Beautiful music, art, and poetry can inspire us, transform us, and take us to a special place. If the artist was spiritual and guided by a higher vision, then the created work is like a picture postcard from another world. More than that, it invites us to reshape our consciousness, even for a fleeting moment, to experience that world.
Art can be of tremendous value in the cultivation of the soul. For, what may begin as a purely aesthetic experience can easily overflow into a spiritual experience. Beauty catches fire in the mind and spreads until it becomes an all-encompassing experience of the beauty of God.
I hope I’m not being obtuse and the reader understands what I mean by ‘aesthetic experience’ and ‘spiritual experience.’ Some people have enjoyed the arts throughout their lives, but don’t believe in God and never connect art with something explicitly spiritual. Even if it’s art based on a spiritual theme, they only appreciate it for its aesthetic qualities — its sounds, shapes, colours, and form, or as a form of self-expression, an outpouring of individualism (as they see it).
On the other hand, some people may have a spiritual experience — such as a classic “touched by the Hand of God” experience — and not connect it in the least with music, art, or poetry. Yet, among those God-lovers who are also connoisseurs of the arts (or who are artists themselves), the relationship between aesthetic experience and spiritual experience can be extremely fluid. The one can easily flow into the other.
A shared feature of aesthetic experience and spiritual experience is that both tend to be very personal. The person who responds to a work of art feels ‘touched’ by it. The artist’s statement or expression forms a personal connection with the beholder.
Likewise, spiritual experiences in all their varied forms are also very personal. It’s relatively rare for someone sharing an account of a spiritual experience to describe it in terms of an impersonal vastness. It seems that as individual humans trapped in separate bodies — and often doubtful as to the meaning of life — what we crave most from the Divine is that personal connection — the reassurance that “You’re not alone, and yes, life does have meaning.” That is often how our relationship with the Divine begins.
Our natural instinct is to view God as a being to whom we can relate, and who can enter into the normal space we occupy, bringing light and joy. This instinct is not wrong, even if other views are possible. This needs saying because anti-bullying laws seemingly don’t apply to Richard Dawkins et al. As Victoria Coren wrote in a 2010 Guardian piece:
Lord Carey complained last week that Britain is ashamed to celebrate Christmas as a religious festival. It’s bigger than that: people are embarrassed to believe in God at all. They feel silly.
There is a new, false distinction between “believers” and “rationalists”. The trickle-down Dawkins effect has got millions of people thinking that faith is ignorant and childish, with atheism the smart and logical position.
I interviewed the comedian Miranda Hart recently. She told me she believes in God but was nervous of being quoted on it.
“It’s scary to say you’re pro-God,” she said. “Those clever atheists are terrifying.”
I don’t want to rehash Faith vs. Reason here — just mention in passing that faith in a personal God who’s responsive and caring remains a good thing. More of that, please! (But see also: “Putting The Wind Up Richard Dawkins.”)
Beauty, truth, aesthetics, and spirituality
In her doctoral thesis on Personal Meanings of Peacefulness, Gloria Starko quotes Christopher Caudwell:
Emotions, generated collectively, persist in solitude so that one man, alone, singing a Song, still feels his emotion stirred by collective images. He is already exhibiting the paradox of art — man withdrawing from his fellows into the world of art, only to enter more closely into communion with humanity.
This passage underscores the circularity of the search for meaning, which can also be a search for beauty, whether conceived of as aesthetic or spiritual. Beauty has many aspects. In his “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” Keats wrote:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Truth and beauty are meaningful concepts in both art and spirituality. In poetry workshops, one learns to suss out ‘fake’ poems stuffed with trite mouthings that sound too Hallmarky. Such poems are not beautiful because not true. Likewise, of the billions of words spoken or written about spirituality, some strike us as lacking in vision or insight — merely insincere mouthings woven around time-worn tropes. If there is no vision or insight, then where is God’s beauty?
Belief in a personal God — where that belief is also tempered by insight, compassion, and tolerance for other beliefs — can be very fruitful. It can motivate people to actively pursue their spiritual practice, and to generally strive for right. On the other hand, people who claim to believe in some remote impersonal something often seem rather noncommittal and uninspired — as if they wouldn’t lift a finger in support of that impersonal something.
If God or some great saint brings Truth and Beauty right before your very eyes, will you not be inspired by that? It will make you want to strive for Truth, fight for Truth (in the purely positive sense of driving away falsehood). So many bad things happen because people do not care for truth. Pilate said “What is truth?” and washed his hands. He found no fault in Jesus, but crucified him anyway because the crowd liked Barabbas better.
Some well-known photos of Muslim detainees being tortured by the U.S. military resemble crucifixions. This practice of torture went on for years aided by lies: “It didn’t happen” or “It was just a few bad apples” or “It’s not illegal” or “It used to happen, but doesn’t anymore.” Meanwhile, the torture continued and was systematized, with military logs describing in detail exactly what forms of torture were applied to each prisoner on a day-to-day basis.
