{"id":2501,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:02","slug":"61-appreciation-of-beauty-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/27-letters-on-poetry-and-art\/61-appreciation-of-beauty-vol-27-letters-on-poetry-and-art","title":{"rendered":"-61_Appreciation of Beauty.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nAppreciation of Beauty<\/font> <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nThe Right Way of Appreciating Beauty <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThat is the right consciousness, not to desire or to be attached to the possession of anything for oneself, but to take the universal
\nbeauty etc. for a spiritual selfless Ananda. <\/p>\n

6 November 1933
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThere is nothing harmful in the thing [aspiration for beauty<\/i>]
\nitself ―on the contrary to awake to the universal beauty and refinement of the Mahalakshmi force is good. It is not an expression of greed or lust ―only into these things a perversion can always come if one allows it, as into the Mahakali experience
\nthere may come rajasic anger and violence, so here there may come vital passion for possession and enjoyment. One must look
\nat the beauty as the artist does without desire of possession or vital enjoyment of the lower kind. <\/p>\n

8 October 1933 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is it possible to get rid of vital impurities without getting rid of vital enjoyment? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nHow can that be done? The enjoyment you speak of is vital-physical, while beauty has to be enjoyed with the aesthetic sense
\n―either human or divinised. <\/p>\n

6 April 1933 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is usually a good rule for other inward things beside the appreciation of the beauty of Nature ―to keep it for oneself or else to share it only with those who have the same sense or the
\nsame experience. <\/p>\n

15 March 1934
\n   <\/font> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-705<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Beauty in Women <\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

In regard to beauty in women, is there something inherent in
\nthe body that we call beautiful, a well-formed shape, physiognomy, harmony of movements, etc. It seems to most men it
\nis colour + skin + physiognomy. But there are some women who do not have these in the body and yet are attractive. Is it
\nsomething in their vital that gives them this beauty? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is something vital in some cases, something psychic in others
\nthat gives a beauty which appears in the body but is not beauty of shape, colour or texture. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Often the vital and mental character of persons who have physical beauty is not good, sometimes it is even repulsive.
\nMany would refuse to recognise it as beautiful. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf it is vital in its origin, it need not come from beauty of mind
\nor character; it is something in the life-force which may go with a good character but also with a bad one. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indians hardly appreciate the beauty of the Chinese or Japanese; like Europeans, they cannot appreciate beauty in
\nNegroes. Many Asiatics could not appreciate the beauty of European models or actresses, who are so lacking in modesty
\naccording to their conceptions. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nModesty is not part of physical beauty, that is a mental-vital
\nelement. As for physical beauty, different races have different conceptions. Indians and Europeans like curves, Chinese detest
\nthem in a woman. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An intellectual would find beauty only in an intellectual
\nwoman; an emotional person would call a woman beautiful only if she has refined tender feelings; for a Gandhian a
\nwoman would be beautiful only if she spins eight hours a day or works for Harijans. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThat has nothing to do with beauty in the ordinary sense as it is beauty of intellect or beauty of character or beauty of spinning
\nand Harijanising.   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-706<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Perhaps at a certain stage of psychic development one could look at human beauty as one looks at beauty in cats or dogs
\n―recognising the beauty without any attraction. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nOne can recognise and feel without any desire of possession or
\nsexual feeling etc. That is how the artists look at beauty ―they delight in it for its own sake. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Supposing people developed the faculty of seeing the layers below the skin, would not their whole conception of beauty
\ncrumble down? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYes, probably, unless the mind reconstructed a new idea of it. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does not the conception of beauty differ according to race, temperament and level of consciousness? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYes. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are not attractiveness and beauty different? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYes. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there nothing constant called “beauty”? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThere are two kinds of beauty. There is that universal beauty which is seen by the inner eye, heard by the inner ear etc.
\n\t― but the individual consciousness responds to some forms, not to others, according to its own mental, vital and physical reactions.
\nThere is also the aesthetic beauty which depends on a particular standard of harmony, but different race or individual consciousnesses form different standards of aesthetic harmony. <\/p>\n

18 October 1935
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Physical Beauty and Sex-Sensation <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why should the pure sense of beauty have been so distorted
\nby human beings as to be turned into desire for touch or sex?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is part of the general degradation which things divine have
\n   <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-707<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

been subjected to in the evolution out of the material Inconscience under the pressure of the Powers of the Ignorance. <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Are there people who have not been affected by this vital impurity and who appreciate beauty in a subtle aesthetic way
\nonly? <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYes, certainly. Artists who have trained their mind to a purely
\naesthetic look at beauty and beautiful things ―for one instance. There are many others also, who have a sufficiently developed
\nrefinement of the aesthetic sense not to associate it with the crude vital wish for possession, enjoyment or sensual contact. <\/p>\n

6 April 1933 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe aesthetic and impersonal vision of things can develop into the sight of the Divine Beauty everywhere which is in its nature
\nentirely pure. <\/p>\n

19 April 1933 <\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the difference between the artistic look and the vital
\nlook?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIn the artistic look there is only the perception of beauty and the
\njoy of it because it exists and one has seen and felt it. There is no desire to possess or enjoy in the vital way. <\/p>\n

4 August 1933 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-708<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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