WHAT...is Truth? A
difficult question; but I have solved it for myself by saying that it is what
the voice within tells you. How then, you ask, [do] different people think of
different and contrary truths? Well, seeing that the human mind works through
innumerable media and that the evolution of the human mind is not the same for
all, it follows that what may be truth for one may be untruth for another, and
hence those who have made these experiments have come to the conclusion that
there are certain conditions to be observed in making those experiments…
It is because we have
at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going
through any discipline whatsoever, and there is so much untruth being delivered
to a bewildered world. All that I can in true humility present to you is that
Truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of
humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth, you must reduce
yourself to a zero. YI, 31-12-1931, p428)
Truth and
Love-ahimsa-is the only thing that counts. Where this is present, everything
rights itself in the end. This is a law to which there is no exception. (YI,
18-8-1927, p265)
Sovereign Principle
For me truth is the
sovereign principle, which includes numerous other principles. This truth is
not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only
the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal
Principle, that is God. There are innumerable definitions of God, because His
manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a
moment stun me.
But I worship God as
Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared
to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the
sacrifice demanded be my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it. But as
long as I have not realized this Absolute Truth, so long must I hold by the
relative truth as I have conceived it. That relative truth must, meanwhile, be
my beacon, my shield and buckler. Though this path is strait and narrow and
sharp as the razor's edge, for me it has been the quickest and easiest. Even my
Himalayan blunders have seemed trifling to me because I have kept strictly to
this path. For the path has saved me from coming to grief, and I have gone
forward according to my light. Often in my progress I have had faint glimpses
of the Absolute Truth, God, and daily the conviction is growing upon me that He
alone is real and all else is unreal.
Quest for Truth
...The further
conviction has been growing upon me that whatever is possible for me is
possible even for a child, and I have found sound reasons for saying so. The
instruments for the quest of Truth are as simple as they are difficult. They
may appear quite impossible to an arrogant person, and quite possible to an
innocent child.
The seeker after Truth
should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but
the seeker after Truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush
him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of Truth. (A, p xv)
Truth is like a vast
tree, which yields more and more fruit the more you nurture it. The deeper the
search in the mine of truth the richer the discovery of the gems buried there,
in the shape of openings for an even greater variety of service. (ibid, p159)
I think it is wrong to
expect certainties in this world, where all else but God that is Truth is an
uncertainty. All that appears and happens about and around is uncertain,
transient. But there is a Supreme Being hidden therein as a Certainty, and one
would be blessed if one could catch a glimpse of that certainty and hitch one's
wagon to it. The quest for that Truth is the summum bonum of life. (ibid, p184)
In the march towards
Truth, anger, selfishness, hatred, etc., naturally give way, for otherwise
Truth would be impossible to attain. A man who is swayed by passions may have
good enough intentions, may be truthful in word, but he will never find the
Truth. A successful search for Truth means complete deliverance from the dual
throng such as of love and hate, happiness and misery. (ibid, pp254-5)
Vision of Truth
To see the universal
and all-pervading spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the
meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford
to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me
into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and
yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with
politics do not know what religion means. (ibid, pp370-1)
My uniform experience
has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth… The little fleeting
glimpses… that I have been able to have of Truth can hardly convey an idea of
the indescribable luster of Truth, a million times more intense than that of
the sun we daily see with our eyes. (YI, 7-2-1929, p42)
In fact, what I have
caught is only the faintest gleam of that mighty effulgence. But this much I
can say with assurance, as a result of all my experiments, that a perfect
vision of Truth can only follow a complete realization of ahimsa. (ibid)
Truth resides in every
human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as
one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his
own view of truth. (H, 24-11-1933, p6)
Absolute Truth
It is not given to man
to know the whole Truth. His duty lies in living up to the truth as he sees it,
and in doing so, to resort to the purest means, i.e., to non-violence. (ibid)
God alone knows
absolute truth. Therefore, I have often said, Truth is God. It follows that
man, a finite being, cannot know absolute truth. (H, 7-4-1946, p70)
Nobody in this world
possesses absolute truth. This is God's attribute alone. Relative truth is all
we know. Therefore, we can only follow the truth as we see it. Such pursuit of
truth cannot lead anyone astray. (H, 2-6-1946, p167)
Truth and I
I have in my life never
been guilty of saying things I did not mean-my nature is to go straight to the
heart and, if often I fail in doing so for the time being, I know that Truth
will ultimately make itself heard and felt, as it has often done in my
experience. (YI, 20-8-1925, pp285-6)
Let hundreds like me
perish, but let Truth prevail. Let us not reduce the standards of Truth even by
a hair's breadth for judging erring mortals like myself. (A, p xv)
In judging myself I
shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be. Measuring
myself by that standard I must exclaim with Surdas.