Disregard for truth has become so widespread that it’s commonplace to give out ‘pinocchios.’ Candidate A got five pinocchios, while Candidate B only got two, so Candidate B must be better to vote for. Yet, Candidate A gets elected, even though he’s a pathological liar, a bully, and a creep. Why? Because he scores well on ‘shares our values.’ Really?
This post has taken a temporary dark turn, but I assure you there’s fun, laughter, and chicken tikka pizza ahead! Rambling on about crucifixion and the decline of truth can be a cranky, antiquarian thing to do. I’m reminded of an hilarious soliloquy written by Jules Feiffer and performed by actor Lou Jacobi in the film Little Murders:
One of the all-time great rants! Still, it’s probably best to look on the bright side:
Seers, poets, and messengers
If there’s a serious point which I haven’t managed to lose yet, it may be that the artist as hero has much in common with the Avatar of an Era who comes to sweep away that which is false, and restore life and vitality to that which is eternally true (but has been covered over). In Hindu philosophy, the Sanskrit term kavi is used to denote a poet-seer — not simply a poet, but one who has light and vision, and whose poetry therefore reveals eternal truths.
The ultimate kavi is the Supreme being Himself, who may be invoked according to the different qualities He embodies: Seer-poet, humanity’s liberator, Avatar who sweeps away the dark disgrace of death, emblem of infinite Compassion-Height, receptacle of boundless Light…
In 1977, Sri Chinmoy wrote two Bengali songs on the theme of “Nami Juga Avatar” or “I bow to You, O Avatar of the era.” Here are his English translations:
Nami Juga Avatar (I)
I bow to You, O Avatar of the era!
Will You give me the right
To worship You
By touching Your red lotus-Feet?O Seer-poet, O love incarnate!
In hundreds of ways I call You,
In hundreds of ways I paint You,
I bow to You countless times.O beckoning hands of humanity’s liberation,
Do offer Your Nectar-flood,
And sweep away the dark disgrace of death.
I bow to You, O Avatar of the era!Source: https://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/aum-2134
Nami Juga Avatar (II)
I bow to You, O Avatar of the era,
O emblem of infinite Compassion-Height.
Constantly I sing your Victory-Song.
This mad world is running toward destruction.
Around me is the poison of jealousy, cruelty and injustice.
I bow to You, O Avatar of the era,
Your Consciousness-body,
Which is the receptacle of boundless Light
Filled with heavenly Light and Power.
O Avatar of the era,
My world invokes You alone.
The original Bengali is more compact and rhythmic, e.g.:
Rishi kabi prema avatar
Seer poet love incarnation
These beautiful lyrics move our discussion forward by leaps and bounds. For, it is apparent that our relationship with the Divine can take on more cosmic dimensions as our aspiration grows. At the beginning of our spiritual journey, God may come to us in the guise of a Friend — a being who is like us, but a little bit higher, more divine, and therefore able to show us a little love, consolation, and assurance. This is the personal God who comes to us with gentleness and shows only a portion of Himself, because that is what we need.
Yet, in time we may come to feel that not only is our personal need greater than we thought, but as part and parcel of humanity we share in the affliction of death, and see around us “the poison of jealousy, cruelty and injustice.” If “this mad world is running toward destruction,” then we need to invoke God in a vaster and more powerful form — not only for ourselves, but on behalf of suffering humanity. Still, as the old Fats Waller song goes: “Rome, they say, wasn’t built in a day, or romance built in a night.”
Today we may see God in a flower, tomorrow in a mountain, the next day in the vastness of the ocean, and then in Infinity itself. As our love for God grows, so also our hunger to know who He truly is may grow. At each stage, our relationship with the Divine is fulfilling. We don’t bite off more than we can chew, or else we won’t be able to digest it. Like ‘elephant,’ ‘infinity’ is a big word. Let us begin by playing the role of a seeker. Then, gradually God will reveal Himself to us in the way which is most pleasing to us, or most beneficial to our progress.
We do not look directly at the sun with our naked eyes, or its brightness may overwhelm us. We find the sun’s rays more pleasing as viewed through clouds at dusk or dawn, or as they illuminate the flowers in a garden. In the same way, if we demand to see God in His most luminous form, this may not please us because we are not ready. We get more joy by seeing God in forms which are closer to our human conception. Therefore, in His dynamic interactions with us, God works through His messengers. Sri Chinmoy explains this beautifully (and quite painstakingly) in a book where he answers questions from children:
Question: Why does God want messengers to guide us?
Sri Chinmoy: This is a very significant question. There are two ways to answer this question and I will tell you both ways. Suppose you feel that you don’t need any messenger — then God Himself has to come and work for you. Now, we appreciate the sunlight; we feel how beautiful it is. But if we go near the sun, we will be burnt to ashes because it is so powerful.
