Truth and Beauty

www.iskconbangalore.org

Truth and Beauty

Truth and Beauty

www.iskconbangalore.org

Srila Prabhupada first published this essay in India, in the old tabloid version of his thenfortnightly
magazine Back to Godhead (November 20, 1958). It contains the unforgettable story of "liquid beauty,"
in which Srila Prabhupada dramatically exposes the underlying principle of human sexuality. This
illuminating exposition on the nature of truth and beauty is timeless and startlingly relevant for those
in search of the "inner self."
There may sometimes be arguments about whether "truth" and "beauty" are compatible terms. One
would willingly agree to express the truth, one might say, but since truth is not always beautiful
indeed, it is frequently rather startling and unpleasanthow is one to express truth and beauty at the
same time?
In reply, we may inform all concerned that "truth" and "beauty" are compatible terms. Indeed, we may
emphatically assert that the actual truth, which is absolute, is always beautiful. The truth is so
beautiful that it attracts everyone, including the truth itself. Truth is so beautiful that many sages,
saints, and devotees have left everything for the sake of truth. Mahatma Gandhi, an idol of the
modern world, dedicated his life to experimenting with truth, and all his activities were aimed toward
truth only.
Why only Mahatma Gandhi? Every one of us has the urge to search for truth alone, for the truth is not
only beautiful but also all-powerful, all-resourceful, all-famous, all-renounced, and all-knowledgeable.
Unfortunately, people have no information of the actual truth. Indeed, 99.9 percent of men in all
walks of life are pursuing untruth only, in the name of truth. We are actually attracted by the beauty
of truth, but since time immemorial we have been habituated to love of untruth appearing like truth.
Therefore, to the mundaner "truth" and "beauty" are incompatible terms. The mundane truth and
beauty may be explained as follows.
Once a man who was very powerful and strongly built but whose character was very doubtful fell in
love with a beautiful girl. The girl was not only beautiful in appearance but also saintly in character,
and as such she did not like the man's advances. The man, however, was insistent because of his lustful
desires, and therefore the girl requested him to wait only seven days, and she set a time after that when
he could meet her. The man agreed, and with high expectations he began waiting for the appointed
time.

Truth and Beauty

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The saintly girl, however, in order to manifest the real beauty of absolute truth, adopted a method very
instructive. She took very strong doses of laxatives and purgatives, and for seven days she continually
passed loose stool and vomited all that she ate. Moreover, she stored all the loose stool and vomit in
suitable pots. As a result of the purgatives, the so-called beautiful girl became lean and thin like a
skeleton, her complexion turned blackish, and her beautiful eyes sank into the sockets of her skull.
Thus at the appointed hour she waited anxiously to receive the eager man.
The man appeared on the scene well dressed and well behaved and asked the ugly girl he found waiting
there about the beautiful girl he was to meet. The man could not recognize the girl he saw as the same
beautiful girl for whom he was asking; indeed, although she repeatedly asserted her identity, because of
her pitiable condition he was unable to recognize her.
At last the girl told the powerful man that she had separated the ingredients of her beauty and stored
them in pots. She also told him that he could enjoy those juices of beauty. When the mundane poetic
man asked to see these juices of beauty, he was directed to the store of loose stool and liquid vomit,
which were emanating an unbearably bad smell. Thus the whole story of the beauty-liquid was
disclosed to him. Finally, by the grace of the saintly girl, this man of low character was able to
distinguish between the shadow and the substance, and thus he came to his senses.
This man's position was similar to the position of every one of us who is attracted by false, material
beauty. The girl mentioned above had a beautifully developed material body in accordance with the
desires of her mind, but in fact she was apart from that temporary material body and mind. She was in
fact a spiritual spark, and so also was the lover who was attracted by her false skin.
Mundane intellectuals and aesthetics, however, are deluded by the outward beauty and attraction of
the relative truth and are unaware of the spiritual spark, which is both truth and beauty at the same
time. The spiritual spark is so beautiful that when it leaves the so-called beautiful body, which in fact is
full of stool and vomit, no one wants to touch that body, even if it is decorated with a costly costume.
We are all pursuing a false, relative truth, which is incompatible with real beauty. The actual truth,
however, is permanently beautiful, retaining the same standard of beauty for innumerable years. That
spiritual spark is indestructible. The beauty of the outer skin can be destroyed in only a few hours
merely by a dose of a strong purgative, but the beauty of truth is indestructible and always the same.
Unfortunately, mundane artists and intellectuals are ignorant of this beautiful spark of spirit.

Truth and Beauty

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They are also ignorant of the whole fire which is the source of these spiritual sparks, and they are
ignorant of the relationships between the sparks and the fire, which take the form of transcendental
pastimes. When those pastimes are displayed here by the grace of the Almighty, foolish people who
cannot see beyond their senses confuse those pastimes of truth and beauty with the manifestations of
loose stool and vomit described above. Thus in despair they ask how truth and beauty can be
accommodated at the same time.
Mundaners do not know that the whole spiritual entity is the beautiful person who attracts everything.
They are unaware that He is the prime substance, the prime source and fountainhead of everything
that be. The infinitesimal spiritual sparks, being parts and parcels of that whole spirit, are qualitatively
the same in beauty and eternity. The only difference is that the whole is eternally the whole and the
parts are eternally the parts. Both of them, however, are the ultimate truth, ultimate beauty, ultimate
knowledge, ultimate energy, ultimate renunciation, and ultimate opulence.
Although written by the greatest mundane poet or intellectual, any literature which does not describe
the ultimate truth and beauty is but a store of loose stool and vomit of the relative truth. Real
literature is that which describes the ultimate truth and beauty of the Absolute.