Where is there a
wretch?
So wicked and
loathsome as I?
I have forsaken by
Maker,
So faithless have I
been. (ibid, p xvi)
My Errors
I may be a despicable
person, but when Truth speaks through me, I am invincible. (EF, p71)
I am devoted to none
but Truth and I owe no discipline to anybody but Truth. (H, 25-5-1935, p115)
I have no God to serve
but Truth. (H, 15-4-1939, p87)
I have no strength
except what comes from insistence on truth. Non-violence, too, springs from the
same insistence. (H, 7-4-1946, p70)
I am a humble but very
earnest seeker after Truth. And in my search, I take all fellow-seekers in
uttermost confidence so that I may know my mistakes and correct them. I confess
that I have often erred in my estimates and judgments… And inasmuch as in every
case I retraced my steps, no permanent harm was done. On the contrary, the
fundamental truth of non-violence has been made infinitely more manifest than
it ever has been, and the country has in no way been permanently injured. (YI,
21-4-1927, p126)
I am a learner myself,
I have no axe to grind, and wherever I see a truth, I take it up and try to act
up to it. (YI, 11-8-1927, p250)
I believe that, if in
spite of the best of intentions, one is led into committing mistakes, they do
not really result in harm to the world or, for the matter of that, any
individual. God always saves the world from the consequences of unintended
errors or men who live in fear of Him.
Those who are likely
to be misled by my example would have gone that way all the same even if they
had not known of my action. For, in the final analysis, a man is guided in his
conduct by his own inner promptings, though the example of others might
sometimes seem to guide him. But be it as it may, I know that the world has
never had to suffer on account of my errors because they were all due to my
ignorance. It is my firm belief that not one of my known errors was willful.
(YI, 3-1-1929, p6)
Indeed, what may
appear to be an obvious error to one may appear to another as pure wisdom. He
cannot help himself even if he is under a hallucination. Truly as Tulsidas
said: 'Even though there never is silver in mother o' pearl nor water in the
sunbeams, while the illusion of silver in the shinning shell or that of water
in the beam lasts, no power on earth can shake the deluded man free from the
spell.' Even so must it be with men like me who, it may be, are labouring under
a great hallucination. Surely God will pardon them and the world should bear
with them. Truth will assert itself in the end. (ibid)
Truth never damages a
cause that is just. (H, 10-11-1946, p389)
Life is an aspiration.
Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization. The ideal
must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections. I am painfully
conscious of both in me. The silent cry daily goes out to Truth to help me to
remove these weakness and imperfections of mine. (H, 22-6-1935, p145)
No Abandonment of
Truth
Believe me when I tell
you, after 60 years of personal experience, that the only real misfortune is to
abandon the path of truth. If you but realize this, your one prayer to God will
always be to enable you to put up, without flinching, with any number of trials
and hardships that may fall to your lot in the pursuit of truth. (H, 28-7-1946,
p243)
Truth alone will
endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must,
therefore, continue to bear testimony to Truth even if I am forsaken by all.
Mine may today be a voice in the wilderness, but it will be heard when all
other voices are silenced, if it is the voice of Truth. (H, 15-8-1946, p284)
A man of faith will
remain steadfast to truth, even-though the whole world might appear to be
enveloped in falsehood. (H, 22-9-1946, p322)
When it is relevant,
truth has to be uttered, however unpleasant it may be. Irrelevance is always
untruth and should never be uttered. (H, 21-12-1947, p473)
God Is
THERE IS an
indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do
not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all
proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It
transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to
a limited extent.