Similarly, we are now appreciating God. But when God comes in His luminous form before an unaspiring or unprepared person, that person will be dazzled and instead of getting illumination and liberation, he will be totally destroyed because his being is not prepared. Even when ordinary spiritual beings, divine angels or guiding deities come, people are dazzled; they cannot bear the brilliance of the light.
Then, suppose you have seen a child, and you say, “Oh, he is the most beautiful child.” But when God stands in front of you in human form, He is infinitely more beautiful than any child you have ever seen, and you wonder, “How can I be like Him?” When you try to answer this question, you will think, “Oh, He is so beautiful, I can never be like Him; it is impossible. He is extremely beautiful. He is so beautiful, so powerful, I cannot be like Him.” Immediately you become discouraged because you feel it is impossible for you to be so beautiful, so luminous, so powerful.
Now if we happen to have someone as our Master, some spiritual person to serve as God’s messenger, our life immediately tries to understand the Truth and we can think of God easily, we can pray to God easily, we can realise God easily. Let me tell you why.
Although you are a human being and I am a human being and we both speak the English language, while English is your mother tongue, I did not learn the language well and sometimes it is difficult for you to understand me because my Indian accent disturbs you. But immediately I can feel, “Oh, she knows English better than I do, but I can also learn to speak like her, because she is also a human being.” Now you will also be able to say, “Chinmoy is my Master, but he is also like me, eating and drinking, sleeping, walking and running with me. If Chinmoy has realised God and if he has this Peace, Light and Bliss, then naturally, I can also get it. Almost everything that he does, I am able to do. There is only one thing I cannot do: I cannot show the boundless Peace, Light and Bliss as he does. Let me try this also.”
Then, you know that I got it by prayer, by meditation, by concentration. So you will also start praying, concentrating and meditating. The result of my meditation is my realisation, so you will correctly feel that if you meditate like me, one day you will also realise God. But if you think of God directly, His Soul is so vast that it will be incomprehensible; you do not know His beginning and you do not know His end.
Now you can easily know my beginning. If you ask my mother she will say that I was born in 1931. And when I talk to you, you understand me well. There are many things I know that you know. Yet one thing you don’t know is called God-realisation; you have to learn it from me.
So again, you will be singing a Japanese song today. Since you can sing the song, I can tell myself, “She knows the Japanese national anthem. Then how is it that I cannot sing it? I can do many things, but this particular thing I do not know, so let me learn from her. Then I will be able to do it.”
Yesterday your mother did this wonderful exposition of Japanese flowers, Ikebana. There are quite a few things you learn from your mother. While you were making a mistake she was telling you, “No, it is not correct.” In the same way, while you are meditating, if you are not doing well, I can tell you, “No, you are not doing well but you can rest assured that what I am doing today, you will also be able to do some day.”
Now I am coming to a serious point. What does a messenger actually mean? What is the purpose of a messenger? Suppose you have to carry something very heavy. If you can’t carry it, you take the help of a messenger boy — someone other than yourself. You can’t do it, so he will do it for you.
But God’s messengers are not like that. God’s messengers are like His limbs, His hands, His eyes, His nose, His feet, everything. It is through them that He works. Here, the messenger and God are totally one. Give an ordinary messenger boy a dollar and he will do his work; but you don’t have any identification with him, for he is a totally different being. But God’s messengers are totally different. If the messenger is a real messenger of God, then he has identified himself with God first, he has become one with God’s Consciousness, and God is using him as His conscious Eyes, conscious Brain, conscious Heart and conscious Soul.
Now, when I ask you to come to me, immediately you come. You take a step forward, then you come to me. Your legs, hands and head will all move. Here, the messenger is God’s movement.
If I just say your name, although you understand it is you, you may remain standing there. But if I ask you to come to me, immediately you will take steps, you will make a movement to come to me. In God’s case also, when we think of His messenger, it is His immediate movement that we see. God’s Truth is all-pervading, but He is quiet. When He wants to be dynamic, He has to act through His messengers. His messengers are to God as our feet, our limbs, are to us. Movement signifies the messenger; he who brings the message from God is bringing to us His dynamic movement. So here is the necessity of a human messenger: he is God’s movement. He brings God’s Light in a dynamic way. Otherwise God will remain static and beyond our reach.
Source: I am telling you a great secret: you are a fantastic Dream of God, by Sri Chinmoy. First published by Agni Press in 1974.
Here, even in responding to a child’s question, Sri Chinmoy’s answer is both illuminating and philosophically subtle. He does not deny that there is an impersonal “static” or “quiet” aspect of God, and also an aspect of God which is dazzling and luminous; but he explains that “if you think of God directly, His Soul is so vast that it will be incomprehensible; you do not know His beginning and you do not know His end.”
In Heaven, God’s messengers are the cosmic gods, angels, and presiding deities. On earth, God’s messengers are the human teachers who have become one with God in their inner lives: Sri Krishna, the Buddha, the Christ, and many others. These messengers are of tremendous value to us because they are beings with form and qualities. Since we are also beings with form and qualities, we can relate to them more easily than to the formless Absolute. There is a natural affinity as one being to another.
