[pp 36, section I.

Learning the Science of the Soul, The Science of Self

Realization, A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust,
1980]

TRUTH AND BEAUTY

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” said Keats. “That is all ye know on earth, and
all ye need to know.” Or is it? In this charming yet cutting essay, which first
appeared in the old tabloid version of Back to Godhead (November 20, 1958), Srila
Prabhupada tells the unforgettable story of “liquid beauty.”

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 the truth is not always beautiful—indeed, it is frequently rather
startling and unpleasant—how 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 us s 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 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.
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 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 those 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 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 sop-called beautiful body, which is in fact 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 strong purgative, but the beauty of truth is indestructible and always the
same. Unfortunately, mundane artists and intellectuals ignorant of this beautiful
spark of spirit. 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
manifestation 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.

[pp 36, section I. Learning the Science of the Soul, The Science of Self
Realization, A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1980]