I do dimly perceive
that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever-dying, there is
underlying all that change a Living Power that is changeless, that holds all
together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That informing Power or
Spirit is God. And since nothing else I see merely through the senses can or
will persist, He alone is.
And is this Power
benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent. For I can see, that in
the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in
the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth,
Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good.
I confess… that I have
no argument to convince… through reason. Faith transcends reason. All I can
advise… is not to attempt the impossible. I cannot account for the existence of
evil by any rational method. To want to do so is to be co-equal with God. I am,
therefore, humble enough to recognize evil as such; and I call God
long-suffering and patient precisely because He permits evil in the world. I
know that He has no evil in Him and yet if there is evil, He is the author of
it and yet untouched by it.
I know, too, that I
shall never know God if I do not wrestle with and against evil even at the cost
of life itself. I am fortified in the belief by my own humble and limited
experience. The purer I try to become the nearer to God I feel myself to be.
How much more should I be near to Him when my faith is not a mere apology, as
it is today, but has become as immovable as the Himalayas and as white and
bright as the snows on their peaks? (YI, 11-10-1928, pp340-1)
My Faith
I can easily put up
with the denial of the world, but any denial by me of my God is unthinkable.
(YI, 23-2-1922, p112)
I know that I can do nothing.
God can do everything. O God, make me Thy fit instrument and use me as thou
wilt! (YI, 9-10-1924, p329)
I have not seen Him,
neither have I known Him. I have made the world's faith in God my own and as my
faith is ineffaceable, I regard that faith as amounting to experience. However,
as it may be said that to describe faith as experience is to tamper with truth,
it may perhaps be more correct to say that I have no word for characterizing my
belief in God. (A, p206)
I am surer of His
existence than of the fact that you and I are sitting in this room. Then I can
also testify that I may live without air and water but not without Him. You may
pluck out my eyes, but that cannot kill me. You may chop off my nose, but that
will not kill me. But blast my belief in God, and I am dead.
You may call this a
superstition, but I confess it is a superstition that I hug, even as I used to
hug the name of Rama in my childhood when there was any cause of danger or
alarm. That was what an old nurse had taught me. (H, 14-5-1938, p109)
I believe that we can
all become messengers of God, if we cease to fear man and seek only God's
Truth. I do believe I am seeking only God's Truth and have lost all fear of
man.
…I have no special
revelation of God's will. My firm belief is that He reveals Himself daily to
every human being, but we shut our ears to the 'still small voice'. We shut our
eyes to the Pillar of Fire in front of us. I realize His omnipresence. (YI,
25-5-1921, pp161-2)
Some of my
correspondents seem to think that I can work wonders. Let me say as a devotee
of truth that I have no such gift. All the power I may have comes from God. But
He does not work directly. He works through His numberless agencies. (H,
8-10-1938, p285)
Nature of God
To me God is Truth and
Love; God is ethics and morality; God is fearlessness. God is the source of
Light and Life and yet He is above and beyond all these. God is conscience. He
is even the atheism of the atheist. For in His boundless love God permits the
atheist to live. He is the searcher of hearts. He transcends speech and reason.
He knows us and our hearts better than we do ourselves. He does not take us at
our word, for He knows that we often do not mean it, some knowingly and others
unknowingly.
He is a personal God
to those who need His personal presence. He is embodied to those who need His
touch. He is the purest essence. He simply is to those who have faith. He is
all things to all men. He is in us and yet above and beyond us…
He cannot cease to be
because hideous immoralities or inhuman brutalities are committed in His name.
He is long-suffering. He is patient but He is also terrible. He is the most
exacting personage in the world and the world to come. He metes out the same
measure to us that we mete out to our neighbors-men and brutes.
With Him ignorance is
no excuse. And withal He is ever forgiving, for He always gives us the chance
to repent.
He is the greatest
democrat the world knows, for He leaves us 'unfettered' to make our own choice
between evil and good. He is the greatest tyrant ever known, for He often
dashes the cup from our lips and under cove of free will leaves us a margin so
wholly inadequate as to provide only mirth for Himself at our expense.
Therefore it is that
Hinduism calls it all His sport-lila, or calls it all an illusion-maya. We are
not, He alone Is. And if we will be, we must eternally sing His praise and do
His will. Let us dance to the tune of His bansi-lute, and all would be well.
