Satyam, shivam, sundaram

Everywhere in nature, beauty abounds.  The hills are beautiful, the clouds and the blue skies are breathtaking.  And so are the starry skies of the night adorned with the moon.  There is beauty in the river and even in the twigs that float on it.  What shall I say of a flower then?  Every leaf breaks out of stalk in a mathematical sequence and has veins weaving a magical pattern in each leaf.  There is structure, organisation and beauty in nature’s every manifestation. Even everything still in nature has a pattern, has a beauty.  There is an obvious beauty here, apparent and visible.  

In animals however, we see some passion.  When a stately lion is walking majestically it is a beautiful sight to behold.  Even when it is stealthily stalking its prey, its focus and sense of purpose inspires awe.  But when it pounces on a victim, kills its prey and tears the carcass apart, we are shaken a bit.  This consumption is necessary for the survival of every form.  But there is no apparent beauty in this act.  It is nature’s way of surviving.  A lion hunts and kills only when it needs food.  There is no wastage even in its hunting energy.  And yet there is violence in the act of hunting.  All animal forms must resort to this minimum violence for survival and in turn must succumb to it when it is time to leave their form.  This violence comes from hunger, a hunger for physical survival.  And there is an optimisation about it.  Individual violence in nature is never excessive.  And hidden somewhere within this optimisation, one sees a law of balance in play, a law of natural survival in play.  And in the play of these laws, there is a truth.  And hidden within this silent truth there is beauty.  It is not apparent and yet it exists.  It is recognised by the seer of truth. 

The vast inert forces are also moving.  The clouds are moving and the rivers are flowing.  Deep within the earth, molten magma is boiling and the plates of its crust are moving against each other.  And at some point, a tension starts building up and a tremendous energy gets suddenly released as a volcano or as an earthquake dislodging various life forms and altering the landscape in some part of the earth.  A physical re-organisation of the living room by mother earth always bears the mark of violence.  On the mountain slopes, huge blocks of ice and earth may be dislodged causing massive slides and taking everything that come in one fell swoop.  In these actions, one feels wonder at its scale of operation, but there is also a hint of fear that arises in our mind when we watch such a thing on television.  As events unfold on the screen, you see how life re-organises itself in nature, perhaps after a massive forest fire and you are reassured to see the play of nature again.  There is a force and a transformation.  And at the end, when we see nature reclaim the same space with all the glory of its new and youthful foliage from the burnt floor of a forest fire, one learns to hold one’s judgement.  Beyond the apparent violence, there is something that is life-giving, something that is auspicious.  And deep within this auspiciousness, there is a beauty.   It is not apparent and yet it exists.  It is recognised by the seer of auspiciousness. 

When a man sees a woman, he may think that she is beautiful and vice versa.  But when a person opens his or her mouth, we may be turned off.  A little something askew in a single sentence is enough to jar one from this appreciation of beauty.  Beauty that is skin deep is no beauty at all.  At the same time, when a woman is the embodiment of all that is feminine and courageous, aware and alive, strong and caring, knowledgeable and sharing, then a charm gets added to the apparent beauty and it almost outweighs it.  It is the same with a man.  If there is truth in human expression and auspiciousness in human actions, then the human being becomes beautiful.  Every external beauty is captivating to the eye.  But the eye is but one sense.  Even if one is beautiful to all the senses, one false utterance can turn the master of the senses away from beauty.  The mind is a sensitive master.  And unless it has become a slave of the senses, it turns away from that which is not true, that which is not auspicious, that which is not beautiful. 

At first sight, beauty ‘lies’ in the eyes of the beholder.  It utters a lie.  It says, ‘She is beautiful’.  ‘He is handsome’.  External beauty lies to the beholder.  If the beholder hath not wisdom, he will be cheated by his own senses.  His own eyes will cheat him.  His own ears will cheat him.  A subtle touch may be enough to make a fool of one.  A single seductive glance may be enough to disarm another of his command.  A sweet taste is enough to carry one to eat to one’s own detriment.  Thus the senses and even a mind driven by senses, lie to the owner.  The mind must be detached from an influence of the senses and established in intelligence, in wisdom.  Only then can one perceive the truth about something. 

There is beauty in one’s own form.  Everything is in a wonderful and dynamic balance in a healthy individual.  A woman is naturally capable of carrying this natural identity with one’s own beauty with aplomb and in her most natural and exalted state, she is an ideal embodiment of pure being.   A woman seeks auspiciousness in everything she does, in all her work and celebration, in art and creativity, in her striving for harmony and happiness, and in all that is apparent and come into her own truest self of just pure being.  And therein lies the beauty of that which is feminine. A man seeks to see the truth behind everything, in his work and toil, in his striving for sustenance and freedom, and in all that is apparent and come to a settled wisdom.  Therein lies the beauty of man and that which is manly. 

In nature, beauty is obvious, it can be seen with the senses and felt without working your mind.  And that is why we wish to go out into nature for a holiday, to refresh our vitality.  Unsullied beauty is enlivening, it is invigorating.   Even in the transforming actions of the animate and inanimate worlds, hidden beauty is revealed in time.  In the bizarre human world, beauty is more deceptive than obvious.  It requires a discernment of truth – satyam, and auspiciousness - shivam, to come upon beauty which is true, which lasts.  And when both truth and auspiciousness come together in one person, then that person comes across as extraordinarily beautiful.  The converse however is not commonly true.  Thus it is that sundaram or beauty must be flanked by satyam and shivam, truth and auspiciousness.  Only that is truly natural, truly beautiful, truly a joy forever.   May our lives be blessed with truth, auspiciousness and beauty – satyam, shivam, sundaram.