There is nothing that makes its way more directly to the soul than beauty, wrote Joseph Addison. A real meditator is one who adds more beauty to the world by being a creative person. Osho asks all of us: “Help the world to become better. Don’t leave the world just the same as you have found it – make it a little better, make it a little more beautiful.”
When Lady Gaga ( An American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her unconventionality, provocative work and visual experimentation. Gaga began performing as a teenager, singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays.) came to Delhi a few years ago, she talked about Osho and appreciated Osho’s views on creativity. She remembered a unique statement by Osho: Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.
There are millions of people who are always busy spending their whole life making this world more and more ugly. They are the politicians of the world–and they influence billions of people every day with their poisonous utterances. Unfortunately, they outnumber the creative people, so there is a real urgency to create a balance so that our world can survive. We need more poets, writers, songwriters, painters, musicians of caliber and rebellious spirit to inspire others.
A poet composes poetry. A writer writes fiction. A painter paints. A sculptor sculpts. Seeing all these forms of creativity, we are filled with a certain awe and spontaneously we respond: How beautiful! The creativity of these artists may be beautiful, may not be beautiful, but what is certain is that we are in a state of mind that can appreciate the beauty. And another person may see the same objects of beauty and simply say nothing about them or may not even look at them. This does not say anything about the beauty of the objects, it says something about the beholder, his state of mind, his lack of interest or lack of sensitivity.
We need soulful people, people with heart, real meditators such as Ravindranath Tagore, Mozart, Beethoven, to stir and inspire millions of people beautify this world.
The beauty and its experience is something very subjective and personal. It is more to do with the inner space of the person who confronts the objects of beauty. Osho talks about a certain great aesthetician, a great philosopher of aesthetics, Croce, devoted his whole life to a single question: What is beauty? In this century he stands alone as a high peak, incomparable to anybody else. His dedication to the question of beauty is total. He wrote about it, he talked about it, he taught about it, he dreamt about it; his whole
life was woven around the question: What is beauty? I have gone through his writings, and on each step, I have felt that this man must have been blind — only a blind person can ask, “What is beauty?”
Osho adds: “And for almost one century, nobody has raised the question of whether Croce was blind or not. I say he was definitely blind. He may have had eyes, just as you have, but he had no perception, no sensitivity. He was asking the question what is beauty? and went on inquiring about it — and the whole existence is full of beauty. Even the smallest blade of grass is beautiful. All around there are flowers and stars, birds and trees and rivers and mountains, and beautiful human beings. Why could a man of the intelligence of Croce not see a simple thing — that beauty has to be felt, not thought about? You have to see it, you have to experience it. You are capable of creating it.
“But it is such a mystery that it is beyond explanation. You cannot
confine it in a definition. But his whole lifelong effort shows only one thing: the poor man never experienced even a single moment of beauty; otherwise, his whole questioning would have changed. He would rather have devoted his life to creating beauty, to experiencing beauty, to rejoicing with the stars and with the moon and with the flowers and with the birds. But he wasted his whole life. And to what conclusion did he come in the
end? — that beauty is indefinable. This could have been told to him by anybody in the very beginning. There was no need to waste a beautiful life, a precious gift of existence.”
“And one cannot be certain that it will be given to you again; you cannot even be certain why it has been given to you this time. Do you deserve it? Have you earned it? Does the existence owe it to you? It seems to be a sheer gift, a gift of an abundant existence, not bothering about whether you deserve it or not. Not asking for your qualifications, not inquiring about your character, your morality … making no demands on you, just giving it without any conditions attached to it. Giving it not as a business, but without any expectations from you in return; giving it and allowing you total freedom to do whatever you want to do with it.”
(OSHO: Beyond Enlightenment, Chapter #3)
This whole existence is nothing but an infinite expanse of multi-dimensional beauty. The nature in all its colours and forms is abundantly filled with matchless beauty. I have not seen any painting created by any artist that is more beautiful than what nature keeps on creating naturally—the visions of clouds in the sky and the penetrating rays of the sun during the day and the moon and stars in the night, or just the vastness of the open blue sky. The snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas elevate my consciousness to rarified heights, fill my heart with a thrill, and give a dance to my feet. The dark clouds and a peacock opening its feathers, walking alone under the sky, with all its majesty and grace, the sheer aliveness, is more beautiful than any paintings. The whole scene catches you suddenly and you are filled with awe. To me, this certainly is Beauty. It is overwhelming.