God’s messengers are not like impersonal bureaucrats who dispense the same gift bag to everyone in a queue. They see each individual, and give according to that individual’s capacity to receive, and according to their need. One person badly needs peace, while another badly needs joy. One person can receive only so much bliss or the vessel will break, while another is prepared to receive a vaster quantity.
God’s messengers feed our divine hunger so lovingly, as a mother feeds her child. While the mother is feeding her child, at each moment she is monitoring his progress, determining the correct amount. She knows that if the child takes too little milk it will not strengthen him; too much milk and he will not be able to digest it.
According to the scriptures, the Absolute Supreme is both with form and without form, with qualities and without qualities — outside the universe of form, and at the same time pervading it. These are depicted as two aspects of one Being, like obverse and reverse of the same coin. But as ordinary human beings, how much do we care for a Supreme who is formless and qualityless? Very few people care to picture God in this way, for it is so foreign to our human understanding. Most people get joy by forging a connection with that aspect of God which is pleasing to our human conception. This is not wrong, and is in fact very natural and beneficial.
The Christ said: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This has been misunderstood as a claim of exclusivity: that He was the only saviour, the only Son of God, for all times and all places. A more universal interpretation is that Christ was speaking in his role as a human messenger. No one wakes up one day and out of the blue enters into the Father consciousness. Rather, they make acquaintance with a human messenger, a Son of God. Gradually, they may reach the level of the Father consciousness, which embodies all the archetypes of the Abrahamic God — the God of wisdom and majesty. In the Christian Trinity, there is still a third level: that of the Holy Ghost. It would make sense that for the Holy Ghost to be truly distinguishable from the Father, it would be the unchanging, static aspect of God with neither form nor qualities; but that is not what is commonly understood.
But here we are concerned with practical matters, and with the cultivation of the soul, which is a universal way of describing the natural urge to develop one’s best qualities, to progress spiritually, to ascend. Through acquaintance with God’s messengers and by their grace and intervention, we develop some love of God — and through love, knowledge. As we continue to ascend, we may reach the insight that God also has a “hidden” aspect — “hidden” because it usually eludes us — we who are beings with form and qualities. That hidden aspect is the formless Absolute.
To progress through stages is quite natural. Suppose you’re taking a course on theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. You may have already heard of his theory of relativity, but you don’t get that on the first day. Rather, you learn about his early life, the development of his thought, his early theories, and so forth. Finally, after you have developed some grounding, you are introduced to his advanced theories — those which are most difficult to comprehend because they lie so far outside our daily experience on planet Earth. (How many of us have travelled anywhere near the speed of light?)
Again, when you love someone you want to know everything about them, to discover their highest heights and deepest depths. We love God’s messengers, who introduce us to God the Mother or God the Father, the God of love and compassion. There may come a time when, in contemplating God with form and qualities, we may pierce the veil of the created universe and enter into that sanctum sanctorum where there is no form, no qualities, no mind as we commonly understand the term. All is complete and utter quiet, utter silence — infinite peace without even an experiencer of peace, and no word for peace or thought of peace.
Yet, there is something called spiritual materialism, especially in the West. Hearing descriptions of spiritual states of being, people may think: “Ooh, that sounds good. Gimme some now!” But, to experience the infinite, we need to gradually develop a taste for the infinite, a genuine longing for the infinite. Consciously or unconsciously, we are deeply wedded to the world of form and the gratification of the senses. So, we need to follow some method or “path” which will gradually prepare us. As beginners, we may have only a little love of God, so we get beautiful experiences which feed us and strengthen us, but do not exceed our present capacity to digest. God’s messengers do not feed an infant a seven-course meal!
When we speak of food, it is a matter of digestion. When we speak of peace, light, bliss and knowledge, it is a matter of assimilation. If, out of spiritual materialism, we greedily demand or try to pull down more peace, light, bliss and knowledge than we are ready to receive, we will not be able to assimilate it. The result, rather than pleasing us, will only upset our system.
Sri Chinmoy speaks of the “inner cry” or the “inner mounting flame” of aspiration. This is something different from the vital demand which characterizes spiritual materialism. He also speaks of “inner hunger”:
Question: Could you explain what inner hunger is?
Sri Chinmoy: If you are dissatisfied or frustrated, if you feel that you have not achieved something that you wanted to achieve, this does not necessarily mean that you have inner hunger. But suppose you feel that within there is something vast, something luminous, something fulfilling, something positive which you don’t have right now. You think that inside you there is peace, but you do not have access to it. If you think that you have something inside you that is divine, and that you need this very thing, that means that aspiration is there. Hunger comes from your spiritual need. If you need something and you know where that thing exists, then you will try to get it. When you have this hunger, the next thing is to satisfy it.
