divine in tangible ways, in the present. That is why, throughout existence, mankind has been drawn to beauty. It is one of the easiest, simplest, and most natural ways, to touch our divine presence. You do not need intellect, understanding, discipline, or prayer. Indeed, beauty can be a path back home, just like the known paths of gyan, bhakti, kriya, and karma. Moment to moment, as you touch sense, feel, and view the one beauty, you are in direct communion with the Divine.
Think what happens to you when you come across a thing of beauty? Visualise the most stunning view and observe what happens. You enter a speechless space, and feel a sense of wordless wonder in this space that the mind cannot describe or label. Even as the mind and thus ego moves out of the way, there is spontaneous meditation. Without the barrier of the mind, and the veils of your personal identity, you are wide open to all that is. You feel free and expansive, peace, oneness, love, empty and full, and employ all these labels, in order to describe the description-less!
You try all your words, because you are actually touching what lies beyond language, the splendid magnificence of Divinity itself. Indeed that is why beauty beckons, because through it, unknown to you – the paradox of tangibly touching the intangible Divine presence within and around takes place. This is why your heart fills with that ‘Ah’ because as long as you are in touch with the one beauty, the abstract ‘God or that’ becomes the tangible, ‘Ah this’!
Yet, there are times when we see something beautiful, but do not touch the same sacred space, because our feelings of wanting to possess it comes in the way. These states arise in the mind and as the mind and ego pop back, so do the plethora of feelings that separate us from the one divine beauty. Feelings of lack in it not being ours. Thoughts of condemnation at why the other has it, does he deserve it? Calculations of whether it is affordable or worth the cost – these are all subconscious veils that do not allow us to enter the divine zone. The object of beauty remains just that – another object to annex! Indeed, you remain subject and object, rather than merge into the one beautiful Divine Presence that permeates all.
 Divyaa Kummar, from Mumbai, is a spiritual facilitator and energy worker reaching out through workshops, informal discourses, personal sessions and writings. Website: www.divyaakummar.com |
It is interesting to observe why we more easily enter the divine zone through nature and its beautiful landscapes. Because when we admire a beautiful mountain, river, or sky, there are no latent desires of wanting to own it, possess it, and make it ‘mine! There is no jealousy against Mother Earth. There is no subconscious judgment against admiring luxury, as it often happens in persons, who consider matter less than spirit. It often happens that in museums, temples and other such places, where ownership is not considered, you enter the Divine zone more easily.
This conscious awareness of the one beauty, helps you move away from the need to possess every beautiful object. You increasingly become aware that the many objects that you desire, covet and perhaps want to possess (whether it is art on someone’s wall or a jewel on someone’s neck or that beautiful garden you drive by) are only a window each, a tool merely, leading to the one beauty – to the divinity within and all around.
The conscious awareness of why beautiful objects beckon, and the understanding that it is not really about the objects of beauty, but where they take you, frees you from wanting to own or possess every beautiful thing. You can then enjoy the thing of beauty on another or in another’s home, and enter the same zone within. You can then touch the Divine Presence through anything. The desire to own or possess starts to loosen its hold on you. It is like walking past a mirror and seeing your reflection. You do not try to cut it out, paste it, own and possess it, because you know it is your own beauty and you can reflect it wherever you go, in whichever mirror you choose, in whatever dress, in whatever manner.
This does not mean that you cannot enjoy beautiful things. Free from the desire to evaluate, own, and possess, and knowing that each thing of beauty leads you to the Divine, will help you enjoy it even more.
At a deeper level, everything is beautiful, when viewed through the larger lens. Divinity is all around us, no matter what labels you may temporarily ascribe to something due to a limited vision. As you begin to live in direct communion with the Self, your vision expands, you view all through this divine lens. You live in a field of appreciation, without labels. You see the pristine beauty of the soul, in those the world may call ugly. You see the strength of a soul, who chooses such an experience for the whole. In anger and fear and other seemingly depleting emotions and experiences, you see only the divine love that propels forth such a cosmic play. You see everything as a prop for this beautiful experience and expression of the one divine beauty, the Divine Self.
Learn to appreciate everything around you, enjoy the one beauty, and be in a constant state of seeing God. Allow everything to become a moment-to-moment homage to Its Divine presence. Allow all that makes up your day-to-day world, to be a shrine, a grove, a thing of worship, and an altar of beauty, so that every moment, you are in direct communion with the Divine.