(YI, 5-3-1925, p81)
God is the hardest
taskmaster I have known on this earth, and He tries you through and through.
And when you find that your faith is failing or your body is failing you and
you are sinking, He comes to your assistance somehow or other and proves to you
that you must not lose your faith and that He is always at your beck and call,
but on His terms, not on your terms. So I have found. I cannot really recall a
single instance when, at the eleventh hour, He has forsaken me. (SW, p1069)
In my early youth I
was taught to repeat what in Hindu scriptures are known as one thousand names
of God. But these one thousand names of God were by no means exhaustive. We
believe-and I think it is the truth-that God has as many names as there are
creatures and, therefore, we also say that God is nameless and, since God has
many forms, we also consider Him formless, and since He speaks to us through
many tongues, we consider Him to be speechless and so on. And so when I came to
study Islam, I found that Islam too had many names for God.
I would say with those
who say God is Love, God is Love. But deep down in me I used to say that though
God may be Love, God is Truth, above all. If it is possible for the human
tongue to give the fullest description of God, I have come to the conclusion
that, for myself, God is Truth.
But two years ago I
went a step further and said that Truth is God. You will see the fine
distinction between the two statements, viz., that God is Truth and Truth is
God. And I came to the conclusion after a continuous and relentless search
after Truth which began nearly fifty years ago.
I then found that the
nearest approach to Truth was through love. But I also found that love has many
meanings in the English language at least and that human love in the sense of
passion could become a degrading thing also. I found too that love in the sense
of ahimsa had only a limited number of votaries in the world. But I never found
a double meaning in connection with truth and not even atheists had demurred to
the necessity or power of truth.
But, in their passion
for discovering truth, the atheists have not hesitated to deny the very
existence of God-from their own point of view, rightly. And it was because of
this reasoning that I saw that, rather than say that God is Truth, I should say
that Truth is God. (YI, 31-12-1931, p427-8)
God is Truth, but God
is many other things also. That is why I say Truth is God…. Only remember that
Truth is not one of the many qualities that we name. It is the living
embodiment of God, it is the only Life, and I identify Truth with the fullest
life, and that is how it becomes a concrete thing, for God is His whole
creation, the whole Existence, and service of all that exists-Truth-is service
of God. (H, 25-5-1935, p115)
Perfection is the
attribute of the Almighty, and yet what a great democrat He is! What an amount
of wrong and humbug He suffers on our part! He even suffers us insignificant
creatures of His to question His very existence, though He is in every atom
about us, around us and within us. But He has reserved to Himself the right of
becoming manifest to whomsoever He chooses. He is a Being without hands and
feet and other organs, yet he can see Him to whom He chooses to reveal Himself.
(H, 14-11-1936, p314)
God Through Service
If I did not fee the
presence of God within me, I see so much of misery and disappointment every day
that I would be a raving maniac and my destination would be the Hooghli. (YI,
6-8-1925, p275)
If I am to identify
myself with the grief of the least in India, aye, if I have the power, the
least in the world, let me identify myself with the sins of the little ones who
are under my care. And so doing in all humility, I hope some day to see
God-Truth-face to face. (YI, 3-12-1925, p422)
I am endeavoring to
see God through service of humanity, for I know that God is neither in heaven,
nor down below, but in every one. (YI, 4-8-1927, p247-8)
I am a part and parcel
of the whole, and I cannot find Him apart from the rest of humanity. My
countrymen are my nearest neighbors. They have become so helpless, so
resourceless, so inert that I must concentrate on serving them. If I could
persuade myself that I should find Him in a Himalayan cave, I would proceed
there immediately. But I know that I cannot find Him apart from humanity. (H,
29-8-1936, p226)
I claim to know my
millions. All the 24 hours of the day I am with them. They are my first care
and last because I recognize no God except the God that is to be found in the
hearts of the dumb millions. They do not recognize His presence; I do. And I
worship the God that is Truth or Truth which is God through the service of
these millions. (H, 11-3-1939, p44)
Guide and Protector
I must go… with God as
my only guide. He is a jealous Lord. He will allow no one to share His
authority. One has, therefore, to appear before Him in all one's weakness,
empty-handed and in a spirit of full surrender, and then He enables you to
stand before a whole world and protects you from all harm. (YI, 3-9-1931, p247)
I have learned this
one lesson-that what is impossible with man is child's play with God and if we
have faith in that Divinity which presides on the destiny of the meanest of His
creation, I have no doubt that all things are possible; and in that final hope,
I live and pass my time and endeavor to obey His will. (YI, 19-11-1931, p361)
Even in darkest
despair, where there seems to be no helper and no comfort in the wide, wide
world, His Name inspires us with strength and puts all doubts and despairs to
flight. The sky may be overcast today with clouds, but a fervent prayer to Him
is enough to dispel them. It is because of prayer that I have known no
disappointment.
