14 Sept 2014

The Secret of Everlasting Beauty

During the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita Course, Sri Swami Vishwananda revealed the secret of everlasting beauty, while giving his commentary on the verse 20 of the 14th chapter:

Verse 20
guṇān etān atītya trīn
dehī deha samudbhavān
janma mṛtyu jarā duḥkhair
vimukto’mṛtam aśnute


When the soul thus rises above the three gunas born of the embodiment in Nature, he is freed from subjection to birth and death and their associates; decay, old age and suffering, and enjoys in the end the Immortality of its self-existence.

Swami Vishwananda: “Oh, this is beautiful! When one becomes free from the cycle of birth and death, even their associates also don't affect that person; which is decay – you don't get rotten; old age – you don't get old, you stay ever young... inside! Then it doesn't matter.

When the outside doesn't bother you, you will not go to do a facelift. You are happy how you are! You perceive the Lord. God Loves you the way you are! And then, that's what you will be aware of – that Love – how God Loves you and how much you love Him. And when you love Him you don't need to bother about the outside, how you look. He doesn't care!

Meerabai – when she was old, Krishna Loved her the same way. And when Meerabai died, this old wrinkled lady – when she merged into the Lord she attained back her eternal youth. She went for an automatic facelift! And this one is eternal, matajis! It is permanent, without any pain!

Krishna murthi into which Meerabai merged with her physical body. Himachal, India
That's what happens to the sages, to the saints, to the bhakta who is fully absorbed in the Divine: they attain their spiritual body! And with the spiritual body you get everlasting youth. And that's the youth of immortality! So, aim for that! Aim to reach that state! You will stay ever beautiful! It's not that you are not beautiful now. You are beautiful, but you will stay ever beautiful, like fresh! You don't need to bother about face lifting or a multitude of other things anyway.

So, when Meerabai let go of her old body, her body transformed, she became everlasting beauty and she merged into the Lord. She became one with her beloved. And that state of bhakti, that state of love one should cultivate in life. Otherwise you will go through decay, old age, suffering; not realising that you are immortal, eternal. This is the state of mental agony. And what makes one perceive this, is the mind. One doesn't perceive that no matter how they are, they are beautiful. God has created you and this creation – from a Realised point of view one perceives the beauty of the Lord everywhere. It is not this thing outside, but what you have inside; that's the most beautiful thing. And this is beyond the external seeing.

That's why I said, if you look at the outside, of course, out of ignorance you will see only the outside. But when you look inside – that's what the Lord looks: how much love you have inside of you and that is eternal beauty. And that is what will give you your spiritual body, which it will not need to go through all the cycle of birth and death again.”