The other day, in trying to help a friend, I met with Yolande Edwards, who definitely has an eye for spotting natural beauty. On the walls of her office were beautiful pictures she captured. Those pictures can transport one to natural serenity, even in the midst of the most chaos.
Looking at the pictures (all pictures in this blog post are by Yolande Edwards), I reflected on the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but actually there is no beauty to behold unless there is intrinsically some beauty to behold. So, Yolande definitely has the eyes to see that beauty.
Then, I started to reflect on how all that beauty came to be? A famous thought goes like this “If a tree crashes in the forest and there was no one to hear it crash, then did it make a sound?”, in other words, “if someone didn’t see beauty, then was there any beauty at all?”
But not to get sidetracked with pointless mental speculations… beauty is all around us, and talented poets, philosophers, artists, photographers, and other creative individuals give us access to that beauty that pervades the world, the universe, and is all around us.
Even if there is beauty to be perceived, without the right talent, without the right intent, that beauty may not be perceived. But we see that beauty is strewn all around almost carelessly, like a master artist whose every brush stroke is a masterpiece, or a musician who, even while tuning their instrument makes the most heavenly sounds.
I began to reflect that whether beauty was perceived or not, still, the creation of beauty, the perception of beauty, all of it is intentional, not incidental or accidental… it is not that somehow accidentally some leaves arranged themselves in some beautiful patterns, or the trees arranged themselves into some pretty scene… the clouds, the winds, the skies, the stars, didn’t accidentally show up as beautiful, but there is a grand master of beauty behind it all, as said in the Christian literature “The Lord God made them all”.
In giving thanks to talented souls like Yolande, we should not forget the Supreme Talented Super Soul, the source of all beauty.
Bg. 10.41
यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्वं श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा ।
तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोंऽशसंभवम् ॥ १०.४१ ॥
yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ
śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā
tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṁ
mama tejo-’ṁśa-sambhavamKnow that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.
https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/10/41/
Das on the Street 