…I have known no
despair. Why then should you give way to it? Let us pray that He may cleanse
our hearts of pettiness, meanness and deceit and He will surely answer our
prayers. Many I know have always turned to that unfailing source of strength.
(H, 1-6-1935, p123)
I have seen and
believe that God never appears to you in person, but in action which can only
account for your deliverance in your darkest hour. (H, 10-12-1938, p373)
Individual worship
cannot be described in words. It goes on continuously and even unconsciously.
There is not a moment when I do not feel the presence of a Witness whose eye
misses nothing and with whom I strive to keep in tune.
I have never found Him
lacking in response. I have found Him nearest at hand when the horizon seemed
darkest in my ordeals in jails when it was not all-smooth sailing for me. I
cannot recall a moment in my life when I had a sense of desertion by God. (H,
24-12-1938, p395)
Self-realization
I believe it to be
possible for every human being to attain to that blessed and indescribable,
sinless state in which he feels within himself the presence of God to the
exclusion of everything else. (YI, 17-11-1921, p368)
What I want to
achieve, what I have been striving and pining to achieve…, is self-realization,
to see God face to face, to attain moksha. I live and move and have my being in
pursuit of this goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing and all my
ventures in the political field are directed to this same end. (A, p xiv)
For it is an unbroken
torture to me that I am still so far from Him, who, as I fully know, governs
every breath of my life, and whose offspring I am. I know that it is the evil
passions within that keep me so far from Him, and yet I cannot get away from
them. (ibid, p xvi)
This belief in God has
to be based on faith, which transcends reason. Indeed, even the so-called
realization has at bottom an element of faith without which it cannot be sustained.
In the very nature of things it must be so. Who can transgress the limitations
of his being?
I hold that complete
realization is impossible in this embodied life. Nor is it necessary. A living
immovable faith is all that is required for reaching the full spiritual height
attainable by human beings. God is not outside this earthly case of ours.
Therefore, exterior proof is not of much avail, if any at all.
We must ever fail to
perceive Him through the senses, because He is beyond them. We can feel Him if
we will but withdraw ourselves from the senses. The divine music is incessantly
going on within ourselves, but the loud senses drown the delicate music, which
is unlike and infinitely superior to anything we can perceive or hear with our
senses. (H, 13-6-1936, pp140-1)
Inwardness of Art
THERE ARE two aspects
of things - the outward and the inward….The outward has no meaning except in so
far as it helps the inward. All true Art is thus an expression of the soul. The
outward forms have value only in so far as they are the expression of the inner
spirit of man. (YI, 13-11-1924, p.377)
I know that many call
themselves artists, and are recognized as such, and yet in their works there is
absolutely no trace of the soul's upward urge and unrest. (ibid)
All true Art must help
the soul to realize its inner self. In my own case, I find that I can do
entirely without external forms in my soul's realization. I can claim,
therefore, that there is truly efficient Art in my life, though you might not
see what you call works of Art about me.
My room may have blank
walls; and I may even dispense with the roof, so that I may gaze out at the
starry heavens overhead that stretch in an unending expanse. What conscious Art
of man can give me the panoramic scenes that open out before me, when I look up
to the sky above with all its shining stars?
This, however, does
not mean that I refuse to accept the value of productions of Art, generally
accepted as such, but only that I personally feel how inadequate these are
compared with the eternal symbols of beauty in Nature. These productions of
man's Art have their value only in so far as they help the soul onward towards
self-realization. (ibid)
Truth First
Truth is the first
thing to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you.