If you enter into the spiritual life because of frustration, dissatisfaction or despair, you may not remain in the spiritual life. Today you are dissatisfied with someone or something, and tomorrow you will say, “No, let me try it again. Perhaps this time I will get satisfaction.” Here you are trying to do something in a human way. You have failed, and that is why you are dissatisfied, but tomorrow you may try again in a human way. But after a while, you will see that only dissatisfaction and frustration comes from desire. If you do not fulfil your desire, you are disappointed. Or even if you get the thing you wanted beyond your prayer, beyond your necessity, still you will not be satisfied. In desire life there is no satisfaction. Then you say, “No, I am not going to desire anything in a human way. I came from the Vast and I just want to enter into the infinite Vast.” This is aspiration.
When you aspire, you try to enter into the vast ocean of Peace, Light and Bliss. But when you desire, you try only to possess the object of your desire. When you aspire, you just jump into the reality and feel that that reality is yours. It is because of things like fear and doubt that you don’t dare accept the reality as your own.
Each individual has his own need. You need God right now; you want to have true accomplishment, true fulfilment in your life, so you want to go to the Source. But somebody else might need something totally different. If you need God, naturally He will give Himself to you. And if somebody else needs something else, God will give him that particular thing. But when God is asked for some material object, only God knows whether He will give it or not, because only God knows whether it is something that the person really needs. If a person gets the thing he is crying for, it may only increase his desire. Again, if he does not get it, he will be frustrated and displeased with God. But God has to decide whether it is best that he get the thing or not. In your case, since you are a sincere seeker, if you pray to God or meditate on God for Peace, Light or Bliss, even if He does not grant it to you the way you want, you will still be satisfied, for you will still have inner joy and inner peace. You will simply say, “He knows best. Perhaps I am not ready. That is why He is not giving me what I asked for. But He will give it to me the day I am ready.”
In the life of aspiration it is not actually your achievement that gives you satisfaction. It is your aspiration. The aspiration itself is your satisfaction.
In the spiritual life we do not progress by hook or crook. Spirituality cannot be achieved by pulling or by pushing; it is something spontaneous. I cannot thrust the spiritual life upon you and I cannot take your spiritual life or inner cry from you. But if you have something spiritual in you, I can inspire you. If you have one spiritual coin, then through my inspiration you can get millions of spiritual dollars. But to start with you have to have a little flame.
There are many who are fast asleep. For them spirituality is out of the question. No matter how sincerely we try, we cannot awaken them. You are on a spiritual path; that means that you are already up and awake. But if you try to pull down spiritual Light, you are making a mistake. Only when this Light comes on its own, when on the strength of your aspiration you bring it, can you receive it. Otherwise, when the Light descends, if you don’t have enough receptivity, the vessel will only break.
How can you receive this Light from above? For that you need constant practice. If you practise daily, without fail you will expand your consciousness. An unaspiring person has a consciousness which is earth-bound; it does not expand at all, but is limited, very limited. But when you aspire, your consciousness expands and your receptivity increases. So if you pray or meditate, then you can easily hold the Light and Peace that descends.
This passage makes abundantly clear the distinction between trying to get something in a human way — by hook or by crook — versus gradually increasing one’s receptivity through daily practice. Sri Chinmoy provides us with a very practical road map which we can use to understand the subtleties of the spiritual life.
Those who spent time with Sri Chinmoy know that he was not only a profound philosopher. He himself was a messenger of God who had the power to convey spiritual experiences to his disciples. He said:
I do not want to eat all the fruit all by myself. I really love you people. I really want to give you the fruit. No parents will be happy if they see that their children are denied the fruit. But again, the children have to be crying for the fruit, begging for the fruit. Otherwise, as Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “If I give you sweet things, sugar, then your stomach will become upset.” When I give you a little experience, inner experience, believe me, you are unbalanced. I have seen some of you really lose your heads when I bring down and give a little inner aspiration or higher experience. You have to feel at that time that this inner experience is nothing in relation to your self-realisation.
So, really these passages help to answer an unasked question: Many people speak of the beauty of God… Why don’t I see it, or why do I get only the faintest glimpse? Much is given freely, and it is the nature of God that He always gives beyond our expectation. But for our experience to ripen, this requires study and practice. It is our inner cry which makes this possible. Otherwise, we will not lift a finger to know God.
The beauty that God shows us is the beauty suited to our present needs and level of development. However, we are not passive recipients. We can use our God-given freedom to consciously aspire. Right now, we may have only a little hunger for God, a little hunger for Truth. But if we consciously aspire, gradually we can increase our hunger. One day, when we have developed infinite hunger for God, only then will we get God in infinite measure! Before that, we may get glimpses which inspire us and let us know we are doing the right thing by engaging in the cultivation of the soul.
While at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Sri Chinmoy was asked by India’s great savant Nolini Kanta Gupta to translate many of the latter’s articles from Bengali into English. One such article titled “Where Is God?” begins:
God you do not find? No God — not at all? But why should He be found? And to know Him, what right have you? How much of yourself have you offered to Him? Every moment, every limb of yours, how far have you consecrated?
