Bhuvana Sundara

The beauty of Brahman God is resplendent and radiates joy to the world. This art is known in mystic literature as the process of spiritual...

The beauty of Brahman God is resplendent and radiates joy to the world. This art is known in mystic literature as the process of spiritual alchemy. The divine artist assumes five enchanting forms of beauty in order to beautify the ugly human self, which is sullied by vishaya-kama or the ordinary lusts of the flesh. These five forms are: the transcendental or 8216;para8217;; the infinite or 8216;vyuha8217;; the indwelling or 8216;antaryamin8217;; the incarnational or 8216;avatara8217; which is historical; and the permanent or 8216;archa8217;.

The Upanishads glorify the transcendental beauty of Brahman as param-jyoti, the Supreme Light 8216;jyotishaam jyotis8217; where the sun does not shine, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor lightning. The Vedanta Sutras identify this light which shines above heaven higher than everything else, in the highest world beyond which there is nothing higher, with the highest person entity of 8216;infinite, eternal splendour8217;, as 8216;Nityavibhuti8217;. This material world is only a partial expression of that light, due to his yoga-maya or illusion.

In that world of beauty believed to be yonder, Nature, as 8216;suddhasatva8217;, shines forever as spaceless space without the passing shadows of change parinama, embodying 8216;absolute beauty8217;.

The Pancharatra, embodying Vedic truths, exalts vyuha infinite beauty, while the Puranas glorify the 8216;Sleeping Beauty8217; that reposes on the Milky Ocean of infinity. They portray the creation of the cosmos as the awakening to life of the first forms of beauty.

The divine artist is not seen as an illusionist who projects an 8220;as-if8221; world nor an extra-cosmic personality with ever-increasing purpose, but as an alchemist who makes a beautiful soul by removing its dross of sensuality and playing games of love with it.

The concept of indwelling beauty, antaryamin, is truly beautiful: this divine beauty dwells in the lotus heart of all living beings as their inner Enchanter, making them pulsate with its creative life and participate in its inner joy. The body is not composed of dust or conceived in 8220;sin8221;, but is Brahmapuri or the City of Brahman, a living temple of divine beauty. The great alchemist transmutes the body-shunning ascetic into a hedonist entranced by God8217;s beauty.

Extracted from Nrisimhapriya magazine, July 2005