Jesus was, to my mind, a supreme artist because he saw and expressed Truth; and
so was Muhammad, the Koran being, the most perfect composition in all Arabic
literature - at any rate, that is what scholars say. It is because both of them
strove first for Truth that the grace of expression naturally came in and yet
neither Jesus not Muhammad wrote on Art. That is the Truth and Beauty I crave
for, live for, and would die for. (YI, 20-11-1924, p.386)
Art for the Millions
Here too, just as
elsewhere, I must think in terms of the millions. And to the millions we cannot
give that training to acquire a perception of Beauty in such a way as to see
Truth in it. Show them Truth first and they will see Beauty afterwards...
Whatever can be useful to those starving millions is beautiful to my mind. Let
us give today first the vital things of life and all the graces and ornaments
of life will follow. (ibid)
I want art and
literature that can speak to the millions. (H, 14-11-1936, p.135)
Art to be art must
soothe. (YI, 27-5-1926, p.196)
After all, Art can
only be expressed not through inanimate power-driven machinery designed for
mass-production, but only through the delicate living touch of the hands of men
and women. (YI, 14-3-1929, p.86)
Inner Purity
True art takes note
not merely of form but also of what lies behind. There is an art that kills and
an art that gives life… True art must be evidence of happiness, contentment and
purity of its authors. (YI, 11-8-1921, p. 253)
True beauty after all
consists in purity of heart. (A, p. 228)
I love music and all
the other arts, but I do not attach such value to them as is generally done. I
cannot, for example, recognize the value of those activities which require
technical knowledge for their understanding.
Life is greater than
all art. I would go even further and declare that the man whose life comes
nearest to perfection is the greatest artist; for what is art without the sure
foundation and framework of a noble life? (AG, pp. 65-66)
We have somehow
accustomed ourselves to the belief that art is independent of the purity of
private life. I can say with all the experience at my command that nothing
could be more untrue. As I am nearing the end of my earthly life, I can say
that purity of life, is the highest and truest art. The art of producing good
music from a cultivated voice can be achieved by many, but the art of producing
that music from the harmony of a pure life is achieved very rarely. (H,
19-2-1938, p. 10)
Beauty in Truth
I see and find Beauty
in Truth or through Truth. All Truths, not merely true ideas, but truthful
faces, truthful pictures, or songs, are highly beautiful. People generally fail
to see Beauty in Truth, the ordinary man runs away from it and becomes blind to
the beauty in it. Whenever men begin to see Beauty in Truth, then true Art will
arise. (YI, 13-11-1924, p. 377)
To a true artist only
that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the
Truth within the soul. There is… no Beauty apart from Truth. On the other hand,
Truth may manifest itself in forms, which may not be outwardly beautiful at
all. Socrates, we are told, was the most truthful man of his time, and yet his
features are said to have been the ugliest in Greece. To my mind he was beautiful,
because all his life was a striving after Truth, and you may remember that his
outward form did not prevent Phidias from appreciating the beauty of Truth in
him, though as an artist he was accustomed to see Beauty in outward forms also.
(ibid)
Truth and Untruth
often co-exist; good and evil are often found together. In an artist also not
seldom [do] the right perception of things and the wrong co-exist. Truly
beautiful creations come when right perception is at work. If these monuments
are rare in life, they are also rare in Art. (ibid)
These beauties ['a
sunset or a crescent moon that shines amid the stars at night'] are truthful,
inasmuch as they make me think of the Creator at the back of them. How else
could these be beautiful, but for the Truth that is in the center of creation?
When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands
in worship of the Creator. I try to see Him and His mercies in all these
creations. But even the sunsets and sunrises would be mere hindrances if they
did not help me to think of Him. Anything which is a hindrance to the flight of
the soul is a delusion and a snare; even like the body, which often does hinder
you in the path of salvation. (H, 13-11-1924, p. 379)
Why can't you see the
beauty of colour in vegetables? And then, there is beauty in the speckles sky.
But no, you want the colours of the rainbow, which is a mere optical illusion.
We have been taught to believe that what is beautiful need not be useful and
what is useful cannot be beautiful. I want to show that what is useful can also
be beautiful. (H, 7-4-1946, p. 67)
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