Your call is merely lip-deep. You have called on Him in a slight difficulty or out of sheer curiosity, and forthwith He is to appear before you in person? Perhaps He does come down. But where is your eye to see?
Seated in an abysmal, pitch-dark cave, tightly closing your eyes in addition, you cry out in a fit of restive passion and with a stupendous laugh of disdain, “Where is the Sun, where is the lamp of Phoebus? No Sun, none.”
No question of freedom for one who is subdued and trampled under the feet of others. If one really wants to have a glimpse of freedom, it is not possible through mere ire, spite, disbelief, despair or at easy ease. Fitness for freedom has to be acquired. The essential requisite is yoga, arduous yoga.
— Nolini Kanta Gupta, English translation by Sri Chinmoy, from Lotus-Petals from Nolini, Part II, Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, 1964
Nolini could express himself in an austere way. Sri Chinmoy often emphasized the beauty aspect of God; he translated a children’s story by Mridu Bhashini Devi into English. It is called “Gopal’s Brother,” and begins:
This is a very beautiful story. It is a story about Krishna. Krishna has another name, Rakhal Raja. Raja means king, and Rakhal means cowherd, one who takes the cows to the pastures to graze. Krishna was a king, and he was also a cowherd, so he was called Rakhal Raja, King of the Cowherds.
When little Gopal travels every day to school, walking through the dangerous forest, his elder brother Rakhal Raja accompanies him and plays with him. Gopal is very poor, but on a festival day when all the children are supposed to bring something for the teacher, Rakhal Raja gives Gopal a small pot of sour milk or curd to take. It has a delightful fragrance and flavour, and when emptied into a large pot, completely fills it!
Gopal’s teacher grills him about the source of this miraculous gift, and Gopal tells him all about his brother Rakhal Raja. “He is my most intimate friend. He always comes with me to school and takes me back home. He is most beautiful. He has a crown with a peacock feather in it. He is so beautiful!”
Gopal’s teacher calls him a liar and demands to see this Rakhal Raja. But Rakhal Raja refuses to show himself to the teacher.
The teacher said, “You are a liar. Somebody else has given this to you.”
Gopal shook his head and said, “No, no, my Rakhal Raja has given it to me. I do not know why he is angry with me today. I do not know why he is not coming to me.” And again he started calling, “Rakhal Raja, please, please come!” But Rakhal Raja would not come.
Then Gopal and the teacher heard a voice from the forest saying, “Gopal, today I will not come. I come to you because of your mother. Your mother prays to Me every day. She prays to Me all the time. I am extremely pleased with your mother, and that is why I come to help you and play with you. But your teacher has never prayed to Me. Why should I show My face to him? He also has to pray to Me like your mother. Your teacher does not deserve Me. You deserve Me because your mother prays to Me every day, all day. I am only for those who pray to Me, for those who need Me. Your teacher has never prayed to Me, so I will not come.”
Though quite different in character, in a subtle way this story echoes the passage from Nolini. The schoolteacher is very full of himself, and feels that if it is indeed Krishna helping and protecting this boy, then Krishna ought to come and explain himself — present himself before the schoolteacher’s vision. But Krishna is an extremely beautiful being. To have a vision of Krishna, one must pray and meditate. He will not show himself to bureaucrats who are merely curious or imperious. They are not fit to have a vision of Krishna. Such fitness has to be acquired, if not through arduous effort, then through love and devotion.
It is easy for those who are childlike in spirit, and possess a love of beauty, love of nature, to see God. But with intellectual sophistication may come a certain kind of pride, certain kind of doubt: God must come and show himself before me. That is his responsibility, not mine.
There are classical methods for developing one’s spiritual vision. These methods have persisted and evolved over thousands of years. But those who deny God have not practiced these methods, so their opinion is of little value.
For thousands of years it has been known that if you want to make fire, rub two dry sticks together. If you rub two eggplants together, no fire. The cosmic predicament of those scientists who deny the existence of God is that they are rubbing two eggplants together, then proudly proclaiming: “No God — none at all.”
To discover the beauty of God, we have to become seekers after God. If we never seek, then naturally we will not find. We cannot demand that God come and stand before us, even as our eyes are tightly shut and our mental attitude is that of the chronic disbeliever.
For thousands of years, people have undertaken different spiritual disciplines in order to feel closer to God. This is a gradual process like a fruit ripening, not like turning a spigot on and off. In the ordinary life, if we turn on the faucet and no water comes, we feel that the plumbing must be broken. But in the spiritual life, it will help us to have faith that our efforts will gradually bear fruit. The results are profound, but not always immediate. Many seekers have reported that while practicing spiritual disciplines, they felt all was a barren desert. Then, in an absent moment, something as simple as the chirping of a bird at dawn let loose the floodgates of ecstasy.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa was a great saint or God-man who had a profound influence on modern spiritual philosophy and practice. The New World Encyclopedia mentions that:
He was a fervent practitioner of bhakti (devotion to god), and is often said to have felt overcome by emotion at the beauty of nature. On one occasion, he was so overcome with religious ecstasy that he lost consciousness completely.
Where it says that he ‘lost consciousness,’ we should understand that he entered into a superconscious state in which his faculties were completely absorbed by God. This type of advanced trance state or samadhi is for those few who have developed an infinite hunger for God which can only be satisfied by an infinite experience of God. This would not happen accidentally to a beginning or even an intermediate student.
Returning to a recurring theme of this essay: Subtle art, music and poetry can aid us greatly in the cultivation of the soul. They help to shape our consciousness so that we can more readily perceive God and receive the blessings of God. Subtle art, music and poetry introduce us to higher beauty, and higher beauty is synonymous with God. A higher vision of the universe is a vision which is God-aware, not God-blind.
Beauty and infinity
Especially for those who follow the path of love and devotion, it is God’s Beauty aspect which is most pleasing, most significant. This is also true of those who by nature are drawn to music, art, and poetry.
A Bach prelude may last only two or three minutes, but it can give us a sweet feeling of perfection. At the same time, it does not overwhelm us.
If we are fond of the personal God who comes to us as a Friend, and is not beyond our human conception, then in the same way we may enjoy art and nature that is beautiful but human-sized — like an intimate garden which is perfect in itself, but does not confront us with infinity. Still, with love as the connecting link, we may be led over time to appreciate God in ever-vaster forms.
Betraying my interest in science fiction: There’s an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where a shape-shifter (whose native state is gelatinous) learns to hold the form of different geometric shapes, and then the shapes of living creatures, in order to grow and mature. In the same way, it has been known since at least the time of Plato that one manner of cultivation of the soul is to contemplate progressively higher forms of beauty until one reaches the level of the beauty of the soul.
In “On Freedom and Poetry,” I discussed the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This can be analyzed as a theme and variations, but has always struck me as leading the listener through a series of episodes which condition the mind to experience a breakthrough to the spiritual, or awakening of the kundalini. I feel as though Beethoven is saying, “God can be like this, but then God can also be like this, or this…” Some variations are pleasing in a very human way, while others seem to bend toward infinity.
Where the (slightly humourous) Turkish band section segues into a very serious fugue, I find myself saying “That is sooo like God!” and being pushed over the edge from aesthetic experience into spiritual experience proper. In this sense, it may be said that Beethoven is like a messenger taking dictation straight from God on how the music should be structured in order to engender a spiritual experience in the listener — like a series of meditations on the Divine which lead to vaster and vaster forms.
One way of looking at art is to say that it has two main elements: imagination and craft. We often sense that an artist began a work with some spark of imagination, but that in wrestling with the craft aspect (the technical and formal details), the inspiration somehow got lost or at least was watered down. But in the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, everything seems to take place entirely on the plane of imagination. The ideas are always fresh and follow each other in lightning succession. There’s never a sense that pure imagination has been dulled by the requirements of craft.
If we have an experience of beauty leading to vastness, it can be something meaningful and lasting. Even modern science supports this view, based on the concept of neuroplasticity. If we say that ‘beauty catches fire in the mind,’ this is another way of saying that in the depths of our spiritual experience, the categories of ‘beauty’ and ‘infinity’ merge and form a new pathway which we later can recall. But let’s go back a step or two…
It is human nature to appreciate the beauty of a flower, but not so much the beauty of a distant galaxy, no less Infinity itself. Beauty may strike us as something close, familiar, intimate, and personal. But when we think of Infinity, a quality of otherness may enter in. Nothing in our lives is infinite (except perhaps our sorrows), so when we think of Infinity, we are drawn to distant galaxies which have nothing to do with our daily lives, daily experience. Beauty is our friend; Infinity we may regard more as a stranger. We may be awed by Infinity, but it enjoys no seat by our fireplace.
With his song “O Beauty-Infinity,” here performed by the group Blue Flower, Sri Chinmoy invites us to discover a connecting link between these two qualities of God:
His English translation of the song runs thus:
O Beauty-Infinity, O Beauty-Infinity, O Beauty-Infinity,
Do open my love-flooded heart to see You.
It was Sri Chinmoy’s practice to use compound nouns in a striking manner to unite concepts which — at least on the surface — seem disparate. As has been remarked by many commentators, his music has a mantric quality. When the singers repeat “O Beauty-Infinity,” they are invoking God in a particular form: as that Being who at once embodies both Beauty and Infinity.
But still, to our human conception, Beauty is over here, while Infinity is way the heck over there… It’s almost like saying chicken tikka pizza!
Some girls like chicken tikka pizza
Quoting Amber from the video clip:
Hi, everyone. Uh, Jenny asked me to say a bit about my, uh, journey to God. I think it all started when I took my first bite of chicken tikka pizza. I was like: Oh my God, this tastes amazing! Like, almost holy! I mean, who would have thought of mixing Italian food and Indian food? That is just proper genius!
Some Girls belongs to a class of Britcoms which can sometimes be brilliantly funny, but are often coarse and vulgar. Still, the point I want to make is this: God is the King of chicken tikka pizza! He has all the toppings and can make it just the way you like it.
In worldly life we encounter a variety of experiences, from baseball games to opera, first communion to first heart operation. The spiritual world is much vaster and actually consists of many worlds, many gradations of consciousness. Within God’s Soul are many, many divine qualities. These are like raw materials, ingredients, or “toppings” which can be used to create an infinite variety of spiritual experiences. These are not mass-produced like hamburgers on an assembly line. To repeat an earlier point: God’s messengers are not impersonal bureaucrats who dispense the same gift bag to everyone in a queue. Your experience is designed specially for you, and is (to coin a phrase) “made fresh while u wait.”
The beauty of God is not a static, finite beauty; but neither is it a forced experience of vastness. Some people like to go to a small swimming pool to swim, while others will not be satisfied unless they swim in the vast ocean. God can show us a small pool or the vast ocean, according to what will please or benefit us.
A great pizza place has all the toppings, and a great composer like Beethoven has all the tonal colours of the modern orchestra at his disposal. He knows how to cook with them. A great artist has a rich assortment of colours on his palette, and can mix them in subtle shades to create a beautiful panorama.
Like this, God has all the qualities He needs to create a beautiful experience for us which is absolutely unique. There is something called the Universal Consciousness, which is like a storehouse of every possible quality. Beauty is there, infinity is there, every colour and every quality is there. So, God the Divine Artist, God the Supreme Musician, or God the Great Pizza Chef can create for us an experience of beauty in a way that no merely human artist, musician or chef can.
Usually, whether it is pizza, a symphony, or a painting, what we get has already been created, prefabricated. We may order a pizza with a unique combination of toppings, but on a busy day perhaps 10 other people order that same combo. It is not much different. Each time a symphony is performed, the conductor and musicians breathe new life into it, but still the notes on the page are not going to change. And when we view a painting in a museum, the shapes and colours have already been committed to canvas. They will not alter just to please us.
But in God’s case it is totally different. When He creates a spiritual experience for us, an experience of beauty, it is absolutely fresh and new, and meant just for us. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and sees us more clearly than we see ourselves. Therefore God can come to us in a way we never would have thought of just to please us, and create an experience of beauty which is beyond our imagination. It is not like stamping out copies of a DVD, where everyone gets the same thing that was created in a factory somewhere. God is a living being; we are also living beings. Therefore God interacts with us in a special way which is fresh, new, and of the moment. Our individual soul is like a spark from God’s vast Soul, so there is always that connecting link, which can be developed and ripened.
The beauty of dreams
God’s Beauty can seem discontinuous with our temporal world, which is so limited and often full of suffering. Some people don’t care to see God in their waking hours, but they do like it if God sends them sweet spiritual dreams.
In Indian philosophy, the different aspects of the human being are body, vital, mind, heart, and soul. These different aspects have their own characteristics and express themselves differently within the human psyche. The body may say “I want sleep”; the vital may say “I want entertainment”; the mind may say “I want to read about the latest scientific theory”; and the heart may say “I want to experience spiritual affection and oneness with the universe.” But for people not engaged in any kind of spiritual cultivation, these different aspects may not be so easily distinguishable. The inner dialogue can seem like more of a mishmosh.
When we are sleeping soundly, our body is unconscious but the other aspects of our being may be active to varying degrees, and in different ways. The spiritual heart can be having one kind of experience, while the mind may view the same experience differently. In a book by Sri Chinmoy about dreams, we find this Q & A:
Question: I felt that I was climbing a very steep hill. It was green, very luscious, with grass and stuff. It was becoming very steep, and I got afraid. But I kept going up with the assistance of an unidentified person. When I almost reached the top, I was distracted by some nuns offering flowers.
Sri Chinmoy: I wish to say that the spiritual path is most arduous, and it is very steep. When you have to go up, it is most difficult. The beings you saw were not actually nuns; they were angels. But in your dream you felt they were nuns because your physical mind was operating. Your physical mind did not want to feel that you saw angels, because it did not want you to get the greatest joy. The mind is like that. It destroys everything. With your heart you went up very high, but your mind wanted to diminish your joy. So the mind made you see them as nuns. If the mind had not interfered, then you would have been so happy to see angels with flowers.
— Sri Chinmoy, from The Journey of Silver Dreams
I wish to relate this to my own personal, idiosyncratic experience…
TO BE CONTINUED
So, here I have told readers possibly more than they wanted to know about the beauty of God! I dedicate this essay to Sri Chinmoy on the occasion of what would have been his 90th birthday, August 27, 2021.
Michael Howard
The views expressed are my own, and do not represent any other person or organization.
Book Cover Project
Here are covers from the books and periodicals by Sri Chinmoy quoted in this post:
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Ethics and Spirituality 